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Old 04-28-2018, 07:41 PM   #37
DuckieTigger
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bertolt View Post
Sealbeater, you are unquestionably right. The less people read, the more their literacy declines. I have spent the most important part of my life studying and teaching languages and literacy. Literacy means the ability to read and write. You improve your literacy skills by practicing reading and writing. It's the same with physical fitness: if you don't exercise, your muscles get weaker and weaker. I speak fluent Spanish but have largely learned the language in the street. If I don't read Spanish books, I will never gain the ability to write the language properly. Unfortunately I also speak French and German fluently, which means that I have little time to gain literacy skills in Spanish. Is this a problem for me? Yes it is.
You can make a valid argument by comparing literacy skills with riding a bicycle rather than physical exercise. Not using a language for a while if you are fluent in more than one makes it a little complicated to get back into it. The problem is missing vocabulary more than forgetting the skill. Not that the vocabulary is gone, but the association of concept to word doesn't happen in the language that had been unused for a while.

When creating language (writing or talking) I always notice that I have to translate into the language I haven't used. Which is really weird when my mother tongue has to be treated like a unfluent foreign language. The ability to listen and reading comes back almost right away.
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