Hints for listening comprehension:
When you listen to a person speaking Spanish, you don’t have to try to understand
every word. It is not necessary to understand everything to get the idea of what
someone is saying. Listen for the general message. Listen for the words you
recognize. If some details escape you, don’t worry too much! Really, it’s ok! So long
as you understand the general idea, you’re doing great!
Hints for speaking:
Try to be as accurate as possible when speaking. Try not to make mistakes. However,
if you do, it’s not the end of the world! Guess what? Spanish speakers will understand
you! You’re not expected to speak Spanish perfectly with just a limited amount of
Spanish study. Think of a time when you have spoken with someone from another
country who doesn’t speak English perfectly; you understood them, right? Remember:
Keep talking! Don’t become inhibited for fear of making a mistake! We’re all
here to learn, not point and laugh when someone makes a mistake! (And we all
make mistakes in a second language!)
Say what you know how to say. You are in the beginning stages of learning
Spanish; no one is expecting you to carry on a conversation about rocket
science or cellular biology! It’s ok to use the vocabulary you DO know; you’ll
start to branch off from the basics.
Listen to what your classmates say when they respond in class. Don’t tune
them out. Paying attention to their responses will help you form your own
response!
Hints for reading comprehension:
Just as you will not always understand every word you hear in a conversation, you will
not necessarily understand every word you encounter in a reading selection. Don’t
stop reading! Skip over the words you don’t know, look for the words you DO know
and try to get the “gist” of the selection. Try to guess the meanings of words you
don’t know. Guess?? Yup, GUESS! It’s ok to guess the meanings of words, there’s a
great chance you’ll be right!
Hints for writing:
You’ll receive vocabulary lists throughout the school year that will help you when you
need to write original sentences. Organize your sentences in a logical order (you’ll
begin to recognize Spanish sentence structure the more we practice in class). There
are dictionaries in the back of your Spanish book with helpful vocabulary, and on the
shelving unit, but try not to rely too heavily on a Spanish/English dictionary. It’s not
that bilingual dictionaries are bad, but they often offer several translations for the
same word. As a beginning language student, you might not know which translation
will make sense in your sentence. If in doubt, use a word you already know how to
say, or ask ME which translation makes sense! As a final hint: never prepare your
paragraphs in English and attempt to translate word for word. It’s much easier and
much less complicated (and less frustrating!) to write from scratch in Spanish!