Unlike Howard who is experimental, I am sticking to my BBC Beginner German lessons. This morning I completed a lesson on asking for directions. I previewed the vocabulary first, studied it, finally knew it, and then went through the rest of the lesson which involves listening to a dialogue, sequencing the dialogue, speaking in German, and finally writing questions and answers about directions in German. I did very well....and that was this morning.
This afternoon I came back to the same lesson and I would say that my retention of the vocabulary was perhaps 70%. How discouraging! I am saying this not so much to point out my faulty memory as to emphasize how valuable it is to be in an immersion setting when you are learning a language so that your environment is supporting you. To that extent, our students who work with English-speaking people and who live among English-speaking people are fortunate. Those who live and work with speakers of their native language don't have this tremendous advantage.
I feel that I need to go over every lesson a number of times over a period of a few days to retain the language I am learning. Otherwise the words are gone! Is anyone else having this problem? (Please say yes!)
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4 comments:
Maria,
I don't think 70% is bad! There's a lifeguard at the pool where I swim who teaches me one Tagalog phrase every time I see him. I couldn't remember the first few phrases for a few weeks. (Um, and if you ask me for them now ...)
Repitition, repitition, repition. Even at the highter levels, I repeat the kernels of the previous (or previous few) lessons at the beginning of each class. How to translate this into the computer lab?
Maria,
I have started a Portuguese lesson, of which I am a zero-level student. The main problem that I am having with all of the programs that I have found it extremely difficult to retain any vocabulary, phrases or even grammar. I think it's due to a number of factors, including: my limited ability, the presentation, which assumes that I have at least minimal knowledge of the language and the activities that don't particularly reinforce the knowledge that has been communicated. I frankly don't think you're doing badly!
Maria,[please disregard my other
comment.] I have started a Portuguese lesson, of which I am a zero-level student. The main problem that I am having with all of the programs that I use, is that I have found it extremely difficult to retain any vocabulary, phrases or even grammar. I think it's due to a number of different factors, not the least of which include: my limited ability; the presentation, which assumes that I have at least a minimal knowledge of the language; and activities that don't particularly reinforce the knowledge that has already been communicated. It's hard and I definately understand what some of our beginning students are going through. Frankly, I don't believe that your doing that badly!
Hi Maria,
I am having the same problem, especially with the "Your Turn to Speak/Write" sections. I find that I can still understand the dialogues when I go back and listen to them again, but I have trouble producing them myself unless I review them every day. I guess what Elissa said is true - the key here is repetition, repetition, repetition.
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