LISTENING SKILLS

Listening is an input and receptive skill, as reading is. That fact makes that both have similarities:

- To improve your listening, you should know that it is not essential to understand every word.  You are also a good listener if you achieve your objectives although you have not understood every single word.

- Predicting and anticipating are the basic strategies, which are very helpful to understand a listening exercise successfully.

- Strategies used in listening depend on the purpose, as well. It is not the same listening to general information, where more information can be over heard, as listening to specific information, as we do in the activities in class. 

Although reading and listening are quite similar, the main difference is that listening cannot be controlled because you cannot go back as in reading; so you only have an ephemera opportunity.

There are also some difficulties we should take into account, like puns, which are words that have more than one meaning. As a result, puns are difficult in a language. We find it in humour, for example. This is the reason why humour is so complicated in a foreign language because of our ignorance of the other meanings. 

 

Stress of words and accents is a point that also makes listening difficult because they are different from our language and we are not used to them. Furthermore, we have to be aware that there is not a perfect or a bad accent; every land has its own peculiarities. Differences do not make languages better or worse. I strongly believe that we have to be tolerant to other nationalities or speakers, considering that we want the others to be respectful with us.

 

ON READING

Some people haven’t got a good attitude when they read. Reading becomes an obligation and a boring task. Another case is people who look for all the words they do not understand when they are reading. That neither helps. Reading in a foreign language is a hard task at the beginning because learners haven’t got confidence. The best way to enjoy reading is choosing a topic we like and not looking for all unknown words. 

Before starting to read we should know our language level in order not to fail reading. How do we know our level? When you are at your appropriate level, you understand 80 per cent (or more) words in a page. 

Good or bad reader?

Good readers are the ones who do not stop and look up every single word. They read by series of quick short jumps and they read word chunks at a time. Good readers are more efficient in reading, they do less mental and physical work and they understand the text better. Being a slow reader is a problem and reducing the number of stops would be very helpful. Reading aloud or inner voice or with your finger are problems which slow the reading process. It is also important not to want to understand every word of the text. Do not be anxious and use your logical and common sense because they are usually better than dictionaries.

Reading strategies 
Think about that: you do not read equally a letter from the bank and a magazine or the shopping list and your notes.  Why is that? There are three reading strategies that a reader uses depending on the reading’s purpose.

-          Skimming consists in a quick reading just to focus on the main ideas.

-          We are scanning a text when we look for a specific point.

-          Reading for detail is the carefully reading of a whole text.

Imagine you are in a restaurant for the first time. You are completely sure that you want pasta to eat, but you do not know what type. So, the strategy you will use is scanning the menu until you get the pasta section. Then you will skim the pasta section to get the main ideas. Finally to make the final decision you should read the dishes in detail in case that you are allergic to an ingredient.

Predicting and guessing

On the one hand, predicting consists in seeing ahead of the words and it makes a text easier to understand. Actually, we know more than we think when we read. If we find a full stop we know that is the end of the sentence. If we find a connector like in addition, we know that some information will be added. Besides, if we are familiarized with a topic, it would be easier to make predictions and understand the text, as well.

On the other hand, guessing the meaning of words is important to be fluent in reading. There are words that are not important to understand a text; then just ignore them. But if a word looks important, it is useful to guess its meaning. To guess it, first we should realize what the word looks like. Prefixes, suffixes and its compounding will help our intuition. Nevertheless, it is not the same guessing in context that out of context because we do not have the help of the setting. Sometimes we do not understand the text, but we are able to answer the questions due to the knowledge of syntax and we know how English works.

To conclude, reading is an important input skill since we receive external information and it is a way to learn a lot. If you are a slow reader in English do not worry because all you need is practicing. So, choose your level and enjoy reading!

WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

What we can do when we do not know a word?

To answer that question we did an activity in class, which consisted in describing objects (such as an oiler, a magnifying glass or a compass) to our partner, but we did not know the words in English or we hardly ever use them. The partner should guess what word we were describing.

The result was that all the students used similar strategies to make us understand. We described what it was for or what it looked like or even we associated them to a famous character, like the loupe with Sherlock Holmes.

In fashion and old-fashioned words

Words come and leave throughout generations. We do not speak using the same words as our parents or grandparents. And I completely sure, that our sons will also speak differently from us. Furthermore, a person does not speak in the same way his whole life because of the knowledge he acquires and the experiences he has. People are, indeed, responsible for the birth or the death of words and time is the one which shows such vocabulary evolution.

Finally, I want to introduce the concept of viral. A word goes viral when it is used by everybody, like an illness would be. After a while, it could be that the viral word disappears of our mouths and everybody forgets about it. But it can also happen that the word becomes so important in our vocabulary that in the future the word could be accepted and introduced in dictionaries. 

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is all about words. It is defined as the knowledge of words that a language user has. But do we really know what knowing a word means? We have discussed that point in class and personally, I found the answer quite surprising.

 

First of all, there is definition. You know a word when you are able to explain its meaning. Nonetheless, there are words which have more than one entry in the dictionary. For example, it is not the same a book, sheets of paper bound together, or to book, which means making a reservation in a hotel. 

We also know a word if we are able to translate it into another language. But languages describe the world in a particular way, and there are words that haven’t got an equivalent meaning in other languages. Then the only form to learn how to use that word is using and seeing it lots of times since we will forget it if there is no contact with the word.

Context is the third point that we must take into account because words have positive and negative connotations. Connotations are the implied cultural, social or individual meanings associated with a word. For instance, Wall Street is associated with wealth and power. That is an example of positive connotation, whereas chick would be a negative meaning related with women. 

Sometimes, we find two or more words that always go together. They are called collocations and they are important in the knowledge of the meaning of a word. Certainly, collocations only sound well to native speakers. Why must we say have a bath or give a warning? Unfortunately, there is not an explicable and logical reason, they just go together. 

 

Register is a remarkable issue in vocabulary. If we think about ourselves, we do not address teachers or parents in the same way, and much less our friends. So, once we have learnt a word, we know when it is appropriate and when it is not. 

Spelling and pronunciation, orthography and sounds, are the lasts necessary points so as to have the knowledge of a word. We should point out that the aim of languages is to communicate. So, if we are not able to be understood in the communication process we are failing in the final goal of a language. 

To conclude, as I said before, there are words with several definitions. The verb to get is a good example. Does this mean that we won’t be able to use correctly that verb if we don’t memorize all of its twenty (and more) meanings?  Of course not.  I believe that we should be realistic and also aware that knowing all the meanings of less used words is a loss of time. It is better investing time in another activity because in the end we will only remember the words or meanings related to our lives, which we use in our daily days.

THE CURSE OF GRAMMAR

What is grammar?

Grammar is understood, in the education field, as the rules that prescribe what it is said or written is good or wrong. In other words, it manages the correct relationship between words. Lots of students find it boring and they tend to hate it. Depending on the countries, grammar has more or less prestige. In our county, grammar takes up an important place.

The importance of grammar

We will be able to learn a language like a child, without doing boring and repeated grammar exercises. Studying grammar is not essential to learn a language. Children do not need it. Why foreign language students spend most of the classes studying the irregular verbs list or the present simple?

Unfortunately, we do not have the same advantages like a native child. We do not live in a country where English is spoken as a first language. So students should learn grammar because of its importance. Grammar makes the process of learning faster and the communication more efficiently. As an adult you have other advantages than a kid, as well. You have the ability to concentrate more time and your experience in life will also help. Besides, do not forget your instinct and use your logical side. Sometimes, grammar rules are more difficult to remember than the grammar point itself. 

All at all, we have not been cursed by grammar. Grammar is a helpness.What's more, grammar is a friend in our learning process that we could enjoy. Do not panic or be pessimist!

LEARNING A LANGUAGE MORE EFFECTIVELY

It is not true that only some people can learn languages. All of us have competence to do it, as our first language verifies. Neither it is true that we will speak a language perfectly well just in a month. The ways to learn a first or a second language are quite different. However, it is easier if the languages are grammatically similar. If we have the ability to speak one language, why we find a foreign language so difficult that we think it is impossible to learn it? We must be aware that it is not true.

Differences between the processes

We learn our first language since we are very young. The process starts by making sounds with nonsense. Then we say our first word, and isolated words that progressively become understandable sentences. It is a long process but we are not conscious of it. However, when we start to learn a foreign language we must be realistic and realise it will take time and effort. The ads or commercials which promise that you will learn a language only within a month or without studying are completely false.

Requirements to learn a foreign language

There are four requirements to learn a foreign language: memory, motivation, producing output and getting input.

First of all there is memory. Everybody has memory. The people who say “I cannot learn a second language because I have a bad memory” are completely wrong. If they can speak their native language, they will be able to speak a second language, a third or a fourth because they are human beings and human beings have the ability to speak languages. However, they will learn the second language in a different way. 

In the second place, learners should want to learn the language. Motivation is a very important point to get better in our development in learning a language. In fact, everything will be easier if we have a positive attitude and we don’t resist and resign. 

It is true that the more languages you know the easier is to learn another more. If you speak Catalan it is easier to speak Spanish than German. That is because of the similarity between the syntactical structures and between the form and meaning of words. So, it is an advantage, in terms of difficulty, to learn a language which has lot in common with your native language.

Thirdly and fourthly, there are producing output and getting input are two important aspects in the learning process. Output consists in writing and speaking, while input contains listening and reading. You can enjoy yourselves at the same time you learn a language. If you like sports, you should read the sport news in English or look for British recipes if you like cooking. If you are a fanatic of detective series, watch them in the original version!

In conclusion, a good attitude is essential in order to learn a language. Do not think you cannot, you always know more than you think. Do not want to learn fast. Be patient and go step by step. Spend time on doing tasks in English and you will have your reward. Do it through the hobbies you have, enjoy learning! Finally, the most important aim of a language is to communicate, don’t forget it!

VAK LEARNING STYLES: SEE, HEAR OR DO IT!

I find human diversity surprising. People are certainly different from each other: you like watching TV adverts or you really hate them; maybe you have a gift to remember people’s names rather than faces, or you cannot stay calm and quiet for a while. Because of these differences, there are three kinds of learners: visual, auditory and kinaesthetic (VAK).

Visual learners have an innate ability to observe the world carefully. They prefer real things such as pictures, diagrams or flowcharts. There are some strategies for visual learners. For example, marking the key words from the notes with highlighted pens, making flashcards (the pictures on one side and the word on the other) or organising the notes in outlines or summaries.

Auditory learners strongly enjoy classes where they can discuss and talk about a matter. They can remember easily and faithfully songs or conversations. They prefer someone to explain them the task they have to do rather than follow some instructions. So, watching a documentary, a film or recording the lessons and listening to them in bed before falling asleep will be helpful for an auditory learner.

Kinaesthetic learners prefer touching, feeling and doing by their own since they need physical experience. They cannot sit still without doing anything because they lose their concentration. For a Kinaesthetic learner activities where they can design projects or act out will be indeed the best way to learn.

Knowing our abilities is important to get better in the study of a language. Each person not only has one learning method but a mixture of learning styles. This is the reason why here you have a website. You will be able to test yourself and discover what kind of learner you are. While I was answering the questionnaire, I was shocked because I usually sing in class when a word reminds me of a song and I had never realised about it! Actually, I am an auditory learner, but I also have some characteristics of the visual way. 

Good luck in your investigation! 

http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/A3_ASPECTS/pages/VAK_quest.htm