English learning part one: aim and self-evaluation
With this post I'd like to start sharing some insights about English (or any foreign language) learning.
There is plenty of aspects involved in it, in that learning a foreign language, as non-native speakers, is not learnt as the mother tongue is. Moreover, having a clear vision of others' perception of our skills is often highly biased, so some consideration about the aim when learning a new language is.
Any language skill can be broken down in four aspects: reading, writing, comprehension and speaking. These parts can be analyzed all the more; for instance, speaking can be seen from different standpoints, such as richness of vocabulary, fluency or pronunciation.
Usually people who live abroad have problems judging their own skill level. They definitely sound not native, are often not corrected and their mistakes are not even perceived as such, given that "well, he/she's foreign...."
After high school, I traveled to England several times. I was shocked by how a just graduated language student could not understand a goddamn thing. Moreover I always mentally translated single words from Italian to English, hence my speaking was really weird and not natural. My teachers were on average not up to the task of teaching properly. Unfortunately I think that Italian schools reflected the carelessness, political, light preparation of professionals, especially the preparation of public servants in a very political age, around the seventies. Many of them watched movies in english as the sole updating after getting the degree, so many of them thought us American English, or a personal mix, many probably didn't even know.
Even with literature, they taught us the same ten works they used to speak about. When at the high school I met a teacher, not mine unfortunately, Alberto Becattini, speaking English like a British (and no other of his colleagues) I was shocked.
However, if an optimal comprehension is what is looked for, living in a foreign country hits the spot. It's not the easiest part, but when abroad understanding is vital, so there's no way to avoid making the brain train 24/7. This does not apply to pronunciation and writing, and only to a very short extent with reading. Unless they are asked, locals do not correct or comment your English, so it is very easy to get stuck at a good comprehension level and nothing more than a clumpsy speaking.
My love for Germanic languages and English in particular and my eagerness to be fluent and respected (yeah, well...) did the rest. So my aim was to be a native speaker. It's not so feasible, but it is a clear purpose to make you keep going. That made me a long-life learner.
Another aspect that is not at all considered when teaching English, it's phonology. How to pronunce sounds.
The vowel sound in the word "man", does not exist in Italian. Our "e grave" is perfect for the plural, men, but "man" and "men" are not to be pronounced the same, contrary to what is usually told in our classrooms. They may seem slight changes of sound, but they are immediately detected by a native speaker. Learning phonology as an adult is a bigger headache, but it's the only way not to be just funny and eternal outsiders, when abroad. It all starts noticing the real sounds that people say and not the sound we are used to.
So, making a long story short, if a good and proper English is the set prize, it is very important to plan how to learn a language, considering the biases of a foreign living abroad, the lack of corrections.
Comprehension, as said, is not such a problem. It will come. Other aspects not, so at least speaking should be very well considered.
I made some researches about how a language should be learnt to replicate the learning of a native speaker. There are many courses around, they are very different. I'll get to the point and give some advice... next time, I'm a bit tired now. It should be much shorter, anyway! Good night!
English learning part two: methods and courses
Well, I'm still up, so let's finish this post at least.
When children start learning what will be their own language, they learn sentences, not words. At school, while learning how to write, they will likely write a bunch of words all attached. This means, learning words won't make anyone a decent conversationalist. Often students write huge lists of words and the translation beside. It is a good exercise, since writing is much more useful for learning than just repeating. However, excessively long lists are worthless, very often never checked again. Dictionary does it better.
Some English courses are based on words, such as Babbel, a very-well known course, since it has been invested a lot in marketing. A good course must encourage you to go ahead, learning a language is not easy and takes time and passion. if you have an extra-boring course that teaches you mainly words... it's wasted time. A good course doesn't even need to have a lot of words inside it, words to translate and translators are everywhere. Also, focusing on grammar doesn't help a lot, it's not latin, unless you want to spend a lot of time before even being able to say something. English is not easy, but it's considered so because most people use a simplified version of it, and because you should be able to say something intelligible. If not, beware of what you want. Learning sentences and then, when you already have a good basis of conversational skills and a method that hooks your interest on the language, the work is done, you are walking downhill.
Same goes for Duolingo, often considered an alternative, but not good according to several people on forums about learning english. It's just famous. Surfing the web it's full of websites that speak well about them, sometimes pretending to be making a comparison when they are clearly selling you one of them, easily spottable.
I don't know much about Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur methods. I made a thorough research about courses several years ago, while interested in a good German course to improve German, when I lived in Berlin. I have chosen another one, but I don't remember why.
My choice has been Assimil books (with audio). This courses are really good. The method is intuitive, they aren't boring and are an excellent method to learn while listening real language.
The method consists in a book, where opposite pages content is the English part and the translation part, in Italian. They are conversations between two or more people with exercises, but the genius of this method lies in the way those exercise, though well designed for learners, are to be followed.
I'm pasting the method, explained in the introduction, so that you can see what is all about. There are two phases, a passive one, and an active. Just as with children, who first listen for long, and then start acrobating to speak themselves. No grammar as a start, it's suicide especially if you are not at school and want to learn in your spare time, not a list of words to fill in a blank. Grammar will come, but it will be learnt in the process of studying, until it may be utterly forgotten, but still applied. Children do not learn words and certainly they do not study grammar. They learn much later the grammar that they already use.
So, here it's the method:
Citazione:
Passive Phase (First Wave)
1. Listen to the dialogue with the book closed. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand what is being said in the dialogue. This is for you simply to absorb the language, hear the foreign sounds without being influenced by how the words are spelt.
2. Listen to the recording a second time while looking at the translation (L1), or whatever base language you’re using to learn the target language.
3. Read the target language text aloud.
4. Read the target language text again, this time without looking at the translation.
5. Listen to the recording twice, once while looking at the English translation (L1) and once while looking at the target language text.
6. Listen to the recording again with the book closed. At this point you should understand what is being said.
7. Listen to the recording once more. Pause the audio after each sentence, and try to repeat it aloud.
8. Carefully read the comments several times. Examine the notes and examine the sentences being explained.
9. Read / Repeat the exercises, complete them and check your answer with the answer key.
Well yes, repetition, repetition repetition. That is the key for learning anything. The key for repetition is making this process enjoyable, or it will be very easy to quit.
Let's move to the active phase:
Citazione:
Active Phase (Second Wave)
You begin the active phase or second wave at lesson 50 for the with ease series (collection sans peine) and 35 for the advanced series (collection perfectionnement). The only difference between the passive and active phase, is that after learning a new lesson you go back and review a previous lesson. So for example, say I’ve just finished lesson 50, I then flip back to lesson 1 and translate the dialogue from my L1 into the target language, (you can do this orally, written or both), then compare your translation with the target language text.
finish lesson 51 – review lesson 2
finish lesson 52 – review lesson 3
finish lesson 53 – review lesson 4
and so on and so forth…
Thankfully, Assimil makes it easy to keep track of which lesson you need to go back to, by including a small note at the end of each lesson.
Now when you reach the end of the book (which is usually the 100th lesson in the with ease series and 70th in the advanced series), you’ll just be over half-way on the second wave. You’re encouraged from then on to carry on with the second wave until you finish it, so even though you won’t have a lesson to learn anymore, you just need to review a lesson daily.
Of course, there are books, apps, pdf's, websites, forums and youtube channels. We'll go over this, too, to see how to take advantage from them better. I think that, even in the constant shift of sources, following a basis course gives a reference in your study, gives you a reason to follow it to the end. It might be possible to retrieve such courses online, using torrents or just lloking for them. It's better to buy them. You have something new, that you have expected, the expense will motivate you to go ahead, a downloded course is very likely to be forgotten, it was free anyway...
Ok, now I'm really going to bed :asd: Good night!