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Languages | > | Spanish | > | Learn | > | Intensive - FSI Platiquemos - Spanish Course - Level 6 CD | Tweet |
Intensive - FSI Platiquemos - Spanish Course - Level 6 CD Buy now for $139.00 We ship worldwide. Bulk and academic discounts available -- contact us for pricing. Ships in 5 - 7 business days. Platiquemos Means Let's Talk ! Platiquemos was prepared specifically to train officers of the Foreign Service and of other United States Government agencies who are involved in foreign affairs and who need to learn to speak Spanish, and has been modified and adapted from its original format to make it applicable to a wider audience and to make it easier to read and use. The original FSI Basic Course in Spanish consists of four volumes with a total of well over 2,000 pages. In order to make the program more manageable, it has been divided it into six levels, with the original text re-formatted for clarity and simplicity and modified to make it more relevant to non-government students; also included is new cultural information and interesting illustrations.
Method Of Teaching There are two very important aspects of this method. The first is learning a relatively small body of material so well that it requires very little effort to produce it - this is called overlearning. If the student overlearns every dialogue and drill as they goes through this program, they will almost certainly make rapid progress in learning the language. The second aspect is learning to authentically manipulate the sounds, sequences, and patterns of the language. The important implication here is the reality of both the model and the imitation. The model (teacher, recording, etc.) must provide Spanish as people really speak it in actual conversations, and the student must be helped to create an accurate imitation. Above all, the normal tempo of pronunciation must be the classroom standard; slowing down is in this context distortion.
Pronunciation
Aids to Listening The acquisition of a good pronunciation is first of all the result of careful listening and imitation, plus whatever help can be obtained from initial pronunciation drills and description, and from the cues provided from "aids" such as radio, TV, or hearing native speakers converse, It is well to remember that a sizable investment in pronunciation practice early in the course will pay off handsome dividends later; correct pronunciation safely relegated to habit leaves one's full attention available for other problems of learning the language. Every unit (after the first two) is organized in the same way: Part One is the basic dialogue with a few pertinent notes; Part Two is grammar drills and discussion; Part Three is a set of recombination narratives and dialogues; Part Four, beginning with Unit 16, is selected readings.
Basic Dialogues In the first part of the text, new vocabulary is introduced mainly in the basic dialogues. Occasionally, in the illustrations of grammatical points, new words are introduced in order to fill out patterns needed to do the exercises. New words are always clearly indicated by placing them on a line by themselves, indented between the lines that are complete sentences. Since each new word is introduced in this fashion only once, the student should make every effort to learn each word as it is presented. The authors have taken pains to make sure that each word introduced will reappear many times later in the course, to help the student assimilate each word in a variety of contexts. The student should very carefully learn both the literal meaning of each individual word or phrase that is given on an indented line and the meaning that appears in the full sentences. It should not be cause for concern if the meaning or context is strikingly different from the literal meaning. In the construction of each dialogue, the Spanish was written first, and the corresponding English is its closest equivalent in meaning, not necessarily a literal translation. (Platiquemos provides literal translations for basic sentences for comparison purposes.) You should therefore not be surprised if the Spanish does not seem to "follow" the English perfectly - or sometimes at all. Drills and Grammar Each unit can in some ways be likened to a musical theme with variations - the basic dialogues are the theme, and the drills provide the variations. Patterns of the structure of the language which have been learned in the basic sentences are expanded and manipulated in the drills. There are four kinds of drills in each unit (three before Unit 6). Of these, two are designed to systematically vary selected basic sentences within the structure and vocabulary the student has already learned. A further two are oriented toward the structure of the language to provide a systematic coverage of all important patterns. All of these drills are planned to be easily and rapidly answered, and can be done orally. If you find a particular drill to be hard, the difficulty probably arises out of inadequately mastering the dialogues and earlier drills. The drills are not problems to be worked out like mathematics, and the ability to do them, not figure them, is indicated by the nature of the course. There are no tricks in them, and they are not intended as tests. Pattern drills are presented in a format which provides both practice and explanation. First there appears a presentation of the pattern to be drilled, then various kinds of drills, and finally a more detailed discussion of the pattern. The presentation consists of a listing of basic sentences (and a few new sentences when necessary) which illustrate the grammar point to be drilled. Then there is an extrapolation which shows the relationships involved in the pattern in a two-dimensional chart, which is further explained by a short note or two. This presentation should provide sufficient clues to enable the student to understand and use the pattern correctly in the drills that follow. These drills are mainly exercises that make substitutions, responses, and translations, highlighting the grammar points covered. They are devised for oral answers to oral stimuli. After the drills there is a more detailed discussion of the pattern drilled; these descriptions are written in a condensed and somewhat technical fashion. While an effort was made to keep these discussions clear and readable, it must be recognized that a description of a language is a technical subject, and simplification can only be attained by sacrificing accuracy or at a cost of a great many more words than space allows. Students who work through these discussions by a careful reading will find that they are acquiring a set of analytical tools that will be useful throughout the remainder of their career in language learning.
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