When you start learning Spanish, your listening skills will develop more rapidly than your speaking ones and making that you understand more than you can express. A good way to keep improving your speaking skills is to talk to yourself as much as possible. With nobody around you, you don’t need to worry to make mistakes or sound funny. I actually remember myself doing this: for example after learing the PRESENT PROGRESSIVE TENSE, I was always telling myself what I was doing like: ahora estoy estudiando, ahora estoy hablando con mi amigo.. Of course, when around other people, I was just saying this in my head, but I really think it worked! Good luck again…

The method a school chooses for their students to learn Spanish should be based on their believes about how people learn foreign and second languages. Although learners vary in learning styles (which means: they all use different strategies), we strongly believe that for you to learn Spanish, there are three essential conditions that we need to meet.

Students should be:

• provided with exposure to the target language (written and spoken input: texts, conversations, etc.),
• provided opportunities to use the target language in real communication (use of the language to do things),
• are motivated to engage in the learning process (to listen, read, speak and write the language).

In order to meet these conditions, we adopt a certain approach (theory behind the method that you apply), a certain method (serie of steps to acquire a certain knowledge) and certain Materials ( materials, particularly written, to support teaching, including textbooks, printouts, and handouts).

Don’t forget to check this blog to learn more about our Approach, Method and Materials ..

It’s possible to speak Spanish in a way that is 100 percent grammatically correct and understandable and yet not be using the words and phrases that a native speaker would use.

How can you avoid that?

The more you immerse yourself in authentic content on a regular basis, the more you hear the right way of saying things, the sooner you  will start simply say the right things since it “feels right.”

Immersing yourself in an authentic content can be done by making Spanish speaking friends, finding (volunteer work) in which you need to interact in Spanish or even just listen to people speaking Spanish on the radio, television, in a movie or in song. In the last four options, although you don’t really interact, it is still a good way to find out “how people say things” and you will see how different it is between countries, regions, towns, different social groups and even among different groups of people in the same social group.

Believe me.. you can try.. but is really hard to totally express yourself  “like a native”. Personally, I have been trying it for 17 years now, but still not there…

On the other hand… it is worth while trying and meanwhile….. enjoy the ride!!!

Ingrid Lommers

Some students, especially when they are not learning Spanish in an immersion situation (which would be when they are learning while living in a situation where people use the language daily), loose motivation and enthusiasm.

What can they do to become motivated and enthusiastic again?
Here I will list a few ideas.

1. Change the Language in you email account to Spanish. By doing this you are forced to understand the Spanish words for email related issues which of course are related to other situations in our lives. Words for “to open”, “to select”, “to send”, “to copy”, etc.. will be learned quickly since you will be confronted with them frequently.

2. Label places and objects in your house. By writing the the Spanish words for the different rooms in your house (cocina, dormitorio, baño, sala, etc.), furniture (sofá, mesa, silla, etc.) as well as items like (espejo, estantes, teléfono, televisor, etc.) on a piece of paper that you attach with masking tape on the relating items you will learn in a pleasant way. Just by the reinforcement of the image with the written word.

3. Read Spanish Magazines and Newspapers. Since letting the “Spanish come alive” is the way to become motivated, try to find magazines, newspapers and internet sites in Spanish that are related to your hobbies and interests. Let’s say you like cooking. Don’t you think that reading a cooking magazine would be an interesting way to improve language skills and enhance vocabulary knowledge?

4. Set up a Spanish party. You could organize a themed party for all your friends that want to learn or practise Spanish. You could all bring a typical Spanish dish to share. Copies of the recipes for all participants will probably be greatly appreciated. Furthermore you can all bring some Music with Spanish lyrics. Again, copies of the songtexts would be fun to share, read and sing out loud all together! There are also a lot of games you can do in Spanish, like sitting in a circle and play “broken telephone” in which a first persons starts saying a word in the first persons ear upon which that persons whispers the word that he thinks to have heard in the nexts persons ear, etc.. just to see what word will come out at the end. Another game can be the one in which a person has a certain book or movie in mind and the other persons have to guess which one it is while asking questions to the person with the book or movie in mind. That person can will only be able to anwer with yes or no. Well, have fun and don’t forget the Piña Coladas…

5. Spanish DVD’s. A good way to start familiarize yourself with spoken Spanish is looking and listening to DVD’s in Spanish either with English or Spanish subtitles. In the beginning you might want to look in for Children’s DVD’s. Especially classical stories will be easy to follow and still a great opportunity to connect Words to Sounds and to Images. The great aspect of DVD’s is that you can top and start the DVD again. It is a good idea to keep a dictionary and a piece of paper at hand so you can extend common usage vocabulary.

I hope some of these ideas work for you … let me know if you have any other great ideas!!!

Saludos, Ins.

In this article I would like to point out the conclusions of various investigations that have been done to find out what kind of strategies, techniques and activities help a person to efficiently learn. The general conclusion is that a good learner not necessarily has a high IQ level, but is active and just knows “how to learn”. Looking at a group of students with similar IQ´s, but still different results, the conclusion is that “the good learners” in general show the following caracteristics.

They are aware of their own “learning style” and will look for a “Spanish Learning Situation” in which they will get input in the way they know “works for them”.
Possible learning styles are:

o Visual (spatial) You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding.
o Aural (auditory-musical) You prefer using sound and music.
o Verbal (linguistic) You prefer using words, both in speech and writing.
o Physical (kinaesthetic) You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch.
o Logical (mathematical) You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems.
o Social (interpersonal) You prefer to learn in groups or with other people.
o Solitary (intrapersonal) You prefer to work alone and use self-study.

They organize all the information they receive about the language. This means that the store it somewhere, on paper, on their computer, on flash cards … anyway, they will do something to make sure it is organized in a way that they can find it again, go over it again, retain it….

They are creative and use the information they learn in new situations. In other words, if they learn how to introduce themselves to other people, after classes, they will be looking for ways to practise this new knowledge. They will be taking every opportunity to practise their newly learned “hello” ..

They know how to apply certain strategies of comprehension in a situation of not understanding all the words they read. Which means, they will check out the context and other input like imagines (when reading) or non-verbal communication (when talking) or they will ask certain questions, everything in order to understand what has been written or said to them.

They use certain “ mnemotechnics” (which is the art to organize memory impressions, improve recall, and assist in the combination and ‘invention’ of ideas) like rhythm and association of words. For example to remember how to write the Spanish word for “cow”, which is “vaca” and for how it sounds, it could be written with “b” or “v”, the student could remember the shape of the two horns on top of the head of the cow.

They analize their mistakes in order not to repeat them. So they don’t just accept it and repeat it, but they really try to understand how they got to the point to make this mistake and try to change their way of thinking. For example if the student say “Yo gusto el chocolate” and the teacher says that it should have been “Me gusta el chocolate”.. the good learner wants to know why it should be that way and don’t just accept it without knowing why….

They use linguistic knowledge that they have from other languages (their first language or a second or other language). For example if they know that there are different conjugations in a certain tense for a verb in the different persons (I, you, he, we, etc.) and they ask for these conjugations also in the new language.

They use context (common sense knowledge and extra linguistic elements) in order to better understand oral messages. For example when the bus driver asks them something in the new language they have a filter starting to work in the sense that they think he must be asking something about where they are going to. They are using their common sense to understand the language.

They know how to use “oral production techniques” which means that in their communications they use techniques like asking another person to repeat what this person has just said or what they themselves have just said (to find out if the other person has understand him well).

They have “open ears” to different kinds of oral and written expression and know how to use that in different situations, according to the degree of formality required. This means that they know that just like in their own language, in the language they are learning there are different ways to say things, according to the communication situation. This helps to be open to learning all this different options and therefore speed up the learning process.

Ideas taken from: Giovanni, A. (1996); “Profesor en acción”, part 1: “El proceso de aprendizaje”. EDELSA.

Well, again I hope to have written something interesting for and I look forward learning about your opinion. Maybe you know some more characteristics?
Have a beautiful day,
Ins.

Define your objectives: Why you want to learn Spanish …

Probably nobody has to tell you why you should learn Spanish since the fact that you are reading this blog means that you at some moment clearly felt the necessity to learn Spanish, but still you might have to define it before you start to look for your perfect “Language Learn Situation” (called LLS from now on).

Of course there are a lots of differet reasons. One very common one is that you want to go to a country where the main language is Spanish and you want to be able to communicate with the local population. There are also other reasons than travel to go temporarily or permanently to such a country like: (volunteer) work, study, an internship or change your lifestyle.

You might also want to learn Spanish for reasons that lay in your homeland or at least not in a country where the main language is Spanish and most of the time that will be because you want to communicate with spanish speaking people that live in a country where the main language is not Spanish. You could for example be doctor in the USA that has a lot of Latin-american patients that can’t communicate very well in English and you would like to be able to communicate better in their own language (Spanish) with them.

There are also reasons like simple interest or because Spanish is an (obligatory) subject at your secondary school or tourism education.

It is good to realize “why you want to learn Spanish” since this is important information for both you and the person that wants to help you to find the right .. let me call it “Language Learn Situation” to learn Spanish. The LLS covers variables like: location, teacher, skills you want to practise materials and other inputs, social context and methods and activities.

For example a student that wants to learn Spanish in one or two weeks before his trip in Guatemala better looks for a LLS in Guatemala. A midwife that work in the USA and wants to learn Spanish in order to communicate better with labouring mothers probably doesn´t want a LLS in which she spends a lot of time training the skill writing ….
Also, if you young and active, you should not end up in a LLS in which you need to be sitting in a classroom four hours in a row, filling in lots of “empty spaces excercises”…

It seems very obvious but most LLS are still far from being perfect in the sense that
Objetives of the Students and LLS don’t really fit and therefor time, money and motivation is being wasted in wrong situations. Why? Different reasons .. not realizing your reasons and objectives, money issues (for example a language school can’t offer specialized courses for a very low cost) or lack of specialized teachers or input.

Well, I hope in this first blog to have raised your interest in reading my next post wich will be about “The good learners”. Various investigations have shown caracteristics that “good learners” have in common….

Have a beautiful day,

Ins Lommers.

PS: All my reflections have bases in “Spanish as a Foreign Language” theories. Don’t hesitate to write me and ask for them or obviously, discuss any of my observations right here.

I will be doing my utmost to inform you about “Learning Spanish”.

Why do you need to learn Spanish – How can you learn Spanish – When can you learn Spanish – Where can you learn Spanish – With whom can you learn Spanish … are just a few questions that I will be addressing.

Sorry for my English: I am Dutch, but have been living in the Spanish Language and Latino Culture since more than 17 years now. The only reason why this blog is written in English is that also people that are just starting to think about learning Spanish might want to read this info…

Anyway .. ¡Bienvenidos! / Welcome!

Ins Lommers