Chapter 3: Sound Play
There are a crazy amount of sounds that compose languages across cultures and you can only hear the sounds that are recognized within your language. Wyner supports this claim with the research of minimal tests or the ability to recognize a small difference in sound between two items i.e. the letters l & r. To train your ears to hear the differences you must learn how to pronounce your target lang (TL) effectively. According to Wyner, this includes the use of not only your ears but your mouth and your eyes. Finally, he talks about a good accent as being important because "it is the ultimate gesture of empathy. It connects you to another person's culture in a way words never can, because you have bent your body as well as your mind to that person's culture" (p. 65). To achieve a good accent, he recommends the following FREE sites: Forvo & Rhinospike. I introduced my Ss to forvo and they are amazed with it :D
Chapter 4: Word Play & the Symphony of a Word
"Translations strip the music out of words" (p.85) so we must stick to teaching meaning through the context of the targeted vocabulary words. As I interpreted it, he argues that we should then plan teaching the symphony of our language through frequency lists as they will foster an almost immediate gratification for student (S) effort. He warns against using the frequency lists found all over the internet and recommends purchasing a hardback edition. As teachers resources can be expensive so here is the link to a Spanish frequency dictionary he recommends that you can probably slowly print off at school ;) According to Wyner, we should be able to recognize 75% of what we read if we learn the 1st 1,000 words that we read. This sounds GREAT! I plan on comparing my county vocabulary lists to this one and seeing which words I need to add. P.S....If you also use Avancemos feel free to message me or comment below so we can collaborate :)
Wyner also speaks about how to create STRONG multi sensory memories for words by combining the following 1. spelling 2. sound 3. meaning 4. personal connection. He recommends using google images to search for words in the TL and looking through the images to discover the meaning and to select which image you will use to remember it (the one you can reference on a flash card).
Finally, he addresses the most dreaded part of instruction by Ss:grammar with the mnemonic imagery game. In this game, you visualize parts of speech or grammatical rules doing things. As an example he says when learning vocabulary imagine all the masculine nouns exploding, all the feminine nouns catching fire & neuter items shattering like glass.
Chapter 5: Sentence Play
"First you learn the instrument, then you learn the music, then you forgot all that s*** and just play" -Charlie Parker
As language educators we know and Wyner restates that 1. input must be comprehensible for student buy in and 2. we follow the following developmental stages when we learn a language as an adult or as a child: 1. simple sentences: sleep, eat, run 2. the -ing of verbs 3. is -ing 4. irregular past tense 5. regular past tense 6. 3rd person present tense. Wyner also highlights that TEXTBOOKS & CURRICULUM DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ORDER and although Ss may be able to skip this order they can only master something on a workbook page NOT IN SPEECH because speech is too fast and it requires us to follow this lovely order. The key to helping in the progression is not throwing away your grammar instruction but by giving Ss lots of input with just a little of the meta language this is how we form the regular tense instruction. On the S side, Wyner argues that Ss should create cards with sentences containing blanks for these grammatical concepts I.E. My homework was _________ by my dog. These type of cards will help with abstract vocab i.e. of & by.
The best way to improve your grammar and vocab is through writing Wyner states and even better when you make mistakes doing it. He encourages using those mistakes to further your knowledge of the language by playing a "what is wrong game" with your own mistakes after they have been corrected and explained.
Chapter 6: The Language Game
This chapter is FULL of input strategies outlined in brief.
- Audiobooks: How did you acquire your knowledge of vocab in English? Reading! Weyner suggests reading a book the Ss already know in the TL with the audiobook playing in the background. This is a wonderful opportunity to find out about which books the kids have read and maybe re-introduce them to some of those kids books that they LOVE when compared to reading Othello.
- Popular TV shows: Watch shows after making sure the Ss have character knowledge by exploring the Wikipedia page in English then in the TL. Don't use subtitles because then the kids are practicing reading NOT listening.
- Taboo!: Play the game using your vocab words. This is the game where you must describe the word without saying it to try to get everyone in your group to decipher what word it is that you have. Teaching circumlocution in a game!
- Chats: Verbling, Live Mocha & italic are all sites to practice with native speakers. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing this only with parental permission and heavy monitoring.
Chapter 7:Epilogue
Reasons to learn a language. Great first day of class homework reading?
On a side note, I want others to collaborate with me about their thoughts on the book as I know (through twitter) that some teachers were inspired to buy it based on the quotes I uploaded to twitter, @Sralandes #followme #ifollowback.
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