How long would it take an adult to learn how to read?

s_nov

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In my story, I have an adult who is fluent in English. He reads his own language, which is comprised of complicated runes and symbols, but he doesn't know how to read or write English. Most websites I saw say that it takes a few months for adults to learn how to read and write. Would it be shorter for him since he already knows how to write in a different language? This is fantasy so his written language doesn't actually exist.
 

Siri Kirpal

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The main things are:

What is the motivation? You want to marry someone who requires literacy in their language. Then you'll learn it quickly, barring things like dyslexia. You want to learn it because your parents want you to, but you yourself don't care, you might never learn it.

Does the person have help? Really great mentor. You might learn it faster, and will probably learn it more thoroughly. No help at all, might take much longer, unless you're brilliant at languages.

That he already reads and writes another language won't make much difference, and could get in the way as the two languages jostle in the guy's mind.

Hope that helps.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

neandermagnon

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I used to teach English as a foreign language to Arabic speaking students (children and adults). I also did a ton of research into teaching methods that are appropriate for adult learners who are unfamiliar with the Latin alphabet, and not only taught reading but also wrote courses in it and trained other teachers to teach it. I'm also dyslexic and learned how to read and write in Arabic as an adult (the breadth of my Arabic knowledge is narrow but I can read and write it, and understand what I read as long as it's words within my narrow vocabulary). So I have personal experience of doing this (both as teacher and learner).

How long it takes really depends on the individual. Fast learners with good visual memories will learn to read quickly (like in a matter of weeks). Slower learners will take longer. People with dyslexic tendencies or dyslexia will really struggle. Synthetic phonics is usually the best method for people with dyslexia/dyslexic tendancies (due to lacking the visual memory for remembering so many words by shape*) as it relies more on logic. For story purposes, if you need your character to pick it up quickly, then have other ways to show your character is a fast learner (maybe they were always top of the class at school or something). If you need your character to struggle, then maybe show they have dyslexic tendencies (e.g. tendency to confuse left/right, clockwise/anticlockwise, maybe they were one of the last in their class to get the hang of learning to read in their own language. Maybe they know they're dyslexic or have dyslexic tendencies.)

*there are different kinds of dyslexia and it's not necessarily about the strength of visual memory, it can be the way the visual memory works. For example was and saw are the same basic shape, only inverted. Begin able to remember the shape isn't enough - you have to also remember which way round the shapes go.

So anyway, back to the other part of your question about whether the learning time would be shorter if they can already read in another alphabet. The answer to that is "it depends". This is because in English and similar alphabets, words are broken down into sounds (phonemes) which are usually represented by one letter, but in English (just to be awkward) can be represented by two or three (occasionally more). For example, cat is c/a/t. Three is th/r/ee and chair is ch/air (or ch/air/r in American English). If you're going from an alphabet that works like this to another that works in the same basic way, then yes already knowing how reading works would mean it's a lot quicker to learn. However, not all languages write in this way. In Arabic, for example, words are broken down into slightly larger units. The name "Muhammad" in Arabic is written in four letters (I'll use English ones to represent them), i.e. M H M D and short vowels go with these letters. Like Mu/Ha/MMa/D -four letters. It can be a bit tricky for beginners to grasp why in English, Muhammad has to be spelled with so many letters when you've only ever experienced an Arabic style alphabet where it can be expressed perfectly well in four letters. Being able to break it down into separate consonant and vowel sounds (when you're an adult and never had to do this before) is what makes it tricky, i.e. going from Mu/Ha/MMa/D to M/u/h/a/mm/a/d. This would mean it takes longer than someone who's first alphabet is more like English, but would still be quite a bit quicker than for someone who's not literate in any language.

From the research that I did before starting teaching all this, languages where the written language is broken into bigger units than Arabic, e.g. symbols representing syllables or even entire words, has the same issue I've described as with Arabic, only that it may be even harder for an adult learner to learn how to break syllables down into individual sounds. I don't have personal experience of this. I'm only going by what I've read.

Also bear in mind that students who are fast learners with strong visual memories may not need to learn how to break down words at all, because they would just remember what the words look like - the disadvantage is not being able to read unfamiliar words so all students benefit from learning how the system works.

So the answer to that really depends on what the character's native language's writing system is like.

There are lots of other variables too... a bad teacher will slow the learner's pace of learning right down. Especially if the teacher is relying on look-and-say methods and the student has a weak visual memory and dyslexic tendencies. Also, things like how long you spend practicing will make a huge difference. Practicing once a week probably isn't enough. Practicing several hours a day will mean you learn it all much quicker.

So really you could make your character learn English literacy as quickly or as slowly as you like, as long as the speed matches the variables. You're looking at some students learning in a few weeks versus others maybe still struggling after a couple of years, if none of the factors have fallen in their favour. Or possibly giving up altogether.

If your character can already speak English, that will go in his favour as he'll be able to recognise when he's reading words correctly and be better at using contextual clues to know what word it is, e.g. "I had a row with my partner" or "I like to row my boat on the lake" - someone whose English vocabulary isn't strong wouldn't know which pronunciation of "row" to use in those sentences, but someone with a good vocabulary/understanding will know from the context. Your character's learning won't be limited by their lack of knowledge of English words. Many of the students I taught were beginners in English, i.e. very little vocab or reading skills. I taught some students who were pretty fluent in listening/speaking but due to dyslexic tendencies really struggled with the literacy side of it.

Hope that helps.
 

lonestarlibrarian

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For what it's worth, I tried learning Japanese--- once as part of a continuing education class, once teaching bits of it as part of a kids' program at my library--- and I never got the knack for being able to read hiragana without checking it against a chart. Some symbols are easy, but others, I just never got solid on. I never even attempted to memorize the katakana chart.

So I can definitely understand it taking an adult a month or two of good study to really grasp the Roman alphabet if they've never used it before.

You might try memorizing the Greek alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, to get some sympathy for your character and to get some firsthand experience of the struggle of trying to teach an old dog new tricks. :)
 

Cath

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"Adults" is such a generic term that it's almost impossible to answer the question. A prodigy with languages might learn in days, someone else could take months or years, and others will never master it.

Define your character more narrowly and it will be easier to find the answer you need.
 

AW Admin

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If you are learning to read a language you already speak, and you are already literate in a similar writing system (this is important; learning to read Greek isn't that hard, despite the different alphabet; learning to read Japanese is a whole 'nother thing), with hard work, you can learn in a few months to have basic competency, say of a 10 year old.

In graduate schools, grad students who are literate and fluent in English are expected to pick up enough of, say, French or German, or Italian or Spanish, in a couple of semesters to read a novel, or basic prose like a letter, and simple critical essays, with a dictionary at their elbow.
 
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Jason

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You might try memorizing the Greek alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, to get some sympathy for your character and to get some firsthand experience of the struggle of trying to teach an old dog new tricks. :)

This is actually great advice - I couldn't do the Greek letters themselves, but know the name equivalent only because it was part of pledging in college:

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, phi, chi psi, Omega

(and I think that's all of them, but feel like I am missing a few... ?)

The other element to consider is what level of fluency you're going for, and if you are equating speaking reading levels. Learning to read (or speak) a second language is subject to many factors, depending on whether you're totally immersed in it, exposed partially, etc. I studied Spanish in high school and college. My spoken Spanish is pretty good, and I can probably get through most text in a newspaper. I may not get a word immediately, but can probably decipher it from context. That was combined about 7 years...

That's the only really unique perspective I have to offer here...
 

Snitchcat

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First question: what do you mean by "complicated symbols and runes"?
Second question: is the MC's native tongue phonetic or not?
Third question: how similar or dissimilar are English and the MC's native language?
Fourth question: how much exposure does the MC have to written English that is read out to him?
Fifth question: what's the MC's motivation?

Reasons for asking (no particular order):
Phonetic languages are somewhat easier to learn, because it's pronounce as spoken and write as spoken. As long as you learn the representation of the basic sounds (e.g., lock down the vowels, y, v, w, l, n, m, and th) and how they feel / look (mirrors are good here) when you sound them out, you're good to go with written English.

Symbols may be pictorial, and may include pronunciation clues. Hence, they can be easily compared to their English counterparts. Runes may be more suited to a different comparison system.

If the MC is reading, say, English subtitles for an English news pogramme, he'll pick up written English very fast. I want to say approximately 2 - 3 months for enough vocabulary to make it through a kindergarten book, with a native/English dictionary as back-up.

And if the MC's motivation is powerful enough, he'll be able to read English competently within a year; writing proficiency will be questionable if he doesn't have someone pointing out his errors and how to correct them. To write well enough to graduate university, for example, the MC would need to have mastered the more complex uses of English. And to translate from his native language to English (written), for instance, he'd need extensive vocabulary and fluent written idiom knowledge.

However, the above depends on his affinity for languages, his visual intelligence, and how easy it is for him to commit information to long-term memory as well as recall at need.

So, realistically, the MC could read proficiently within a year, but writing to the same level would take more than double that time.
 

s_nov

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Thank you for your answers! Just some other background: It's fantasy, so English is MC's first language, but they write it differently where he's from. Another character is teaching him to write it the way we do. So he's not learning the language, he is only learning how to understand the written form.
 

Snitchcat

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So, why not try a comparison like old/Medieval English / Chaucer's English (or any other sufficiently different writing system/pronunciation version of English) vs. modern day English? Might give you a taste of how difficult / long it might take someone to learn one form vs. the other.