lunes, 3 de octubre de 2011

How books are made

How books are made is a five-minute Discovery Channel video clip which demonstrates the importance of vocabulary in the language learning process.

The process of book-making is strongly supported by the video footage, so it's not really hard to understand what the whole process consists of.

However, understanding the voice-over comments is a different kettle of fish, despite the fact the narrator speaks really slowly and we can hear every word she says.

My point here is that sometimes we get really worried about our communication problems in English, both to speak and understand, but more often than not the root of that deficiency lies in our insufficient input. We need to read a lot, we need to read regularly, we need to make a conscious effort to learn and develop vocabulary. Otherwise progress is going to be really slow.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and take notes of the process of book-making, as if you were attending a lecture at university. There's some specific vocabulary which you may find difficult. Try to ignore it and concentrate on the general ideas expressed by the narrator and the images.



You can self-correct and read the transcript here.