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Language exchange, how? Techniques... | ||
Tags: Tutor | Tandem/Language Exchange | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| geirtbr Groupie Norway Joined 6453 days ago 83 posts - 90 votes  Speaks: Norwegian* Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 6 05 July 2010 at 11:42am | IP Logged |
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Does anyone have advice on how to proceed with a language exchange. What would be the best way to work,
say, if you meet once every week. Are there any tips on what one could - What I can think of it is to translate a text together. For example, if we have an English text, we can translate it to my language, and then translate to the partners language. Does anyone have tips of other things one could do? --- I found internet references about "Cormier method", which seems to innvolve talking to each other on different topics. http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/ - They also also seem to advice using a fasilitator, to lead the language exchange in groups. Edited by geirtbr on 05 July 2010 at 2:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5387 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 2 of 6 05 July 2010 at 10:23pm | IP Logged |
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I think a lot would depend on your level of ability. Once you are able to carry on a basic conversation you might want to meet and just talk about whatever is on your minds, alternating in the two languages.Talking about topics of interest will help you develop new vocabulary and maintain motivation at the same time. If you are more advanced you might want to focus on translating specific material. Some people will read a classic novel in the target language and then meet to discuss it with the partner. You can also focus on news items. It is important to share the time and resist the temptation either to take up or to give away all the time.
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| plaidchuck Diglot Groupie United States facebook.com/plaidchRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5101 days ago 71 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 3 of 6 07 July 2010 at 5:24am | IP Logged |
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I've had two tutors in Spanish, and although that is different than an exchange, this information may help. The one whom I met in person generally spoke about current events, asking my opinion on such matters while also asking about my own personal life experiences. Along the way he would correct me and offer alternate ways to say things.
The other tutor whom I met online would generally show passages of contemporary literature in Spanish, and ask me questions about the texts and also my own opinions over the matter. So I would recommend bringing native materials(literature, news, etc.) to talk about while also speaking about topics that interest both of you. A "facilitator" who was fluent in both languages and could direct both of you (perhaps online) would be an optimal situation in my opinion. Edited by plaidchuck on 07 July 2010 at 5:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5177 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 4 of 6 14 July 2010 at 8:58pm | IP Logged |
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I've had 4 Japanese exchange partners over the last 2 years, so I've been there. While 3 of these people have moved back to Japan, I've been with the same partner for a year now and it's awesome. The oral is great! I'm talking about a language exchange, I swear ;)
We meet every week (sometimes twice a week) in a café and we set out to do 1 hour in each language. Usually, that is only a minimum requirement because it ends up lasting 3 or 4 hours. Each person is entirely responsible for the hour in the language he or she is learning. This is crucial! Nobody has time to prepare free lessons for others, so if you expect that, it just won't last. For that hour, the other person makes themselves available for any question or help as needed. That's it. On occasion, when we can't answer a question, we'll look it up or ask others, but that's about it. When I prepare my hour, I plan various types of activities. Sometimes, I watch a show or a movie or I read an article and I prepare how to tell the story, with vocab and all. I let my partner correct anything she deems worthy. In return, I will keep repeating myself or correcting myself until I get it right -- something you can't do in normal life, so take advantage of it! I may also talk about something I did or that happened to me. You can also do role-playing activities where the partner pretends to play a role in a set up situation like buying a car or visiting a museum. You can also bring debate questions (like "Stores should give out free plastic bags") and you take turns refuting eachother's claim. Sometimes, you can agree to prepare a similar exercice for eachother. For instance, you can think up a story and write it in short sentences in a tree-like structure. Then the other must tell a well-organized story from all this info. This inevitably springs into a million other questions about grammar and vocab and how would I say this or that, etc. Or you can do it yourself in English and translate it, orally, as you go to tell the story. I try to think in the language as much as possible, so whenever a question comes up, I write it down in a small notebook I carry and I ask my partner when we meet. This usually spins out onto a whole bunch of different examples and further questions. If you keep writing down topic ideas, you'll never run short. As much as possible, all activities should be oral. Remember -- you have a native speaker at your availability, so make the best of it! Writing and reading should be done at home when you are alone. That being said, carrying a text with you can sometimes be useful, in case you didn't have time to prepare enough material. In that case, have the other person add an oral element to it by asking you questions on the text, one significant passage at a time. You will get a lot more out of spending a lot of time on a short passage than you would out of reading as much as possible. Do keep in mind that not everyone is good at answering questions about grammar, etc., so you do need to adapt to the parnter's strengths and weaknesses. I'm just about to start exchanging with yet another parnter and I know that grammar is not her strong point. She also doesn't speak ANY English. So I need to find different types of activities where I can best utilize her Japanese native sense, rather than ask her to explain things. As for the facilitator idea, I don't see the point. And who will want to meet with you both every week with nothing in return? It might however be necessary when neither can speak the other person's language, at least at the beginning. Sometimes, certain matches just don't work. Be ready to recognize that it doesn't work and move on to find another partner, because when the match is right, it's an awesome learning tool -- miles ahead of any other in my book. Edited by Arekkusu on 14 July 2010 at 9:08pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| gbb333 Newbie Portugal Joined 5041 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes | Message 5 of 6 16 July 2010 at 3:41pm | IP Logged |
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I used to meet my former language exchange partner once a week; this is what we did:
We'd usually prepare two copies of a text we'd written in our learning language and translated to our native language. We would correct each other's texts and discuss grammar and vocabulary points, give examples, make questions, etc. and keep a copy of the other's text for future reference. For speaking and listening practice, we'd just chat over lunch or a coffee about whatever subjects we found interesting. This is the only time I've ever done language exchange in person, so I don't know if this method works well in all cases, but I think it's more interesting and useful to focus on speaking and listening. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| markchapman Diglot Groupie Taiwan tesolzone.com/ Joined 5268 days ago 44 posts - 55 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Portuguese | Message 6 of 6 17 July 2010 at 1:18am | IP Logged |
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Language exchanges definitely work best when both partners can already speak some of the language. Then you
can have fun chatting, and at the same time learn useful vocabulary and phrases. When one a the partners is a beginner, it's still possible, but not as much fun. The danger is that the person with the higher language level speaks a lot, and the lower level partner ends up with little practice. I've had many language exchanges, and I think they are certainly worth trying, but the more of the language you speak, the more you can benefit. If you are both beginners it can work too - and is quite interesting. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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