Saturday, March 29, 2008

What Language Did You Study? What'd You Do? What'd You Learn?

Tell some general observations you have as you begin your studies.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This week I've decided to use the bbc website (Spanish)as it seemed to be full of opportuntities to practice listening, which was my goal. I was initially impressed with all the audio/video files that they have and thought it would be perfect for me. However, it's important to have a computer that will allow you to see all those videos! I can better understand the frustration that some of our students feel when something doesn't work for them.

Because of video/downloading difficulties, my focus had to change to working on reading/grammar skills. There were a number of culture/grammar fact sheets that I was able to read and then quiz opportunities - but answers weren't readily available which was a bit annoying as I wanted instant feedback on my progress (or lack thereof!) I now really appreciate programs like LEI that give instant feedback to our students so they can monitor their progress.

While doing the exercises, I felt like I was 'cheating' because all of the directions were in English. Although I'm not great at Spanish, I would like the challenge of having everything in Spanish as that's what our students go through and I'm looking to be as 'immersed' as I can in the target language. The search for that continues....

HowardP said...

Carrie,

I tried Spanishpod.com. I too found the English distracting. I would have preferred all in English or had the option to turn off the English.

Howard

HowardP said...

Carrie,

I meant all in Spanish (not English). Spanishipod has really nice dialogs, but they constantly switch between Spanish and English.