… because that is what I told one of my students in a one to one class the other day. I then wondered where on earth I got that idea from – as I don’t remember ever having consciously coming to that conclusion before – and whether it really is true. Still can’t answer the first question, but on reflection I think I probably was right.
It is very hard to pick up or try to learn new language just from hearing it, and equally difficult to get a “feel” for the language that should help you produce stretches of speech more fluently and filter out some possible mistakes. All of that is much easier through reading. Two illustrations of that point:
1. If you want to learn and get a feel for language through listening, the best way is usually to look at a tapescript or read about the story before listening (i.e. reading)
2. It’s difficult enough to reproduce language in a news story by discussing it after reading it, but virtually impossible when speaking after just listening to the radio news.
What do you think? Could this random piece of classroom advice actually have been right?
TEFLtastic 
I am not sure I agree 100%, but it is true that if you want to imprpve your sepaking (or listening) then you more often than not need to enlarge your vocabulary.
As a way of introducing new lexis reading is probably easier than listening, simply beause we have more time to notice the new words, figure them out from context and there is a record of them so we can refer to them later.
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Thanks Stephen, that’s a good summary of why it is often more useful. I think the same things are true and important for not just new words though, but also getting a “feel” for grammar, learning collocations, learning functional language, etc.
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When I assign a reading to my students I first record it and send an attachment to their e mail address. So they can read while listening. Then next lesson I check their reading. I think it’s a good solution for beginners. Then when they feel more confortable, they can also read by themselves. If you want to improve your speaking, you should never stop doing both, reading and listening…never!
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Definitely – reading and listening is one of the most useful things you can do, and English subtitles on English movies or graded readers with CDs work well for that too. Even with Elementary learners, though, the first time they come across the text I think they should generally treat it just as a text, i.e. read it if it is a reading or just listen if it is a dialogue etc. This will help also develop their listening and reading skills in the right way. They can then read and listen at the next stage.
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I also think listening is more useful if you are reading at the same time. I often recommend watching films with subtitles. It’s really useful. I have also just started a listen-as-you-read blog for my learners. (see my website address)
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I don’t know much about any research that might support this thesis, but I do believe it to be true. Certainly in my personal case, I found that reading comics, newspapers, mags and books was of enormous benefit to my understanding of the language and my speaking, whereas listening often resulted in frustration.
However, at the same time, it was great to hear how people really spoke the language (on the bus, radio), rather than studying how they were supposed to be speaking the language.
So both approaches have their plus points, but I guess reading is more useful as it can be done quite intensively and repeated time and time again. Listening to the language could only be done in short spurts before frustration set in, I feel.
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