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Everything you need to know about acquiring Spanish

Mini-tutorial

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What is Spanish class all about?

It’s about Conversation and Communication ….

in Spanish, not in English.

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Communication

Express your ideas. Figure out what

someone else’s ideas mean.

Make sure you’re understood, and make sure you can understand someone else’s Spanish.

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Can you communicate all in Spanish by the end of first semester?

Sí!

But it takes commitment and work on your part.

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Second Language Acquisition Research

Some Basics to Help You Earn an A in Spanish

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The Affective Filter

Researchers tell us we have an “Affective Filter” in our minds that can help or hinder our progress.

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The Affective Filter implies …

The more comfortable you are with your classmates, the faster you learn to speak Spanish.

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The Affective Filter implies …

Positive support for each other helps everyone learn to speak Spanish. We’re a community.

No cut-downs of anyone allowed. Ever. Period. Starting right now.

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The Affective Filter implies …

Consider our Spanish class a No-Fear-Here Zone. I’m counting on your support!

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More Research: Comprehensible Input

Getting lots of “Comprehensible Input” is how we learn to speak any language.

Comprehensible input is Spanish that you hear and/or read that is at a level just a little beyond what you can understand. You understand most, but usually not all, of what the Spanish speaker says to you.

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Comprehensible Input

Even absolute beginners don’t start at zero Spanish. El taco

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Comprehensible Input

Listening to and reading lots of Spanish input is how we learn to understand, read, speak and write Spanish.

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Comprehensible Input in a nutshell:

It’s the fuel that drives your speech motor. Without plenty of input, you won’t learn to

comprehend and speak much Spanish at all.

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Comprehensible Input implies:

The more Spanish you hear in class, the faster you learn to speak it.

Students work hard to learn how to listen, read and think in Spanish.

Students and Teacher make a pledge: only Spanish! (unless you ask permission to speak English.)

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More Research: Acquisition Vs. Learning

Acquiring a language is “picking it up” in context, from input. Learning a language means knowing how Spanish language works after we study the rules.

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More Research: Acquisition Vs. Learning

Do you see any parallels to how students start playing basketball?

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Acquisition Vs. Learning

We acquire (pick up) our first language from family, friends and others around us.

We pick up language by using it.

We use language to express ourselves and to understand others.

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Acquisition Vs. Learning

We learn about our first language—usually—in school. We learn about how our language works by studying its structure and rules.

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Acquisition Vs. Learning

Learning about how Spanish works can help us with some tasks.

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Acquisition Vs. Learning

Tasks such as: editing your writing to polish it. Crafting a speech to sound articulate. Satisfying your curiosity about how Spanish and

English are similar and different.

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The Implications?

Since Input and Acquisition make speech happen, acquisition activities form the bulk of our classwork.

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Some Spanish Class Acquisition Activities

Listening comprehension tasks … mini-dialogues … conversations partner interviews … whole class discussions .. Games… class surveys … problem-solving activities … exercises… Role-playing … language play … readings … videos …dictations Puzzles … word challenges … cartooning & drawing …

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Some Spanish Class Learning Activities

Memorization … pattern study … practice exercises … proofing your writing … practicing study skills … reading about how Spanish works

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More Research: The Monitor

There’s a kind of “judge” in our heads who helps polish our writing IF he stays in the corner he’s supposed to. OR, if he gets too big and pushy, he interferes with our speaking because he makes us feel self-conscious.

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The Monitor

He’s a little bit of a rule bully who gets bigger and bigger the more you worry about making errors or when you worry about what other people think.

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Implications for The Monitor

Use him when you write. Ignore him when you speak.

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More Research: Natural Order of Acquisition

We all pass through the same stages of Acquisition, but at different rates.

What does this mean for you?

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More Research: Natural Order of Acquisition

Some students in class will start speaking Spanish faster than others. That’s normal.

The more you listen, study vocabulary and use phrases your teacher gives you to communicate in class, the more quickly you proceed through stages of Acquisition.

Your first important goal: stick to Spanish and avoid English in class.

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Everything you need to know about acquiring Spanish

Part II

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Remember Communication?

Express your ideas Figure out what

someone else’s ideas mean.

Make sure you’re understood, and make sure you can understand someone else’s Spanish.

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We work on Spanish communication skills in four areas

Strategic Competence Discourse Competence Sociolinguistic

Competence Linguistic Competence

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Strategic Competence means:

you know how to stay in Spanish

during conversations.

You know how to work around words and topics you don’t know yet.

You manage a conversation so you get the speaker to talk with you, instead of over your head.

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Discourse Competence means

You express your ideas, even with simple language to start.

You develop skills rather quickly: you ask and answer questions, joke, describe people, things, events; tell a story, tell your opinions, and so on.

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Good news!

You start developing Discourse and Strategic Competence right away, during the first week of class.

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Good news!

Your teacher shows you tricks and study skills

Your main job: the faster you build up your Spanish vocabulary, the faster your Discourse Competence grows.

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Sociolinguistic Competence

You develop Sociolinguistic Competence as you learn to use the right phrase at the right time.

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Sociolinguistic Competence

In English, what do you say when: You want to pass in front of

someone? Your family friend gets married? Your best friend’s grandmother

passes away? Your brother wins a competition? You step on someone’s toes on the

dance floor? You want to politely interrupt the

school principal?

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Sociolinguistic Competence

If you know the answers, you have Sociolinguistic Competence in English.

You’ll learn how to develop it in Spanish as well.

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Linguistic Competence

You show Linguistic Competence when you tie your sentences together the way a native Spanish speaker would.

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Good news!

Your teacher shows you how to do this in writing fairly quickly.

It takes a lot of studying to do this.

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Good news about speaking Spanish!

It takes a long, long time to speak Spanish fluently and without errors, so long that you might as well not worry about speaking perfectly.

Mistakes are inevitable when you start speaking Spanish in a natural way.

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Good news about speaking Spanish!

Beginners can’t control mistakes when they speak Spanish.

In class, we’re interested in what you say, not how you say it.

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Habla!

So, just speak Spanish, and don’t worry about how you sound.

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Bad news!

If you worry about errors … the Monitor pops up and makes it hard for you to express yourself.

Ignore him, and he’ll go away until you call on him.

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Try to avoid some very common beginner pitfalls by doing the following:

Have faith in your teacher’s skills & let go of English.

Avoid translating for your classmates.

Remember that classroom work is only part of your quest to speak another language.

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Try to avoid some very common beginner pitfalls by doing the following:

Be patient: you’ll communicate fairly quickly, but, at the same time, it’s a lifetime adventure to learn to speak another language well.

Always ask for help (in Spanish) and let the teacher decide to use English or Spanish to help you right now.