I'm going to refer you to a document that was shown to me from Cambridge University and also another one from Oxford University.

我想讓你們看看劍橋大學給我看的一份文件和牛津大學給我看的另一份文件。

Before getting into the subject, it's interesting to note, because I got curious doing research for this video, the market for language learning worldwide in 2023 was over 60 billion US dollars, and it's projected to reach 115 billion dollars in the year 2032.

在進入主題之前，有一點很有趣，因為我在為這段視頻做研究時好奇地注意到，2023 年全球語言學習市場規模超過 600 億美元，預計到 2032 年將達到 1,150 億美元。

So it's an enormous market.

是以，這是一個巨大的市場。

Apparently, two thirds of that market is for learning English.

顯然，三分之二的市場是用於學習英語的。

Now, given that it's not expensive to buy a book, we can buy books online.

現在，鑑於買書並不昂貴，我們可以在網上買書。

There's an limitless amount of material available online that we can read, that we can access, that we can read and look up words.

在網上，我們可以閱讀、可以訪問、可以閱讀和查字典的資料數不勝數。

It is amazing that so much money is spent on the language learning industry, on things, for example, like LingQ.

令人驚訝的是，語言學習行業竟然花費了如此之多的資金，例如，LingQ。

Reading is powerful, but maybe people are discouraged from reading or don't think they can do it on their own or they feel they need to have a teacher to guide them or a system to guide them.

閱讀的力量是強大的，但也許人們對閱讀望而卻步，或者認為自己無法獨立完成閱讀，或者覺得需要有老師指導，或者需要一個系統來引導他們。

But in fact, a lot can be achieved by a motivated learner who is willing to read.

但事實上，只要學習積極主動，願意閱讀，就能取得很大的成就。

But there are issues and problems, and I want to get into those.

但也存在一些問題，我想談談這些問題。

First of all, if you refer to the link I left, you will see what extensive reading or free voluntary reading is.

首先，如果你參考我留下的鏈接，你就會知道什麼是廣泛閱讀或自由自願閱讀。

It's basically just reading, but it's reading material that's of interest, that's not too difficult, reading on your own, reading at a good speed, reading silently, I would add, although they don't mention it, it's probably a good idea to also have the audio for the material that you are reading.

基本上就是閱讀，但閱讀的材料必須是感興趣的、不太難的、自己閱讀的、以較快的速度閱讀的、默讀的，我還想補充一點，雖然他們沒有提到，但為你閱讀的材料準備音頻可能是個好主意。

Now, you'll see in this link that the Cambridge study points out certain obvious benefits to extensive reading should be obvious, but may not be obvious to every language learner, and that is that reading improves our ability to read.

現在，你會在這個鏈接中看到，劍橋大學的研究指出了廣泛閱讀的某些明顯好處，這些好處應該是顯而易見的，但對每個語言學習者來說可能並不明顯，那就是閱讀能提高我們的閱讀能力。

Obviously, it improves our vocabulary.

很明顯，它提高了我們的詞彙量。

We encounter words, we encounter words in context with other words, we get to see how they work with other words.

我們會遇到單詞，我們會遇到與其他單詞結合在一起的單詞，我們會看到這些單詞是如何與其他單詞結合在一起的。

We get a better sense of grammar.

我們能更好地理解文法。

It's a massive exposure to the language.

這是對語言的一次大規模接觸。

It's easy to do.

這很容易做到。

You do it on your own.

你自己去做。

When I was learning Chinese in Hong Kong over 50 years ago, my major activity was reading and I would scour the bookstores of Hong Kong to find readers with vocabulary lists behind each chapter, which I would review before reading and then after reading.

50 多年前，我在香港學習中文時，我的主要活動是閱讀，我會在香港的書店裡尋找每章後面都有詞彙表的讀物，閱讀前和閱讀後都會複習。

There wasn't so much audio available in those days.

那時還沒有這麼多音頻。

Reading is powerful.

閱讀是一種力量。

I also consider that especially if you listen to the same material that you're reading, it's kind of almost like speaking because when you are reading on your own in a foreign language, you are sub vocalizing.

我還認為，尤其是當你聽與閱讀內容相同的材料時，這幾乎就像是在說話，因為當你自己閱讀外語時，你是在副發聲。

So therefore, it helps you to get to where you can speak.

是以，它能幫助你達到能說會道的程度。

It helps you with your comprehension, grasp of grammar, seeing words in context.

它能幫助你理解和掌握文法，在語境中看單詞。

All of these things are greatly, you know, assisted by free voluntary reading.

要知道，所有這些事情都離不開免費自願閱讀的幫助。

Now, the Cambridge study refers to what they call obstacles to free voluntary reading or extensive reading, and most of those obstacles seem to refer to the resistance from teachers who are reluctant to see the learners go off on their own ahead of what the teacher wants to teach or that the classroom student will spend his or her time reading rather than studying grammar or doing the other things, the activities that the teacher wants to do.

現在，劍橋大學的研究提到了他們所說的自由自願閱讀或廣泛閱讀的障礙，其中大部分障礙似乎是指來自教師的阻力，他們不願意看到學習者在教師想教的內容之前自己去做，或者課堂上學生會把時間花在閱讀上，而不是學習文法或做其他事情，即教師想做的活動。

In other words, the teacher is reluctant to give up their teacher time, classroom time to free voluntary reading, although it has been demonstrated that free voluntary reading has all of these benefits.

換句話說，教師不願意放棄自己的教師時間、課堂時間來進行自由自願閱讀，儘管事實證明自由自願閱讀具有所有這些好處。

So the resistance on the part of some teachers is considered the main obstacle.

是以，一些教師的牴觸情緒被認為是主要障礙。

But I don't see that as the main obstacle.

但我認為這不是主要障礙。

To me, the biggest problem or the biggest obstacle when it comes to free voluntary reading is vocabulary.

在我看來，自由自願閱讀的最大問題或最大障礙是詞彙量。

Some of the proponents of free voluntary reading or extensive reading suggest that free voluntary reading should be based on no more than four words per page of unknown words or a couple of percent unknown words for it to be a pleasant experience and that the student should be encouraged to guess or infer the meaning of words that they don't know.

自由自願閱讀或廣泛閱讀的一些支持者建議，自由自願閱讀應以每頁不超過四個不認識的單詞或百分之幾的不認識的單詞為基礎，這樣才能讓學生有愉快的閱讀體驗，而且應鼓勵學生猜測或推斷不認識的單詞的意思。

To me, that's wrong.

對我來說，這是不對的。

Actually, I shouldn't say it's wrong, but I should say that the strategy when it comes to free voluntary reading depends on who you are and where you are in the language.

其實，我不應該說這是錯的，但我應該說，自由自願閱讀的策略取決於你是誰，以及你在語言中的位置。

Obviously, if you're a school child and you've got 10, 12 years or more to improve your vocabulary and to develop that sense of joy of reading, then free voluntary reading with a very small number of unknown words is a good thing.

顯然，如果你是一名學生，你有 10 年、12 年甚至更長的時間來提高詞彙量，培養閱讀的樂趣，那麼自由自願地閱讀極少量的未知單詞是一件好事。

Again, I would avoid the sort of teaching, reading strategies, inferring strategies.

同樣，我會避免那種教學、閱讀策略、推理策略。

Just let the child read, let the words they don't understand go by.

讓孩子自己讀，不懂的字就讓他們自己讀。

They'll eventually figure them out one way or another.

無論如何，他們最終都會明白的。

So that's free voluntary reading in the sense that Krashen describes it for people in school, probably a better use of the student's time than listening to the teacher in many cases.

是以，這就是克拉申為在校學生描述的自由自願閱讀，在很多情況下，這可能比聽老師講課更能利用學生的時間。

However, when we as adults, and I include, say, students at a university, say at a foreign university where they're having to take courses in a foreign language, adults wanting to learn a language, we are in a bigger hurry.

然而，當我們作為成年人，我也包括比如說大學裡的學生，比如說在外國大學裡必須學習外語課程的學生，想要學習外語的成年人時，我們就會更加匆忙。

We don't have 12 years to gradually, slowly increase our vocabulary.

我們沒有 12 年的時間來逐漸、慢慢地增加我們的詞彙量。

We need to increase our vocabulary more quickly.

我們需要更快地增加詞彙量。

And therefore the strategy has to be different.

是以，戰略必須有所不同。

We can't be dealing with just 2% unknown words.

我們不能只處理 2% 的未知單詞。

When we start in the language, of course, we have no known words or depending on how different the language is to a language we know.

當然，當我們開始學習這種語言時，我們沒有已知的單詞，或者取決於這種語言與我們所熟悉的語言有多大差異。

So typically my strategy is I go to the many stories and or you go to other easy content, lots of repetition, so we are able to knock off the 500, you know, most common words of the language.

是以，我的策略通常是，我去聽很多故事，或者你去聽其他簡單的內容，大量重複，這樣我們就能敲掉 500 個，你知道，最常用的語言單詞。

We all know that frequency declines very, very quickly.

我們都知道，頻率下降得非常非常快。

And now we have to deal with chasing those low frequency words that are very important and yet don't appear that often.

現在，我們必須處理那些非常重要但並不經常出現的低頻詞。

So then, in my experience, we need to deal with a larger number of unknown words.

是以，根據我的經驗，我們需要處理更多的未知單詞。

Either we say using LingQ, we look them up and we hope to acquire these words by seeing them often enough, or we just let them go.

要麼我們說使用 LingQ，要麼我們查找它們，並希望通過經常看到它們來掌握這些單詞，要麼我們就放任自流。

You can have free voluntary reading with a book where there's a lot of unknown words.

如果書中有很多不認識的單詞，您可以進行自由自願閱讀。

I never bother inferring or guessing.

我從不費心推斷或猜測。

It just flows by me.

它就這樣從我身邊流過。

But there is some benefit in encountering those words in this free voluntary reading format.

不過，以這種免費自願閱讀的形式接觸這些文字還是有一定好處的。

However, it's frustrating if you forever don't know what the words mean.

然而，如果你永遠不知道這些詞的意思，那就很令人沮喪了。

And that's essentially what's at the origin of LingQ.

而這正是 LingQ 的根本所在。

Typically, early on, when I'm starting in a language, it might have 30% unknown words.

通常情況下，在我開始學習一門語言的初期，可能會有 30% 的未知單詞。

And I admit that that's difficult.

我承認這很難。

And we track these statistics at LingQ.

我們在 LingQ 跟蹤這些統計數據。

And of course, initially, you may know a bunch of words that the system doesn't yet know that you know.

當然，一開始，你可能會知道一些系統還不知道的單詞。

So that might also push the number up to 50%.

是以，這也可能會把數字推高到 50%。

You know, if I were to go into Dutch, for example, it'll show me a large percentage of words that I don't know.

例如，如果我想學習荷蘭語，它就會向我顯示很大一部分我不認識的單詞。

And in fact, in the case of Dutch, I can infer the meaning of those words.

事實上，就荷蘭語而言，我可以推斷出這些詞的意思。

But in Turkish, that's not the case.

但在土耳其，情況並非如此。

Very difficult for me to infer the meaning of words unless they're connected to words that I already know.

我很難推斷單詞的含義，除非它們與我已經認識的單詞相關聯。

So in terms of the percentage that I can deal with, 15%, 15 to 20% is an acceptable level of unknown words for me.

是以，就我能處理的比例而言，15%、15% 到 20% 是我可以接受的未知詞水準。

And so I develop a strategy which says at an early stage, I want material that's five minutes long.

是以，我制定了一項戰略，即在早期階段，我需要五分鐘長的材料。

I want maybe 15 to 20% unknown words.

我想要 15%到 20%的未知單詞。

I want that to be about 20 words that I'm trying to learn, 20, 25 words that I've never seen before.

我希望能有 20 個我正在努力學習的單詞，20 或 25 個我以前從未見過的單詞。

And that is kind of my strategy.

這就是我的策略。

And it's an optimum position.

這是一個最佳位置。

It's a sweet spot in terms of increasing my vocabulary so that I can eventually reach the stage where I can read a paper book because I will have enough vocabulary so that I won't be guessing at every second or third word.

在增加詞彙量方面，這是一個甜蜜點，最終我可以達到閱讀紙質書的階段，因為我將有足夠的詞彙量，這樣我就不會對每第二個或第三個單詞進行猜測。

But at the same time, it won't be, you know, only three, four words per page that are unknown to me because then I'm not increasing my vocabulary.

但與此同時，也不會是每頁只有三、四個我不認識的單詞，因為這樣我的詞彙量就沒有增加。

Make no mistake.

別搞錯了。

We need a lot of vocabulary, even low frequency vocabulary in order to enjoy free, voluntary reading.

我們需要大量的詞彙，即使是低頻詞彙，才能享受自由、自願的閱讀。

So we have to invest that time in getting our vocabulary level up.

是以，我們必須投入時間，提高詞彙量。

But while we are doing that, we are increasing our familiarity with the language.

但在這樣做的同時，我們也在加深對語言的熟悉程度。

Again, the research has shown that people who read a lot, they write better, they have better grammar, they speak better.

同樣，研究表明，閱讀量大的人寫作能力更強，文法更好，口語也更好。

There's tremendous benefits to this free, voluntary reading, but you have to be prepared for it.

這種免費、自願的閱讀有巨大的好處，但你必須為此做好準備。

You have to build yourself up to be able to do it.

你必須加強自身建設，才能做到這一點。

If you try to do that from day one, I think it'll be quite difficult.

如果你想從第一天開始就做到這一點，我認為會相當困難。

One other strategy I have is to stay in sort of a limited range, a limited content area for a while so that if I'm doing history, history of, say, in this case, the Ottoman Empire, I will stay with that.

我的另一個策略是，在有限的範圍內、有限的內容領域停留一段時間，這樣，如果我在做歷史，比如奧斯曼帝國的歷史，我就會一直做下去。

So the same vocabulary will repeat.

是以，同樣的詞彙會重複出現。

I have found that typically fiction is much more difficult.

我發現，一般來說，小說要難得多。

There's a far broader range of words.

詞語的範圍要廣泛得多。

And given the tremendous precipitous decline of frequency of words in any language, you want to have a strategy where you have a greater likelihood of meeting the same words or related words again.

鑑於任何語言中單詞的出現頻率都在急劇下降，是以你需要制定一種策略，使你更有可能再次遇到相同的單詞或相關的單詞。

So to summarize, many people like video.

總之，很多人喜歡視頻。

I'm not a big fan.

我不太喜歡。

I like video.

我喜歡視頻。

I like film.

我喜歡電影。

But for language learning, video is less effective.

但是，對於語言學習來說，視頻的效果就不那麼明顯了。

There's a lot of dead time.

死氣沉沉的時間很多。

Sometimes it's difficult to catch what people are saying, whereas reading is pure words and to that extent, listening is pure words so that if we're talking not just about what's enjoyable, but how do we improve our vocabulary?

有時，我們很難聽懂別人在說什麼，而閱讀是純粹的文字，在某種程度上，聽也是純粹的文字，是以，如果我們談論的不僅僅是什麼是令人愉快的，而是如何提高我們的詞彙量？

How do we improve our grasp of the language?

如何提高我們的語言水準？

Reading and its associated activity of listening, to my mind, are the way to go.

在我看來，閱讀和與之相關的傾聽活動才是王道。

And yes, you want to consume more and more of the language, more and more extensive, more and more free, voluntary, and above all, you don't want to have too much teacher intervention.

是的，你想消費越來越多的語言，越來越廣泛，越來越自由，越來越自願，最重要的是，你不想有太多的教師干預。

Teachers love to have pre-reading questions and post-reading questions and comprehension questions and instructing you on how to infer and critical thinking.

老師喜歡出閱讀前問題、閱讀後問題和理解問題，並指導你如何進行推理和批判性思維。

I always quote Ruben Alves, who says, nothing destroys the enjoyment of reading as much as being asked questions about what you have read.

我經常引用魯本-阿爾維斯的話，他說："沒有什麼比被問及所讀內容更能破壞閱讀的樂趣了。

I may not understand it perfectly, but it's what I understood.

我可能理解得不夠透徹，但我就是這麼理解的。

I'm happy with that.

我對此很滿意。

I don't want to be challenged.

我不想接受挑戰。

I just want to enjoy my reading.

我只想享受閱讀的樂趣。

The essence of free, voluntary reading is to be free of those kinds of impositions from the teacher and free to explore the language, following a strategy where you're gradually increasing your ability to take on more and more difficult, potentially more and more interesting material, longer material, and that way you will eventually achieve your language learning goal.

自由、自願閱讀的本質是擺脫老師的強加，自由地探索語言，遵循一種策略，逐步提高自己的能力，接受難度越來越大、可能越來越有趣的材料和更長的材料，這樣才能最終實現語言學習的目標。

So with that, I wanted to leave you those references to people talking about free, voluntary reading and lend my support to free, voluntary reading, one of Crashin's big bugbears.

是以，我想把這些關於人們談論免費、自願閱讀的內容留給你們，並對免費、自願閱讀表示支持，這也是 Crashin 的一大心病。

Extensive reading as a relatively inexpensive and effective way to improve your language skills in any language.

廣泛閱讀是提高任何語言的語言技能的一種相對廉價而有效的方法。