Language learning can happen in day to day situations. Missionaries can teach their companions not only words, but whole phrases. Repetition makes a difference. Babies learns to understand words after they have heard them about 200 times. An adult has to use a word about 20 to 40 before it is a permanent part of their vocabulary. Words cease to need translation. Tortillas. Adios.
Reading is easiest. Writing is next, with a dictionary of course. Understanding comes after much listening. Context helps and it is important to help people listen for what they do understand without worrying about words they don't know. Don't speak unnaturally, but sometimes speaking slowly and clearly will help your students learn faster.
Speaking is most difficult for people because it is in speaking that mistakes are most obvious and embarrassing. But it is important to realize that mistakes are a part of the process of learning. A toddler will never learn to walk without falling down. A teenager will never learn to drive a car with a manual transmission without stalling the engine and jerking the car. It gets smoother after you do it enough times. So get your students busy making those mistakes so they can move on to smoother speech.
No comments:
Post a Comment