09/01/2022
“TALKING” is not good practice when you're learning a language, but CONVERSATION is! (*read more below*)
When learning Spanish, in your individual practice time you should mostly focus on doing things that have a substantial *input* component: Reading, listening, watching shows, etc. Repeating lines that you hear and reading out loud are also helpful.
As far as the act of simply talking to yourself in the language you’re trying to learn… This really doesn’t work, even though intuitively one might think and feel that it does! Stephen Krashen, a famous Linguist who has uniquely grounded and evidence-based ideas around language acquisition, had this to say about the topic:
"If you want improve your Spanish, it will not help you to speak Spanish out loud in the car as you drive to work in the morning. It will not help you to go to the bathroom, close the door and speak Spanish to the mirror. I used to think those things help. Now I think they don't." (here's a link to the original lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiTsduRreug)
At Real Talk, our lessons focus on practical, communicative skills, and our teachers take great care to consistently give the student level-appropriate comprehensible input.
Again, “talking” (in and of itself) is NOT practicing! Conversation, listening, reading, and getting feedback from a highly proficient language partner… these things ARE good practice!
