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Something else has also been done that is extremely important. For the entire time the
students work on the exercises, everything they hear the narrator say has been an example
of perfect English. It is perfect in both its pronunciation and syntax. The students could
use this lesson from which these sample exercises were taken for two hours a day for five
days a week. If the students repeat exactly what the narrator says, they could speak
perfect English for 10 hours during that week, even though they are studying by
themselves.
These same students could probably do a written exercise using the same material. It
would be a cognitive exercise, but it would not involve any retraining of their mouths or
hearing. They would probably work on it for two hours or less during the week. The
results would be negligible in terms of producing fluent spoken English.
You will want to establish an effective training experience when you study your target
language. If you want to be successful, you must avoid complacency with written
exercises. Your goal is to advance to effective spoken language learning.
However, it will be difficult. There is no way that you can repeat the same sentences
enough times to retrain your mind, mouth, and hearing without becoming weary in the
process. That is the price you must be willing to pay in order to efficiently learn to speak
a new language fluently.
[1]
This sentence gives an opportunity to illustrate one of the design criteria behind the Spoken
English Learned Quickly lessons. Your first response would be to think that a sentence like, "She
promised to own it," is grammatically correct, but would never be used in normal speech.
However, let's say, for instance, that a somewhat abrasive college sorority sister was known for
her duplicity. During a hotly debated decision, she got her way on an issue by promising that she
would take responsibility for the outcome. True to form, when the plan failed, this sorority sister
blamed someone else for its failure. In the next meeting, an angry sorority sister made the
comment, "But she promised to own it." Standing alone in a verb drill, this sentence appears as
though it would never be used in normal speech. In fact, it has a very specialized, colloquial
Chapter 7: Studying the Verb 40
Learning to Speak a Second Language
meaning that could well be used as expressed in this sorority illustration. An important purpose
in the design of the Spoken English Learned Quickly course is to teach the language students to
effectively manipulate the language. Every attempt is made to avoid nonsensical sentences in
language drills. Nonetheless, it is important for students to have a full command of correct
English. The best way to do that when possible is to teach every usable form of each verb.
For the same reason that we want students to learn cognitive word forms in order to manipulate
the language when they need to create a word during a conversation, we also want them to
understand a statement that is dependent on a verb construction even when they have not yet
learned a particular expression. As a point of interest, whenever there was a similar uncertainty
during the design of an exercise sentence, the test of its viability was that a plausible situation
could be constructed as in the story above in which the sentence could have a colloquial use.
This lengthy explanation is given because we want to encourage you to design your own
language drills in order to include a complete though always realistic use of your target
language.
Chapter 7: Studying the Verb 41
Chapter 8: Making the Feedback Training Method Work
Chapter summary: This chapter explains how you can use the Feedback Training
Method to effectively double your language learning rate as you learn to speak a
second language.
The Feedback Training Method will then be applied to two settings in which you
might study. The first setting would be formal language study in an established
school. The second would be language study in an area without adequate schools,
requiring that you establish your own language program. In the latter case, the
practical problems involved in developing the course and in selecting and training a
language helper are discussed.
his chapter will give you some practical suggestions in applying the Feedback
T Training Method to your language study, helping you to gain fluency as quickly as
possible. From past experience with the Spoken English Learned Quickly course, it is fair
to say that these methods can help you double the rate at which you acquire a new
language. That is, in hour-for-hour of study, you can reach the same fluency level in six
months that you would otherwise reach in a full year of study relying only on an
established school's program. This language-learning rate should be just as attainable
when using your own program in an area where formal instruction is limited.
In order to succeed, however, you must remember the four rules that were previously
given in Chapter 3:
1. To learn to speak a language correctly, you must speak it aloud.
2. To learn to speak a language fluently, you must think in that language.
3. The more you speak a language aloud, the more quickly you will learn to speak
fluently.
4. You must never make a mistake when you are speaking.
There is no alternative to committing a great amount of time to language study. If you
are devoting full time to it, then try to spend a full eight hours a day, five days a week on
language study. Ideally, that will be eight hours devoted to actual speaking by means of
recorded exercises and newspaper reading. If you are enrolled in a structured class, you
will need to supplement your class and preparation time with additional newspaper
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