Study Hints for Students of Spanish 102, sec. 1 -- 1st Summer, 2011

HOW SHOULD YOU APPROACH THE STUDY OF SPANISH 1?

Your Spanish language class is very different from your other classes; therefore, for optimum results, the approach you use in class and the study techniques that you use outside of class should not be the same as your approach to your other classes. The following study suggestions have proven very useful to my students in the past; study and adhere to them carefully and I think you will be pleased with your progress.

IN CLASS, . . .

1. Relax! You are not expected to "understand" or be able to mentally translate into English every single Spanish word that you hear in class. Your classes will be designed so that you should get enough of a general idea of what is going on to be able to be always learning something new while reinforcing what you already know through practice. To get the essential introduction of vocabulary and the grammar explanations that will prepare you for class, it IS NECESSARY for you to keep up with the reading and study page assignments on your syllabus.

2. Understand why I will not always answer your "questions." In many classes, you are encouraged to ask questions ANY time you feel you need clarification. In a good language class, you must to learn to hold your questions (particularly questions ABOUT the language in English) until an appropriate time. Our primary classroom goal is for you and your classmates to learn to speak Spanish and understand spoken Spanish. In a foreign language class where grammatical and other aspects of the language are discussed at length in English, students learn to "talk ABOUT the language" without ever learning to speak it. The only appropriate times and places to ask about the language are: 1) via e-mail; 2) when I say "¿Hay preguntas?" [Are there any questions? -- & even then you should try to learn to ask in Spanish]; 3) during office hours; and, 4) other times outside of class including questions addressed to me just before or after class.

3. Make full use of class hours. You should pack ninety minutes of ACTIVE practice into each class session. When someone else is speaking, in your mind, you should speak right along with him. If you just sit back and daydream, then you are wasting class time.

4. Come to class prepared to enjoy yourself! Learning a language is very hard work but it's also great fun. If you're naturally shy, try to force yourself to be a bit more gregarious. You'll be doing a lot of work in pairs with your classmates. Two of the principle reasons that most of you came to the University were to learn new things and make new friends; in Spanish class, we are hopeful that you will be able to accomplish both of these goals simultaneously. STUDY OUTSIDE OF CLASS

1. You've got to memorize. The way to begin to acquire basic language skills is, not by thinking, but by practice, practice, practice! In all your other courses you are asked to organize, analyze, and interpret factual data; in your language course you will have to practice the material you've heard in class over and over until it becomes second nature. It's as simple and as hard as that!

2. Study out loud. One way to memorize the material would be to read it over silently, again and again. That would be ridiculous, since you would then be learning not the language itself, but only the way it is symbolized on paper. If you study out loud you double your efficiency by adding auditory memory to visual memory. So do ALL your language studying out loud.

3. Divide the material into small units. Don't try to memorize a large body of material at once. Break it up into small units, memorize each of these units separately, and then string them all together.

4. Divide your study time into small units. If you spend two uninterrupted hours trying to memorize the material of a new lesson, you will do a poor job of memorizing and will probably go stark raving mad in the process. Use a saner study technique! Start with twenty minutes to half an hour at the most; then turn to some other work; then come back for another twenty minutes; and so on. Two hours divided into small bits like this will produce far better results than 120 minutes of straight, agonizing study.

5. Go from the easy to the hard. Start by reading the Spanish aloud right out of the book; generally you will have little trouble remembering how the new words sounded or what they meant. As soon as you have read a sentence in this way, look away from the book and say it again. If you have trouble saying a whole sentence in this way, break it into smaller pieces, say each of them individually, and then string them together.

6. Be organized! Take notes. Keep very careful track of the assignments on your syllabus; if you don't understand an assignment, ask me about it -- but please don't wait until the last minute before the mid-term exam.

7. Don't fall behind. Cramming for a language exam makes about as much sense as cramming for a swimming test. Learning a language is like building a tower out of blocks. You keep building on top of what you did the day before. If you don't keep at the job steadily, pretty soon you're trying to put new blocks on top of empty space. So don't fall behind and PLEASE DON'T EVER MISS CLASS without a VERY good reason!

8. Plan to study with classmates. It works well & it's more fun than studying alone.