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Stop studying and review?

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18 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3  Next >>
tomgosse
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 Message 1 of 18
25 January 2014 at 4:54pm | IP Logged 
I have been studying Spanish for a month. Among other things, I'm using Pimsleur's Latin American Spanish and I'm up to lesson ten. At first I could zip through a lesson a day. Now I need to review each lesson at least once before moving on. Also, I'm finding more difficult to respond to prompts and need to listen to the answer first.

My thought is: go back to lesson five or six and review everything before moving on to a new lesson. What are your thought? Does anyone have experience doing this? Did it help or slow you down?

Your input is much appreciated.

Tomás
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Stelle
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 Message 2 of 18
25 January 2014 at 5:56pm | IP Logged 
I think that's a good plan. I did the same thing when I got stuck with FSI. I backed up three lessons, and by the time
I got to the tricky lesson again, I was ready for it.

Buena suerte!
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Serpent
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 Message 3 of 18
25 January 2014 at 6:06pm | IP Logged 
Pimsleur is quite slow-paced anyway. Better add an extra resource/review the same things with another book you're using. Your goal is not to master Pimsleur but to master the language.

See this thread about the multi-track approach.
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James29
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 Message 4 of 18
25 January 2014 at 7:27pm | IP Logged 
Pimsleur gives a great base to work from. I did exactly what you are suggesting. If I could not master a lesson after two tries I would back up 4 lessons or so and start from there. When I got to the tricky lesson it was pretty easy. Pimsleur has spaced repetition so when you back up to the tricky lesson it will be much easier... it is easier (and much more enjoyable) to do it this way than just re-doing the tricky lesson a few times.
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luke
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 Message 5 of 18
25 January 2014 at 10:19pm | IP Logged 
tomgosse wrote:
I have been studying Spanish for a month. Among other things, I'm using Pimsleur's Latin American Spanish and I'm up to lesson ten. At first I could zip through a lesson a day. Now I need to review each lesson at least once before moving on. Also, I'm finding more difficult to respond to prompts and need to listen to the answer first.

My thought is: go back to lesson five or six and review everything before moving on to a new lesson. What are your thoughts?


I think you are doing good.

I try to push myself a bit in situations like that and not retreat too easily. If after the third listen, I'm still dissatisfied with where I'm at on a lesson, I may go back a lesson or two because sometimes there's a certain point that I've missed. Also, sometimes I have to focus from another angle, rather than repeating a lesson. For instance, if I'm missing the gender of too many nouns, I may create a list of nouns and genders independent of my lessons to help with that sticking point.


Edited by luke on 26 January 2014 at 1:15am

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Lizzern
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 Message 6 of 18
26 January 2014 at 12:32am | IP Logged 
It tends to work best for me if I just move through the lessons without being too careful about getting everything, and then review things from an earlier level alongside the new stuff. Some things that are difficult early on are much easier later, even if I didn't study it carefully the first time I went through the lesson. (Assimil seems to plan for this so that 10 lessons later it makes a lot of sense and the old stuff feels natural and normal.) I haven't used Pimsleur before but maybe you could review lesson 5 around the same time you do lesson 11, then 6 and 12 together, and so on?

I guess it depends on your learning style - if you're not comfortable moving on if you don't understand everything then yeah, you might want to stop with the new material until you're comfortable with the old. I'm a bit of a messy learner so I don't mind if I don't learn the new stuff 100% right away. Reviewing, and more exposure, helps. Good luck :-)

Liz
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YnEoS
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 Message 7 of 18
26 January 2014 at 3:19am | IP Logged 
I definitely have to repeat pimsleur lessons a few times before I completely master them. If grammar starts becoming difficult, sometimes doing Michel Thomas at the same time as Pimsleur can have some nice synergies, and you'll find working through both becomes much easier.
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Serpent
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 Message 8 of 18
26 January 2014 at 9:09am | IP Logged 
Lizzern wrote:
It tends to work best for me if I just move through the lessons without being too careful about getting everything, and then review things from an earlier level alongside the new stuff. Some things that are difficult early on are much easier later, even if I didn't study it carefully the first time I went through the lesson. (Assimil seems to plan for this so that 10 lessons later it makes a lot of sense and the old stuff feels natural and normal.) I haven't used Pimsleur before but maybe you could review lesson 5 around the same time you do lesson 11, then 6 and 12 together, and so on?

I guess it depends on your learning style - if you're not comfortable moving on if you don't understand everything then yeah, you might want to stop with the new material until you're comfortable with the old. I'm a bit of a messy learner so I don't mind if I don't learn the new stuff 100% right away. Reviewing, and more exposure, helps. Good luck :-)

Liz
I'd also say that this attitude can be adopted, and it's very beneficial for language learning. Don't be scared of moving on before having a 100% mastery of the material. The important things will reappear soon enough. (for example, later on you won't have to learn all the words from the book you are reading before you start the next one - learn the most important ones, maybe save the rest somewhere, ignore the obscure ones etc)

Reminds me on how the AJATT guy says that nobody would watch TV if we felt obliged to "finish" the channel (or even the programme) before switching. Also, to some extent it's probably Pimsleur's fault, with their lack of a system in teaching the grammar, so it just doesn't make sense to me to go through the same resource repeatedly. Of course I'm not saying you should get 20 textbooks and barely do anything with each, but if you have other resources, they will fill the gaps that Pimsleur left. Heck, Pimsleur itself will also try to fix these problems if you continue.

Also, note that you're supposed to come up with the correct answer, not memorize it. If you review too much, you'll basically just know the answers by heart. It's much better to get some explanations from another source. And feel free to pause if you think you just need a bit of time to come up with an answer.

Edited by Serpent on 26 January 2014 at 9:21am



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