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Una PreguntaTeaching methodology, learning techniques, linguistics-- any of the various aspect of learning or teaching a foreign language. |
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#41
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I completed my 12th grade in Chile and I express myself fairly well in Spanish. Not as good as you, but better than a lot a of others that also completed their twelfth grade, before, with and after me. I would like to think that I have a certain degree of proficiency in English as well. Quote:
Like I said, is a matter of the person's education and interest. After all, if I speak badly my own language, at least it is expected of me to do the same thing in in the other language. But like the native people. Ain't that peachy? Quote:
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No. What I said was that I felt comfortable with English, and at a point where I could actually go to school to acquire grammar and make the best of it. In two years period I think I converted my Spanish vocabulary to English, at least most of what I knew and remembered. There are words that I still get to translate that I had not heard previously or just plainly learned. When I say learned is because I did not know it in Spanish to begin with. Quote:
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So, to recap: I completed 12th grade and I purportedly can read, write and speak Spanish and English. What should be done with people who have not completed 12th grade and they speak their own language better or worse than I? I am talking for people all over the world. What should be done with people who have their doctorates in their professions but speak better or worse that I, in their own language. Take a special note on the people who speak worse than I in their own language. I know for a fact that many professionals, in their countries, have been working in casinos here in Las Vegas for years in menial jobs because of their "incompetence" in getting/acquiring the English language. However, they were "competent" enough to go to university and get their degrees. Whether they spoke "proficiently" their native language or not. hmmm? |
#42
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Nice post, and I love the thrice. By the way, one makes mistakes.
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#43
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Right, and I know better...
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#44
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To begin with, I must say that your post is too much for me!! Let's summarize:
Yeah, I guess it depends on people's interests... Sorry, I don't know what is the equivalence of 12th grade! haha So tell me, why do you state that your Spanish is not that good? and, if that is the case, what led you to acquire English in a different way? (In this, it is explicit that you are pretty proficient in your L2!) In my university, if you make more than I-don't-know-how-many spelling mistakes (around 5, I think), even in English, either you cannot pass the exam or you are penalised. I suppose it's the same in all universities, is it? I would also like to point out the role that individual differences play for SLA to take place, such as age (number of years's exposure, starting age...), sex (females are usually superior but maybe Chileno is another cattle of fish! haha), aptitude (an innate talent for learning languages at an amazing speed), intelligence (which is advantageous mainly for formal study), motivation (integrative or instrumental) and the effective use of strategies. |
#45
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Don't forget an important and physiological thing: the second language (unless you are a genuine bilingual person) is stored in another area in the brain. So, connections are already made and we must supply those new connections a child build into his/her brain, with another connections that we made before, such as logic and grammar. Any other thing would be memory. There are new connections in the brain when one is an adult, but much less than when one is a child.
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#46
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This is really interesting - do you have any references about this? Last edited by Perikles; February 04, 2010 at 11:54 AM. |
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When I came to the US I started immediately going to ESL classes, but the teacher wanted us, the students, to hold hands and sing the alphabet and she also told me " This is your nose...This is your eye...That is a window...that is a door", needles to say, in two weeks i was out of there, as all that made me feel like a kid going to school all over again. It wasn't the fact that I knew or not the words being said "taught" but that form the class was imparted. Not long after that I started working at a sandwich place and I was having problems in understanding the clients, so I decided to write in Spanish what I wanted to say, then translate word by word to English. As you can see not the most sophisticated way to do things but I got understood and I communicated with people who would even correct me, etc... , and by doing that I realized that I needed to utilize what I already knew in Spanish and apply it to English. Very simple. That's how I got ahead and developed my own method which led me to acquire English, within my level, of course. Quote:
I know I made mistakes, and that's because i am writing on a laptop, which I do not like,. most of the time I am talking to other people, so my attention is not dedicated only to the writing. And lastly, this is not an educational institution. Besides, even the most learned in here have made, and will be making mistakes. With that in mind, I selsom make a correction if I think it was a typo. Quote:
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#48
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Seriously though, your motivation must have been at the very high end of the scale, regardless of the others, because the result is impressive (sometimes). |
#49
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Motivation as far as wanting to do a good job at it, but latter I fizzled... Well, I became disillusioned. I have never considered myself more intelligent than others, on the contrary. So by "knowing" this I push myself to be extra careful and pay extra attention to details, when in "learning" mode. I have met people who hold/held a degree in their countries and have gone to school for 3 or four years straight, without missing a day, just to shy out of school adducing the English language is hard to learn, and /or that they are too old to learn etc... ??!! To me, these people were highly motivated and the fact of going to school for a number of years without missing a single day shows it. Are/were they less or not intelligent enough? I don't think so. I do not have an explanation for this. Maybe Carmen could enlighten us, since she has studied this theme. |
#50
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