{"id":1107,"date":"2020-07-21T03:24:54","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T00:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/?p=1107"},"modified":"2020-09-20T06:03:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T03:03:48","slug":"free-voluntary-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/2020\/07\/free-voluntary-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) &#038; Hebrew"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"boldgrid-section\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-12 col-xs-12 col-sm-12\">\n<p class=\"\">Dr. Stephen Krashen talks and <a style=\"color: blue;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sdkrashen.com\/articles.php?cat=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">writes a lot<\/a> about the importance of free voluntary reading (FVR) in the process of second-language acquisition. Check out the following video of a lecture he gave in Hong Kong on the value of stories in acquiring a language.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t3lv7ExApHM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">When it comes to free voluntary reading, you have several types of literature that you can choose from in order to increase the exposure you have to the Hebrew language.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul class=\"\">\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul class=\"\">\n<li><strong>Children\u2019s Books.<\/strong> When I was learning modern Hebrew, I used two children\u2019s books to supplement what I was learning in ulpan. The first was&nbsp;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Winnie the Pooh<\/span> in Hebrew translation, and the second was a series called&nbsp;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Time Tunnel<\/span> (<span class=\"he\">\u05de\u05b4\u05e0\u05b0\u05d4\u05b6\u05ab\u05e8\u05b6\u05ea \u05d4\u05b7\u05d6\u05bc\u05b0\u05de\u05b7\u05df<\/span>). The good thing about reading literature for children is that it includes vowel points (<span class=\"he\">\u05e0\u05b4\u05e7\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05d3<\/span>) and is normally shorter than adult literature.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Original-Language Material.<\/strong> After I got to the point of reading literature without&nbsp;<em>nikkud<\/em>, I was lucky enough to find a reading group in Rehovot. We read through <a class=\"he\" style=\"color: blue;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.e-vrit.co.il\/Product\/96\/%D7%94%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%91_%D7%94%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95%D7%93%D7%99\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u05d4\u05b7\u05db\u05bc\u05b6\u05ab\u05dc\u05b6\u05d1 \u05d4\u05b7\u05d9\u05bc\u05b0\u05d4\u05d5\u05bc\u05d3\u05b4\u05d9<\/a> and <a class=\"he\" style=\"color: blue;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.e-vrit.co.il\/Product\/890\/%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%94_%D7%91%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%A4%D7%A1%D7%AA_%D7%9E%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%9C\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u05d4\u05b7\u05e0\u05bc\u05b7\u05e2\u05b2\u05e8\u05b8\u05d4 \u05d1\u05bc\u05b7\u05de\u05bc\u05b4\u05e8\u05b0\u05e4\u05bc\u05b6\u05ab\u05e1\u05b6\u05ea \u05de\u05b4\u05de\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05dc<\/a> in addition to a few other books. It was tough, but I made it through (most of) the books on time for the meetings. That was a huge chance to improve my reading ability and to grow my vocabulary.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Poetry.<\/strong> This is certainly the most difficult type of literature, but tackling some short poems increases confidence in the language. This is often most accessible through song lyrics, but there are also some great poem anthologies in the Hebrew language.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Religious Literature.<\/strong> From the Bible (<a class=\"he\" style=\"color: blue;\" href=\"http:\/\/mechon-mamre.org\/c\/ct\/c0.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u05ea\u05bc\u05b8\u05e0\u05b8\u05f4\u05da\u05b0<\/a>) and the Mishnah (<a class=\"he\" style=\"color: blue;\" href=\"http:\/\/mechon-mamre.org\/b\/h\/h0.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u05de\u05b4\u05e9\u05c1\u05b0\u05e0\u05b8\u05d4<\/a>) to ethical tracts like Mesillat Yesharim (<a class=\"he\" style=\"color: blue;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.daat.ac.il\/daat\/mahshevt\/mesilat\/shaar-2.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u05de\u05b0\u05e1\u05b4\u05dc\u05bc\u05b7\u05ea \u05d9\u05b0\u05e9\u05c1\u05b8\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd<\/a>) and Pirkei Avot (<a class=\"he\" style=\"color: blue;\" href=\"http:\/\/mechon-mamre.org\/b\/h\/h49.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u05e4\u05bc\u05b4\u05e8\u05b0\u05e7\u05b5\u05d9 \u05d0\u05b8\u05d1\u05d5\u05b9\u05ea<\/a> \u2013 actually part of the Mishnah!), there is a ton of material for reading in Hebrew from the older times.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Translation Material.<\/strong> In addition to the original-language material, I bought a lot of books in translation, from&nbsp;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Harry Potter<\/span> to&nbsp;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Lord of the Rings<\/span>, from&nbsp;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Chronicles of Narnia<\/span> to&nbsp;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Plato\u2019s Symposium<\/span>. There\u2019s so much vocabulary to garner from these texts, and the fact that they have been translated allows you to compare with the originals, to enrich your vocabulary to include expressions from your first language, and to see how professional translators get creative with cultural details (such as when \u201csherbet lemon\u201d is rendered as <span class=\"he\">\u05e7\u05b0\u05e8\u05b6\u05de\u05b0\u05d1\u05bc\u05d5\u05b9<\/span> in the first volume of the Harry Potter series).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\">The key to free voluntary reading is to find what entertains you. If you like comics, find comics in Hebrew with themes that engage your imagination. If you like novels, read novels. If you like short stories, get your hands on an intermediate reader. There are so many choices, and it\u2019s essential that you read \u2013 whatever you find interesting \u2013 to get Hebrew to really take root in your mind and heart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Good luck!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"gtx-trans\" style=\"position: absolute; left: 797px; top: 759.063px;\">\n<div class=\"gtx-trans-icon\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Stephen Krashen talks and writes a lot about the importance of free voluntary reading (FVR) in the process of second-language acquisition. Check out the following video of a lecture he gave in Hong Kong on the value of stories in acquiring a language. When it comes to free voluntary reading, you have several types [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[61,20,60,75],"class_list":["post-1107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-categories","tag-free-voluntary-reading","tag-reading","tag-second-language-acquisition","tag-stephen-krashen"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1107"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1115,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1107\/revisions\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}