Hello from Medellin

[claaay]

I moved here 8 months ago, mainly because the weather is so great. I don't study Spanish diligently, but I have managed to pick up quite a bit using flashcards and trying to practice on everyone I meet. Taxi drivers are a particularly good captive audience to practice with if I sit in the front seat. Still not very good at it though: I just tested my level at spanish-test dot net and I'm a level 0, failing 20 of the 30 questions. I'm getting very tired of not being able to communicate, so decided I need to up my game. I met a lady who wants to learn English, and we have agreed to study together. Her English might be better than my Spanish, but we are on a similar level.

I've taken language courses plenty of times in the past and I always hated sitting through them in a class. I'm too cheap to pay for lessons and classes anyway, and she is too. Working regularly with this person seems like an excellent opportunity for mutual benefit.

Does anyone have ideas about study strategies for two self-taught students working together to learn each other's language? I have TEFL training and taught English in Thailand for a couple years, but I didn't enjoy it and was never very good at it. I can probably come up with an OK lesson plan, but thought I'd first ask for advice on this forum and hopefully gain from your experience and suggestions.

[wrholt]

Welcome to the forums!

You probably have already figured out the first 3 bits:

1. Schedule regular meetings of similar length.

2. Take turns: either

(a) for each scheduled meeting, focus on and use only English for half the time, and focus on and use only Spanish for the other half of the time. Mix up which one is first and which one is second, either alternating every time or using a coin flip to choose.

(b) for each scheduled meeting, focus exclusively on one of the two languages, and alternate languages on each meeting.

Personally I favor (a); it leaves the two languages roughly balanced in terms of teaching/learning at the end of each session.

3. Collaborate on which things might be next to learn/teach for each language.

4. Experiments:
(a) to practice speaking, spend some time in conversation where each of you speaks only the language you are learning: you speak only in Spanish, and your companion speaks only in English.
(b) to practice listening, spend some time in conversation where each of you speaks only your first language: you speak only in English, and your companion speaks only in Spanish. Also, collaborate to find interesting audio/video recordings, films, and so on. Sometimes material with subtitles is helpful, sometimes you want to try materials that don't have subtitles.
(c) to practice reading, collaborate on finding a mix of written material, especially free on-line material, that you can each work with on your own. You'll probably want to find some stuff that's geared more for relative beginners; it's also okay to use some challenging material such as on-line newspapers.

5. If neither of you has formal training in teaching grammar points about your first language, collaborate on finding self-teaching materials that can help you teach/learn the grammar bits in blocks that you're comfortable with.

6. There are a number of threads in one or another forum here in Tomísimo that have lots of suggestions.

7. Both you and your companion can use the forums here for suggestions and advice regarding either language.

[claaay]

Oh my....2 days and only one view? I was hoping for more than that.

Originally Posted by claaay

study strategies for two self-taught students working together to learn each other's language...

It occurred to me the other day that there might be quite a few occurrences of this type of study partnership, particularly amongst newly-weds.

Thank you, those are some very good suggestions and I'll try to use them all.