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Old August 05, 2012, 08:17 PM
Glen Glen is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 718
Native Language: English
Glen is on a distinguished road
Quote:
Originally Posted by wrholt View Post
As for where to start: one cannot learn grammar without learning some phrases and sentences, and one cannot learn phrases and sentences without learning individual words or expressions. However, learning long lists of individual words or expressions without also learning phrases and sentences or grammar is useless: one cannot communicate merely by translating words one-by-one from English to Spanish.

Many people start by learning a few basic phrases or a typical short conversation that one would have on meeting someone for the first time, and use those as a basis to learn a couple of grammar points and practice them while also learning the individual words or expressions. Then learn another set of phrases, dialog, or text that include new words and highlight a couple of different grammar points to practice. Repeat a few hundred times. Mix it up to practice listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Excellent advice. I could not have said it better myself.
The only thing I might add is to try to strike a healthy balance in the exercise of all four components; they all work together of course, but adult learners sometimes place too much emphasis on the reading and writing. That can become an obstacle to listening and speaking if one first has to visualize how something would look in print before being able to process it mentally; but take heart, it's even more of a problem for those who study English, which is usually not written the way it sounds.
Good Luck!

Last edited by Glen; August 05, 2012 at 08:47 PM.
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