Third Language Blog » Language Courses

Where have all the Spanish Classes Gone

Bill Ferguson — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:39:28 +0000

I’m getting started on the L140 Open University course, one of the suggestions is that students arrange some conversation practice with native Spanish speakers. No problem you might think. I put out lots of feelers but so far I haven’t found anyone to practice with, so I started looking for conversation classes.

According to Wikipedia, Spanish is the 2nd most widely spoken language in the world. You wouldn’t think so if you lived in Kent. I have been trying unsuccessfully, to find a Spanish conversation class for the past few days, today I got through to a very helpful person at KAE (Kent Adult Education) who looked through their database on my behalf and confirmed what I thought – there are currently no Spanish conversation classes run by KAE in the entire county. I knew that foreign languages were having a hard time but I didn’t realise just how bad things were.

Maybe my comments on KAE were more apocryphal than I realised at the time (http://thirdlanguage.co.uk/adult-education/local-authority-adult-education-classes/ ), perhaps the bureaucracy has worn down the teachers and the hard-to-navigate website has put off enough potential students so the classes have withered and died.

I haven’t given up yet, there is a possible lead I am following. I will write more when I know more.

Open University L194 Portales

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:14:36 +0000

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.

Spanish Language Resources

admin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:13:56 +0000

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

Pimsleur Spanish – 3 parts and Spanish Plus

admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:25:26 +0000

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

Michel Thomas Language Courses

admin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:04:09 +0000

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

Linguaphone all Talk

admin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:47:37 +0000

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.

Hugo Spanish in 3 months, book, tapes and CDs

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:04:36 +0000

Hugo Spanish in 3 Months

I have a soft spot for Hugo Spanish, at least for the book. I don’t find the recordings very helpful my advice is to save money and just buy the book, you can pick it up and even in a few minutes learn a grammar rule and a few words of vocabulary, then do a self assessment test to see how well you have understood it.

I use a couple of A6 file cards, one to keep my place in the book and also to cover up words when I am trying to memorise short lists of vocabulary. The other card goes in the back of the book in the answer section to keep my place and save time when I want to look up answers.

I always write my answers down on a piece of scrap paper before checking if I got them right, I never write in the book. That way I can do the test again in future without glimpsing the answers at the beginning.

Open University Spanish Course L194

admin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:22:41 +0000

Open University

The Open University (OU) has been the backbone of my strategy this year. I am following the entry level Spanish course L194 Portales. I chose this course because I wanted some structure to my study and having studied French L120 a few years ago I knew roughly what to expect.

The course arrived in a box last November. It is made up of 6 course books and 6 CDs, one for each book. You also get various booklets about admin and a study calendar. Roughly once a month for the first 6 months you have to submit assignments for marking, to a tutor. The tutor returns your work with a mark and comments and at the end of the year you have a written and spoken assessment with your tutor. There are 7 or 8 regular meetings with the tutor at study centres, in my case University of Canterbury, about once a month on Saturday mornings for 2 hours. We had an additional day school in Tunbridge Wells which was very good I thought and it was nice to meet fellow students from adjacent regions for the first time.

OU Spanish Course Book 1	OU Spanish Course Book 2
OU Spanish Course Book 3	OU Spanish Course Book 4
OU Spanish Course Book 5	OU Spanish Course Book 6

The Open University material is good, it is mainly self study I would have liked more face to face tutorials as that is the only time OU provide a chance to have conversations in Spanish while a tutor is in the same room to give guidance and instant feedback.

The pace of study gets rather intense around the end of June and July when suddenly a couple of new tenses are introduced along with quite a lot of special vocabulary, and there is a study day; all within a short time. In August there is a chance to catch up during a two week academic holiday.

Success in L194 lets you continue to the second level, a separate course called En Rumbo and if you succeed in passing this as well you get a Certificate in Spanish. For more details see the OU website.

The cost for L194 was over £400 and I think that is a fair price for such good quality teaching material. Apart from the course books and CDs mentioned above, there are three recommended books to buy separately – Collins Easy Learning Grammar, Collins Easy Learning Dictionary and Success in Languages