Hey everybody, what's going on? This is Matt. Today I want to talk about this idea of intensive versus extensive reading.
And this is really important, especially when you first start reading in a foreign language. You might have this question, and I think both methods are very useful in different circumstances. So, you know, what is intensive and what is extensive reading?
Well, extensive reading would be kind of this approach of more volume, right? Reading a lot of the text in the book, in the news article or whatever. on a more quick pace, right?
You're maybe not concentrating on understanding all the grammar, or maybe you'll look at it very briefly, but you just kind of keep moving on to the next sentence, the next page, and so on and so forth. Same goes with vocabulary. Maybe you'll look up some of the words or something along those lines, but really you're kind of focused in on volume, reading a ton, getting in some of the words, noticing some grammar as you go along that pace, but really focusing on volume versus an intensive approach is kind of more... very much focused on accuracy, really looking at the sentence structure going, okay, what is the grammar that's going on here?
We're looking at this ending for this particular verb, the word order, things like that, and making sure you understand the meaning of the sentence, not only the words, but the phrasal elements and all of those things. Now, how do you approach reading and which approach should you do? And I think some people kind of feel uncertain.
Maybe they think they're approaching reading the wrong way. And I don't think there's necessarily a wrong way to approach reading. It's more of just, you know, there's definitely advantages and disadvantages of both methods. Now, as a primary method for reading, I prefer the extensive approach because, you know, when you're reading at a more rapid pace, it's a little bit more enjoyable, right? You're not like just having to be interrupted for two minutes every single, you know, sentence that you read.
And, you know, when you read on a more extensive basis, right, you're maybe not necessarily picking up, you know, and... memorizing kind of all the nuanced grammar of each sentence. Maybe you're missing some of the words, but you're getting kind of a nice balance between all the different ideas and benefits you get from reading.
So, you know, you're reading at a fair pace, so you're enjoying the content. You are picking up vocabulary along the way. You're noticing grammar at least at the pace that, you know, you're going. And so you're kind of getting all of these elements together very nicely. And so kind of as a primary method for reading, I really prefer for extensive.
And it's not to say that, you know, you're not picking up words by going that fast. You definitely are. And you're definitely getting comfortable with grammar, but it's just you're taking that volume approach, you know. And it's not to say that you don't look up words or you don't look up grammar that you are unfamiliar with.
It's just the idea is a more volume approach. And as a primary method for reading, I think that's how you should approach things. Now, I do think it's worthwhile to mix it up sometimes and take a more intensive approach to things. So an intensive reading approach is focusing in on the accuracy and like the grammar, the meaning and things like that. And so that would be maybe a little bit slower pace.
So you read the sentence and you go, okay, what does this sentence mean? And maybe you kind of make a guess for what it is. And then you look it up on Google Translate and you go, okay, I messed that up.
Ooh, I didn't conjugate that verb right. things like that. It's taking a lot more of a specific noticing of the conjugation of certain verbs, right? Where you're going, okay this is an irregular verb here, or okay this is how this verb is conjugated, or look at this word order, why is the grammar doing this in this sentence? And it's kind of that more very rigorous, very analytical approach for why things are structured the way they are in that particular sentence.
And I think it's very helpful for, you know, picking up grammar for testing your understanding of the text that you're reading, it can be definitely be very beneficial. You know, if you're going to take a more extensive, or sorry, intensive approach when you're reading, I think it's worthwhile to try to quiz yourself when you're going about doing that process, right? So if you're quizzing yourself on the meaning of the sentence, you know, try to try to guess what does that sentence mean, and then look it up. And then, you know, you have this kind of, you're now at this point working on recall, you're working on on trying to get better at that recall function. And not only that, you're working on grammar, vocabulary, etc.
Now, that being said, you can do whichever approach you think is best. It can be an intensive approach, extensive. But like I said, I really do think that the extensive approach is the way to go for the most part, where you're kind of really focused in on a more rapid pace, but you're still getting vocabulary and grammar in. and things like that. But in the end of the day, it's all up to you for preference purposes.
You really can't go, you know, wrong. There's just definitely advantages and disadvantages of both those methods, right? Because on the intensive approach side, you know, you're going a lot slower and you're definitely going through the text less.
And so you're probably enjoying the reading content a little bit less than if you were using a more extensive approach. The same goes for, you know, using reading in the context of playing video games. I do think it's worthwhile to... Take a more extensive approach versus being hyper obsessed about the meaning of everything, because then at that point, you're really just working on grammar and vocabulary memorization, then using the video game to have fun and then learn at the same time. But like I said, you have to choose which method you think is best for you.
And that's what I had to say on intensive and extensive reading. So let me know what you think, and I'll see you in the next video. Take care.