|
 |
12 Topics to Fluency | ||
Tags: Fluency | Learning Strategy | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 Keith Diglot Moderator JapanRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6777 days ago 526 posts - 536 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 39 25 December 2006 at 5:23am | IP Logged | ||
|
I need your help! I'm confident that many of you here will be able to provide good suggestions and insight. So let's do this together.
I would like to create a list of 12 topics that every fluent second language speaker should be able to discuss. I'm having trouble coming up with any ideas. What do you think should go on this list? In the end, each one of us can decide for ourselves which topics would go on our own list. But we need some good ideas first. One of my criteria is that there has to be sufficient material to study for it. Therefor, I would not put on my list something like "self-introduction." This would be personal and there would be nothing to study for it. Also, I would not include a topic like "the weather." The reason being that you cannot have a good conversation about the weather. It would be too short. The conversation would be over with pretty quickly. Why have I decided on 12? Well, if there are at least 12, then I could work on one each month for a year. What I want to do, is to gather material for each topic. Listen to and read about each one for a month. I believe if I spend a solid month studying one topic, I will be able to acquire the words and phrases that are used in discussing that topic. I will have plenty of time to go over the material a lot. I also feel that 12 is a large enough number to cover the major things that one should be able to engage in during conversation. Maybe I will change my mind about that number after seeing all the suggestions you all come up with. But being proficient in at least 12 would certainly give me the ability to talk about something with just about anybody. So, what do you think are the most useful topics to be able to discuss? I am looking forward to reading everybody's responses. Thank you. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7205 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 2 of 39 25 December 2006 at 5:54am | IP Logged | ||
|
I'm looking forward to their responses too. Perhaps "self introduction" is really topic 0. I say that because it cover things like:
Where are you from? Where did you go to school? What have you done for a living? Describe your family. What do you do for pleasure? Those type of things have vocabulary about family structure, time, the past tense, a few places, and your hobbies which could have their own intricate vocabulary. I'm also be curious if anything in the list of 12 is taboo in some cultures, but okay in others. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 3 of 39 25 December 2006 at 7:56am | IP Logged | ||
|
Since you're talking about fluency, and not just basic conversational skills, here are a few ideas. :)
1. Fashion — can you discuss differences between the dress of different cultures, or critique the clothing you see in a store catalog? Can you talk about colours, patterns, shapes, materials, and other characteristics of clothes? 2. Economics — can you talk about prices, markets, and trends in areas that interest you? 3. Religion — can you discuss various philosophies about God and spirituality, and defend your own views on the subject? 4. Health — can you accurately describe and discuss an ailment, injury, or discomfort in any part of the body? 5. Narrative — can you give a cohesive, condensed summary of a book you've read or movie you've seen, including both story progression and character development? 6. Cuisine — can you describe the taste, texture, and aromas of food with accuracy and creativity? I'm sure someone else can think of another six, but these are all topics everyone is interested in to some extent; moreover, there's a lot of skill required in meaningful, accurate discussion of them. I have been in situations that called for discussion on all of these (in Japanese), and found my language skills lacking. Discussing your family, place of origin, job, etc. are all very important, of course; but those are the kinds of things a beginner usually learns first, with a minimum of necessary vocabulary. Edited by Captain Haddock on 25 December 2006 at 7:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rafaelrbp Pentaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 7013 days ago 181 posts - 201 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, English, French, Italian Studies: German | Message 4 of 39 25 December 2006 at 10:07am | IP Logged | ||
|
7 - Traveling and Transportation - Can you talk about your past trips, and the places and people you met? Of course this implies knowing the name of cities, countries and natives in your target language (Spanish, espagnol, español, etc).
8 - Computers and Internet - This subject is very important, but I don't see it very much in language courses. Words like "e-mail", "mouse", "laptop", and even more complex words, like "anti-virus" and "download manager". 9 - Society - Can you talk about different societies, democracy, capitalism, politics and culture? Also, social problems, sex equality and the future? 10 - Nature - This is a complex subject, because it includes animals (elephants, snakes), plants (flowers, moss), geology (diamonds, emeralds), etc. 11 - Games - I'm very interested in chess, so it's necessary to know the name of the pieces (bishops, rooks), movements (castling, promotion) and some specifics (sacrifice, trap, notation). Games like poker, backgammon and Go have their own terminology. 12 - Astronomy - It would be good to know at least the name of the planets and the moon. Ok, this is not a very wide subject for language learners. Interesting post, by the way. Now let's include the vocabulary lists for those topics! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7318 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 39 25 December 2006 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | ||
I think I have so far flunked in this area for all my languages. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6890 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 6 of 39 25 December 2006 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Although the above topics are very good suggestions, I would be surprised if all people can carry out a conversation on *all* of the topics. It would be more realistic to expect fluent speakers to be able to discuss one or more of the topics mentioned but surely not all. I'm a native speaker of English and I sure can't hold a proper conversation on economics in English, let alone any other language, as I simply don't have an interest in the subject.
I'd imagine that many people would not have an interest in astronomy or be able to have a real discussion on political or religious issues. I'd say that the topics that a fluent speaker can discuss at length depends very much on personal interests and tastes. Also it's worth bearing in mind that not all native speakers of a language may have the knowledge of (or interest in) the topics mentioned above and might not be able to discuss these issues at length themselves. Nevertheless, I do think anyone who claims to have basic fluency should be able to discuss at least one of the topics mentioned (or any other topic that requires some specialist knowledge or terminology). :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 7 of 39 26 December 2006 at 3:09am | IP Logged | ||
Lady Skywalker, you might not have any particular interest in economics, but I'm positive you know words like sales, profit, cost, wage, investment, etc. — and how to use them, like any native speaker. I don't think my topics (or Rafael's, aside from games and maybe computers), require any special knowledge, just lots of vocabulary and skill at composing sentences.
I think you're modest, the smiley notwithstanding. :) I'm sure when you go clothes shopping, you have no trouble saying "this shirt looks nice, but it's tight in the shoulders, maroon stripes don't suit me, and the collar makes me itch." Edited by Captain Haddock on 26 December 2006 at 3:13am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rafaelrbp Pentaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 7013 days ago 181 posts - 201 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, English, French, Italian Studies: German | Message 8 of 39 26 December 2006 at 6:50am | IP Logged | ||
I would like to change my topic "Games" to a more general vocabulary: dice, cards, bet, board, snooker, and extend it to sports: soccer, tennis, etc. Also, people that are not so good with computers still know the meaning of e-mail, mouse or webpage. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
