What Works for Me

15 - July - 2019, Monday, 10:09 PM CDT

A day late. You noticed. Thanks for keeping me on my toes. “If you’re going to have a weekly blog, Kory, have a weekly blog. Throughout last week I thought about the subject for this post. Nothing really interesting happened in training, so I thought it a good idea to write about my experience learning Spanish so far. 

I started this journey of second language acquisition with a pretty narrow idea of how we actually do it. In fact, currently, even linguists and scientists are not sure how we acquire second languages or even first languages. My idea a month ago was that we acquire a new language by receiving decipherable messages in that target language (Stephen Krashen’s Comprehensible Input for the nerd readers), and I am still a disciple of Señor Krashen. But, imagine this, people have varying preferences for learning a new language. And catering to student learning styles isn’t necessarily a good idea, I believe, and some research agrees. 

Before I continue, let me distinguish “acquiring” language from “learning” it. Learning language happens in the classroom when a teacher says, “Capitalize your Is and reflexive verbs are ones in which the subject of the sentence acts upon itself.” We acquire language subconsciously when we’re on the playground or at a party. This past Saturday night I introduced myself to people at a party right next door to where I live. They spoke a lot of English and I spoke mostly in Spanish, everyone looking to improve their second--or third or fourth, etc.--language. Here we were focusing on the content of our messages, not the form. We weren’t worried about where indirect objects were or what types of verbs we were using; we were worried about successful communication, and this is where it’s at if you want to speak another language. Learning language is a supplement to acquiring it.

Now, one month ago, when I began an effort to acquire Spanish in earnest, I believed little in the translation method; and I still don’t put much stock in it. I compared the translation method to building a castle, a language castle. The commoners from surrounding villages arrive at your capital with the raw materials for your new castle and leave them scattered from one corner of the space to another. I liken translating input from L1 to L2* to hauling those raw materials back to every corner of your kingdom before using them to construct your castle. ¿Entiendes? In short, I saw the translation method as a time-waster, a method that includes unnecessary steps. But then I read researched that did not support this view.

One thing I remember from the research, an argument for the translation method, was that it’s useful for teaching abstract words such as “respect” or “intolerance.” I put this theory into practice while riding two hours from la ciudad a el campo, the city to the country. At my university I have a counterpart named Hugo. Hugo was having a hard time understanding a certain meaning of “country.” He knew that the word meant “nation,” like the US or Mexico, but he did not understand that it also means “land that is sparsely populated and used for farming.” I tried to teach him this meaning without using the translation method with no success. When I finally said, “‘Country’ es como ‘el campo,’” he understood right away. He had an existing reference for the word in his L1, and I simply gave him another one. The translation method worked. But, for me, it still takes a backseat to reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the L2. 

So what’s worked for me so far? I use translation a lot, not going to lie, but I’d rather listen to an explanation of the word in Spanish or hear it used in an example. This way offers more input in the target language and more practice at applying meaning to new words in context. Unfortunately, there isn’t a bilingual aid that follows me around constantly to explain unfamiliar words. Aside from the dubious translation method, I’ve found many useful practices.

1. My host brother Miguel and I talk every day in Spanish. He is my conversation partner. If you don’t have someone to practice with regularly, you won’t acquire much language. I often opt to spend time with Miguel because I know we’re going to speak Spanish, whereas I’d speak English if I was with other volunteers. 
2. I’ve read and written a lot in English, and these skills translate between languages. That’s why it’s good to tell parents of ESL** students to keep working on native language skills at home with their children. Given this smooth transfer of skills, I write a lot in Spanish, fiction and non, (terribly, by the way, but feedback is super helpful, and...what’s this blog called again?) I also read a lot in Spanish, accompanied by audio if possible. Combine the areas of language*** often. It helps to be interested in what you read (for me it’s any fiction) and to read texts that are a step beyond your level to keep challenging yourself to improve. 
3. I changed the language settings of my phone to Spanish. This is helping tremendously because I text a lot on WhatsApp (an app unpopular in the States but popular everywhere else, classic USA). More practice, more acquisition.
4. I use the language-learning app Wlingua on my phone every day. It introduces vocab and covers a different topic in each lesson. Exercises include reading, listening, and a little writing (speaking practice isn’t very important to me believe it or not. Speech production inevitably and inexplicably comes with comprehension in my case). My main criticism of Wlingua: in the listening exercises, you can only arrange parts of sentences into the correct order instead of writing the utterance out by yourself like on Duolingo.
5. And just because I like a list of five better than a list of four...I watch movies in Spanish without English subtitles. This past weekend, Miguel and I saw the new Chucky. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. And AP is a vixen, una zorra, if you will.   

Ok. That’s all for now. This week we have a practicum session at a university in Queretaro. My friend Grace and I are giving a brief lesson on ourselves and the importance of learning English. Miguel and I are also visiting another site with ruins this weekend. Tula has giant rock statues akin to those of Easter Island. It was probably the same aliens that helped in creating each set. Till next time. 

*L1 = first language; L2 = second language

**ESL = English as a second language

***The four areas of language are speaking, listening, reading, writing