Twenty-fifth week, the filtration principal – thirty- fourth post

weeks results?

Another 10 in the head. Some nice ones this week.

The filtration principal

comments on the previous post have prompted more in depth discussion on how to filter language input. Consider that for each level of learning (or reference base being worked on) there is a different method. Different things are valuable to the different levels.

Establishing reference base: very selective! Only basic/ general words and phrases as well as the most common.

Solidifying reference base: remain fairly selective with words and phrases, but expand on the manipulations of the words and focus heavily on the sentence structures.

Expanding reference base: focus on rare and uncommon words/ expressions/ sentence structures but paying attention to those most useful to you.

Your reference bases (passive knowledge/ vocabulary) is always going to be greater than your speaking level/ ability to produce language. Always. This is the same with our native language and whichever language we try to learn.

Ready for an example?

OK, don't laugh. I read a comic called “Hellboy” (I'm sure you all know the movie?) anyway, the context (pictures and story prior to this example) is that an artificial humanoid (much like Frankenstein's monster) is describing how his creator threw him into a dark pit to hide him from the world and, well, just be rid of him. So the picture is of the monster lying there on the floor and he says, “pero algo curioso ocurrio en la oscuridad. Decidi vivir. Me tomo anos pero infundi vida nuevamente en mis frios miembros”

Right. Not so difficult for someone solidifying their reference base.

“but something curious happened (occurred) in the darkness. I decided to live. It took me years but ********* new life/ life again in my cold limps.”

I have never encountered this word “infundi” however knowing other words and expressions, I know its a verb, its past tense (reaffirmed as often first person past tense ends with “i”) and know that its connected with life and his body. Easy. The general meaning is “put”

However, the specific meaning could be “will”, “infuse”, “instil”, “charge” or numerous other things.

The real question is, how often will I need to talk about putting life into something? much less a body.

The answer? Unless I use a metaphor, this word is useless to me personally.

Especially as I am trying to solidify my reference base, there are other expressions here more valuable.

Even though I could produce these by translation, I want to program my brain with linguistic 'chunks' like “decidi + infinitive verb”, “me tomo anos pero + past 1^st person verb”.

If I put these in my mind with the memory techniques, when I speak, they will flow off the tongue and I wont need much thought to say them. Also, these are native constructions and not translated which means my production will be accurate and high quality as well as 'arming' me with expressions that I am likely to hear on TV or from a native.

Whatever level/ reference base you are working on, the limits of your process must be very personal. Things which should influence your filter are:

• Context (relative to the speaker) if it is a topic you like or need, its a context for you!
• Frequency (subject to preference) if you hear/see it all the time, or want to use it all the time, its for you!

Remember that, as I said in one of the first posts on this blog, that the brain must develop many abilities such as identifying collocations, predicting/ inferring meaning and also to distinguish between general/ common use vs. specific/rare.

Your language filter should have these characteristics.

Just because you understand something, it doesn't mean that you would produce it accurately nor in the same manner. Reception is always easier than production. Therefore we must train authentic chunks so as to produce native expressions.

Next week

Another 10. more speaking. More listening. Blah blah blah.

I hope this post defines things better.

Have a good week.