I’ve been working on SpanishSense more and more in recent days. I had been concerned about tackling the grammar of an entirely new language, but in fact, it’s turned out to be really interesting and quite manageable. One reason has been Maria’s tremendous knowledge of Spanish grammar. She knows this stuff and she can make it accessible. Excellent.
Another encouraging thing has been discovering how we can actually do something really unique with grammar - stuff that hasn’t been done before and could not be done in a book format. Let me explain through some notes I wrote after a recording a newbie lesson yesterday:
Let’s push on with the inductive approach where ever possible. In the audio we need to make the distinction between offering examples (these should be concrete and drawn from from the dialog) and abstractions (the grammar rules that offer generalized, deductive observations).
Always start with concrete examples. Take them from the dialog, and explain them in non grammatical terms. For example, by simple statements like: “In Spanish, the man says ‘encantado’ and the woman says ‘encantada’.” For a newbie that’s enough grammar for that particular item. Do not overload him with more at this point.
Of course, there will be cases where we wish to refer learners to a rule (an abstraction). Example: “Adjectives in Spanish have masculine and feminine forms. This depends on the gender of the noun they describe.” Again, where we do apply such a grammar rule, it must be based on something the learner has encountered in the dialog. Do not, however, explain one abstraction in terms of another. Do not, in other words, explain how nouns also have gender in Spanish at this point. Make sure the learner has first seen enough (inductive) examples of how adjectives have gender so that he understands the concept.
Using two levels of abstraction and a sure-fire way to lose some of your audience. The granular nature of the service allows us to avoid that.
When the program is not staggered, you can treat grammar in a wholly different way than in the past. This ‘web 2.0′ approach to grammar is starting to look very exciting. ‘Grammar 2.0?’ Grammar items as discrete learning objects?
Ken Carroll
中文 Chinese
Cornelia Says:
April 5th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Hi Ken,
I am very curious how the Grammar Guide in Spanishsense will look like.
Any forecast as to when I might find something else than “this section is under construction” ? You really know how to keep us in suspense !
I would imagine that with Spanish it might be more difficult to explain grammar than with CPod: because your students have a more varied degree of experience with target grammar structures from their different mother languages.
So I’d guess you have to explain more to a native English speaker than to a native German.
Looking forward to new insights, Cornelia
FuDaWei Says:
April 18th, 2007 at 2:07 am
Hope to see you on the other side of the classroom desk, Ken.
I’m excited to embark on Spanish; it interests me on a linguistical level because my motives for learning are entirely different. Will that affect my success? Is one motive stronger than another? Hitherto, I’ve studied languages that struck my interest. My intellectual passion was my motivation. But (and please don’t misunderstand me here) I have no passionate drive to learn Spanish — I have, instead, a pragmatic one. I live in the center of the US and my neighborhood has a swelling Spanish immigrant population. Several stores within walking distance are staffed by people who speak little or no English. Luckily, what I may lack in one area, I make up for in another in that I have a steady stream of very friendly people I can tap as a primary resource to check my progress.
As to the lessons … though I do not speak much Spanish and have only dipped my beak, one minor aspect at the Newbie level troubles me. There is a slight tendency to draw words out. No one really benefits from: “cooooh-ooooh-mooh taaaaaay yaaahhhh-maaaa-aaahs”. I understand and appreciate the intent (to put people at ease, move slow, try to nail down the pronunciation), but when you draw out sounds beyond a certain point you end up distorting them. You also destroy the “lilt” of the sentence as a whole — the “music” of the language. And people don’t learn by memorizing isolated words. They need that “music”. I’m not saying everything should always be “muy rapido” — that would scare even me. By all means, break down the sounds when necessary, but don’t dwell on it to the exclusion of the rest.
All in all … I’m looking forward to this new adventure and am “encantado” with our hosts!
Cornelia Says:
April 18th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Concerning velocity of speech I think FuDaWei really has a point. Especially in the Newbie-Elle levels it is unrealistically slow.
I have a suggestion stemming again from the Birkenbihl approach (who always provide the text in 2 different speeds): continue to start with the slow dialogue, but perhaps insert more pauses in between words instead of actually elongating the words.
At the end of the lesson, when you repeat the dialogue, go for a more realistic tempo, especially for the 3rd time repetition.
For the dialogue only mp3s I would appreciate a relatively normal-quick speech as this would be used by more advanced learners or the newbies after gaining understanding with the full lesson.
I think this principle holds true for any language.