I am now at the half-way point of my 10 week beginners Spanish course which amongst a range of learning outcomes has importantly resulted in me getting to grips with the pronunciation through reading out loud practice online and being corrected on the way thanks to tutor Lindsay! Hands on and very practical!
My approach of “Learning by self” between lessons has provided me with the golden opportunity to focus on the vocabulary around the themes and topics that I am directly involved with day to day in my Business and Education activity;
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As outlined in previous blog pages I am a big believer in turning new language learning into a personalised course centered directly around language that can be put to work! #PPUALANGS
This is illustrated in lesson 5 with Lindsay where once again I sent some text ahead of our lesson text that I was interested to read this time around which was a “role-play” scenario that I put to work in class with pupils considering their GCSE (subject options available for High School pupils to select from for study between the age of 14 and 16) with many pupils thinking ahead of our conversation that they are simply not perfect enough in their use to date of foreign languages to study and importantly acheve a good grade at exam time.
My role plays in class over recent years has involved picking out French and German teachers (literally picking on them in the nicest possible way with a request for them to engage in French/German conversation with me!) then kindly asking them to leave the classroom whilst I explain to the pupils what we are going to be talking about in French/German when the teacher returns – the teacher having no idea in advance resulting in a live, authentic and spontaneous theatre for the pupils to enjoy!
With these clasroom role plays in mind, I sent Lindsay the following text in Spanish (again using Google Translate to get the “script” in focus) which for this lesson was all about being on holiday with friends and discussing if a renowned steak restaurant (which the teacher discovers is their restaurant) is also able to offer a fish dish as my two friends love steak (so the perfect destination for them) however, due to digestive problems steak is not allowed for me but fish is! 
At the end of our conversation I ask the teacher to please feedback to the pupils on what we were talking about and it is clear that the teacher has understood everything I was saying and looking to achieve. Consequently, at this point the pupils know that I have been very well understood!
However, the crunch point and big question for the teacher now is, “how beautiful in the teachers view was my French and German” in particular, pronounciation and grammatical construction out of a mark of 10? A 10 meaning that my use of French German was beautiful by way of contrast a score of 1 very much not beautiful or a score anywhere in between.
I normally achieve a 4/5 score from teachers out of 10 which I suggest to pupils is a C grade GCSE exam result.
With this live demonstration of language in action my advice to pupils is not be put of because you do not believe that you are perfect enough to continue the study of languages because in language as we all know there are many ways of saying something and errors are always very forgivable – for me it is always been key to build language skills around vocabulary that is centered on career and working ambitions to assist in the motivation required!
Seeing a fluent conversation in front of them but then marked as a C grade has proved helpful to teachers in motivating their pupils to opt for continuing their study of International Languages highlighted here;
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And very importantly a message to pupils that this is the very start of their life journey and with their C grade exam result built around their own specific vocabulary this is the perfect foundation to hit the road running when putting their language skills to work which will only improve with time and practice!
And once again, lots of learning for me when discussing the text I created with Lindsay including fish vocab that is sure to be put to good use in Spain next month!
¿Qué sugerirías? ¿Bacalao, lubina o salmón? ¡Gracias, tiene que ser salmón para mí, por fa!
