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Intensity is the Secret

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
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Steve Kaufmann
Newbie
Canada
thelinguist.blogs.co
Joined 5707 days ago

20 posts - 24 votes

 
 Message 33 of 87
12 April 2009 at 5:49pm | IP Logged 
slucido wrote:
I think it's important to remember this article:


http://digital.georgetown.edu/gurt/1999/gurt_1999_07.pdf


Lessons learned from fifty years of theory and practice in government language teaching


FSI wrote:


Lesson 3. There is no “one right way” to teach (or learn) languages, nor
is there a single “right” syllabus.


Students at FSI and in other government language
training programs have learned and still do learn languages successfully
from syllabi based on audio-lingual practice of grammatical patterns, linguistic
functions, social situations, task-based learning, community language learning,
the silent way, and combinations of these and other approaches. Spolsky (1989:
383) writes, “Any intelligent and disinterested observer knows that there are
many ways to learn languages and many ways to teach them, and that some ways
work with some students in some circumstances and fail with others.” This
matches our experience precisely.

...


Lesson 4. Time on task and the intensity of the learning experience appear
crucial.


Language learning is not an effortless endeavor for adults (or for
children, for that matter). For the great majority of adult learners, learning a language
rapidly to a high level requires a great deal of memorization, analysis, practice
to build automaticity, and, of course, functional and meaningful language
use. Learning as quickly as possible to speak and understand a language automatically
and effectively in a variety of situations and for a range of purposes requires
intensive exposure to and interaction with that language. At FSI, we have found
that it requires at least four class hours a day—usually more—for five days a
week, plus three or more additional hours a day of independent study.




I agree on the importance of time on task. I do not agree that "a great deal of memorization, analysis, practice
to build automaticity," are necessary, at least for a long while, as the learner builds up familiarity with the language and an ever increasing vocabulary through input activities.

I do not agree that "Learning as quickly as possible to speak" needs to be an important goal at first. I do not believe that 4 hours a day of class time is an efficient use of time. One or two hours a week plus a lot of listening and reading and independent vocab review is far more efficient for many learners.
1 person has voted this message useful



slucido
Bilingual Diglot
Senior Member
Spain
https://goo.gl/126Yv
Joined 6677 days ago

1296 posts - 1781 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*
Studies: English

 
 Message 34 of 87
12 April 2009 at 5:50pm | IP Logged 
Steve Kaufmann wrote:
slucido wrote:
Steve Kaufmann wrote:
I can only find my Language Profile, where is my member control panel?


At the bottom of the profile. Under the Private Message.



From My Profile I get to a page with lots of ads for Amazon and at the bottom I find only the following.

Payday Advance | Debt Consolidation | MPAA | Fast Loans | Unblock facebook | Recipes

A mystery.


Yes, I had some problems the first time I tried to change my stuff.

Look at the bottom of the SQUARE where your profile is.

Do NOT look at the bottom of the page.



1 person has voted this message useful



Steve Kaufmann
Newbie
Canada
thelinguist.blogs.co
Joined 5707 days ago

20 posts - 24 votes

 
 Message 35 of 87
12 April 2009 at 5:56pm | IP Logged 
Slucido,

I get the following, and then the ads - no box, and no place to change my settings. Perplexed.

Forum > Members Language Profiles > Steve Kaufmann

Only forum users who have filled out their own Personal Language Profile can access the language statistics page, which shows Forum Members by Native Language, Target Languages by Country and by Native Language as well as the Top Target Languages.

Fill out your language profile right now - it takes only 4 minutes!

New Logbook Entry


1 person has voted this message useful



slucido
Bilingual Diglot
Senior Member
Spain
https://goo.gl/126Yv
Joined 6677 days ago

1296 posts - 1781 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*
Studies: English

 
 Message 36 of 87
12 April 2009 at 6:05pm | IP Logged 
Steve Kaufmann wrote:

I do not agree that "Learning as quickly as possible to speak" needs to be an important goal at first. I do not believe that 4 hours a day of class time is an efficient use of time.One or two hours a week plus a lot of listening and reading and independent vocab review is far more efficient for many learners.



I understand and I can agree to a large extent, but it depends on the kind of class and what you work in these classes.

Regarding speaking, it depends on your goals. Maybe you need to speak as soon as possible because your job, your business, your family or your life depends on it.

Some people feel they progress faster if they use some kind of output or production from the very beginning apart from input.

As long as we work with the real language, we feel good and we improve, I don't think the specific method matters.







Edited by slucido on 12 April 2009 at 6:17pm

1 person has voted this message useful



slucido
Bilingual Diglot
Senior Member
Spain
https://goo.gl/126Yv
Joined 6677 days ago

1296 posts - 1781 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*
Studies: English

 
 Message 37 of 87
12 April 2009 at 6:15pm | IP Logged 
Steve,
I think you need to LOG IN first. You need your user name (Steve Kaufmann) and your password and log in.




Edited by slucido on 12 April 2009 at 6:16pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Steve Kaufmann
Newbie
Canada
thelinguist.blogs.co
Joined 5707 days ago

20 posts - 24 votes

 
 Message 38 of 87
12 April 2009 at 6:20pm | IP Logged 
I am logged in

My Profile Logout [Steve Kaufmann] Active Topics Search Messenger
Steve Kaufmann, do you have a minute to fill out your Personal Language Profile on this forum?

When I click on My Profile I get the following and adds.

Forum > Members Language Profiles > Steve Kaufmann

Only forum users who have filled out their own Personal Language Profile can access the language statistics page, which shows Forum Members by Native Language, Target Languages by Country and by Native Language as well as the Top Target Languages.

Fill out your language profile right now - it takes only 4 minutes!

New Logbook Entry

I must be missing something very obvious. Thanks.
1 person has voted this message useful



Javi
Senior Member
Spain
Joined 5983 days ago

419 posts - 548 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*

 
 Message 40 of 87
13 April 2009 at 1:13am | IP Logged 
I'm not sure if we all agree in what kind of work is intensive and what is extensive in regards to language learning. I will try and divide all the activities I do or have done into these two categories.

Intensive:

Assimil
Repetitive listening
Practice with sound pairs
Spelling practise (which at the same time is listening practice too)
Reading aloud
SRS
Careful reading, trying to notice the language more in detail - I only do that in front of my computer using stardict. At the moment I only use a pronouncing dictionary, so I don't look up the meaning of the words, not because it takes too much time, it just that I'm trying out a different approach, I figure out the meaning when I've seen the word a number of times.
Writing expression and punctuation (some day)

Extensive (Things that I do for fun):

Reading novels (without a dictionary, I don't even have one in dead tree edition)
Movies and TV (without subtitles)
BBC radio and podcasts
Surfing the web
Speaking (I don't speak too much though)
Reading about grammar (some day)

For me these two kinds of activities are qualitatively different. The first one is deliberate practice whereas the latter is not practise at all, it's just using the language. The problem is that, since I do both, I can't be quite certain about which of them contributes the most to the learning process. There are also other activities that I don't do cause I think there are a waste of time and that increases intensity as Steve said. In my case there are things like these:

Using paper dictionaries
Asking in forums or wondering why people say something the way they do
Studying grammar
Using learning material apart from Assimil
Attending to classes.
Reading in my native language (apart from work stuff)
Watching movies in my native language (I wish, but that's impossible in Spain)


What do you thing it's better, going intensively or extensively?

Edited by Javi on 13 April 2009 at 1:30am



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