The Three-Pass Method

As promised in last week’s post, here I will explain a foreign language reading method that I discovered by happy accident while reading to learn Spanish. As the title of this post implies, material is read three times over in this learning process. The way you read the material changes somewhat with each pass, but each pass also has an important function for supporting your learning – I think you’ll understand why when you try this for yourself. Before getting into the three-pass method, here are the three main points to note:

-            How to perform the first pass, second pass, and third pass

-            This method’s effectiveness can be attributed to its use of repetition, context, and volume to reinforce the vocabulary you read

-            This method can advance your learning anytime you have a translation from English to French or English to Spanish, but consistent daily language study will eventually get your vocabulary to a size where you generally won’t need this technique anymore

Performing the three-pass method

To perform the three-pass method, the first thing to do is find an instruction manual for something you own that has both English and Spanish or English and French instructions. Feel free to choose whatever manual is most interesting to you. Open up to the beginning of the instructions in English and keep a finger on the page at the beginning of the instructions in French/Spanish. You are now ready to perform the first pass; going back and forth between the English and French/Spanish, carefully compare the words in the first clause or sentence of instructions in each language. Then move to the next clause or next sentence. Since French and Spanish are full of cognates with English, you may be able to recognize some words. This method probably wouldn’t work very well for an absolute beginner, but if you’ve been following along in this series, you’ve already been learning with the help of a language app or may have prior experience studying the foreign language you’re learning now. Finish reading the rest of the first page of instructions by frequently switching back and forth between the languages and carefully comparing the sentences. There will probably be some words you won’t memorize the meaning of after only the first pass, and that’s okay.

After reading the first page of instructions in the first pass, it’s time to read it again in the second pass. Here’s how the second pass is different from the first pass: in the second pass, try to read as much of the French or Spanish as possible without referencing the corresponding English. Glance back to the English for just the French/Spanish words you can’t remember the meaning of from the first pass, where you were carefully comparing the translations to learn words you didn’t already know. In essence, the second pass is your best attempt to re-read the French or Spanish page of instructions with minimal help from the English translation.

After carefully focusing and absorbing as much as you can from the first two passes, pause for a minute and then start the third pass. This time, try to only read the French or Spanish without referring back to the English translation at all. If you can’t remember a few words, before going back to the English translation, try to use the context of the sentence you’re reading to recall the meaning of the words. After trying this, if you need to reference the English page, focus on whatever words you didn’t remember successfully.

Whether or not you succeeded at remembering all of the French or Spanish words on the third pass, come back to this page the next day and try the second or third pass right off the bat – you’ll be surprised at how many of the new words whose meanings you remember.

What makes this method effective

There are three factors of this method that make it so effective at teaching you new vocabulary words: repetition, context, and volume. Repetition is achieved by reading the same material three times over, really four or five times considering that you read it in English as well. Context is achieved because you’re probably reading a series of steps to perform a process or learn about a feature of a product, so the sentences logically go together and flow. Volume of vocabulary is achieved by the fact that you are reading a page of material at a time; while many words will be familiar from your early language learning, you will likely see many new words on each page of instructions you read.

Read a page or at least a section or long paragraph of instructions at a time instead of trying to apply this method one sentence at a time. Only reading one or a few sentences at a time is not enough to establish the context, which is important for helping you remember the words when you see them again later.

Outgrowing the three-pass method

Keep using the three-pass method for as long as you keep frequently encountering unfamiliar words or sentences in your target language. As mentioned in previous posts here about foreign language learning, there’s no need to practice this technique for more than about 20 minutes each day. It can be interesting up to a point, but manuals usually aren’t very exciting and could bore you if overused. Remember that this is a transitioning technique – you are reading this material to rapidly expand your vocabulary to a level where you can start understanding podcasts or newscasts better and get into more interesting light reading that might not have an English translation available.

Conclusion

Now you know how to use the three-pass method for growing your French and/or Spanish vocabulary. Plus, you know what makes this method effective and that at some point, you will learn enough words in your target language that you can decipher word meanings from the context or an occasional dictionary reference instead of being assisted by a translation into English. Enjoy this method as much as you can, remembering that it’s a transitional technique to get you to the next level of the language you’re trying to learn.

Go find an owner’s manual somewhere around your house and try this method today!