Words, words and still more words!
Numerous are the words which make up the lexis of our language, but that should not frighten us, because they enable us to understand the sense of the messages which we formulate and receive every day. They form groups, distinguish from each other, change, form syntagms, speeches, statements, texts, speech acts, literature and art. They do whatever they want (, which is like this, of course, not true, because we decide in the end which words we use and what we want to express). For this reason, we will, in this category of the blog, talk about the lexis of the Spanish language as well as about its oddities and peculiarities in this. We will also specifically talk about how to learn the lexis.
Many people think that the grammar is the basis of the language and of the learning process, but that is not true. Like studies about the so-called “lexical approach”, founded by Lewis in the 90’s, prove, language can rather be seen as “lexis structured in grammar“ than “grammar structured in words”. That means that a person who approaches a text of a does not have to know exactly the grammar. The comprehension depends rather on the number of the words which the person understands. Concerning this matter, it should also be noted that in a speech, there are many more lexical than grammatical elements.
It is not that important for the communication (and here the reading comprehension) to know the rules which determine, how the speech is composed of the words.
If you comply with the “lexical approach”, the learning has to base on an attractive input which should consist of oral and written tasks and which is adapted to the different learning levels. In this way, the pupil discovers the language which he is to learn, but especially much new vocabulary. The latter helps him in a particular way to learn the foreign language and to add it to his linguistic knowledge.
Which is the best way to achieve that? – The enlargement of your vocabulary with the help of much, much new words. The learning of new vocabulary can be simplified by classifying certain words into word families or interesting, attractive subjects for the pupil. In this way, you can form a network of connections between the new words, which helps the pupil to internalize with minimal effort words, words and still more words. This process will be the subject of the next chapter.
This unique combination of effort, knowledge and experience constitutes what Lengalia is today, a portal specialized in helping you learn Spanish online.
I’m impressed! You’ve managed the almsot impossible.
When you see the object or think ofthe pahrse always say it in Spanish.For instance if you see a spoon alwayscall it una cuchara. That way the Spanishword will become as familliar to you as the English word.I do this myself when I want to learn new words.
One or two to remmeebr, that is.
At 12, just learning the words is perfect to get a head start for high school What I would do, is buy a couple dictionaries and keep them around.- A pocket-dictionary to keep around to look up words you may think of- Another to keep by your bed, or on your desk, to look up if you think of somethingAnother thing to do is cut pieces of paper and write Spanish words on them of things around the house. Then, go and tape them on the object it is representing in english.For example: Write la cama on a piece of paper and tape it to your bed.Do this to furniture, kitchen supplies and utensils, appliances, clothes, and other common household items.Doing this will help you remember the Spanish term after looking at it. Remember to try to repeat it and remember it as well as you can.Get your parents to help you and have them aid you and try to get you to remember the names of things. With this method, and having the dictionaries around, you will soon enough be able to think of the Spanish word for things easier.If you find this too easy, start to do this with verbs. For example: write correr or caminar by your shoes, or Baf1arse by the bathtub. Good luck!