More on the Four Skills Approach
Taken at Spanish Forum Language Institute
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Students
who wish to go beyond the simplified series will transfer in to a higher
level in this series. The Skill of Reading A
conversation-based vocabulary of individual words and pre-cast phrases
derived from practical everyday situations of work, travel and common
communication terminology is presented at the beginning of each lesson.
Various
written exercises including graded readings develop the skill of reading,
which includes learning the words and idiomatic expressions of conversational
Spanish. The Skill of Writing The
mechanics of sentence construction are presented from the first
lessons. A tongue-tied student results from deficiency in the skill of
sentence construction. Vocabulary and language items are presented with
exercises on sentence construction. The Skill of Listening The
listening skill is practiced by viewing the episodes of the acclaimed Destinos
Television Series. These are half-hour video episodes to which each
Practical Spanish lesson is matched. This bridges the gap from the
way the language looks on paper to how it sounds when spoken. The
videos are viewed either in class or outside class at the student's option. The Skill of Speaking For
most adult students this is the most difficult skill. Each lesson
concludes with a section called De improviso... . These are
role-playing situations between student and teacher based on the testing
scheme of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
(ACTFL). In
these structured role plays drawn from situations in the video, all the
vocabulary and language material practiced throughout the lesson comes
together. Situations include talking on the telephone, ordering meals,
taking a cab, buying a ticket on the train, getting a hotel room and various
problems that arise in travel and life in general. The texts used are Practical Spanish Book One by John St. Clair for the beginning series of courses, (Spanish 1 - 7); Practical Spanish Book Two by John St. Clair for the intermediate series (Spanish 21-26) and Temas y lemas by John St. Clair for the advanced series (Spanish 31 - 36) |