The most rewarding personal activity (9) - Reading aloud training can improve language pattern recognition ability

By Xiaolai Li, rewritten in English by Mr. Y

Reading aloud training can improve a person's language pattern recognition ability. Normal people have strong pattern recognition abilities in various aspects.

For example, they can quickly identify which faces are unfamiliar and which are familiar among dozens of faces - even if the image is not 100% clear and may even be somewhat distorted. Psychologists have long noticed that English speakers can instantly distinguish between the words "indicate" and "intricate," even though these two words differ by only one or two letters (the first word consists of eight letters, and the second word consists of nine letters) - they are able to do this because they are unconsciously using their pattern recognition ability.

When we use a language, whether it's listening, speaking, reading, or writing, we don't input each word individually, then combine them and process them; in fact, we often process them in "blocks", that is, we use pattern recognition whenever possible.

Why can we understand [le – m – gəu] as meaning [let him gəu]? It's not because we identify each word individually (let + him + go) before understanding and arriving at a conclusion. It's because we've said and heard it countless times in daily life, so "Let him go" has become a complete "module". Furthermore, there are scenes that aid in understanding while hearing this sound, which is why we seem to grasp it instantly.

For example, when we say, "I've lost my key!", we don't use this approach:

• I (I...)

• 've ("have" needs to be combined with "I", so "have" is shortened to "'ve"... The key

was just lost, so the present perfect tense should be used...)

• lost ("lose" is an irregular verb... The past tense and past participle of "lose" are both "lost"...)

• my (That has to be mine, and not someone else's...)

• key (I lost my key, not something else...)

We're more likely to process it like this: I've lost my (just realized my keys are missing; the pause might be because I'm looking for them...) key!

That is, "I've lost my" is treated as one unit, and "key" as another. In daily life, "I've lost my..." has been said countless times, for example:

• I've lost my key.

• I've lost my money.

• I've lost my wallet.

• I've lost my ticket.

• I've lost my job.

• ...

On the other hand, we've heard similar phrases countless times: "I've lost my...". So, when we hear someone say, "I've lost my...", our immediate thought should be, "What did you lose?", not:

• Hearing "I" and thinking, "What happened to you?"

• Hearing "'ve" and thinking, "Oh, what action are you referring to in the present perfect tense? Or do you 'have' something?"

• Hearing "lost" and thinking, "Oh, so you lost something. You actually used this irregular verb correctly..."

• Hearing "my" and thinking, "I know, you lost something of yours. I thought you'd lost something of mine..."

• Hearing "key" and thinking, "Oh, so you just lost your keys!"

Even if they really thought that way, the speed of that thought would be so fast that we wouldn't even know they were thinking that way.

The following two examples can be used to demonstrate the importance of pattern recognition in language applications.

Most Chinese speakers cannot actually explain in detail the similarities and differences between the characters “编” (biān) and “织” (zhī). On one level, the two characters are so similar in meaning that even combining them to mean “to weave” still conveys the same meaning. However, their usage is not entirely the same in Chinese language.

We can say a girl “她编毛衣” (translation: she knits a sweater) or “她编毛衣”(translation: she weaves a sweater); we might say a boy “他编故事”(translation: he makes up stories), but we would never say “他织故事” (translation: he weaves stories)! - In other words, even if they cannot explain the differences between “编” and “织” in detail, they will never use them incorrectly. A reasonable explanation is that native Chinese speakers have encountered many combinations like “她编毛衣” (ta biān máo yī), “她织毛衣” (ta zhī máo yī), and “他编故事” (ta biān gù shì), but have never encountered the combination “他织故事” (ta zhī gù shì), so this “pattern” does not exist in their subconscious.

The same applies to native English speakers - in fact, everyone should when using a language. Most people (except for a few linguistics professors) can only clearly point out that the difference between "important" and "essential" lies in degree, that is, "essential" is equivalent to "very important." However, the word "essential" has a characteristic - it usually doesn't “decorate” people – that most people don't know this. So, native English speakers might say "He is an important teacher in my life," but they wouldn't easily say "He is an essential teacher in my life." Second-language English speakers, however, often make this "mistake".

Native speakers possess a wealth of knowledge about their native language that they themselves are unaware of - often referred to as "native language intuition" by those who don't understand it. This knowledge, in a sense, can only be acquired through extensive application and gradual accumulation. For second language learners, however, reading aloud is often the only way to train their language pattern recognition abilities, especially in the absence of a language environment. Thus, reading aloud becomes almost the only reliable method. Through repeated reading out, many "patterns" are unconsciously etched into the mind, slowly transforming into knowledge that one is unaware of - the kind of "language sense" that our English teachers often vaguely described is naturally cultivated.

Copyright & Republication

Original Chinese text by Xiaolai Li (copyright released). English translation ©2025 Mr. Y.

Republication of this translation is permitted, provided that both the original author (Xiaolai Li) and the translator (Mr. Y) are credited, and a link to the original translation on blossomsblog.com is included.

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