The tenth week, Expanding - Seventeenth post

To report?

Needless to say that this week saw me figuring out where to go next. And I think I have it.

1 – from authentic sources (which at this level are mainly written until I get a TV), noticing unknown language a memorising it. Not too much, perhaps 10 words from a 40 minute episode of something. Also, noticing verb conjugations. Starting to put the subjunctive verb formations in the old noggin is a good idea. Time to expand.

2 – Communicative Functional language, basically just huge chunks of useful language. Including, but not limited to, expressing concerns, requesting information, agreeing & disagreeing, etc.

I found a nice adaptation of Mary Finocchiaro’s functional categories which you can peruse here

Getting a native's input is invaluable in this part. But this language should sky-rocket spoken understanding.

3 – Increasing the range of authentic sources. So far I have been using comics, movies and native speakers. Newspapers should add another level. Also some Argentine websites could add a nice variety of register (formal & informal language)

4 – Expanding the memory technique to incorporate another mnemonic: first letter mnemonics. A crude example is the a phrase like “HADES” where each letter represents a words to be remembered, i.e. Hago, Algo, Deseo, Estudia, Sucia.

Now apply it to a phrase and reverse engineer it. i.e. tengo noticias que seran duras de escuchar (I have news which will be difficult to listen to) TEN NO Q SER DUR DE ES or TNQSDDE. Now a memory Thor Never Quits Slapping Dirty Dogs Ever.

Combining this technique with the memory mansion is perhaps a convoluted way around, but the more connections to a memory make it stronger. It makes it easier to recall larger items

Cultural Relativity

I have mentioned cultural relativity previously. I would like to add how Kaplan's models of contrastive rhetoric are the prime example of this. 

Scroll down a little till you reach the illustrations. Nevertheless, wikipedia sums it up quit nicely.

Till next post