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5 thoughts on “Question”
This is the opposite of what you are looking for, but maybe to help ease the worry about not being fluent enough. Blaine told me when I was at his workshop that my lack of fluency (I teach Latin) would be a gift for my students. I think he meant because I couldn’t help but go slow and stay in bounds because I didn’t know enough to go fast or to start throwing in a ton of language that we haven’t used yet.
I think I have been a little limited perhaps in some of the activities I have been able to do but my lack of fluency really hasn’t slowed me down too much, and as others have noted on here my teaching the language has – for whatever reason – really seemed to have helped my fluency.
I think he meant because I couldn’t help but go slow and stay in bounds because I didn’t know enough to go fast or to start throwing in a ton of language that we haven’t used yet.
I believe strongly in this, what Blaine told you here, Matthew.
I also think it’s good to know how to say, “¿Cómo se dice?” or “How do you say?” is awesome when your trying to get a message across in the TL to a native speaker. I also use tons of Spanglish when I speak with a native Spanish speaker. Like, I usually always say, “high school” instead of “escuela secundaria” to a native Spanish speaker when in the U.S.
Oh… and when I was trying to get my Spanish skills up several years ago I would translate a Bilingual Spanish Newspaper, and here’s how. I would read and translate to Spanish the English version of an article, and then match my translation to the newspaper’s Spanish version. It was a really intense and disciplined undertaking. This was before, of course, I found TPRS. Now, I just read fiction that is at my level and listen to plenty of Univision radio. If you have a Smart phone you might be able to find plenty of French speaking radio stations from around the world you can listen to on your free time. But yeah, I really feel like I can jump into a Spanish conversation with a native speaker even if only once every few months because I simply read at my level and listen to the radio.
But David, I’m happy to hear that your school is giving French as an option to those native speakers. Half of my Spanish 1 and 2 classes are filled with native speakers and it, let me tell you, has just been a nightmare.
Are you familiar with LingQ.com? This site provides text, audio, and very easily accessible hints and definitions for stories, news items, podcasts…And if you’re not interested in what’s already there, you can import your own material. It’s my “TPRS class”. You can try it out for free, but to really use all of its tools you need to subscribe. (No, I am not advertising; I just find this site incredibly helpful in my own language study.)
David,
I am in a similar situation with you. I have been hired by Blaine Ray to present at TPRS workshops. My next language after Spanish to use for a demo language would be French. I have never studied French formally but I have spent time in both France and Montreal. Years ago I had a French girlfriend… hence my motivation 🙂
My biggest apprehension is teaching in front of other French teachers because they have little tolerance for mispronunciations…the phonetics of Spanish often get in my way.
What I have done to develop my proficiency is the same thing I do for my students…tons of CI. I bought readers like Pauvre Anne or readers from TPRS publishing, along with audio CDs of the same books, and tons of short story reading and writing. I also have practiced teaching French to my Spanish students. We use Pirates reader in level 1 and once in a while they indulged me by learning that story in French. They did great! They didn’t know if I messed up “ewn” or “une” when I was trying to say “un garçon.”
I also recommend watching people like Ben and Sabrina in action. They have teaching videos out there that can help build up that confidence.
If TCI is good enough for them…it is good enough for me. Like you I plan on some French immersion but in the meantime TPRS materials have been helpful.
What about Fluency Fast courses? I have been wanting to take an advanced Spanish course there to prepare myself for third and forth year classes. I think that taking it would give me an example of TPRS in upper level classes.