Twenty-fourth week – thirty-third post

weeks results?

Well, thanks to a very busy week regarding training and work, I had a very lazy week with regards to language and collocations. So, in other words, no 10 new collocations. I'm lazy. Deal with it.

So what then?

Well, I more Spanish interaction than ever. My CPE ladies, the German and I all drove to Uruguay for a visa run (my visa, road trip for them) and hence we set out from their place. As a result, I met some family and friends. It was a linguistic eye-opener...

really? How come?

Well, my theory is based on the principal slightly in conflict with what is known as the “communicative approach” which is currently the popular teaching methodology. Basically one need not speak with others to train the brain. But that's a bold and generalised statement, so I'll back up and say that I haven't had much speaking practice at all. General functional things like asking for food or whatever, but not exchanges of opinions and stories. Being in that situation was eye-opening because I saw that I understood a very large amount of what was said and that I know the words to communicate myself.

The parts which were on the flip side were that I didn't communicate fluently and that I still had understanding gaps with unknown words. Speakers used the language faster than I could compute (recognition of collocations meant I needed fractions of seconds more, but I still needed more time) I needed support.

Remedy?

Well, I felt that if I pushed myself into more of these situations, I would fall into the trap of fossilised errors (linguistic errors that you repeat continuously until the become almost impossible to change). This would be because I have a need to communicate but don't yet know a native way to express it. This is what I need to see. Now that I have a good reference base, the solidifying of this base should come in the form of a more natural and native production of the language. In training myself for this state I must expose myself to more spoken word and therefore my listening speed will increase too.

• increase comprehension speed through more common collocations and practice
• increase speaking fluency through the same.

the collocations to be learnt must mainly be comprised of know words.

To say “a pie” is by foot (both words are know, but the combination of them is unfamiliar)

as contrasted by the know which is “de pie” which is to stand (literally 'of foot')

This is what I consider to be make the reference base much more sturdy, that is the reference base becomes more comfortable and natural. Perhaps functioning in only a handful of common situations, but fluent enough for you to feel relaxed and fast enough to keep pace in a conversation.

Next week?

Another 10 collocations. Starting the series “kdabra” which is Spanish, and watching some Argentine films in order to fish out some unknown combinations