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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Digitalis Groupie Australia Joined 3361 days ago 50 posts - 57 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 8 29 January 2016 at 5:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Dear forum members,
I have a log, Spanish B1 in 9 months, and at this stage, I do not think I will make it. Solid A2 in 9 months looks like it. However, I have pretty much completed Assimil with ease at this point and now I am at the stage where I find that I can interact with native materials (such as children's cartoons or even native speakers speakers, if target language subtitles are there to help out or the speak more slowly) and read newspaper articles with dictionary help. The question at this point is whether I am just going to continue on with textbooks and native materials, such as Colloquial (advanced course), Gloss resources, grammar textbooks, LSLC and alot of comprehensible input, such as listening and reading to audiobooks, I have pretty much read El Principito already with the help of a dictoinary, I will be listening to it next); or hit the FSI basic course hard, which I believe I am ready for, or at least will be if I supplement my current assimil studies with a bit of extra listening/ reading materials. This question has been gnawing at me for a while. Any advice would be much appreciated. Regards, Digitalis. P.S the course I mention are by no means Definitive, just examples of those that I may possibly choose to work through. For example, I very may well discard them all and choose other textbooks to work through. The issue is really only in regards to the intensive use of FSI programmatic/basic. Edited by Digitalis on 29 January 2016 at 3:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4051 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 2 of 8 29 January 2016 at 12:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I do not wish to appear disloyal to the HTLAL; however, it seems that the "more active discussions" now take place on the new/replacement forum: A Language Learners' Forum. I suggest that you register and post your question there, as well.
Given the general recommendation that one study "native materials" as soon as possible, and given your progress so far, it is both tempting and feasible to continue along the present path and simply ignore structured materials such as: FSI Spanish Basic / FSI Spanish Programmatic DLI Basic Spanish Assimil Using Spanish I have completed the above materials (which was probably "over-kill") and my personal inclination would be to choose at least one of them before "removing the training wheels" completely. Doing so has the advantage of forming a more solid basis (approximately CEFR B1) from which further progress will assuredly follow. Nonetheless, I am quite aware that other independent learners would recommend that you forge ahead with your current programme. As an aside, should you decide to study the FSI Spanish Programmatic course, you will probably be surprised by the fact that the authors, quite inexplicably, employed a self-devised phonetic spelling of Spanish for about the first 20 study units, after which they introduced correct Spanish spelling. A similar phonetic spelling was used in the initial stages of the FSI Spanish Basic course, albeit in an parallel fashion. Personally, I found this rather strange as Spanish orthography is quite clear, at least much more so than its English counterpart. Edited by Speakeasy on 29 January 2016 at 2:58pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Digitalis Groupie Australia Joined 3361 days ago 50 posts - 57 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 8 29 January 2016 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks, Speakeasy! That post was a massively helpful clarification. I agree with you as well. But was very unclear in my last missive- which was typed using my phone (which is not at all conducive to the writing of forum posts) about what I meant when I mentioned Grammar books- I was referring to use of the grammar-translation method in order to foster grammatical development: I would have chosen either the "Practice makes perfect" or "uso de la gramática Española" series. I think my question can be now more precisely phrased as: Which course do I use next?: * FSI Basic/Programmatic. * Using Spanish. * Grammar translation series: uso de la gramática Española more likely - it is, or was, spoken highly of on this forum. Whichever final bridging course I choose, and I think at this stage I will only choose one before moving onto native materials. I will be necessarily putting many hours of work into it-I just want to make sure I make the right choice. I should also say that if I do not continue on using FSI programs, I won't discount the previous advice I have received from other forum members regarding "automaticity", and will endeavour to work my way through the remainder of Pimsleur and Learning Spanish like Crazy. Getting extensive speaking practice will also be indispensable. Again, given these options, any recommendations? Regardless of what else I do, reading and listening to El Principito is on the cards in the short term- that and the rest of Assimil should keep me going for a few weeks. Edited by Digitalis on 29 January 2016 at 6:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Digitalis Groupie Australia Joined 3361 days ago 50 posts - 57 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 8 29 January 2016 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | ||
I have done the first 2 units of FSI basic already, and I know what you mean- bilingual columns with target audio would have made for a much easier reading experience- the phonetic spelling column makes the course book seem so unwieldly. I haven't yet looked at the FSI programmatic edition, but it was my original plan to at least work through it, but my perspective and plans have changed a lot now. Edited by Digitalis on 29 January 2016 at 4:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4051 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 5 of 8 29 January 2016 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is somewhat ironic that, for the "more popular" languages such as Spanish, there are "too many resources" to choose from. You have identified what-I-consider-to-be the very finest materials available for self-study; I have used them all, including Pimsleur and Learning Like Crazy.
It would be unwise for me to make additional recommendations concerning which materials you should choose. I completed them ALL, which was truly "over-kill" for a language that was of only secondary interest to me. I have a problem: whenever I chose an area of knowledge that I wish to acquire, I invariably spend a great deal of time "building the base" and reinforcing it before moving on to more advanced materials. While this (truly obsessive) approach has the advantage of creating a rock-solid foundation, it has also slowed my progress towards my ultimate goal. So, my very best advice would be that you choose amongst the materials you have already identified (they are all so good that, in a sense, it does not matter which ones you select ... with the possible exceptions of Colloquial and Pimsleur which are limited in their scope) and forge ahead to the A2-B1 level at which point you should most definitely focus on native materials. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Digitalis Groupie Australia Joined 3361 days ago 50 posts - 57 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 8 30 January 2016 at 1:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks again, speakeasy. I think the most
prudent choice for now is Using Spanish (though I hear some of the translations are error- riddled) and a grammar-translation workbook (teoría y práctica). I didn't look closely at all into Colloquial, and I found pimsleur quite slow as a raw newbie. But I think LSLC is definitely on the cards right now. I wonder where using Spanish will take me? It gets me to a B1ish level I will be delighted. If I need to use FSI basic later as a mostly Audio-only supplement, to help develop my speaking skills, I will. I thought I would stick with a textbook approach throughout my Spanish studies, but am quite happy to find that Assimil has taken me to the point where I can interact with native materials directly, more or less. I think this may just be a personal learning style. Edited by Digitalis on 30 January 2016 at 1:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4051 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 7 of 8 30 January 2016 at 3:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Digitalis!
Assimil and CEFR Levels The editors of the Assimil language courses, like their competitors, overstate the level that can be achieved by using their materials. They claim that the “Assimil At Ease” courses will lead the independent learner to the CEFR B2 level, whereas a level of A2-B1 would be more reasonable. The editors also make the claim that the “Assimil Using” courses will lead the independent learner to the CEFR C1 level, whereas a level of B1-B1+ would be more reasonable. That is, although the vocabulary and grammatical issues might very well be at the B2+ level in the “Assimil Using” courses, given that attaining a true B2 level is such a formidable challenge in the absence of intensive and prolonged contact with native-speakers, I tend shy away from saying that the Assimil courses, alone, will bring the student to the B2 level. Let us agree, instead, that the “Assimil Using” courses provide the student with the basic “tools” for achieving B2, but that “mastery” of the tools demands additional practice. Assimil Using Spanish Assimil Using Spanish is no longer in print. The corresponding course continues to be available from a French, Italian, or German base. If you are not at ease with any of these languages, you could always approach the course as “equivalent-to-native” materials; that is, consider them as "graded conversations" that are accompanied by a transcript. I have the 2012 edition of “Perfectionnement Espagnol”. Unfortunately, Assimil throws around the term “edition” so freely that it renders searching for different “generations” difficult, if not impossible. Nonetheless, from my reading of the comments on the HTLAL, I am left with the impression that my 2012 edition is the same course as the 1996 edition by Javier Anton Martinez. So, if you can get your hands on a copy of the course book, we should communicate via the Private Message function concerning the audio recordings. I suggest that you conduct a G-Search of the HTLAL using the words “Using Spanish” which should yield some 145 discussion threads wherein this course is mentioned. Be sure to include quotation marks around the two words so as to limit the search to the word group; otherwise, the search will yield results for the separate words. Practice Sets and Drills Both the FSI Basic and FSI Programmatic courses contain massive amounts of sentence-pattern drills and practice sets. In my view, although the Assimil dialogues are not strictly sentence-pattern drills, I have found that running through a series of 30+ lessons in rapid sequence has an effect similar to working the FSI practice sets/drills. Edited by Speakeasy on 30 January 2016 at 4:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Digitalis Groupie Australia Joined 3361 days ago 50 posts - 57 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 8 31 January 2016 at 2:57am | IP Logged | ||
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I now have gotten my hands on both Using Spanish
with matching audio. Anyone who needs an upload, feel free to chime in. I'll attach the files to a dropbox account, or arrange to email them. I will probably peruse it closely over the next few days, and give a review on my thread. I haven't seen many reviews online at all, unlike it's "beginners counterpart", Assimil Spanish with Ease. Thanks again for the advice though, speakeasy. Digitalis. Edited by Digitalis on 31 January 2016 at 3:00am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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