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What can I do to practice Spanish?
Often times students ask, “What can I do to practice Spanish?” Here are some suggestions: Do your homework! Make sure you study *at least* 2 hours for each credit of your class (i.e. if you're taking a 5 credit class, then you should study 10 hours a week outside of class). Next, it may be beneficial to distinguish between practicing Spanish and practicing particular targeted material.
Practicing Spanish
When it comes to practicing Spanish try to think of the four principle parts of language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. When it comes to listening and speaking perhaps the best way to practice is by speaking with other Spanish speakers. Please begin to consider the people with whom you are going to speak. That is, you are learning to speak Spanish, and hopefully with the intention of speaking Spanish with a native speaker(s). You should begin by becoming aware of who these people may be in your community/city and become more learned about their culture. This means doing something fun, like searching out restaurants, night clubs, theaters, volunteer positions, and events oriented around Spanish-speaking cultures. You can start with the City Pages and/or searches on the internet. There are conversational groups around the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro Area. One can also get great practice by reading. Start by reading any literature or cultural notes in each chapter of your textbook in chronological order (this will kill two birds with one stone, as you will also be preparing for future classes). You may also read short stories. NOTE: When reading (especially paragraphs and short stories) read the whole thing first even if you don’t understand it, circling only words you believe to be essential for comprehending the text. Next, re-read the paragraph or short story and try to decipher the meaning of the underlined words from the context. Only then consult a dictionary, looking up only the one or two words that you feel are essential to comprehension of the main ideas. You can also go the library, and start, perhaps, with children’s books. When you get bored of the content, move on to short novels etc. It may seem overwhelming at first, but over time it gets easier. Next, listening exercises can be very helpful. Watching TV and films can be good practice, and movies are awesome, even with subtitles in English at first. However, it’s very important to try to listen to what they’re saying in Spanish. Later try to watch the movie without subtitles or with subtitles in Spanish (although often times the subtitles in Spanish do not coincide with the spoken dialogue, and, therefore, can be distracting, even confusing). After watching a couple of different movies, watch yet another for the first time purely in Spanish, without subtitles and then again a second time with them in Spanish. There is also a Spanish-speaking AM radio station - 630am. Again, don’t try to understand everything at first just pick out what you can understand, and let the rest take place through ‘osmosis’ – i.e. repeated practice. However, again, the best way to learn to speak Spanish is to give yourself a ‘real’ reason with whom to do so. This can mean being immersed in a Spanish-speaking culture, where you are forced to have human oral communication in Spanish – where you have to use Spanish to ask for a glass of water – where you have to speak Spanish to find out where the bathroom is etc. It can also mean having a Spanish-speaking friend (preferably someone with whom you speak little or no English). As an MCTC student you may also work with a tutor in the Learning Center. For more information about the learning Center click below - Learning Center.
Particular Targeted Material
When practicing particular targeted material see the grammar execises on the Learning Spanish - Grammar page.
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Practice Spanish |