Hi Mr. D. I think it's important to comment to all of you about my experience with my daughter.
When she was 4 or so, I decided it was about time she learned English. Perhaps it had better been before but it couldn't be like that. Well, I started to teach her the alphabet and her first words. And I used to talk to her in English, e.g. "please, pass me my shoes", "go to bed", "are you ready?" (for school), "hurry up!", etc. I had to learn new words or expressions and I was practicing at the same time. Now she is 12 and I consider she can hold a conversation. I think she is high beginner and I keep talking to her or practicing with her. I mean, it's really valuable if you have somebody who you can practice/ talk to. I keep trying to get new partners, be native, or EFL learners like me. I also have tried to have an English club at home, no luck so far. About your suggestion, to tell the truth, I think it can turn out difficult or not so pleasant if words don't come up, I think it's easier to follow a text or dialog. From now on I'll try to focus myself on using the words and the language. Here some ideas: - Read aloud a book/text/paragraph, repeat 'interesting' phrases - Get texts oriented to fluency, and read them aloud - Repeat phrases while listening to your mp3 player/tv news, etc, no pauses, you just repeat what you are able to hear By the way, my mp3 player has a function to repeat 2 or more times, a segment A-B. You press twice to decide the segment duration. My mp3 player is cheap but has a smart function and can break sentences relatively well. It's more useful when the audio is not so understandable. Or simply, read any book or whatever you like, aloud. I think most of us (EFL learners) keep listening to or have listened to a lot of audio input, but the output has been very limited, perhaps in a proportion 9 to 1 if not more? The same about writing, I think we read/write in a proportion 9-1 if not more? Evereybody, ;) looking forward to knowing about your experiences, opinions, ideas. And a happy mother's day! Especially to Pln, who else? ;) Thank you, Pablo On 9 mayo, 09:02, "Mr. D" <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey Pablo, > > Absolutely, the first thing I ask a student is "Do you want to speak > English?" > > They always answer yes. Then I say...speak English with an over the > top > enthusiasm to try and illicit a response and to break the ice a bit. > > Here's a method I tell students to use, perhaps you guys can try it > with > yours. I ask them to try to these "simple" but not necessarily "easy" > tasks. > > 1. When they get up in the morning they should go to the mirror to > brush > their teeth and look at themselves and say OUT LOUD! " Today, I will > speak English, maybe tomorrow I'll speak (native language) but for > today > I will speak English. > > 2. I encourage them to say everything OUT LOUD that they are thinking > as they prepare to > go to school or work. No matter how simple or odd it may seem. Like, > hmm... > I think I will wear my blue shirt or brown shoes. Oh, it's almost > 7:30am I > better go have a shower, or where is my purse or notebook whatever. > > 3. Next, when they are commuting or waiting somewhere in public they > can use > their cell phone to call imaginary people and have pseudo > conversations. If they're > not sure what to say, I encourage them to read from the newspaper into > their phone > or better yet their textbook. > > Anyway, I'm a firm believer in speaking to learn to speak and I hope > this helps > somebody out. > > ~Mr. D > > On May 6, 7:13 pm, Pablo <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi friends, > > > This interesting article: > > >http://www.helping-you-learn-english.com/how_to_learn_english.html > > > Do you agree? > > > Pablo > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ESL Podcast". To post to this group, send email to: [email protected] or just reply this message For invite your friends, visit: http://groups.google.com/group/eslpodcast/members_invite Know how help us, visit this FAQ at: http://groups.google.com/group/eslpodcast/web/frequently-asked-questions -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
