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A great analogy for someone who says s/he doesn't have a talent for languages


kbleitch

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The following quote is by Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California, and chairman of the Dept. of Linguistics, later moving to the Dept. of Education. I've met and spoken with Dr. Krashen several times. The guy has a PhD in grammar, but he believes that one acquires a language through comprehensible input, not studying grammar.

This is a great analogy:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/219072202107/permalink/10153254422562108/

There are some very interesting articles about language acquisition, as well as education reform, on his site: sdkrashen.com

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I didn't want to join facebook to just read the article but I was interested so I went to his website.

I think that this may be the article to which you are referring...please let me know if it is or isn't.

http://sdkrashen.com/content/articles/2015__end_of_motivation.pdf

imho, the article is bang on.

Learning grammar and verb tenses is intensely boring to me...the Warren Hardy method, therefore, leaves me cold.

talk, talk, talk, ask questions, talk, talk, talk, listen, listen, listen, talk, talk, talk. I would not say that I'm bilingual and I certainly would say that my Spanish is far from perfect but I can sure have a rip snortin' conversation and people understand me. If I can understand broken English then I'm sure that Mexican's can understand broken Spanish.

Lose (which was spelled incorrectly in the article) the attitude, lose the fear and enjoy.

I do think that many people are motivated to learn. I also know that a great many seniors are hampered by poor hearing which can isolate anyone from any language (even their native language).

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I didn't want to join facebook to just read the article but I was interested so I went to his website.

I think that this may be the article to which you are referring...please let me know if it is or isn't.

http://sdkrashen.com/content/articles/2015__end_of_motivation.pdf

imho, the article is bang on.

Learning grammar and verb tenses is intensely boring to me...the Warren Hardy method, therefore, leaves me cold.

talk, talk, talk, ask questions, talk, talk, talk, listen, listen, listen, talk, talk, talk. I would not say that I'm bilingual and I certainly would say that my Spanish is far from perfect but I can sure have a rip snortin' conversation and people understand me. If I can understand broken English then I'm sure that Mexican's can understand broken Spanish.

Lose (which was spelled incorrectly in the article) the attitude, lose the fear and enjoy.

Another nice thing is that Mexicans appreciate the fact that you're trying to learn their language and will rarely criticize your broken Spanish.

For learning verb tenses (501 Verbs in Spanish) is a useful book.

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Ferret, that article is not the analogy that I was pointing to. It was just a shorter post on Facebook, so I'm retyping it below for you. It's less academic sounding than most of what is on Krashen's website. Krashen believes in comprehensible input (CI) and so do I. Just think about how you, as a toddler, and all toddlers acquire language. It's not with grammar instruction and vocab lists! If anyone is interested in trying a different way of acquiring Spanish that has a focus on comprehensible input, using story asking, personalized Q and A, and reading, let me know. I know an excellent teacher here in Ajijic.

"I just have no talent for languages."

Lots of people think they have no talent for languages. The reason, I think, is that they have been in classes that provide very little comprehensible input and focus on grammar learning and memorizing vocabulary. In these cases, students are forced to try to acquire language using brain mechanisms that were not designed for it. Tragically, when they fail, they blame themselves.

Here is an analogy: You are asked to paint a wall. But instead of doing it with your preferred hand, you have to do it with your other hand. And you have to face away from the wall and paint it by leaning over and reaching the wall between your legs. You will probably do a lousy job of painting the wall under those conditions. Do you blame yourself and conclude you just have no talent for painting walls? Of course not. The fault is the technique, not your ability.

Anyone who does not acquire much from a traditional language language class should not conclude that he or she has no talent for languages. The fault was the method, not the student's.

S. Krashen

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Just think about how you, as a toddler, and all toddlers acquire language. It's not with grammar instruction and vocab lists!

My ten year old son corrects my Spanish on a regular basis and I've been in Mexico longer than he has...

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