Education Commons^™

Flarr Pages #8: Spanish Teachers: Eliminate The Grammatical Paradigm To Facilitate Student Learning, Tom Washington

FLARR Pages

Since all textbooks present each new verb in this manner-and we, too, have learned with this approach -use of paradigm is assumed to be the best and possibly the only way to teach verbs.

The truth is that 1) the paradigm impedes the critical process of habit formation, 2) confronts the student with the false idea that one must learn six forms of each verb, and 3) causes unnecessary confusion and stress in the learning process.

Flarr Pages #12: Perspectivismo: A New Approach To Teaching The Subjunctive, Tom Washington

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The current method of presenting the Spanish subjunctive in textbooks is flawed both conceptually and in its presentation sequentially, and that makes this most critical element of Spanish language more difficult to learn and teach than it should be.

Flarr Pages #11: Spanish: Teaching The "Musical Preterite", Tom Washington

FLARR Pages

If you were given the choice of learning 23 words or 95 words--and you knew that you would acquire the same amount of knowledge either way, which would you choose? That is the positive option that the "musical preterite" offers in teaching the simple past.

Flarr Pages #10: Reading And Writing, Andre Lebugle

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During the first four or five months, language students learn a limited number of words and structures, which allows them to write on equally limited subjects, usually personal, such as: "Describe yourself, your friends and relatives, your room, your clothes, your weekly activities, etc. What do you buy when you go to the stores? Imagine a dialogue between two characters, etc." This type of composition is fine during that beginning period, but beyond, it loses its usefulness, for the learners tend to recycle the same ideas, phrases and constructions which they have been using since chapter two. Little improvement or …

Flarr Pages #9: Teaching Preterite Vs. Imperfect In Spanish, Debra Maury

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While textbooks have approached the troublesome practice of teaching the preterite and imperfect in a variety of ways, I have found that those that insist on a "Spanish-only" approach, working strictly in the target language, simply do not deliver the best results when it comes to student comprehension of the past tenses. A concept that does not exist in one's own native language (assuming here that it is English) can not be explained using the foreign language. The difference between preterite and imperfect seems to be one of the most difficult cases which is not best served by the modeling …

Flarr Pages #7: Culture And Society Through The Media: An Innovative Approach To Intermediate German, Madelyn Burchill

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The intermediate year of language study is crucial. Not only is it a bridge to advanced study, but at the college level it includes a varied group of learners from understandably different introductory backgrounds. Most agree, it presents the greatest challenge for appropriate text selection and application!