Third Language Blog

1 October 2009

Open University L194 Portales

My Open University course L194 “Portales” has officially finished. I have to wait until February next year before L140 “En Rumbo” begins.

I enjoyed the course although the last section seemed rather pressured, I had the impression that the course team dumped everything that had been left out into the 6th and final section of the course and the calender didn’t allow time for it to be properly studied. Perhaps the idea is for students to work on that material while waiting for the next course.

My other gripe about what was otherwise an excellent course is to do with the admin: after submitting all the assignments online it seemed very odd to have to post the last one, especially given the precarious state of the mail service at the moment. And then there is the length of time it takes for the results to get back to the student. Why we have to wait until December to get the result of a 10 minute oral exam in September is a mystery.

20 September 2009

Spanish Language Resources

The following are language course resources which you might find useful:

20 September 2009

www.about.com

www.about.com – Word of the day and saying of the day are both free services from this website. You provide them with your email address and choose what you want and every day they email them to you. In addition they give you links to lessons and discussions that are also free of charge.

14 September 2009

Flash Card maker

Flash Card Machine is a nice website, you can make your own flash cards and share them with others if you wish. You might be lucky and find that someone else is already sharing their cards. It’s a good way to learn and revise vocabulary. You can randomise the order of the cards and any you get wrong can be flagged and will reappear until you get them right.

14 September 2009

Pimsleur Spanish – 3 parts and Spanish Plus

This is an enormous course, each part consists of 30 half hour lessons and the Spanish Plus gives another 10 half hour lessons. This is the one I listen to when I am ironing or doing similar mind-numbing tasks. There is enough thinking time between challenge and response that I rarely need to use the pause button. The pace is a bit slow but there is lots of repetition so you get to practise speaking out loud then hearing the “correct” answer twice, with pauses for you to copy the pronunciation. New words get introduced then reappear at intervals to reinforce your memory.

I keep repeating lessons so I am still on Part 2, anywhere between lessons 10 and 28 gives me a good workout and keeps my mind off the boring housework.

Pros of the Pimsleur Course

No need to take notes
Pronunciation is broken down into tiny chunks so you get the sound right
Repetition at intervals is a proven technique for memorising
If you memorised everything in the 100 half hour lessons you would get by pretty well in Spanish

Cons of the Pimsleur Course

It’s a bit American
It’s a bit slow
Some of the words are rather formal eg they use “esposa” for wife whereas I think “mujer” is more colloquial
They use dollars and pesos but not euros (maybe I’ve just got an old copy)

Pimsleur Language Techniques: Start Learning a New Language Today

13 September 2009

Michel Thomas Language Courses

Foundation Spanish Course – 8CDs and review 2CDs

This was my introduction to Spanish. From the first lesson Michel hypnotises you into relaxing and playing at learning Spanish and within minutes you are constructing sentences like “what is your opinion of the current political and social situation in Spain?”, he builds confidence and teaches grammar painlessly.

Michel Thomas Foundation Spanish Course

He emphasises that you shouldn’t write notes or try to memorise things. You are the third student in a class of three and he is the teacher, the psychology is excellent, soon you will find yourself correcting the other students out loud.

Advanced Spanish Course – 4CDs and review 1CD (great for reviving after a break)

Similar format that covers all the tenses and moods you will normally meet. Again you are the third student in an intimate tutorial.

Michel Thomas Advanced Spanish Course

Spanish Language Builder – 2CDs

Just Michel talking to you with lots of practical examples

Michel Thomas Spanish Language Builder

Spanish Vocabulary – 5CDs

One of Michel’s student teachers does the teaching, based on his method, good revision of grammar with lots of cognates

Michel Thomas Spanish Vocabulary Course

Summary

If I could only take one audio set onto my desert island it would be the set of Michel Thomas courses.

Pros of Michel Thomas Language Courses

Grammar is covered in depth
You never seem to struggle while he is talking to you
You are encouraged to guess at vocabulary, lots of cognates (words that sound the same in English) are introduced

Cons of Michel Thomas Language Courses

You will struggle to understand when a Spanish person speaks to you
There is a fairly limited vocabulary
I needed a grammar book to make sense of some examples
Sometimes I misheard what he said and needed a dictionary to check a word

13 September 2009

Linguaphone all Talk

Linguaphone all talk – 8CDs

This one didn’t work for me. It seemed rather old fashioned presenting a list of vocabulary then a little bit of narrative and a few test questions with lots of irritating “uplifting” musical breaks. There is some good vocabulary in there but I would find it tedious to listen to over and over.

3 September 2009

E-Tandem

E-tandem is a free service run through a couple of University servers. The idea is to pair you with a language learner who is fluent in the language you want to learn and who wants to learn your language. Once you make contact it is up to you both how you work it. In my case I was paired with a Spanish lady who teaches English and French in a school. She wants to improve her English to the maximum so I send her technical and colloquial information and she in turn encourages me to email in Spanish then returns my email with all the errors highlighted (but not corrected), I then try to correct the errors and send it back. If after three attempts I still get it wrong she takes pity on me and provides an explanation.

2 September 2009

Online spanish newspapers

Most of the main Spanish newspapers have online access, at least to their front page, for free. My favourite is El Pais and is the one I check most days, www.elpais.com is the link.

1 September 2009

News in Slow Spanish

I was recommended to the News in Slow Spanish website less than a month ago and I like it a lot. You can subscribe to the complete service that gives you transcripts, translations and flashcards in addition to the podcasts. Alternatively you can listen for free to the audio version only, there is a new podcast roughly once a week, several items of world news are presented and discussed . . . Slowly (that is the best bit), then a bit of grammar and a couple of Spanish expressions to finish off with. Total show length is around 25 minutes.

Getting good quality teaching and resources

The information I am going to share is an honest account of what I have tried over the past year and my opinions are just that, opinions. I will share my likes and dislikes, what works for me and what doesn't. This is a personal experience, I am not an expert but if you share my ambition of learning to communicate in a third, foreign language, then maybe we can help each other along the way.

According to Friedrich Nietzsche: "One who speaks a foreign language just a little takes more pleasure in it than one who speaks it well. Enjoyment belongs to those who know things halfway."

I think he is right. Its hard to define halfway but I think the fun starts when you know enough of a language to be able to make yourself understood, given sufficient time to think. At this stage you are not merely tolerated but treated as an honoured guest in a foreign country. People see you bravely struggling to speak and understand, and give you credit for trying. They are nearly always kind and supportive.

Go beyond this to fluency and its like a toddler growing up, you are no longer cute and vulnerable. You are competing for resources, in the adolescence of language acquisition unless you have a definite role you are treated with suspicion. Maybe that is the stage to consider moving on to another new language ...

Getting good quality teaching and resources is vital to success: encouraged by an influential book by Harry Ferber I now view language acquisition as a military campaign, I need to use my resources efficiently to overcome all resistance, I need to capture vocabulary and not let it escape. I need to wear down the opposition by attacking daily and not allowing it time to regroup. I need to learn the predictable tricks that the new language will play on me and be ready for them (this means learning grammar). Like any military campaign good quality intelligence is vital.

Third Language Blog

Open University L194 Portales

Spanish Language Resources

www.about.com

Flash Card maker

Pimsleur Spanish – 3 parts and Spanish Plus

Michel Thomas Language Courses

Linguaphone all Talk

E-Tandem

Online spanish newspapers

News in Slow Spanish

Author

Spanish Teaching Resources

Learning a Third Language

Strategic Planning

Fear of Losing French

Resources

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