how to maximize listening practice for a given set of vocab?

[markpete]

Hi, all. I'm looking for resources that provide a lot of listening (or reading) practice for a given set of vocabulary. My problem with most of the resources out there (e.g. ChinesePod, or most textbooks) is that they'll only provide a few lines of reading practice or 60 seconds of listening practice for every 20-30 new vocabulary items. I want much more practice on listening skills but don't have a great vocabulary that would let me listen to the radio or podcasts unless I've studied the vocabulary ahead of time.

The best resource I've found so far for this are the recordings for John DeFrancis' Beginning Chinese Reader textbook, where for every ten new characters there would be an additional 10 minutes of spoken materials or 10-15 pages of written material. But that book was originally written in the 1960s, so there's lots on atomic energy and very little about what I'd talk about in daily life-- internet, food, etc.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Mark

[imron]

What is your vocabulary level? I believe the Chinese Breeze graded readers come with audio and have a variety of difficulty levels. If your Chinese is up to it, you could also consider something like 锵锵三人行, which has full transcripts of each episode which would allow you to study the vocab ahead of time.

[malanting]

TV series with Chinese subtitles?

[markpete]

Sadly, TV series with subtitles are too advanced for me and require lots of new vocabulary for each new episode. My vocabulary level is only about 500 traditional characters (plus ~1500 words from combining those characters plus however many words are in the three Pimsleur courses). Chinese Breeze looks like a good option given that they come with recordings-- I will definitely give those a try. It looks like that's the best thing out there for maximizing amount of listening practice per new vocabulary item. Thanks!

[Zeppa]

There's a new book (2011) by Kubler, Basic Spoken Chinese, with MP3s and videos. It separates speaking from writing (there's a Basic Written Chinese too) and looks really good. I am a re-beginner so I am just going through the basic pronunciation but it looks as if it would suit your requirements.

[daofeishi]

Sadly, TV series with subtitles are too advanced for me and require lots of new vocabulary for each new episode

That shouldn't stop you from watching them. You should get rid of the attitude that you have to be able to understand 100% of the material in order to learn from it. If it's not a setback now, it will be when you get to the point where there are no more textbooks for you to use and no more podcasts adapted to students at your level. Getting used to deal with confusing native-level material from the start will be an asset.

Learning vocabulary is all about seeing how it is used in context, and that is exactly what TV and radio shows provide. You get the context, and you get to hear the material the way a native speaker thinks it sounds natural. Even if you don't understand everything, you will gradually be able to pick out what is important through osmosis.

Of course I don't think you should head off and get a copy of the televised version of the Dream of the Red Chamber at this point, but TV shows for children like 大头儿子小头爸爸 or 喜洋洋与灰太狼 should be doable almost from day one. Of course you won't be able to understand more than a fraction of what is being said, but the plot will be very easy to understand from what's happening on screen, and the soundtrack should have a high density of the kind of words you learn from your textbook. That gives you a snowball effect where the fraction of the show that you do understand increases rapidly, and new textbook vocabulary becomes easier to learn because you have stumbled upon the words before. At least that has been my experience.

[laurenth]

My vocabulary level is only about 500 traditional characters (...). Chinese Breeze looks like a good option

Chinese Breeze books use simplified characters. However many people tend to think that you have to get used to both simp and trad in the end, and that trad->simp is easier than the other way around, so you may find this series useful anyway. I believe it's excellent for extensive reading. It's cheap. All texts come with mp3s read both slowly and at a normal pace.

[daofeishi]

Have a look at this. How do you find the level of that video?

[markpete]

daofeishi, the video you posted is pretty easy to (mostly) understand just from the pictures they show, but the actual language is beyond me. I can pick up some sentence fragments here and there, but that's about it. I do think there's a benefit to practicing with materials even when I don't know all of the vocabulary, but I think it's probably a little better to practice with materials where I know a greater fraction of the vocab. It's easier to get one missing word from context than it is to guess the rest of the sentence from a word or two.

There's also the issue of focusing listening skills practice in particular vs. trying to pick up new vocabulary at the same time. And it's a little more fun to listen to something I can mostly understand. So something like Chinese Breeze and recordings from Basic Spoken Chinese are probably best for the bulk of the time I spend on listening practice (I'm looking forward to trying them, anyway), with the videos as a good occasional supplement. Thanks!

[BertR]

All texts come with mp3s read both slowly and at a normal pace.

Of course you mean: both slow and ridiculously slow