Tag Archives: Communication

The learning of grammar

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Lengalia, José Delgado
Lengalia, José Delgado
Teacher & Founder at Lengalia
In 1990, José Delgado founded Vita Lingua in Hamburg, a language school specializing in Spanish language and culture. Thanks to his continuous hard work and enthusiasm over the years, he has gained a deep understanding of how to effectively teach Spanish. What does the student know right now? Where does he/she want to go? How do we achieve this goal? Questions such as these have helped him develop a truly efficient method, supported by clear and structured materials, that guarantees success in learning. All these materials are under continuous review, ensuring his students have access to the most effective and up-to-date learning experience possible.

This unique combination of effort, knowledge and experience constitutes what Lengalia is today, a portal specialized in helping you learn Spanish online.
Lengalia, José Delgado
Latest posts by Lengalia, José Delgado (see all)

The learning of grammar

Grammar plays an important role in linguistic debates as well as in theories of language teaching, and it will never lose its topicality. Over the years, the view of grammar has gone through various stages: Over many centuries, it was the most important aspect in learning of foreign languages, until it was sometime completely ignored and forgotten. This chapter has been followed by the renaissance of grammar, as a result of which the grammar has received the value which it never should have lost.

Many pupils think that the learning of a language only depends on the comprehension of the grammar rules, but new theories of language teaching say that grammar represents in fact a basic competence, but it is not the only one. Grammar is therefore rightly one of the so-called linguistic competences.

The main objective of language acquisition is communication. Concerning this matter, grammar plays a very important role. It makes sure that the communication is of good quality and not only communication for communications sake and without formal importance. The following is interesting: Over the time mentioned above, in which grammar played no role in language teaching, the pupils fell into a certain ignorance. That has proved that the assumption that grammar is not important, was wrong. The pupils want to have a fixed constant to which they  can orientate in speaking and which offers them security and gives them support.

As for Spanish, grammar is what frightens the pupils the most. Although there are little complex subjects like gender and number which are very regular, there are others which are very complicated. To the second group belongs, for example, the high number of past tenses, which do not exist in this amount in various other languages (see the difference between “pretérito indefinido” and “pretérito imperfecto”). The subjuntivo should also be mentioned. In other languages in which it even exists, it is not as often used as in Spanish. Other complex subjects are the pronouns, the difference between “ser” and “estar” as well as the indirect speech. In this cases, it is important to focus the communication and not only the learning by heart, because grammar does not consist of  mathematic formulas. The learned rules are to be internalized by systematic exercises.

We give answers to grammatical questions and help, if someone has problems. Regarding this, we also orientate toward the levels of the European Framework of Reference for Languages. That can also be interesting for native speakers. We find it extremely important to give useful, clarifying and interesting assistance to the reader.

Communication concerns all of us!

Posted on by
5
Lengalia, José Delgado
Lengalia, José Delgado
Teacher & Founder at Lengalia
In 1990, José Delgado founded Vita Lingua in Hamburg, a language school specializing in Spanish language and culture. Thanks to his continuous hard work and enthusiasm over the years, he has gained a deep understanding of how to effectively teach Spanish. What does the student know right now? Where does he/she want to go? How do we achieve this goal? Questions such as these have helped him develop a truly efficient method, supported by clear and structured materials, that guarantees success in learning. All these materials are under continuous review, ensuring his students have access to the most effective and up-to-date learning experience possible.

This unique combination of effort, knowledge and experience constitutes what Lengalia is today, a portal specialized in helping you learn Spanish online.
Lengalia, José Delgado
Latest posts by Lengalia, José Delgado (see all)

Communication concerns all of us!

Traditionally, it has been assumed that four special skills are necessary for the communication: listening and reading comprehension as well as written and oral expression.  But today,  people realize more and more that there is a fifth skill which plays a role. It has transpired that the comprehension and the expression do not happen separated from each other, but they form together a combination, when we are communicating or rather interacting. As for the comprehension, for example, it is in many cases just important to understand a certain number of elements of a statement, whereas in a conversation, all that has to run much more quickly. We have to think more quickly about what has been said and what will still be said, and then we have to react.

So you need a lot of skills, which, as indicated above,  are connected with the skills of the comprehension and of the expression. As far as  the oral interaction is concerned, everything runs even much more quickly than in the written interaction because the aspect of the „immediacy“ strengthens the situation in the face-to-face conversation. As far as the written interaction is concerned, – for example in an online chat  – these factors play also a role, but in another way; the situation is „more relaxed“ because, in contrast to the oral interaction, the steps of conversation are not always respected. Conversation with the help of the new media is more linear and an overlap of the messages is not possible. You cannot all talk at once.

As far as the Spanish language and especially the oral conversation is concerned, it is important to know a number of elements which are not verbal and which can appear during conversation. Fundamental are cultural characteristics like gestures, the right way to deal with the silence, the physical distance as well as the shares of the conversation. Also in the written conversation do these cultural elements appear. In every culture, there are characteristic written formulas and expressions, for example in correspondence. Even in the formal language register of the same language, there can appear differences in greetings and farewells. This concerns especially Spain and Latin-America and their courtesy formulas. The Latin-Americans often use expressions which seem „too formal“ to the Spaniard.

We say that the main objective of language acquisition is the use of the foreign language in concrete situations and we mean with that in many cases the use of the interaction. The latter is important, if you want to order something in a restaurant, to buy something in a shop as well as to give and ask for information. That are example situations in which you need this skill. If the pupil observes all the aspects mentioned, he should be able to have more effective conversations in Spanish. – So that the conversation between you, me, us and others still works better!