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 The Complete Guide to I

Language
How to learn a language with the least amount of difficulty
and the most amount of fun

Gill James
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Published by How To Content,
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© Copyright 2003 Gill James

First published in paperback 2003

First published in electronic form 2007

ISBN: 978 1 84803 107 4

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 Contents

Preface 9

1 What's in It for Me? 13

In this first chapter you are invited to analyse why
you are learning a foreign language and what you want
to get out of your course. For example, how will you use
the language aferwards? You must decide how much
time you can give to your learning. Are your expectations
realistic? And if not, what can you change?

2 How Should I Learn? 24

In this chapter you put your own language learning
package together - any way that suits you! You will be
shown the various types of course available, you'll
examine your learning style and find the type of course
which best suits you. There are lots of settings in which
the course can take place - in an institution, at home, in
the office, in small groups, by phone, online or offline.

3 Get Organised 40
Before you invest in equipment such as writing materials,
audio equipment, PC, dictionary, course book and
grammar book, find out what's best. With tips on how
you might organise written work and use multi-media
6 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

equipment you'll know how to make the most of time

you devote to your language learning.

4 Develop the Magpie Instinct 56

Be proactive - collect language all the time. However,
avoid the trap of writing down every new word and be
sure to make the most of the ones you do write down.
Above all have fun with your language.

5 Go Native 66
Your contact with native speakers is your most effective
learning tool. We look at ways of making contact: have
an e-mail partner or penfriend; go on an exchange visit;
become friends - or even lovers - with your learning
partner. Live your new language.

6 Talk the Hind Leg Off a Donkey - in Any Language 75

Start to make the most of the language you know by
putting it into practice. You can obtain new patterns of.
language for free and have some fun in the process.
Discover what to do when, as a result of your increasing
fluency, people who don't know you answer in an
enthusiastic torrent.

7 Completing the Jigsaw Puzzle 86

Reading in a foreign language is different from reading
in the mother tongue. Yet it can be surprisingly easy to
use a mixture of common sense and existing knowledge
to decode written or printed material. In this chapter you
are given tips on how to put in the missing pieces of the
puzzle - and how to obtain free reading materials with
which to practise.
 CONTENTS / 7

8 Cloning and Adapting 94

Even in a very short time, you will meet numerous
patterns of language. You can move them from one area
to another, add in other words or even clone a letter in
your chosen language. The amount of language you can
use will grow overnight - own the language you know!

9 Putting in the Backbone 107

Yes, language does have structure and this is called
grammar. It's not a complex set of rules invented to
confuse - it's a system which evolved to clarify meaning.
Without grammar, a language can be like a blob of jelly.
And every language needs to convey the same so.rt of
meanings. Discover the five main things and see it isn 't
beyond you! Get to grips with the basics and you are in
control of your language.

10 Eyes Wide Open 126

Make your time abroad a linguistic adventure by using
your eyes, ears and other senses. Every business trip or
family holiday can be an opportunity to 'collect' even
more language.

11 Have a Go 138
Ready to risk your version of your language on a native
speaker? Find more chances for trying it out in the
foreign country and at home. Maximise your practice
sessions by being proactive and finding sources of help.

12 What Next? 146

It's time to look at what you've achieved and what you'd.
still like to know. Do you want to delve deeper into the
8 / THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

language and the cultural insights that that brings? It

might be time to reassess your goals and consider a new
learning style.

13 Keeping It Ticking Over 158

You have attained the goals identified in Chapter 1 and
have decided to either go further or maintain your
language at the level you have reached. Now you need
some strategies for continuing to learn your language
without even noticing.

Appendix 1: Levels of Competence. .167

Appendix 2: Language Courses. 171
Appendix 3: Materials. 177
Appendix 4: Some Further Reading 181
Appendix 5: Useful Web Sites 183
Appendix 6: Cloned Letter 2 185

Index 187
 Preface

It was the bubble gum which started it for me. Little packs
were sold at the tuck shop near to my primary school. A
rectangular piece of card held the gum flat in its waxed paper
pack. There was a national flag printed on one side of the
card, on the other a few useful phrases from the language of
the country involved. How our journeys to school were
enhanced as we practised on each other the phrases we had
acquired from last night's chewing! Woe betide he or she
who had not chewed enough to know that 'Tengo ocho anas'
was a statement about your age and not an invitation to a
sexy Latin American dance.

Then came the delights of the Children's Encyclopaedia.

Many a Sunday morning, whilst my parents had a lie-in, was
spent skipping from section to section finding the stories
in French, which were well illustrated, and translated into
English below. And delight of delights, sandwiched between
the French and the English, a phonetic spelling of how the
French sounded. Reading it aloud, taking on the roles of
the various characters was such fun!

Not that it has always been joyful. That moment of panic, at

the end of the first year in secondary school, when I told
myself that I knew very little French, even though I had
1 0 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

performed well in every lesson and in every piece of home-

work. Being plunged into the deep end of A-level German
after just two years of two lessons a week, and struggling for
three hours with the first piece of homework. Being tongue-
tied on my first visit to France, even though I had been
learning French for a long time.

But there have been times of great joy. Like seeing my own
pupils, just at the end of their second year of French, cope
with following directions, ordering food and shopping in
French. No, they did more than cope. They performed.
When I was a student myself and worked in a small group,
we were often joined by the German assistant. Two teachers,
therefore, to three pupils. We discussed everything under the
sun, put the world right and read not just the set books,
but everything of significance written by the authors con-
cerned. And then some. We stopped noticing it was a foreign
language. Or my own son, on our return to England after
living for two years in Holland, complaining that the other
kids didn't understand the extra bits of language he could
use. He meant the Dutch he had acquired by playing with
other children from our street.

Gradually, gradually, over the years, I have noticed what

actually makes it happen, what makes it all come together.
Recently, I have been able to put that into practice with my
private pupils, and have been astonished and delighted by
the results. If only I had known all this sooner! When I first
started on my own language learning for instance or when I
started teaching others. We would have attained our goals
more rapidly. I hope this book will offer you a short cut.
 P R E F A C E / 11

But the fun doesn't have to stop there. My level of under-

standing and appreciation in all of my languages is way
beyond what I had hoped for in the bubble gum days or even
had aspired to in obtaining a degree. I now have many
meaningful friendships with speakers of other languages.
The process does not end. Instead, you go in deeper and
deeper until, aided by your willingness to understand, you
touch the very soul of the other.

Gill James
This page intentionally left blank
 1

What's in It for Me?

In this chapter you are invited to work out:

4 why you are learning a language

+ what you want to be able to do by the end of your course

4 how much time you can give to your study

4 whether your expectations are realistic

4 how to know when you are succeeding.

REASONS FOR LEARNING

The usual reasons for learning a foreign language are many
and varied.

1. You may, for example, be asked to learn a new language

for your company. It may make sense to learn German if you
are working for BMW, but may seem less appropriate for
Ford. In theory, though, we are expected to sell to customers
in their home land and through their language. In practice,
we tend to employ native speakers of that language to do our
selling. But here's a thought. Who sells best, a linguist with
no selling skills, or a sales manager who has acquired some
foreign language?
14 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

2. You may have work contacts abroad where it would be

useful to speak their language. My husband decided to
learn Dutch because a lot of Dutch colleagues came to his
meetings in England. There was very little problem with
communication. Most Dutch people speak fluent English
anyway. But they did have the irritating habit of having a
meeting after the meeting in their own language. It was very
threatening to those people who did not understand them.
So, my husband took himself off to evening class, and at the
next meeting was able to understand a fair amount of what
they were saying. None of it was threatening in fact, but it
would have been useful if they had shared their after-
thoughts with everyone. He then spoke to them in quite
sophisticated Dutch, using a phrase he had learnt especially
for the occasion. They didn't know that of course, and were
duly impressed. After that, they expressed their last minute
considerations in English to everyone or in Dutch to my
husband. The meetings became more useful generally.

3. You may need an extra qualification. A GCSE or similar

in a language may be good. Perhaps you didn't manage that
at school. A good pass in a language is still the most
respected after English, maths, science and any other subject
you may wish to study in higher education. Students entering
primary education training in Great Britain now have to
have a good pass in their first foreign language - they're
going to have to teach it soon!

4. You may be going to live abroad, or perhaps you holiday

frequently or have a holiday home in a certain country. It is
more fun if you can communicate with the people who
live there. But you will probably need to learn an entirely
 W H A T ' S IN IT FOR ME? / 15

different sort of language from the man who is trying to sell

an American car produced in England to the Italians. That is
why so often those of us who have done well in school find
ourselves tongue-tied when we get out there; we learnt the
wrong sort of French. And how far do you want to go? Do
you just want to be able to cope with the shopping and
understand the bills? Or do you want to be able to chat over
the fence or over a nice bottle of the local wine, and put the
world right?

5. You may just enjoy languages. You perhaps got on well

with French at school. You liked getting your mouth around
the words. The actor in you relished taking on a role. You
were fascinated by the way language is structured. Now you
want to take it further or you want to try out another
language. Well, go for it!

Many people go to language classes to meet other people. I

learnt Breton for that reason. I was doing the French part of
my year abroad as a student. Unfortunately, they put all
the foreign students together in a hall of residence. We
communicated in French, but it wasn't French French. In
order to meet French people, I joined a choir, played basket-
ball and learnt Breton. And in learning Breton, I understood
a lot more about the culture of Brittany and made many
Breton-speaking friends.

You may join an adult education class to help pass lonely

evenings and keep you in contact with other people if you
lead an otherwise solitary life. That would also be true if you
studied Chinese brush painting. But if you learn a foreign
16 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

language there is also the exciting possibility of getting to

know someone from another culture as well.

Often there is more than one reason or our reasons change

as we go along. But if we are clear why we are learning, we
can be clear about what we want from our course, and
choose the right one.

ANALYSE YOUR REASONS FOR LEARNING

Study the list below. Award each reason marks out of five.
0 = not relevant, 5 = a very strong reason. In brackets I have
put the marks I gave for learning Dutch as a guide.

4 my firm wants me to learn it - I'm not sure why (0

*• I have work contacts with people who use this language

(2)
* I would like an extra qualification (1)

+ I am going to live abroad (5)

* I go abroad a lot on holiday (3)

* I enjoy languages (3)

4 I want to be sociable (4)

Now take the three reasons with the highest score and make
them into a 'must' statement. If you have more than one
with any of the three highest scores, include all of them.
Hence my statement comes out as the following:
 W H A T ' S IN IT FOR ME? / 17

'We are going to live in Holland for row years. I want

to make a lo6t of friends therem including =Dutch ones, I
always enjoy learining languages. I must lera enough
Dutch in order to be able to do this/

If you have any statements left, make a 'might' statement

from the next lowest:

' I might also work there and the contacts might be

Dutch speaking.;

Finally if you have anything left, do a 'could even' statement:

'I coukd evebn geyt anbtoher qyalifiecation in ti if one

exists that fits in with what I am doing.'

WORKING OUT WHAT YOU WANT TO KNOW AND WILL

BE ABLE TO DO
Now take your 'must' statement. Try to reduce it to note
form. My 'must' came out as 'Enjoy living in Holland'. That
statement is going to lead to a mind map which will help you
to work out exactly what you are looking for in a language
course. The mind map in Figure 1 shows my plans mind map
for learning Dutch.
Fig.1. Mind.map1.
 W H A T ' S IN IT FOR ME? / 19

To make a mind map, you put the 'must' statement in the

middle of a 'cloud'. For the first branches going off, think
what you actually might want to do, e.g. 'Finding my way
around' . Think of as many things as you can and surround
your cloud with them. Then break each one down into
what that entails - in this case, understanding and giving
directions, understanding and giving road numbers and
asking 'where is?'. Carry on working until you have covered
the page. You may like to use different colours or different
fonts for different layers. There is a computer programme
for writing mind maps - MindMan Personal for those who
prefer to work with computers. I like feeling the pen on the
paper at this planning stage.

In the top left-hand corner add a question to do with your

'might also' statement and in the bottom right one to do with
your 'could even' statement.

You now have a checklist against which to assess the

suitability of any course. If you choose an 'off the peg'
course it is unlikely that you will get an exact match. The
question at the top left-hand corner and the bottom right
may help you to decide. If some of the mind map ideas are
missing but one or both of those questions are answered,
then the course you are looking at might be suitable.

FINDING THE TIME

We do have to be realistic. My mind map takes my Dutch up
to quite a high level. As a linguist, I know full well that
'putting the world right' - being able to discuss politics,
the World Cup and current affairs in a foreign language -
20 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

requires near native speaker skills. However, I had the

advantage at the time of living in the country, which
accelerates the learning process vastly and I already had
most of the knowledge about language learning which I am
now giving to you.

I almost made it. I hadn't yet worked out how to cope with
the reluctance of the Dutch to let you struggle with their
language, or how to respond when they answered my simple
but perfectly formed question in a torrent. That is dealt with
later in this book.

But even if you are not living in the country where your
new language is spoken, you can create yourself more time.
Consider the following:

* Getting up half an hour earlier.

* Going to bed half an hour later.

* Listening to a tape or CD whilst ironing, gardening,

driving, exercising, walking the dog - or any other
solitary activity you can think of.

4 Watching TV for half an hour less a day.

+ Spending 20 minutes (or another amount of time) of your

lunch break.

* Converting some of your leisure time into something to

do with your language e.g. watching French TV, reading
an Italian magazine, listening to a German football
commentary or looking at Dutch web sites.
 W H A T ' S IN IT FOR ME? / 21

4 Socialising with a native speaker or other learner of your

language in that language.

Now try this

Work out the total amount of time you can spend on your
language.

1. Include the amount of time for formal lessons e.g. a

two-hour class per week, three hours per week using the
CD, or two half-hour sessions per week on a phone
course.
2. Now write down what you can do for how long from the
list above.
3. Add up the total amount of time.
4. Next, you need to work out how long it would take you to
achieve everything on your mind map. Bear in mind that
many professional actors learn their lines by reading the
whole play 12 times through during three days. Think
back to how long it took you to learn pieces of poetry or
quotations at school. Each section on your mind map is
going to take as long as learning a poem. Then you have
learnt a pattern which is repeatable with other vocabulary
- providing you learn that as well.

Following the suggestions in this book, with one hour

per week formal instruction plus as much 'stolen' time as
possible, most of my mind map is achievable in two years.
The 'putting the world right' may take another two.
221 T H E C O M P L E T E G U I D E T O L E A R N I N G A LANGUAGE

HOW DO I KNOW I AM SUCCEEDING?

Once a week look at your mind map. Tick off everything you
know really well. Ring in pencil what you have met but are
still not sure of. Put a pencil question mark by anything you
have not covered in a given topic - e.g. I may feel that
we have not completed enough number work to do with
shopping.

Are you on target? If it is halfway through the time you have

allowed, have you ticked half of the items off? Can you
concentrate in your own learning time on those bits which
you have ringed? If working with a teacher, can you ask for
more work on that topic?

As the weeks go by, the rings and question marks should be

turning into ticks.

The level of operational competence

This is my definition of a useful place to be. This is more
fully explained in Appendix 1. Basically, you have enough
skills in the language and enough knowledge of it to be
able to make yourself understood and understand others in
a variety of everyday situations. With a little more of a
struggle, you can can chat on the 'putting the world right'
level and you can write in a simplified form with anything
you can write in your own language, but you will rely
much more on dictionaries, grammar books and examples of
writing in your chosen language.

Even if you are not studying a European language, you may

find the European Languages Passport interesting. It has
been developed by the Council of Europe. Some languages
 W H A T ' S IN IT FOR ME? / 23

courses are registered for it, and you can have yourself
assessed fairly formally through the scheme. It is quite a
complex process and involves keeping a portfolio of your
work.

The level descriptions can be very useful. There are six levels
- Al, A2, Bl, B2, Cl, C2 in the areas of listening, reading,
speaking (spoken interaction), speaking (spoken production)
and writing. Level Bl is the equivalent of a good GCSE
and of my level of operational competence, in my opinion
achievable by everyone who follows this book, within two
years of having one formal lesson a week, and is the level
at which the language becomes realistically useful. This
includes being able to understand speech on familiar
matters, read texts containing everyday language, cope in
everyday situations such as shopping, describe dreams and
ambitions, narrate a simple story and write personal letters
describing experiences and impressions. I would also say
that level Bl is similar to the National Curriculm Level 6.
The National Curriculum levels describe the performance of
school children. See Appendix 1 for more details.

THE STOPY SO FAR

.... You have looked at why you want to learn a fgorgin

language.

......You have worked out what you want to achieve,

..... You have looked at how much time tyou can give.

.....You know how to monitior your progerss,

 2

How Should I Learn?

In this chapter you:

* look at the different types of course which you can take

4 look at the different settings where you can study your

language

4 look at your own learning style

+ put together your own language course.

TYPES OF COURSE
There is a great variety of courses available. This section
describes the different types of courses, their advantages and
disadvantages, and which type of learner they suit.

Local authority classes

These take place in schools and adult education centres.
They are one of the cheapest options. They are typically two
hours per week, with a break in the middle, during term
time. The pace is often quite gentle, unless you join an
exam class. Many local authorities assign levels to different
classes. These do to some extent mirror the levels for the
European Passport. However, they do vary from area to
 HOW S H O U L D I L E A R N ? / 25

area, so you need to check with the centre to find out what
the various levels mean. In my area for example, Level 1 is
for beginners. Level 7, where I went to a class in Spanish
for many years, is post A-level. We were working towards
degree-level language, but without the rigorous study of
culture and literature.

Look out also for the Get-By series, which usually last about
six weeks and give you just enough language to cope when
you go on holiday.

Most of these courses are centred on a text book, so that if

you have to miss a week you can catch up easily. Also, the
teachers are usually very hard working and often produce
many of their own handouts.

Advantages
Good value for money, usually good fun with end of term
parties and trips out included. They are easy to find. They
always use qualified tutors.

Disadvantages
Pace can sometimes be slow and may depend on other
members of the group. Some schools and centres can be a bit
grim, especially in the winter.

Learning style suited

For people who like learning in a group, and appreciate the
discipline of having to attend every week, possibly com-
pleting some homework each time.
2 6 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

University continuing education departments

These are very similar to local authority classes, but are
more demanding. They tend to be three hours per week, and
a beginner's class would bring you up to that important level
of operational competence (see Appendix 1), equivalent to a
good GCSE and the first level at which you can really
use the language usefully, within one year. They are a little
more expensive than the local authority classes, but this just
reflects the extra length of time. Again, they will often
feature a course book and the tutor's own materials, but in
both cases, these are harder.

Advantages
Highly qualified tutors are used. The pace is fast, and if
you can keep up with the course, you will learn rapidly. As
these are university based, you usually have access to good
resources, including video labs and self study materials.

Disadvantages
The pace can be too fast sometimes, and there is a general
assumption that the students understand languages and the
language learning process.

Learning style suited

These courses suit people who already have competence in
another language, perhaps at A-level or above. They would
also be good for students who are learning just because they
are interested in languages, and who want to make rapid
progress.

Business language schools

There are many of these, and quality can vary. You need to
 HOW S H O U L D I L E A R N ? / 27

refer to your mind map to see whether one of these schools

has a programme which will suit you. There are some well
known names - Ceran, Berlitz and the Goethe Institute. All
of these offer courses with qualifications which are recog-
nised world-wide. They use very experienced teachers. The
pace varies, according to which course you choose. Each
course has very clear objectives and it is rare for a student
not to attain the goals set.

Advantage.s
These courses are geared towards the business world. They
have clear goals, which students usually meet. They tend to
employ native speakers, who are well trained in the school's
methods.

Disadvantages
They might suit business in general, not particularly your
business. They can be very expensive.

Learning style suited

Anyone learning for business and who is expecting to make
rapid progress. However, it is never just a matter of attend-
ing the lesson. You will be expected to so some work on your
own. You may still be able to do this in your firm's time.

Tailor-made lessons
There are a few small language schools appearing now which
offer tailor-made lessons. Your first contact with a teacher
from such a school will be to establish why, what and how
you want to learn. You will go through a similar process to
what you are doing now and what you did in the previous
chapter. Then your tutor negotiates with you what your
2 8 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

lessons will be like. There is also constant negotiation as

you go along as to whether you are meeting your goals or
whether you want to change them.

Many of these schools, like my own, Bridge House Lan-

guages, have been set up by individuals who have a wealth of
experience in the world of foreign languages. They choose
their tutors carefully, and give them ongoing training and
support. Sometimes, they will actually recommend another
type of course, either instead of or to supplement their own.

Advantages
You do get a course which suits you ideally. You can also
take your lessons when and in which setting fits you best.
You have a very personal relationship with your tutor.

Disadvantages
These courses can be expensive. You are having to pay the
tutor not just for the time they are teaching you, but also for
preparation time and in some cases travelling time. Even
though cover is often offered if your tutor is ill or on holiday,
many people prefer to stay with the same tutor, so many
gaps can arise - especially if your commitments take you
away at different times from your tutor.

Learning style suited

If you like to have a big say in what and how you learn, this
type of course is for you. It will also suit you if you work
unusual hours and have to travel frequently. You do need to
be prepared to put in some work between lessons, if the
course is to be effective.
 HOW S H O U L D I L E A R N ? / 29

Residential courses
These frequently take place in a country which speaks your
target language. They are often quite formal courses and are
certainly comprehensive and take you to a high standard
quickly. You can try out your language more informally in
the shops, bars and restaurants.

Advantages
These courses are by their very nature intensive. You learn a
lot very quickly. You are taken out of your normal environ-
ment and have time to concentrate just on your language. If
you regard them as a form of holiday, they are very good
value for money.

Disadvantages
You may forget just as quickly as you learnt if you don't
have the opportunity to carry on studying. All students are
accommodated together, and even if you speak your target
language amongst yourselves, it won't be proper Spanish or
Greek.

Learning style suited

This will suit the type of person who likes to focus on one
project at a time.

Home stay
These also take place in the country where your language is
spoken. However, this time you stay with a family. In some
cases, your lessons are given by a family member and even
though from an 'off the peg' course, your tutor can gear
them to your particular needs. In other cases, you actually go
to an institution to meet with other students.
3 0 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

Advantages
You can learn a lot very quickly. You can make life-long
friends at a very early stage of your learning. If regarded as a
form of holiday, they are very good value for money.

Disadvantages
If you don't have the opportunity to carry on with your
study, you can forget just as quickly. You will be sharing the
home of another family and this is not always comfortable
for everyone.

Learning style suited

This is ideal for those people who enjoy mixing with others,
and who want to learn rapidly.

Going it alone
There are many courses available where you can work on
your own. These are often based on books and CDs, such as
the Linguaphone courses. There are now many computer-
based programmes on CDs. Modern technology means that
they are interactive and you get feed-back on how well you
are doing. If you have the right sort of computer equipment
- check on the software package that you have adequate
hardware - sound files can be used easily, so that you even
have practice at speaking and listening.

Advantages
You can work at your own pace, and where, when and as
often as it suits you.
 HOW S H O U L D I L E A R N ? / 31

Disadvantages
You have no human feedback. You are working in isolation
in an area where communication with other people is an
important feature.

Learning style suited

If you have enough self-discipline, you can put yourself
together your ideal language learning package. If you can
work anywhere, for example if you are the sort of person
who opens their lap-top on the train, then you will do very
well with this sort of course. It will also suit you if you prefer
to work on your own.

The Open University

The OU's courses combine many of the features of other
universities' continuing education programmes and some of
the 'go-it-alone' resources. You study with the aid of CDs,
books, other printed materials and a video. You are linked
to a tutor who supports you and assesses your work. Some
courses include residential weeks - for example, the Summer
School in Caen for the Level 2 French courses. The courses
are fast-paced and hard-edged, and can lead to OU qualifica-
tions.

Advantages
You can to a large extent work when and as you choose, so
this is useful if you work unusual hours. Highly qualified
teachers are used. You do get some tutor support and dead-
lines, which help you to keep on target.

Disadvantages
You are working in isolation much of the time.
32 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Learning style suited

This course will suit you if you like learning on your own,
but need to have to report to someone so that you keep on
task.

SETTINGS FOR LEARNING

Now you need to consider which of these settings suits you
best. There may be more than one.

Working completely alone

The only feed-back that you get is from a tape or a com-
puter. You pace yourself and you may have to force yourself
to work. But you can work anywhere - at home, at the office,
on the train, or whilst you are waiting for a plane.

One-to-one with a tutor

You have a tutor who works only with you and their atten-
tion is undivided. You can make fast progress, because only
your learning needs are addressed. This can be very intimate
or very claustrophobic, depending on your point of view.

In a small group
You are matched with people with very similar needs to your
own. You can practise language patterns with other people
in the group. You will have to go to some extent at the pace
of the group rather than your own.

In a larger group
This course will probably be cheaper. It will be 'off the peg'
and not entirely suited to your needs, but it will be an
interesting group to work with.
 HOW S H O U L D I L E A R N ? / 33

On the phone
You work one-to-one with a tutor, usually very intensively
for half an hour. This is not usually suitable for beginners.
You can make good progress, and the lesson is absolutely
geared to your needs. But you may never meet your tutor!

On-line/off-line
You complete tutorials via a computer, either in real time or
in your own time. A human being assesses your work and
gives you feedback. You may never meet this tutor. Again,
this is not usually suitable for absolute beginners.

In your own home

The tutor comes to you, so you may have to shut the dog
away and you might want to tidy up first. You will certainly
need somewhere quiet to work. You may have to pay the
tutor travelling expenses - this could be reflected in the price
of your lesson. On the other hand, you won't incur any
travelling costs or time.

In your tutor's home

Someone who teaches in their own home will usually have
a designated space where you can work uninterrupted.
Often they choose to work at home because they have many
clients, and cannot afford to waste time travelling. And
they probably have lots of clients because they are very
good. They will also have extra resources for you readily to
hand.

In your office
A great boon if it is the company who are paying because
they want you to learn that language. You are at least then
34 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

not using your own time for the lesson. Tutors who come to
offices are usually very professional.

In an adult education centre

The centre will have taken some care in assessing the level at
which you should study. These centres often have other
facilities to support the student - such as a creche, a coffee
bar, and news about other events, such as theatre trips and
end of term parties.

In university continuing education departments

These will often have the same facilities as adult education
centres, but also provide students with access to IT rooms,
libraries, and video and language labs.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT TYPE OF COURSE

You may have a clear view now of what type of courses are
on offer, and which ones you like and in which settings you
could work. If so, just pick a type of course. It is worth
studying the chart in the section below, in any case. It
demonstrates which courses offer which settings.

Or you may feel spoilt for choice. In which case, completing

the exercise outlined below may help.

Work out which type of course offers you the best settings
1. Study the chart in Figure 2.

2. Highlight the whole column which represents your

preferred setting for working. If you have more than one
preferred setting, highlight each one.
 Adult
Working One-to- Small Larger On-line In your In turor's In your education University
alone one group group off-line Phone home home office centre centre Score

Local
quthority
classes X

Continuing
education X (X) X

Business
language
courses X X X (X) (X) X

Tailor-made
courses X X x X X

Residential
courses X X X X

Home stay X (X)

Going it
alone X

Open
university X x X X X

Fig. 2. Which type of course offers the best setting for you?
3 6 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

3. With a different colour, highlight any others which you

would also quite like.

4. Now work out a score for each row i.e. each sort of
course. Award two points for each type of course where
your first colour passes over a cross. Award one point for
every cross which your second colour crosses. If the cross
is in brackets, this means that that type of course does
not always offer this setting. Therefore, only award half
points.

5. Now turn your score into a mark out of five. Award

five points for the three highest scoring. Award four for
number four, three for number five, two for number six,
one for number seven, none for number eight. Any which
have scored zero automtically receive no marks.

Finding out which sort of course suits you

Enter the following scores in the table in Figure 3 in the
following way.

1. Look at the descriptions of learning styles. Award a mark

out of six to each type of course.

2. Look at the advantages. Give a score out of three to each

type of course.

3. Look at the general descriptions. Award a mark out of

three.

4. Fill in your setting score out of five.

Score Learning Advantages General Setting Total Disadvantage Score out
style 16 13 description /3 | /5 111 -3 of 14
Local
authority
classes

Continuing
education

Business
language
scnoois

Tailor-made
courses

Residential
courses

Home stay

Going it
alone

Open
University

Fig. 3. Which sort of course suits you?

38 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

5. Now add up your scores.

6. Study the disadvantages. Take a score out of three off

what you have so far.

This should leave you with a score out of 14.

You should have now identified the best sort of course for
you. Re-read the details for highest scoring type(s). Does
that make sense? If more than one course has come out as
the top scorer, use your own gut feeling to work out which
one is best for you. Or could you combine two or three types
of course? Could you do that anyway?

Now just look for one of those courses which has a good
match with the content of your mind map.

Appendix 2 lists many addresses and web sites of courses. It

is by no means comprehensive, and you should also conduct
your own internet searches, consult your local library or
local authority, and such publications as Yellow Pages
or Thomson Directory. I have some personal experience of
all of the ones I have listed.

THE STOPY SO FAR

... You have decided why and wawht you want to learn,

...You have looked at your learining style.

You nnhavce eaxainid which ostte of course exit,

 HOW S H O U L D I L E A R N ? / 39

..You have decided in which settings you prefer to

study.

... You hacve identified the best type of course for you.

...You hace started to look foro which course i your

favourite type offers the most appropriate contemt,
 3

Get organised

In this chapter you will:

+ make decisions about what to buy to support your

learning - dictionaries, grammar books, course books

+ look at how to include work with multi-media equipment

+ look at options about how to set out any written work

* establish a few good working practices.

By now, you have probably chosen and registered for your

course. There is possibly a little while to go before you can
start. You may be a little impatient. But if you have some
time on your hands, you can spend some of it organising
yourself for your course.

MATERIALS RECOMMENDED FOR YOUR COURSE

If you are studying at an adult education centre, a university
continuing education centre or at a business language school,
a course book will almost certainly be prescribed. The Open
University sells you its own materials, and you really do
need these. Residential courses tend to supply course books
and materials as part of the package. If you are following a
 GET O R G A N I S E D / 41

tailor-made course, you can really negotiate with your tutor

about what sorts of materials are best.

As well as the actual book you are following, your teacher

may recommend extra items, such as a dictionary or a
grammar book. They may specify certain ones, or just
recommend that you buy one. In any case, the suggestions
below will help you decide which would be the best to buy
for you.

Dictionaries
There is a lot of choice these days in what are called bi-
lingual dictionaries. They have two sections to them, for
example, French to English and English to French. They
come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, and it could
take you a while to choose.

One thing to remember is that dictionaries go out of date

very quickly. Our languages are changing all the time. I have
an excellent German-English dictionary, revised in 1999, and
produced by Oxford and Duden, respected publishers. And
yet it does not contain the word for 'links' as in computer
links. Always look carefully at the date of publication. Try to
think of a new word and see whether the dictionary contains
the word.

Many publishers are now producing bi-lingual dictionaries

on CDs. You can install them on your computer. If you
intend to do a lot of writing on your computer, these are
excellent. Some even provide a spell-checker in the target
language. However, if working with an 'inflected' language,
i.e. a language which conveys meaning by putting endings
4 2 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

on words, such as German, the computer will often not

recognise the ending, and so the spell-check is not much use.
One great advantage of CD dictionaries is that it is often
possible to down-load up-dates, so you can really keep your
dictionary current. One great disadvantage is that they won't
slip into a back pocket or a handbag.

Size is important. If the dictionary is too small, after a few

months it won't be much use to you. If you don't know the
word, it won't be in the dictionary anyway. If it is too big, it
will take a long time to use. I often recommend buying two
to my students. One big one to stay on the desk at home or a
dictionary on CD, and a smaller one. A good smaller one is
the so-called school dictionary. It is adequate up to that
all-important level of operational competence. They tend to
be quite robust, because they are designed to be kept in
school classrooms and used by up to 30 adolescents a day,
and they will fit comfortably into a briefcase or a large
handbag. If in addition you want something for when you're
travelling light and doing the town or the shops, a con-
ventional phrase book is your best bet. That really will fit
into a back pocket.

Before you buy your dictionary, look at the print. So you do

need to go to a shop. If the shop doesn't have the size you
want, you can always buy via the internet later. The print
must be of a size and clarity with which you feel comfortable.
I was a fan of Collins' dictionaries for years. The word
you look up is always in a very clear font and stands out
from the page. Recently, other publishers have adopted this
style.
 GET O R G A N I S E D / 43

And then . . . You must learn how to use your dictionary

effectively. Which can sometimes mean not using it at all,
but we'll deal with that later.

Remember, when choosing a dictionary consider:

+ print

4 size

* whether it is up to date

* whether you need more than one.

Grammar books
Grammar is a complex matter and many people fear it. We'll
be taking the fear out of it in a later chapter. And the first
step to getting rid of the fear is buying a grammar book. That
reduces it to its component parts and is a prop to you in case
you cannot remember it all.

However, there are just so many of them, and they do vary

in detail. Look at my own Selbstbedienung, which is German
grammar in a nutshell. It was designed for able students at
the end of the third year at secondary school to work on
independently. It starts with the items which are most likely
to make a bigger difference to a grade at GCSE and works
through until it has covered all areas of German grammar
briefly. Compare that with Stopp's Manual of German
Grammar. I bought that when I was still a student. It weighs
a lot. I may have caused a bit of panic in Hudson's in
Birmingham, as I put it in my bag and tried to see if I could
still carry the bag, before I paid for the book.
44 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A LANGUAGE

If you're a beginner, or even if you're brushing up on

languages you learnt at school, look out for anything with
the words Key Stage 3 in the title or description. Like
Selbstbedienung, these books, written for students only just
beginning to understand grammar, will keep it clear and
concise, with simple explanations. If you know everything in
such a book, you could still perform well even beyond Bl. I
have used Selbstbedienung with AS students. Manuals likeike
Stopp deal with subtleties and complications, and are fun to
delve into - but only when you've mastered the basics.

Your dictionary will also have a thin grammar section. Once

you know what is there, you can look certain points up very
quickly. But these sections are never complete.

Your course book will also usually have a grammar section

at the back. They tend, however, to only deal with the
grammar points that the course book specifically teaches.
This is useful when you are working through the book, but
you do need a more complete picture of your language's
grammar.

Again, you will need to visit a bookshop. Most internet

sellers will allow you to return books, but that can make
the process lengthy. You do need to check out which of the
grammar books has the clearest layout for you.

Consider also whether you understand the explanations.

Look in the contents for something you've never heard of.
Turn to that page. Do you understand now? Don't worry
about whether you'll remember, or that this is only one of
many, many points. You only need to understand for the
 GET O R G A N I S E D / 45

moment. Don't worry even if you feel as I do about explana-

tions to do with car engines or science. That you understand
now, but tomorrow you will be confused again. After all, you
are buying the book so that you can refer to it. You don't
have to remember. And eventually, after looking it up over
and over again, the point will stick. Believe me, it does.

So, in choosing a grammar book:

+ go with your teacher's choice but check that it works for

you

4 go for a simple one to start with

4 make sure the layout helps you to use it

* make sure you understand the explanations.

The course book

You may not have much choice in this either because it has
been prescribed by a teacher, or because you are studying a
more unusual language and there are only a few books.
Don't worry. Later, we shall be seeing how to get the most
out of your course book, no matter which strengths and
weaknesses it has.

But if you are studying one of the more popular languages -

French, German, Spanish or Italian - and you are following
a tailor-made course, you should give careful consideration
to your choice of book. Your tutor will probably still
recommend something, but it is worth asking them to pick
out three or four for you to choose from. Freelance teachers
should have several books, and most publishers will send
46 / T H E C O M P L E T E GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

inspection copies for teachers to look at before they decide

to buy.

Your ideal course book's content should match your mind

map from Chapter 1 as much as possible, and also fit the
time scale you have chosen. Does it also allow you to work in
the settings you have chosen and does it fit your learning
style?

Again, consider whether the layout and print suit you.

Does the book explain things well? Look at grammatical

explanations in the text and in the grammar section at the
back. Check also if there is a vocabulary list at the back of
the book. It will be quicker to look things up from the book
than using a dictionary.

Next look to see if the book suits you. Are the pictures of
people like you or like the people you enjoy being with?
Does it reflect your lifestyle?

Most importantly, look to see if the book inspires you. Do

you look at the book and feel that you can't wait to get
started? Can you see where you will be when you have
finished the course?

If you are comparing several books, you could award each

one marks out of five for the following. These questions are
probably in order of importance, so if more than one book
comes out well, look to see which has scored the most on the
earlier questions.
 GET O R G A N I S E D / 47

4 Does it inspire you?

4 Does it cover your content?

* Does it fit your time scale?

+ Does it allow you to work in your favourite settings?

+ Does it reflect your learning style?

4 Does the layout suit you?

4 Does it explain grammar well?

4 Is there a clear glossary at the back?

+ Does it reflect your lifestyle?

USING MULTI-MEDIA EQUIPMENT

Using your personal computer (PC)

Even if you have decided to enrol for a more conventional
course, your PC can really enhance your learning progress.

You may wish to supplement your course by buying a

language learning CD. To some extent, it doesn't matter
which one. Any of them bought from a reputable company
are adequate, and in the end, French is French is French.
Anything you do where you are listening and reading or
even speaking and writing is going to be good practice. But if
you are faced with a choice, do look at how well each one
matches your mind map. And do check that the software is
compatible with your hardware and operating system. A
sound card is essential, and you might also consider whether
you need speakers, a microphone and headphones.
48 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Later, we shall also look at how you can use email and the
internet for extending your learning.

There are also some authoring programs - such as Personal

Tutor, where you enter lists of vocabulary and then the
computer tests you. You do have to be careful that you enter
the vocabulary accurately.

CD/cassette player/recorder
It is worth noting that your teacher or institution pays a lot
for their CDs and cassettes. This is because they are also
buying the right to use those materials throughout their
institute. This includes permission to make copies for their
students. That fact is often overlooked or even ignored
because making copies is onerous. Push for it, though. If you
can listen to the audio material in your own time, your
listening ability can be greatly enhanced. Courses where the
cost of the cassette or CD does not include the right to copy
are a lot cheaper. La Jolie Ronde, French for children, sells
its cassettes and CDs which last over a year for about £6.50,
as compared with £45 or more for a set with other courses.

It is also worth using equipment on which you can record.

You can use this for several purposes:

4 recording parts of your lesson

4 recording yourself and listening to .yourself

+ working with a native speaker (see Chapter 5)

4 practising with another learner

4 interviewing native speakers.

 GET O R G A N I S E D / 49

The very fact that you are recording your speech sharpens
your effort.

However, don't rush out and buy a lot of new audio equip-
ment. Make use of what you have for the moment. If you
don't have your own, try to borrow some. Wait until you
have been going a few weeks, so that you can work out what
you really need.

Television and video equipment

A great way of learning is to watch television. This takes out
some of the struggle of decoding the words as so much of it is
visual. I remember once being very proud of myself because
I had recorded ET in German. There is actually very little
speech in that film. At least my students enjoyed themselves
whilst they watched and they all remember how to ask if
they can use the phone when they are on an exchange visit.

If you don't have access to television from the country whose

language you are studying, you may be able to get your
college or your 'learning partner' (see Chapter 5) to make
some recordings for you.

Using a camcorder to film yourself and your classmates

can be helpful too. You can see if your body language is
matching what you are saying. Body language is an
important part of communication, and is often different in
different languages. You can also use your camcorder when
you are visiting the country which speaks your new language.
You will be recording sights and sounds which go together.
This will greatly increase your understanding of the culture
of that country. Understanding the culture enhances your
5 0 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

language learning, just as understanding the language helps

you to get to grips with the culture.

WHERE TO WRITE YOUR WORK

You will also need to think about how you are going to write
your work down.

Work to be given in
One good idea for written homework is to word process it.
Then, when your teacher has corrected it, you can do your-
self a good copy. Keep the corrected one, or 'track changes'
though. You always learn more from your mistakes than you
do from what you get right.

If you are going to have to give work in, you will probably
want to do that on paper, so if you do not intend to use your
computer, you probably need a pad of A4 paper. Look for
one which has margins, 80mm spaces and ready-punched
holes.

Then you need to give some thought to where you store the
corrected work. An A4 ring-binder is probably a good bet.
But do you want to take it to and from college with you? Do
you need a wallet folder, into which you can put completed
work, corrected work and any hand-outs, which you can then
sort out again when you get home? That at least will force
you to look at them again.

Hand-outs
Teachers will often use hand-outs. Would it be an idea
to have a separate folder for them? Perhaps you would like
 GET O R G A N I S E D / 51

to divide that up into administrative items, reading practice,

speaking practice, listening practice, writing practice,
grammar and information about the country or countries
where your language is used. Have a few more file dividers
in. case some other categories emerge as you go along.

Vocabulary
You will need a space for writing down vocabulary. A good
tip is to have a note book which will fit in a pocket or a
handbag. Then you can have it with you all the time, so that
you can learn vocabulary anywhere. And if you're in the
country which speaks your language, you can write down
new words. A5 hardback with 80mm spaced lines is a good
start, but you might like to look ahead at Chapter 4, before
you decide finally on a note book. Or perhaps you'll want to
get two . . .

Mind maps
These are an excellent way of writing down what you have
learnt. You will need plain paper for this (ready punched)
and perhaps a variety of coloured pens. Those jelly pens are
good to work with, or some nice rollerballs or fineliners.
Something which you can enjoy, in any case. Again, you will
need a folder to keep your mind maps in.

File cards
Some people find it useful to buy small filing cards and filing
boxes, especially when it comes to revising for exams. They
can carry a few cards around with them, and look at them
while they are waiting for the bus.
52 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Small bits of card and blutak

Other people are happy to plaster their homes with vocabu-
lary. They have cards all over the house, sometimes colour-
coded for different areas of knowledge. Do you remember
when the children were small and you perhaps did something
similar with their spellings and tables? Well, now it's your
turn!

Writing equipment
You will certainly need at least one pen, but think about
getting a variety of colours. A pencil and rubber will also be
important, and therefore also a pencil sharpener.

NOW TRY THIS

Don't go too mad buying a lot of stationery. You may find
you want different things as you go along, or one way of
recording your work suits you better than another. Never-
theless, go through the above again, make yourself a
shopping list and go to a good stationery store like Staples.
Take this book with you and let it and the store inspire you.

When you get home again, unpack everything carefully, and

label it ready. Imagine yourself using those items in a few
days. Find a place where you are going to store them. Make
sure it is somewhere where you can pick them up easily. You
are ready to go!

FROM DAY 1
Here are a few ideas you can use from your very first lesson.
 GET O R G A N I S E D / 53

Writing down vocabulary

Fold the pages of your book into two or four, depending on
how big it is. Write the words in the foreign language in the
left column, the English meaning on the right. Don't worry
about writing down every new word you meet. Perhaps
concentrate on the ones which are going to be most useful to
you.

Learning vocabulary
First work from the foreign language to English. Cover up
the English column. Test yourself. Put a pencil cross by each
word you didn't know. When you have gone through one
page, test yourself on the ones marked with a cross. Rub out
the cross if you have it right this time. When you know all of
the words from foreign language to English, go back and test
yourself from English to foreign language. When that page is
complete go to the next page. After the second page is
complete, go back and do the first again. Later, as the book
gets fuller, you should complete the current page, the page
before and then an earlier page, randomly chosen.

Making mind maps

After each lesson, try to make a mind map or add to one
you have already started. You should put the theme in the
middle, e.g. 'Shopping' (better still to put your word in
the foreign language), and then the first set of branches
could be about the transactions you have learnt to do. Next
come the particular phrases you have used, followed by
items/lists of vocabulary. You may not be able to write a full
list here, but that could be in your vocabulary book, so you'll
be working on it anyway. You may like to use different
54 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

colours for different levels or different branches. Reserve

red for later, though.

You can test yourself by trying to reproduce the mind map.

When you check, put in any bits you had forgotten in red.
Next time you revise from that mind map, your weaker areas
will show up in red.

Use recordings
Record yourself, if possible with a class mate, using the
language you have met in the lesson. Be critical of yourself -
you may have a good giggle at first, as well. But that does no
harm.

Listen to any material you met in the lesson. It will comecom..

easier the more you listen to it. Eventually you will know it
off by heart.

Make friends with your course book

No matter how good or bad your text book is, if, by the
time you come to the end of it, you know its contents off by
heart, you will know a lot of your chosen language. Be
familiar with how it works. Do they use special symbols to
show which are reading or listening exercises? Do they have
grammar points in special boxes? What is contained in the
grammar section at the back of the book? How useful is the
glossary? Do you know all of the words in the glossary?

If your text book becomes a little battered, be happy. It

shows you are making good use of it. And you can start the
process of beginning to get to know your text book even
before you start the course.
 GET O R G A N I S E D / 55

THE STOPY SO FAR

...You hace chosen a course,

...You have bought your dictionarym course book and

grammar book.

,,,You have given some consideration to multi 0media

equipment,.

../You have given soome thought th how you will

organise your written work,

... You have equipped uyourself for yuour first lession.,

... You know how to make best use of the first few
lessons.
 4

Develop the Magpie

Instinct

In this chapter you will:

* learn how to 'collect' language

+ learn what sort of language to collect

+ look at where to find that language

* find out how to make use of the language you have found

* really begin to have fun with your chosen language.

REAL MAGPIES
I would call my German friend, Gabi, a magpie. We have
arranged many exchanges over the years between our
respective schools. There comes a point in the day, when
you're on a exchange visit, when all the problems have been
solved, the next day is sorted out and you can relax.

'Is it time to get the sherry out, Gill?' she asks.

And whilst I go and organise the sherry, she goes and gets
her notebook and pen.
 D E V E L O P THE M A G P I E I N S T I N C T / 57

'Now Gill,' she starts as soon as we are sitting relaxed with

the drinks. 'You said something today about "You don't
have to be a rocket scientist to see that it was the lights not
working which made the bus late." Did I get that right?'

I confirm the new expression and she writes it down. Then

she tries it out on me a few times, using slightly different
examples. When she is satisfied she has it right, she closes
her book, folds her arms contentedly and concentrates on
her sherry.

At some point in the next few days, I will see her pause, look
at me mischievously and say something like 'You don't have
to be a rocket scientist to see that if they don't all turn up on
time, the bus will be late setting off.'

Like the magpie, Gabi has seen something she likes and put
it in a place she knows it will be safe. But she makes it even
more her own by using it as soon as possible.

You need to start collecting language. That doesn't mean

making long lists, though. I have seen many, many students
laboriously copy down reams of vocabulary - perhaps never
to be looked at again. Even if they do refer to them when
they go to write the essay for homework, or when they revise
for the exam, I doubt whether they retain many of the
phrases for very long. The point is:

+ You need to collect language which appeals to you,

which gives you a bit of fun and which you know you can
use.
58 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

* And you have to use it fairly soon after you have

collected it. Putting the language somewhere and using it
actively fixes it in your mind.

Gabi is obviously already a fluent speaker. But you don't

have to wait until you are to start collecting. One of my
students, Gordon, is a businessman who has to learn German
because the head office of his firm is in Switzerland. He
is definitely not a linguist. He has difficulty getting his
mouth around some of the words. He does not understand
grammar. His Swiss colleagues barely give him the chance to
practise his German because they want to try out their
already excellent English. Yet he still manages to impress
them from time to time.

We have been using a text book. In some ways it is a rather

dry and uninteresting one. But every few pages there are
some cartoons illustrating idiomatic phrases. We have a bee
in our bonnet, but the Germans have a bird; when they are
hungover they have a tomcat; and our noses get put out of
joint, but the Germans have their ties (that's right, their ties
not their toes) trodden on.

Every time we come to one of these pages, my client makes a

note of the phrase which appeals to him most, and within
a day or two tries it out on one of his colleagues in
Switzerland. He complains to his boss that people who work
for a certain firm are always adding their mustard to the
matter in hand. We would more normally complain about
them putting their oar in. His boss laughs, congratulates him
on the excellent progress he is making with his German and
Gordon feels more confident. Making people laugh when
 D E V E L O P THE M A G P I E I N S T I N C T / 59

you have only just started to speak their language is an

achievement. Again, he has found something that appeals to
him, made a note and made himself use it.

WHERE TO KEEP YOUR PET WORDS

How people might collect language has to be an individual
choice. You may have already made decisions after working
through Chapter 3 about where you might want to store new
expressions. Is that working for you at the moment?

Or what about the following?

+ Gabi uses 15cm x 20cm hardback note book. It is thick

because it contains 250 pages of good quality paper. She
prefers unlined, and she writes with a good pen. She
often buys herself such a note book from a favourite
museum here in England. When each one is full, she has
something of beauty, which is pleasant to leaf through.

* One student keeps his pet phrases on computer file. He

scrolls them round, making an effort to use each one in
turn. He deletes them when he feels that he knows them.
He never works with more than 20 at a time.

4 I myself have an all-purpose note book. It is a little more

utilitarian than Gabi's. Odd phrases for the languages I
study are mixed in with my ideas for books and articles.
When I'm waiting somewhere, I'm either adding to my
notes or reading through them. If I want to write a letter
or phone a friend, I have a look through first. And when
a book is full, I look through again before putting it
6 0 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

safely on a bookshelf. It is still taken down every so

often.

+ Some students put phrases on the walls or the fridge.

+ My daughter wrote phrases on filing cards and carried

them around in her back pocket when she was studying
for her GCSEs.

Remember, note books come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Do you want something which fits a briefcase, a wallet, a
handbag or a pocket? Do you want to use your computer?
Do you want something for when you are working at a desk
in a building, or something which you can carry around with
you? Do you want something which suits both purposes or a
different one for each?

Whatever you decide, you can change your mind again. Be

flexible. But make sure you are acting like a magpie - find
what you like, put it away safely, use it.

WHAT YOU MIGHT COLLECT

Rule number one is you collect what is relevant to you. This
might be:

4 Specialist words and phrases to do with your work.

4 Specialist words and phrases to do with your hobby.

* Specialist phrases to do with the work, hobbies and

appearance of friends and family.

+ Words and phrases which amuse you (as Gordon does).

 D E V E L O P THE M A G P I E I N S T I N C T / 61

4 Words which fill gaps you are aware of (e.g. your course
may have taught you all the normal colours, but you
might come across the word for avocado, which just
happens to be the colour of your bathroom suite).

4 Useful little gems which might help you with everyday

transactions - probably ones which you don't remember
coming across in your course (e.g. 'Do you think you
could . . .').

4 More sophisticated expressions (as Gabi does).

+ Phrases which help you to structure the language (e.g. I

can, you can, he can etc.).

4 Words which might shock mildly (rat poison, dustbin -

these words were a great favourite of my best friend at
school).

+ Words and phrases which are to do with a situation you

might be facing shortly (if you're going camping soon,
look through language about camp-sites and try to learn
some key phrases).

+ Words and phrases which are so new that they haven't

made it to your bilingual dictionary yet (e.g. when a new
craze hits like bungee jumping did a few years ago I had
the French expression in my note book several months
before it appeared in a dictionary).

WHERE TO FIND THE LANGUAGE

It is actually all around you, even if you are not in the
country which speaks the language you are studying. In fact,
you can collect language from anything you read or hear.
62 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Sometimes, though, you may not have realised where the

opportunities exist for reading and hearing your new lan-
guage.

Look out for words of interest in the following places.

From home
+ your course book

+ your teacher

+ in the dictionary when you are looking for something else

4 magazines you may be able to find

+ off the internet

+ from your contact with a native speaker - a work

colleague, a penfriend or e-mail friend

+ foreign radio

4 foreign television

+ the instructions for cooking pasta or making your micro-

wave work

* songs - either authentic ones from the country whose

language you are studying, or those created as part of a
course.

When you're in the country where your language is

spoken
+ all of the above, still, and more intensely
 D E V E L O P THE M A G P I E I N S T I N C T / 63

+ conversations you overhear on the bus, in the shop, in the

cafe

4 road signs

4 ads in shop windows

4 flyers and advertising left on your car or in your super-

market trolley or put through your letterbox

4 junk mail

* menus.

A WORD OF WARNING
You could get really carried away and try to collect all of
these types of phrases in all of these types of situation. That
could at some point seem all too much, you could become
totally overwhelmed, and be left with the feeling that your
chosen language contains just too many phrases and you
could never have a hope of learning them. You have to
retain the fun in this one. And that means taking that phrase,
which is all yours, and showing it off to somebody who's
going to listen. You're saying, 'Hey folks look what I can
do!' So just a few at a time is better.

HOW THIS WORKS

Babies acquire their language by constantly listening and
imitating the patterns of words around them. They come to
understand the words they hear and begin to use the phrases
they need with increasing competence. But this doesn't work
so well with our second language because:
64 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

*• our first language constantly takes up more space than

the new one

* our need is not as great

+ we're unlikely to have the same amount of exposure to

the second language as we did to the first.

Even if we go and live in the country where our language is

spoken, we still tend to think and dream in our own language
- and possibly even read or watch TV - and we may still be
living amongst people who speak our native tongue. Indeed,
there are many expatriates who never master the language
of their new homeland and often it has not been because of
unwillingness on their part. They have just not found the
right tool.

Just like the baby, though, we learn to understand

many times more phrases than we can actually produce.
Eventually, after a lot of time and practice, we are able to
use this passive store of language actively. By becoming a
proactive magpie, we're getting our hand a bit more on the
tool and accelerating that process.

And there are other things you can do too. Read on.

Try this
For a whole week 'collect' a phrase a day. Make an effort to
use it within two days of finding it. How do you feel at the
end of the week? Is your confidence growing? How are
others reacting to your new language?
 D E V E L O P THE M A G P I E I N S T I N C T / 65

In the long-term

+ Try to gather and try out at least two or three phras

week.

* Experiment with the best way to store your gems - a

small note book, a larger e, the computer?

+ Tell someone else what you're doing and ask them to

check from time to time if you're still doing it.

THE STORY SO FAR

.. You are follow8ing your caerefully chosen course you

are fully equipped for that course and are already
putting a few food habits into pracaitve.

.. You have started to seek the language procativelyl

....yiy are storting the language in a place which suits

you and is easy for yyou to retireve,.

.. Yoiy are ptuing your hnew workd and pahreas inoto

practice.

...You are having some fun wuith your hnew language.

 5

Go Native

In this chapter you will:

+ explore the possibilities of working with a native speaker

of your chosen language

+ look at the advantages of going on an exchange visit

* look at how you can make the most of your friendship

4 find out how to make contact with a native speaker.

STRETCHING OUT THE HAND OF FRIENDSHIP

Picture this. A group of you go to the theatre together. You
watch a performance of Under Milkwood in French. What it
loses in the translation it makes up for in the acting. You and
your friends have a meal together, return to the home of
one of the others to discuss it further and then you put the
world right. You speak French because you are in France.
But occasionally you use English or German, because the
group is made up of French people who speak English
and German, Germans who speak English and French and
English people who speak French and German. Sometimes
you use your own language because you can't quite manage
the French. Sometimes, though, you use English or German
 GO N A T I V E / 67

because a phrase which only exists in that language expresses

better what you want to say. And you all understand each
other. The hand of friendship has been fully stretched.

That happened to me when I was a student.

Perhaps I am a little naive in thinking that if more people

spoke foreign languages there would be less possibility of
war. But I certainly would not be able to tolerate war
between my own country and that of one of my very good
friends whom I have come to know through learning their
language. It actually hurts physically when I confront
the continued hatred felt by some towards the Germans
brought forward from the first and second world wars. Their
strong feelings are about the parents and grandparents of the
Germans to whom I have become very close.

Take a good look at your mind map. Look for the bottom
line, perhaps something that isn't even written down there.
What is the real underlying motive behind your desire to
learn a foreign language? It will be at least to do with
effective communication and at best condoning deep friend-
ship. Effective communication, in any case, depends on a
willingness to find out what motivates the other, and that
involves dropping any concerns and considerations about the
differences between you. What you get as a replacement is
understanding and appreciation, and these are a form of
friendship.

So, you either start with friendship as your main motivation,

or you obtain friendship though your desire to communicate.
That's the bigger picture.
68 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

THE ADVANTAGES OF CONTACT WITH A NATIVE

SPEAKER
Of course, it will be a while before you can discuss Under
Milkwood or put the world right. B.ut you can start workinging
with a native speaker straight away.

Working with a native speaker of your chosen language

offers many advantages.

4 You will constantly be presented with an accurate

pattern of language.

* You will probably be matched with someone who has

similar interests to yourself, so will be able to work
specifically on the most appropriate area of vocabulary
for you.

4 You could make a new life-long friend.

AN EXCHANGE VISIT
Perhaps the most important part of my work as a full-time
teacher was organising exchange visits for my pupils. I hardly
needed to teach then after we came home. They just lapped
up new language. And they always came back with much
more than they had before. They continued to organise their
own exchanges. How delightful it was for me to walk along
the main shopping street in Cologne and bump into a pupil I
had taken out there on an exchange visit two years earlier.
She and her German partner were so engrossed in chatting
away in German that they didn't see me at first. Then there
was the pupil from my tutor group, a rather awkward child,
whom I had persuaded to take part in the French exchange.
 GO N A T I V E / 69

She and her partner spent hours literally exchanging

vocabulary and writing it down in books. Their magpie
instinct was in overdrive. The icing on the cake came as, at
the end of o visit to France, the French mum claimed Julie
to be absolutely charming. She would be welcome again any
time. Nobody had ever said that about Julie before. And she
did go back. For all four girls the language was not the main
point any more.

When you go on an exchange visit, you stay in the home of

a family who speaks your new language. At some point, a
member or members of their family visit you. For school
children, this lasts one to two weeks. For adults, it is some-
times shorter. Whilst you are there, you are totally
surrounded by the language. You acquire much more and
you increase your ability to make the most of what you do
have. One of my pupils, one of these people who speak at a
hundred miles an hour, began to speak as fast in German as
she did in English. She even managed to get her word order
and her endings right.

You also learn about the culture of the country and find out
about habits and rituals which are different from our own,
which makes you look more closely at your own. Isn't it
fascinating that a French family I know often have two
desserts on a Sunday, and invite the elderly widow next door
to share the second one? Isn't the German habit of having
cake with coffee in the afternoon civilised? And what about
that game the English play, where the team that's in goes out
until they're out, then they come in again? You may have
known before you went that some of these things existed.
But while you're there, you begin to appreciate why.
70 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

So, gradually, it stops being them and us, and starts being
just us. Language becomes a means to an end rather than an
end in itself. You become so highly motivated that what had
seemed a difficulty becomes insignificant, just a blip. You
just want to find out more and more about this alternative
way of living, and mastering the language is a step in the
right direction. As the layers are peeled back, you become
more surprised by the similarities between you than the
differences. Because you understand the differences.

You become aware of which items of language you need to

know in order to function in this new relationship. And you
might consider using a native speaker learning partner as a
way of acquiring that language.

GET YOURSELF A LEARNING PARTNER

This is an extension of what has happened for years between
penfriends who are learning each other's language. People
send each other letters, often in their own language, and the
learner is presented with an accurate structure which they
can adapt to suit their own needs. Occasionally, they will
send a reply in their target language, but the recipient
will not usually correct any mistakes in this. E-mail has
already speeded up this process and makes replies more
immediate and news more current. Woking with a learning
partner fine-tunes this process.

The partners choose topics they wish to learn more about.

They communicate in their own language, so that a good
pattern of the foreign language is presented. They also com-
municate in the foreign language, so that their partner can
 GO N A T I V E / 71

correct their work and give them extra useful phrases. They
can both choose topics which suit them. It works well if
both partners are working at about the same level, though
two beginners together can cause problems and may need
extra help from their teachers, especially when they are
negotiating what to do. Students of differing levels can also
work together, as long as topics are carefully selected.

This works best if:

+ each partner is prepared to make the same amount of

ef.fort

4 each partner is responsible for their own learning

+ each partner states how and what they want to learn

4 50% is completed in each language, and 50% of the time

one is using one's native language.

The possible settings for working with a learning partner are:

+ e-mail and snailmail

+ telephone

4 video conferencing

* via a chat room

4 exchange of audio and video tapes

4 one-to-one, face-to-face (possibly as part of an exchange

visit).
727 THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A LANGUAGE

Here are few ides for topics you could use:

4 introducing yourself

* talking about your family

+ talking about your home/area where you live

4 talking about your work

* talking about your hobbies

+ discussing an item of news

4 discussing your hopes for the future

* role-playing a shopping or restaurant situation

4 role-playing a work situation - e.g. chasing an order,

making a complaint, obtaining information.

FINDING A PARTNER
Even for adults, it is best to find a partner through an
organisation you know. It is, of course, much easier for the
commonly taught European languages, but possible also for
almost any language. Consider the following.

Twin town
Many towns have partners in France or Germany, and even
Belgium, Spain and Italy. Your twinning organisation will
often arrange short trips to and from that town, and this is an
ideal opportunity to get to know a native speaker. You can
even request to be put in touch with someone who has
similar interests.
 GO N A T I V E / 73

Your teacher
Your teacher probably has a wealth of contacts in appro-
priate countries. Ask them if they can put you in contact
with someone.

The Central Bureau for Cultural Exchanges and Visits

This has always been the main organisation for putting
schools together for exchanges. However, the need for life-
long learning is acknowledged everywhere now, and they
will respond to approaches from adults. They do tend to
work more with whole groups: you could always get your
class to apply on mass.

Organisations connected with your work and hobbies

The firm which you work for or the club you belong to may
have international contacts and could put you in touch with
a like-minded individual. If not, an internet search will
certainly find a company similar to your own or an
organisation for people with similar hobbies to your own.
We do have the advantage that most other nationalities are
very keen to improve their English, so finding a learning
partner should not be difficult.

NOW TRY THIS

* Find yourself a partner.

* Decide on the settings you want to use.

* Make yourself a list of topics you would like to try

(perhaps some of the items from your gaps which your
course does not supply?).
7 4 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

* Start negotiations (remember the 50% rule).

+ Have a go at your first topic.

THE STORY SO FAR

.. You have started your coursem, for which you are well
ewquippedm and have started putting a few good habits
into practice,.

,....You havce found a learinng partner,

..You hace diecided on some tipice and setting yuou

would like to tyr.

.. You hafce negoitated what and how to larm

You haace tired out your first tandem session,a

 6

Talk the Hind Leg Off a

Donkey - in An
Language

In this chapter you will:

4 take a closer look at communication

+ learn to make the most of what you know

4 look at opportunities for practising

+• find out how to obtain more patterns of language -

without major effort

*• get even more fun out of your language learning

+ discover what to do when your perfectly presented

phrase or sentence is answered with a torrent of words
you can't understand easily.

COMMUNICATION
We are talking about talking, the most basic form of com-
munication. Even the cats which wail at night are doing just
that, though in a far less sophisticated way than we humans.
Talking is a mixture of listening and speaking. One person
767 THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

speaks, the other listens, then responds in speech. Effective

communication happens when speaker and listener create
the same pictures in their heads. For this to happen the
listener really tunes in to what is being said, and the speaker
chooses their language carefully.

This does not necessarily mean merely using beautifully

constructed sentences. After all, which communicates the
best:

* A struggling 'Excuse me please sir, could you possibly

tell me whether you have any .. . ?'

4 Or a confident 'Any cheesecake?' as the waiter comes to

your table for the dessert order and you smile at them?

The use of body language and finding the key word com-
municates much better than the highly structured, polished,
rehearsed phrase. The Spanish use this superbly. They cope
with their tourist industry by just knowing a few key words
in major European languages and leave the rest to their
imaginative use of gesture and facial expression.

MAKE THE MOST OF WHAT YOU KNOW

I once attended a workshop for people who have to do
presentations. The point was made that we often use too
many words. We were given an exercise where we were
limited to communicating in five words. A group of us had to
perform a task together, and we were given our five words
by another group. We had to move a pile of bricks from one
part of the garden to another. Well, we stuck to our five
 T A L K THE H I N D LEG OFF A D O N K E Y / 77

words and were able to communicate enough to get the job

done. We even managed to chat about whether worms and
the fruit on a bush in the garden were edible. (One of our
words was 'food'.) The main point was that we were willing
to use what little we had to communicate.

You may not be very long into your course yet, but I am sure
you already have more than five words in your chosen
language. So how much more could you do?

I explained about the exercise with the five words and the
pile of bricks to my second-year French class. I asked them
to talk in groups of three about what they did on their
holidays last year and what they were going to do next
summer. They bought into the game. The number one
ground rule was that they should not attempt to use anything
they didn't know. Number two was that they should try to
use everything that they did know. I was delighted that they
all managed to keep going for the 20 minutes. They enjoyed
the exercise. We did a debrief in English afterwards, and it
was clear that there had been very few misunderstandings.

PRACTISING
We succeeded with our pile of bricks and my second-year
students succeeded because they were willing to have a go.
They took part. That is what made the practice effective.

I used to be a visiting oral examiner for German, and in

recent years have had to conduct the oral exam for my own
GCSE pupils. I have frequently noticed that although two
candidates may have produced exactly the same language,
78 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

one has communicated better than the other. They would

probably have been effective in the real-life situation. Even
some candidates who produced language with more errors in
it communicated more effectively. They made the roles they
were playing and the conversations they were having real. I
always wished I could award extra marks for the attitude
which was making the language work better.

Can you bring this into your practice?

What about working with a partner in class, and even getting

together out of class for extra sessions? If you're working
one-to-one with a tutor, or on the phone, perhaps you could
ask your tutor to give you more opportunities to try this out.
And this is a great opportunity to work with your learning
partner. You could use the following contexts.

+ anything which has come up in your course for oral

practice

* shopping

+ dealing with lost property

4 restaurants and cafes

* finding your way around

4 dealing with the police and reporting accidents

+ making complaints

+ finding out about hotels and tourist attractions

+ dealing with the car

 T A L K THE HIND LEG OFF A D O N K E Y / 79

* talking about yourself, your family and friends

* talking about your work

* talking about your hopes for the future

+ talking about your hobbies and interests

+ talking about your holidays.

Practising methodically
It was often my experience when working with teenagers
that I would give them a pair activity, and two minutes later
they would cry 'Finished miss!'. Well of course, they hadn't.
They wouldn't be finished until they could do that conversa-
tion upside down in their sleep and they would remember it
forever. They were actually bored with it.

So, how do you stop yourself getting bored before that

conversation and similar ones are etched on your brain? Try
this, for example, on a conversation which might take place
in a shop.

1. Do the conversation as is - i.e. just read the printed

version out of the book.
2. Change roles.
3. Add more expression.
4. Add different attitudes and emotions. Either of you
or both could be bored, happy, impatient, sad, excited,
afraid, polite, rude, silly, business-like - you can think of
others.
5. Vary the pace and pitch. Speak quickly, slowly, loudly, or
quietly.
6. 'Walk' the conversation. Act it out. You might be
80 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

beginning to feel a bit silly, but better now than when you
do it in real life.
7. Record your conversation. It will sharpen your
'performance' and also give you a chance to assess your-
self. You'll soon get used to hearing your own voice.
8. Alter bits of it - nothing too complicated, though, if
you're working with a class mate. Maybe you could ask
for 2 kilos instead of 3, or for chocolate instead of soap
powder, and maybe you could change the prices and the
change given - numbers always need a lot of practice
anyway.
9. If you are working one-to-one with a teacher or with your
native speaker, ask them to include a surprise. Maybe
there are no more apples. Or perhaps there is suddenly a
fire in the shop and you have to run out. This is good
rehearsal for the surprises which come in real life (though
they are usually linguistic rather than dramatic) and can
give you some new language to experience.

Working on the phone

A major feature of learning by phone is the conversation or
speech you have to prepare for each lesson. Further practice
includes:

1. Going over the speech or role play with your teacher.

They take the other role if appropriate.
2. They correct you if you make mistakes and give you new
phrases as needed.
3. You are given about five phrases to rehearse for the next
lesson. These will be ones you were less confident about
and ones which will be useful for next week's topic.
4. You try to learn these phrases and use them actively,
 T A L K THE H I N D LEG OFF A D O N K E Y / 81

perhaps in your contact with native speakers before your

next lesson.

OBTAINING NEW PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE FOR FREE

When you work one-to-one with a tutor, perhaps on the
phone, when you work with your learning, and when you are
in a 'real' situation, you can still carry on improving your
spoken language, if you keep your wits about you and
your ears open.

Remember the magpie instinct you started developing in

Chapter 4? This is where you can make some really good
use of it. Don't be too ambitious though, or you will get
swamped. If, in each 'natural' conversation you hold, you
can acquire one new pattern or piece of vocabulary, you will
continue to make rapid progress.

Listen consciously, taking account of the form of the phrases,

as your partner speaks.

'Would you like to go to the shops or would you rather stay

in and watch the football?' says your partner.

Now, you know 'play football' but not 'stay in and watch
the football'. The 'stay in and . . .' appeals to you (not
just because you would like to watch the football). So you
confirm it by reflecting back.

'Mm. I think I'd like to stay in and watch the football,' you
reply.
82 / T H E C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

You internalise the phrase, maybe adding it to your collec-

tion in your note book.

A little later you use the language as your own.

'Shall we go to the pub?' you say to your partner, 'or would

you rather stay in and watch a video?'

You're actually doing what you did with your own language
when you were a baby. But because you haven't got so long
to do it, you make a more conscious effort.

GETTING EVEN MORE FUN OUT OF LEARNING YOUR

FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Hopefully, everything I have suggested so far is working
for you, and you are enjoying learning your new language
because you are being successful. Hopefully, too, you are
losing all inhibition and really getting into practising con-
versations with your partner.

But it is also important to remember that language is power.

When negotiating partners share a language, they have equal
power. When you lack the language of the country in which
you try to transact, you have less power. Surely, you may be
saying, if the native speaker has more command of the
language, they have more power? This is to some extent
true, but only as far as you let that be the case. If you refuse
to be put off by the greater sophistication of what they
are using, and you insist on speaking their language even
though they speak yours better - we English do have a
problem here, as everyone else is so keen to practise on us -
 T A L K THE H I N D LEG OFF A D O N K E Y / 83

you actually more than make up for the power that you have
lost.

Now, when you are aware of what is happening, you

can really have some fun. It is a matter of confidence and
determination. Which brings us to the next point.

HOW TO COPE WITH THE TORRENTS

What do you do when your carefully chosen and beautifully
rehearsed phrase so impresses a native speaker that they
come back at you in a torrent of language you can make no
sense of?

This happened to me when I went to France for the first

time. I already had a good O-level and A-level in French. I
spoke it perfectly, I thought, and had enjoyed chatting away
to the French assistant at school. But after I asked for a
cheese sandwich in impeccable French, the waiter asked me
lots of complicated questions in a language I'd never heard
before. On the other hand, I have for many years taken
pupils in the second year of French to France for the day,
and they have found their way around town, reading French
instructions and asking people the way, they have gone
shopping in French and ordered food and drink in French at
the cafe. A year later they have gone on their first French
exchange visit and functioned perfectly well in families
which have very little English. They were seldom fazed. So,
what's the difference?

They have been taught how to cope and what to expect!

8 4 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A LANGUAGE

This is the drill.

4 Expect the torrent.

4 Anticipate before it comes what might be included in

there. For example, if you are ordering an ice-cream,
they may ask you what size or flavour you want, and
what sort of toppings.

4 Watch and understand the speaker's body language.

(Body language differs a little from country to country -
ask your teacher to include this in your lessons.)

4 Listen carefully for those key words. You may even need
to use some in your reply - in the case of the ice-cream,
maybe medium, vanilla and chocolate sauce.

* If you still do not understand, have 'Please can you speak

more slowly?' or 'Could you repeat that please?' ready.
(Never, of course, 'Do you speak English?') Most people
will naturally simplify or speak more slowly if they see
you are making an effort.

* If they do insist on speaking English, reply again in your

chosen language, possibly adding, 'Thank you for trying
to help me, but I really do want to practise my ... So
could we continue in . . . ?'

Have fun!
 T A L K THE HIND LEG OFF A D O N K E Y / 8 5

THE STORY SO FAR

.. You hace carefully chosen your coursem for which

you are well eqyipped and well organisedm, you
are developing good working practicesm including
working with native speakers, You are collecting
language.

you are making the most of the language oyo

already know,

You are usikng an effective mtetjood for practising

language you meet,

You using talking as a means of discovering new

patterns of language,

You are getiing even more fun out of using your

chosen langua

You are learining jow to cope when native speakers

assume uppi kionw more thatn uoudo .
 7

C mpleting the Jigsaw

Puezzle

In this chapter we sha look at:

* the uses and nature of reading in a foreign language

4 extensive reading

+ reading for gist

4 intensive reading

*• reading as a tool for learning

+ how to obtain reading materials, many of them free of

charge.

THE PURPOSE OF READING

Language study is frequently divided into four skills -
listening, reading, speaking and writing. In the last chapter
we looked at talking, which combines listening and speaking.
There is the other sort of listening where you don't respond
in speech e.g. station announcements, listening tests on your
course, radio etc. The Bavarian education department
describes language learning targets and levels in very similar
 C O M P L E T I N G THE J I G S A W P U Z Z L E / 87

terms to our own National Curriculum and the European

Passport, but adds the target of understanding and using
gesture and body language. In any case, reading is clearly a
skill in its own right.

Reading is also the means of acquiring new language. Even

at the very beginning of your course, and especially if you
have started to develop the magpie instinct quite well, read-
ing is one your most useful tools. Certainly, by the time you
reach that all-important level of operational competence, if
you're aiming for a B or above at GCSE or you want to
progress beyond National Curriculum Level 5 (out of 8),
then an extensive programme of reading in the foreign lan-
guage is one of the keys to making further progress rapidly.

Many experts on language tuition argue that we acquire our

knowledge through listening. This reflects how we learn our
mother tongue, and is therefore very natural. However, it
has been my experience that adult learners prefer to have
everything in writing. I would include myself in this also. I
would even go as far as to say that learners aged 12 and
above need the prop of the written word. The whole educa-
tion system so far has taught the importance of the print
form and written word. We have been conditioned to rely on
it.

EXTENSIVE READING
This means reading a lot, but not being too worried about
understanding every single word. We cannot hope to read as
accurately in the foreign language as we do in our own. But
we can still get enough understanding from what we read.
88 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Today, I was reading a French novel written for adults. I

probably understood 95% of the words, and much of what
was left was still understandable, because it was a bit like
looking at a jigsaw puzzle which had a few pieces missing.
The surrounding pieces suggested what was on the missing
ones. Also, I was reading some French words which I under-
stood but which I would not be able to produce. Read them
often enough and you will be able to produce them. So this
can be a process which you never have to give up. Some-
times I pick up a book which is a bit harder to read. But so
that reading still remains a pleasure rather than a chore, I
limit myself to looking up just three words on each page. It is
enough to enable gist understanding.

Even at the very beginning of your study, you can develop

the habit of flicking through a magazine or newspaper, or
having a look at a few web sites. Be content if you are just
understanding two or three bits of information at this
stage. Notice when you begin to understand more. You will
recognise which is the weather forecast, the football results,
the word for goal keeper, the TV guide, what the click-on
buttons on the web site mean, because there is a certain
visuality of the text which is familiar to you. Maybe we've
only got a few edge pieces of the puzzle at the moment, but
it's a start and already we have an idea of what the bigger
picture will be. Incidentally, I have found that adults are
actually much better at this than younger learners. They
have more life experience to go on. And don't forget to jot
down just one phrase in your notebook.
 C O M P L E T I N G THE J I G S A W P U Z Z L E / 89

INTENSIVE READING
There will be times, however, when you need to understand
a text in more detail. Perhaps you have to interpret a docu-
ment for work, for homework or as a test or exam, or it's
simply that you want to understand every word and get more
of a hold on how your chosen language works. Try this:

1. If you possibly can, have your text in a form in which you

can write on it. Blow it up if you can, and if it is word-
processed and you have it in electronic form, double
space it, but print a hard copy to work on.
2. Read your text three times. You will find you understand
much more after the third reading than the first, but it
won't improve so much after a fourth or subsequent
reading. Three is an optimum number. Actually, if you
just carried on reading it over and over, you would
eventually understand it all. Your brain is a brilliant
de-coding computer. I was on holiday in Malta recently,
and kept reading the back of the milk carton, where
the Maltese obviously said something different from the
English. It was set out differently and had far more
words. On the last day of the holiday it clicked. I read
it out to my husband in what I thought was Maltese
pronunciation. It was telling us how much protein and
calcium etc was contained in the milk.
3. Now take a pencil and write in each word you know
because you have met it before or that you recognise
because it sounds a bit like English (or any other
language you know for that matter) - reading out aloud is
useful here.
4. Look at each sentence individually. You may have the
meaning of the sentence without understanding every
90 / T H E COMPLETE G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

word. Your brain has arced over and completed the

jigsaw puzzle.
5. For those sentences you still do not understand, look for
the key words. They are probably nouns (naming words),
verbs (doing words) or expressions of time or place. A
little more intensive study here may make the meaning
apparent. It's detective work.
6. If there are still gaps, particularly in key words, now and
only now, use your dictionary. Underline the word you
are looking up - it will help you to find it again in the
text.
7. If the sentence still does not make sense or that sentence
seems to contradict the whole, have a look at some of
the smaller words. Amazing what difference not, never,
although, but, despite and many other such words can
make to meaning. These types of devices are frequently
used in exams to catch candidates out. Full of nasty tricks,
linguists. But those same words also enrich our languages,
and are therefore important in any case.

FINDING READING MATERIALS

There are many sources of reading materials, many of them
free. Look at the list below. The ones marked with * won't
cost you anything more than time and effort. If they are
marked (*), they will be free of charge most of the time. Try
to do some extra reading each week, or better still, every
day.

* * The Internet. One great advantage of working on web

sites is that you learn a lot of vocabulary unconsciously
from recognising the function of buttons without
 C O M P L E T I N G THE J I G S A W P U Z Z L E / 91

knowing the words in advance. Use search engines to

find information about topics in your chosen language.
Some language sites have been included in Appendix 5.

* n.* Multi-lingual packaging. You know, the instructions

which come with your new electric kettle. However,
beware of bad translations. Only look at the language if it
matches the country of origin of the product. You do
have the advantage of a gist translation into your own
language. These make excellent texts for intensive work.

* * * Junk mail or advertising left on your car or picked up at

the shops when you are abroad. You will understand
much of this quite easily because you recognise the form.

* * (*) What your learning partner writes to you. You could

even ask them to send you extra materials in your areas
of interest.

* * Reading schemes for learners of your chosen language.

These reflect your level of ability in reading but not your
interests. Unfortunately, these are not always produced
for adults. Some are listed in Appendix 3.

* * Reading schemes for young readers in your chosen

language. Again, these may be a little childish in content,
but they will provide you with simpler but still authentic
texts.

* * Reading schemes in your chosen language for adult

native speakers who are learning to read. These are ideal,
as they will be a stepping stone to more complex texts
and will be of interest to any age group.
92 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

* (*) Manuals to do with your work produced for the

countries which speak your chosen language.

4 Texts in your course book. (Perhaps you could read

intensively those texts which were meant for extensive
reading.)

+ Subscription magazines. These come at all levels and may

be produced monthly or termly. Sometimes, a university
continuing education centre or adult education centre
will stock a few. Some examples are listed in Appendix 3.
If you are in a class, ask your teacher to organise a bulk
purchase of these - discounts are often given.

4 Many university continuing education departments have

access to the main language departments at the university
which will have their own bank of resources. Find out
how to use these.

Have fun reading!

THE STORY SO FAR

You are working effectively on your chosen

languag.

you underastand the imporatance of rading,

You undersatnd that this will be a different process

from teatding in your own lanfguagn,

You are using your whole life experintoa todme

the new langaua and are beigning to read for gist
comfortablyu.
 C O M P L E T I N G THE J I G S A W P U Z Z L E / 93

You also know how to read more intensively, when

there is the need to understand in greater de

You knoe how to fingd reading materials and are

using them in a way which suits you.
 8

Cloning and Adapting

In this chapter we shall look at how:

+ language is made up of more than just words

+ one simple sentence you might meet in the first few

lessons can lead to many, many more

4 you can listen and adapt

+ you can clone a letter or other text written in your chosen

language

4 to ensure accurate structure when cloning or adapting.

MORE THAN JUST WORDS

A language is a good example of where the whole is more
than the sum of the parts. It is not just the words themselves
which carry meaning, but the way they are put together and
they way they relate to each other. We have already seen
how even more meaning can be added with facial expression,
gesture and other body language. Add tone of voice. And
then there is context, the circumstances in which you
are using a word. Some languages have words which have
different meanings in different situations, and you only know
which one is being used usually because it is the only one
 C L O N I N G AND A D A P T I N G / 95

which makes sense. I once took a group of students in their

GCSE year to Germany. We were there to sharpen up
their oral practice. We had just been practising going to
the doctor's and had learnt such wonders as diarrhoea and
constipation. Imagine their delight as we passed the
plumbers' merchants that afternoon, when the writing on the
window explained that they stocked everything for
constipation. Of course, the German for constipation is the
same as the general word for blockage.

When you take another look at your mind-map, you will

notice that you are not going to obtain your goals if you do
not learn some structures. And as you move away from
merely communicating in a type of cave-man language which
may sound odd to a native speaker towards something which
sounds more like the real thing, you will need to use more
complex structures and more of them.

But we're looking in this chapter at making one structure go

a long way.

MAKING A LOT OF USE OF A SIMPLE SENTENCE

Let's take something very simple which you may have even
learnt in a very early lesson.

The cat sat on the mat.

96 / T H E C O M P L E T E GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Look at how you can change one word at a time to make six
other simple sentences.

A cat sat on the mat.

A dog sat on the mat.
A dog slept on the mat.
A dog slept under the mat.
A dog slept under a mat.
A dog slept under a table,

Now imagine that for each word you had six alternatives.
These may be presented as a drop-down list on a computer
program, or a box diagram in your text book. Or you could
make up your own. You might have something like this.

The cat sat on the mat

This dog slept in a basket
A Pig ate off this table
That mouse ran under that cupboard
Every rabbit drank behind every door
No snake stood in front of his window

Now how many sentences can you create? If you use every
combination? Some of the combinations may be a little odd,
but most of them work very well, and the structure will be
accurate.

You can go even further with this. Can you think of six
descriptive words to put in between the first and the second
column and the fifth and the last column? You could have
big, small, black, fierce, friendly, hairy animals and old, new,
 C L O N I N G AND A D A P T I N G / 97

small, large, grey and dark places. Now think of other similar
descriptive words - other colours, sizes, characteristics.

Take your calculator and work out how many different

sentences you could produce. Just from one simple sentence.
You will be amazed.

ADAPTING WHAT YOU HEAR

Often, though, you haven't got time to sit down and work
out a table. You want to bring some structure into your
speech. You want to speak as accurately as possible. This is
where you need to listen for patterns.

It may be a simple matter of not knowing vocabulary.

Imagine being in a cake shop. You see something which
looks delicious but is not labelled. You point to it and say
you would like one of them.

"A cream hornT says the assistant pointing at the same cake.

'Yes, a cream horn' you confirm..

In many European and Arabic languages, inanimate objects

as well as people have genders, so are masculine, feminine or
neuter. This leads to different words being used for it, the
or a. You want to get that right. Let's take another cake
example. There is a delightful French choux pastry con-
coction which is filled with cream and covered in chocolate.
A smaller piece sits on top of a larger one. It is called a
religieuse because it looks a little like a nun. You not only
listen out for the word, but also for the gender, and realise
98 / T H E C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

that it is feminine, partly because of the nature of the name

and partly because you have recognised the feminine word
for 'a'. This might be quite useful if you need to specify this
or that religieuse, as the words for this and that are also
different in French according to gender.

Your structure may be even more complex. But try to listen

out for it and reflect it back. You may be asked 'Do you
want to go by bus or do you prefer the underground?' You
could reply 'I want to go by bus.' Or 'I prefer the under-
ground.' Or you might swap the two structures over if you
are feeling really brave and say 'I want to go by under-
ground.' Or 'I prefer the bus.'

Much of speech consists of question and answer. There are

two types of questions - ones which need a 'yes' or 'no'
answer, and others which need a piece of missing informa-
tion supplying. In both cases, you use the structure of the
question to help you with the structure of the answer. Or, if
speaking, you can just give the answer. In an e-mail, you
would probably use the reply button, so the original part of
the message would still be there. You would give a semi-
structured reply. If writing, you need to give the whole
structure. Study the following questions and answers.

+ Yes/no question. Did Charles see Mary last Wednesday?

4 Speech answer. Yes, he did.

+ E-mail answer. He did see her last Wednesday.

+ Letter answer. Yes, Charles did see Mary last

Wednesday.
 C L O N I N G AND A D A P T I N G / 99

* Missing information question. Where were Charles and

Mary?

+ Speech answer. At the hospital.

+ E-mail answer. They were at the hospital.

+ Letter answer. Charles and Mary were at the hospital.

Notice how the basic structure is still there, but that there is
a slight change in word order between question and answer.
This appens in most languages. Often, when speaking, we
indicate that we are asking a question by a change in the way
we use our voice. In English, we raise it at the end of the
sentence. So we frequently use exactly the same structure in
the reply as in the question. Study the two examples below.

'He's going where?' 'He's going to the hospitals,

'He's goiong tp tje jops[toa uews jesgoppmg tp te
hospitals.

Questions and answers can be very easy! There is a slight

snag, though. Often questions contain a 'you' and answers an
T. The verb (doing word) which follows will often follow a
different pattern. Study the following question and answer.

'Are you gioing to the cinema?'

'Yes, I am going to hte cinema.,
100 / T H E C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Not only does the verb change, but it is not a regular pattern.
There is good news, ho ver.

1. There are regular verb patterns in every language.

2. The irregular ones tend to be the ones you use most
often.
3. When replying in speech, you don't need to give a full
answer, and even if you do and you get the structure
slightly wrong, the chances are no one will notice as long
as they have understood what you mean.

CLONING A LETTER
Accurate structure is far more important in writing. Even
when speaking our own language, we make mistakes with
structure, often because we are constantly changing the plan
about what we are going to say. Most mistakes go unnoticed.
When they are more obvious, perhaps because the speaker is
using what to them is a foreign language, they are still
quickly forgotten if the message is communicated. We once
had a young German friend stay with us to improve his
English. He actually used a good range of words and
phrases, but always kept German word order. He would say
such things as 'When go we to the theme park?' and 'I must
my clothes wash.' It was rather cute, it didn't prevent us from
understanding and those other clues of body language, tone
of voice and the context in which he was speaking helped us
to understand.

Most written material takes us by surprise and we have to

take the message from the words themselves. If the structure
is not correct it at best irritates and at worst obscures the
 C L O N I N G AND A D A P T I N G / 101

meaning. We are also used to reading texts to which the

writer has given more thought to the language they are
using. In many situations where we write, we want to create
a good impression. We do have to get the structure right if
we want people to take us seriously.

But there is some good news. When we write, we do

have more time and we can use many props: dictionaries,
grammar books, our text books and our own notes. And it is
very easy to adapt a text you have in front of you to give
your version of the same thing.

Study the letter below. The words in italics are ones which
you could change to make up a text of your own.

Dear Christine

How are you? We moved into the new house yesterday.

It is a nice detached house with three floors. We have havw
four bedrooms, three on the first floor, and one on the
ground floor. We also have a study in the attic. On then thee
ground floor, we also have a kitchen, a lounge and a and a .
dining room.
The back garden is big, and has a lawn, lots of flowers
and two chnd.erry trees. The front garden is quite small and
pretty. We don't have a cellar, but we do have a nice,a nice,.
large garage where we can keep things.
Hope you are all well. We look forward to hearing
from you.

Isabel.le
102 / T H E C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Now look at the following version, and see how I have

changed it to describe my own house. Notice that I have put
something entirely different at the end. It is good to learn at
least two different endings to a letter. It is better if you reply
with a different one from the one you have been sent.

Dear Christine

How are you? We moved into the new house on

Thursday. It is a big linked detached house with two
floors. We have four bedrooms, all on the ground floor,
the lounge on the first floor. We also have a den in the
garage. On the ground floor, we also have a kitchen, twotwo.
bathrooms and a dining area.
The back garden is big, and has a lawn, lots of flowers
and a cherry tree and an apple tree. The front garden is
quite small and pretty. We don't have a cellar, but we do
have a space under the terrace where we can keep things.
Hope everything is all right with all of you. Let us know
your news.

Isabelle

Notice how some bits stayed exactly the same - my house

happens to have those features in common, and how in some
cases I have had to replace a word with a phrase. You may
even sometimes have to leave out one part altogether. But
you can still construct an effective letter.
 C L O N I N G AND A D A P T I N G / 103

One word of caution. You may remember from school

days perhaps being encouraged to pretend you had been on
holiday even if you hadn't, or pretend to have brothers or
sisters even if you didn't. Don't go down that road. You will
demotivate yourself. You make better progress in language
learning if you are able to talk and write about what is
important to you.

Now study the letter below. Decide which words and phrases
you might alter to make the letter your own.

Dear Jim,

I started my new job at Kendrick's last week. The offices

are in a new building. The journey there is a bit quicker.
It takes ten minutes by car. We start work at 8.30 am and
finish at 5.15 pm. I miss the flexitime from Broderick's.
We have a whole hour for lunch.
The staff can use the staff sports club. We also have a
good canteen and a bank on site.
I have got to meet all of my colleagues. I work mainly
with Sally Johnston. She has been with the firm for ten
years. She is very lively and friendly.
The work is very interesting and I may have the
chance to travel abroad soon.
How's your work going? Look forward to hearing
from you,

Toni
1 0 4 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

Now look at Appendix 6 to see which changes I have

suggested. Study both letters again. What do you notice
about the type of things which I have changed? What hasn't
changed?

Now try doing one of your own, adapting a text from the
language you are studying. You may impress your teacher!

AVOIDING PITFALLS WHEN CLONING

You do have to be quite careful. Be sure that you do not
alter the structure. Your texts already give you the pattern of
word order, endings o ords, how the verb (the doing
word) works and how smaller phrases within the sentence
are constructed. J change some of the nouns (naming
words) or adjectives (describing words) and only if you are
sure of the correct patterns, some of the verbs (doing words).

It is safer to keep to what you know well, but you will be

tempted to use the dictionary. That is fine, but you also need
to be cautious here. For example, you will often be given
more than one word. How do you know which one to use? I
remember a student from my A-level German group telling
us all that a certain tree had a very fat suitcase. She had
looked up the word trunk. In bigger dictionaries, clues may
be given about the actual significance". A smart trick is also
to look the word up again in the other half of the dictionary.
Had my classmate done that, she would have found out that
Koffer was something for transporting personal belongings
when you go away from home. Care should also be taken
when looking up verbs. The dictionary will only give you the
inactive form. You have to make it show who is doing what
 C L O N I N G AND A D A P T I N G / 105

when, and that means knowing some complex patterns. No

dictionary could possibly contain them all.

WHERE TO FIND MATERIALS FOR CLONING

4 dictionaries - many contain sample letters, both personal

and business

4 your text book

+ material sent by your learning partner

4 manuals to do with your work

4 anything in writing or print.

So, have a go now. Choose a text and make it your own.

Whenever you need to write, look for something you can use
as a model. Even the Goethe Institute, in its exam for
advanced business use of German (level B2/C1 of the Euro-
pean Passport, see Appendix 1) provides a model letter for
students to adapt.

THE STORY SO FAR

You are working on your chosern languae in a way

which suits you, you are wrll oranginsten and you are
developing good language learingi harit,s

You understand the importance of structuram,

particularly in wriging.,

You know how to adapt simple sentence,

1 0 6 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A LANGUAGE

You are learning to listen carefully for phrases which

you can use.

You know how to use quyestions to help yuou sturcture

the answer.

You jnow how to turn a model piece of writing into

your own,

You know how to avoid mistakes and how to userthe

dictionary effectively in doing this,

You know where to find materilas to adapt,

 9

Putting in the Backbone

In this chapter you will:

* find out how to predict structure

* learn why we have grammar

* take some of the fear out of dealing with it

* get to grips with the basics

* find out what you need to know

* develop more good habits when writing.

SKELETONS
In the last chapter, we took a look at how to put structure
into your language. Hopefully, you are beginning to do that
quite well now. It is also possible, however, that you are
beginning to get the uncomfortable feeling that the amount
of phrases you are going to have to learn is infinite, and that
you are never going to manage it or get to know anywhere
near enough to sound like a competent speaker.

What if you could get your hands on a system which would

enable you to work out what the structure was going to be in
108 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

any given situation? There is one, and every language has its
own. It is called grammar.

Without grammar or structure, language is just a lump of

meaningless jelly. Look at this group of words.

Chair caretaker borken window morning find

What are the possible meanings?

Tell the caretaker that we have broken the chair this

morning near the window,.

We found that the caretaker had broken the windoem,

with the chair,

The caretaker foud the brokent fhari anear the

windowm

And many more. What gives the sentences meaning is the

way the words relate to each other. And it is structure which
causes the relationship. Grammar is the blueprint for the
structure, a sort of DNA of the language.

Noam Chomsky recognised that we all need to say the same

kinds of things in every language, create the same sort of
relationships between words. Part of our brain recognises
this, and we fill that up with the conventions of our own
 P U T T I N G IN THE B A C K B O N E / 109

language. This can make learning a second language difficult

- we often expect the grammar to act in exactly the same
way as in our own language and it doesn't. By the time you
learn your second foreign language, you are more aware of
this. You also know what you need to know.

Grammar is the skeleton of the language. Grammar differs

from language to language, just as the skeletons of different
species vary. But each animal's skeleton will aid it in breath-
ing, eating, sleeping, moving, reproducing and generally
caring for its wellbeing. Each language also needs to enable
users to perform the same functions. There will be peculiari-
ties - the French count in a peculiar way because once you
showed allegiance to rivalling families in a sort of code and
the ones who counted funny became most popular. It is the
diversity which makes it all so interesting.

GRAMMAR? HELP!
There is a lot of fear about grammar, and depending a little
on your age and what was fashionable in education at the
time, this fear has one of three causes.

1. You understand it perfectly - maybe even enjoy analysing

it, but you know it doesn't help that much. You did very
well at school in your first foreign language - probably
French - but feel that you can't speak a word of it.
(Remember me and the cheese sandwich?)

2. You don't even know what the word means. You have
never been taught any - either in your own language or in
a foreign language.
1 1 0 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

3. You have a vague notion of what it's about, but it seems

so complex, and there is so much of it that you'll never be
able to get to grips with it, so it's not worth trying.

My answers to this are:

1. Grammar is important in helping to make you accurate in

your language, but it is by no means the whole story and
should be used alongside the other suggestions I have
made.

2. With a limited amount of time, you can only acquire full

accuracy by understanding the grammar. It is a short cut
to learning structure.

3. There are only actually five things - although with some

subdivisions - which you need to know about.

When I first found out about using a learning partner I met

a young teacher of German. She was German, though I
couldn't believe it. She spoke fluent, accurate English - with
a Yorkshire accent! She made the point that she had learnt
everything about English grammar by the age of 13 and
had spent the remaining ten years just polishing up her
knowledge - with a learning partner, of course.

We do need to put grammar in its place - incredibly

important, but not all that difficult. That's the bigger picture.
 P U T T I N G IN THE B A C K B O N E / 111

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Simple.:

+ verbs

* word order

4 parts of speech (who is doing what to whom where, when

and why)

* how prepositions work

*• and how your language shows gender and number.

That's it! Let's look at that a little more closely.

Verbs
When dealing with verbs, we need to consider mood, voice,
person and tense.

The moods
In fact, only a few languages use both moods to any great
extent.

4 Indicative. This is what we use most of the time. It is used

when we know for a fact that something is true. The
Queen lives at Buckingham Palace.

+ Subjunctive. This is used when there is some sort of

doubt. We rarely use a verb form to express that in
English, but Long live the Queen! and // / were a rich
man are two examples. The subjunctive is used a lot in
the Romance languages - French, Spanish, Italian - but
112 / T H E C O M P L E T E G U I D E T O L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Northern European languages tend to express the doubt

element with other words.

The voices
Of the two voices, one is rarely used (but I just did) and
generally not approved of (there I go again!) except
in certain situations (writing books about learning foreign
languages, and scientific reports for instance).

+ Active. This is what you use most of the time. The cat ate
the mouse.

4 Passive. In modern language, this is generally frowned

upon. Our example above would become The cat wast was.
eaten by the mouse. Generally, you use this voice if you
do not know who did the action. Papers were strewn all
over the floor. Some languages even get round this by
using the word for 'one'. One (someone?) had strewn
papers all over the floor. Or they make the verb reflexive
(the person/thing does the action to itself). So you get
Papers had strewn themselves all over the floor. Can you
see how you are portraying the same idea but using a
different structure?

Person
How does your language show who is doing the action?
Sometimes it is indicated by the ending on the verb - or at
least some alteration of its spelling, or by putting a word in
front of it, or sometimes both. You have to know how to
indicate that the following people are doing something.
 P U T T I N G IN THE B A C K B O N E / 113

Person Singular Plural

1st I We
2nd you you
3rd he, she, it, one they

Many European languages will have two different words for

the singular and plural you, and there is often another form
of you for people with whom you can be fairly familiar -
close friends, relations and animals! These two forms of the
second person are distinguished as familiar or polite.

Ten.se
Tense tells you when something happens, and is divided into
past, present and future.

Present. This, as you could probably guess, is to do with theth.

present. It says what somebody is doing now. Most languages
just have one verb form for this. But in English we have
three versions of it. Can you work out when we use each?
And you thought the language you were learning was hard?

I read
I am reading
I do read

All three of those are translated into French by je Us.

Past tenses: simple past (sometimes called the preterite).

This is used for one-off actions in the past. He came, he saw,
he conquered.
114 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Imperfect. This is used for continuous and repeated action in

the past. In English, it is often characterised by was . . . ing.
Examples would be:

I was waching telecvision when the phone rag

We used to go to9 the sea every yea,
She came to see me every day.

Pluperfect. This goes one stage further back into the past. In
English, you often get the word 'had' in a sentence.

I had alrady undlondee the shippintg and put it all

away when the doorbell rang.

Future tenses: the future. We actually have two forms of this

in English, and sometimes use the present tense with a future
meaning. This is common in many languages. Compare:

I shall go tho the cinema this ev.ening,

I am going to go to the cinema this evening,
I am going to the cinvema tihs evening,

The conditional. In English, this usually contains the word

'would' and indicates something that is by no means certain,
that is dependent on some condition. In many languages it is
 P U T T I N G IN THE B A C K B O N E / 115

used instead of a future subjunctive. Many languages do not

have a future subjunctive.

If I were you, I would go and see him.

Word order
Word order has one of two functions and sometimes both.

+ It gives meaning to the sentence. This is true in English.

In the sentence the cat chases the mouse we know who is
doing what because of the word order. Some languages
put endings on their words to do that.

^ Most languages have a convention of word order, and

it sounds odd if you do not keep to it. On the other
hand, changing the word order can be used for effect. In
German, you can emphasise something by putting it at
the beginning of the sentence, rather than using your
voice.

Parts of speech
In all sentences you need to indicate:

The verb. This is the action. Technically, a group of words

is not a sentence unless it contains an active verb. Beware,
though, some verbs are not very active - like being or
sleeping.

The subject of the verb. The person or thing doing the

action.
116/ T H E C O M P L E T E G U I D E T O L E A R N I N G A LANGUAGE

The cat sat pm tje ,at.

You may also have:

The direct object. One of my students described this as theh.

recipient of the action. It is the person or object who receives
the action direc.tly.

I dsent a ;etter/

The indirect object. This is the person or object to which th.

action is done indirectly. If you are not sure whether an
object is direct or indirect, try putting the word to into the
sentence.

I sent her a letter, I dssent a letter to her,

Adverbial phrases. These tell us where, why, when and howo..

something happened.

Many languages express these ideas by word order (English,

French, Spanish for example). Others express them by inflec-
tion - adding endings on to words or the markers in front of
them, words like a, the, describing words (German, Latin). In
both systems there is also a default word order. If the word
order is not an indication of the function or importance of
words in the sentence, it follows a set pattern.
 P U T T I N G IN THE B A C K B O N E / 117

Prepositions
Or pre (in front of) positions (places). Prepositions usually
come in front of words and show the relationship of that
word to others in the sentence. For example:

She was by the door.

He came to school with this mother,

One main snag with prepositions is that within their own

language they often have many different meanings, and they
do not translate exactly. For example by in English can mean
near to or through the means of (when used with transport).ort)..
Mit in German means with or by (when used with transport).
You have to learn them for each individual language. In
inflected languages, different prepositions are followed by
different endings.

Gender and Plurals

This is not always as straightforward as in English. We have
masculine and feminine for humans and animals only. Of
course, ships tend to be feminine. But in French, so are
rulers and houses. German has masculine, feminine and
neuter, even for objects. You have to know which it is in
order to produce sentences with correct structure. There are
patterns, and it's worth learning them. Plurals are not always
simple either. Several other languages also add the 's' for
denoting plural. But there are exceptions, and they are not
always the same as our exceptions. And many languages
have other methods of indicating the plural. Often, there is
118 / T H E C O M P L E T E G U I D E T O L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

more than one pattern, and at some stage you will need to
learn them.

And that is all there is to it.

TIME, NUMBER AND QUANTITY

Although in many ways this is more an item of vocabulary
than grammar, most languages have a set pattern for these
items which are used frequently. It is worth learning them
sooner rather than later. They are often listed separately in
your course book or your dictionary.

METALANGUAGE - A LANGUAGE FOR TALKING ABOU.

LANGAUGE
You will find these terms used in your grammar book, in
your dictionary and at the back of your text book. They are
often used on computer programs as well. There will be
others, but if you understand these, the context in which you
meet the others will probably make them clear.

I have listed these expressions alphabetically. You may find

it useful to photocopy this page and slip it into whichever
book you use the most for help with grammar. I have given
an example in each case.

Adjective
This is a describing word. It sometimes comes in front of a
noun or sometimes it stands alone.
 P U T T I N G IN THE B A C K B O N E / 119

The red hpise was very nig,

Adverb
This is also a describing word, but describes a verb rather
than an adjective. In English, it often ends in 'ly' but not
always.

Although he o=ferm wnet to the clyn,this time he

walked in nervously.

Article
The is the definite article.cle:
A or an is the indefinite article.e.

Conjunction
These join two sentences together. Sometimes they influence
meaning, sometimes they just join.

He went into town although he had no money.

he wemt onto tomwn and met his girlfrine

Noun
These are naming words. There are proper nouns, whichhich.
usually have a capital letter.

John and Mary wnet lto London,

120 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Concrete nouns are things which you can touch.

He kicked the ball

Abstract nouns refer to items which you cannot see, hear,, hear,,
smell, feel or touch.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Participles
The two main ones are the past participle and the present
participle. They are parts of the verb..

The past participle is part of the past tense. In English, itglish, it,
often ends in t or ed.

I have learnt my lesson,

They had alreeady vistied the family.

The present participle is often really an adjective. It gives a

description which contains a verb.

The flying ants were leaving their nes,t

 P U T T I N G IN THE B A C K B O N E / 121

It will often also be used as a noun in English, but not in all

other languages.

Many people think that flying is eaingerous now,

We use it also in our continuous present and continuous past

tenses but these tenses occur in few other languages.

Pronouns.
These take the place of nouns e.g. she instead of the girl.

CHECKING WRITTEN WORK

You should check each piece of written work very carefully.
However, if you have taken in all of the above, you could
drive yourself mad trying to check for everything at once and
you would probably miss a lot of mistakes anyway. Check for
one thing at a time. The list below should help.

1. Verbs - mood, voice, person and tense.

2. Word order - does it show who does what, if that is its

function, and does it follow the default pattern?

3. Have you indicated in each sentence who does what to

whom?

4. Have you used the correct preposition, and in an inflected

language have you used the correct endings?
122/THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A LANGUAGE

5. Have you used genders and plurals correctly?

6. Now look for those mistakes you always make! Look

through any written work you have had corrected and
see if you can find any pattern. There usually is. Look
specifically for examples of that in the work you have just
completed. In a short while, you will stop making those
sorts of mistakes.

KEEP A DIARY
It is good to write a little each day. I often suggest to
students that they keep a diary, saying what they have done
that day and what their plans are for the next day. I ask them
to use the checklist above to revise their work. They then
give it in to me to mark. So they tend not to make it too
personal.

Obviously, if you are a beginner, this will be more difficult.

But could you at least write something, if not a diary,
daily? Perhaps using a mixture of 'cloned' material and
constructing new language with those grammar points you
unders.tand?

USING THE GRAMMAR BOOK

At this point it is a good idea to look through your grammar
book and see how your language conveys the grammar
points mentioned above. Of course, you will not remember
all of it at once. But at least read it through, and you will
probably find that you understand it, even if you cannot
remember it all.
 P U T T I N G IN THE B A C K B O N E / 123

Then look at any points mentioned that I have not covered.

They will still relate to the main points of grammar I have
mentioned. Make a note of anything you don't understand
and discuss it with your teacher.

If you find grammar easy, you would probably benefit from

trying to get it right all the time. You know what you need to
know. It is tedious having to look everything up at first.
Gradually, however, you become more and more familiar
with the structures and they become automatic.

But you may not want to wait. Then it is a matter of learning

one grammar point at a time. Mastery of some points brings
you closer more quickly to obtaining that all-important level
of operational competence (see Appendix 1). I suggest the
following order.

SEQUENCE IN WHICH TO LEARN GRAMMAR POINTS

1. The past tense.

2. The future tense.
3. Word order.
4. How parts of speech are shown.
5. Prepositions.
6. The imperfect tense.
7. Using the dictionary effectively (not strictly speaking
grammar, but effective use of the dictionary and good
knowledge of grammar lead to rapid progress).
8. The pluperfect tense.
9. The passive voice.
10. The conditional tense.
124 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

11. The present tense.

12. The subjunctive mood.
13. Genders and plurals (these will have come up in other
areas, but this should be work on consolidating them.
Almost all languages have patterns which help you work
out genders and plurals).
14. How to express wanting, having to, being able to, being
obliged to (known as modal verbs).
15. Number, time and quantity (you probably know a lot
already, but at this point you should really pin them
down).
16. Idioms (language which is grammatically unpredictable).
You have probably collected quite a few in your note
book. Now deliberately seek them out.
17. Relative pronouns.

And that is it!

Grammar wasn't so bad after all was it?

THE STORY SO FAR

You are making good progerss in your chsoen

Languagem and really do have many good woirking
habits,

You understand the hnedd for grammar,

You are no longer afraid of it,

You understand the five main points of grammar,

You are laraing how to check aeritttne work

effectiv
 P U T T I N G IN THE B A C K B O N E / 125

You are writing a little every day.

You have had a good look at your grammar bokl

You have started to learn the garammar of your

chosen language,
 10

Eyes Wide Open

In this chapter you will find out:

+ how to make the most of learning opportunities when in

the country of your language

* how to learn with your eyes

4 how to learn with your ears

* how to learn with your other senses.

EYES THAT ARE SHUT

Or ears. Whenever I come back from the continent via the
Eurotunnel, I become very saddened. Recently I returned
from Germany and decided to do a little shopping in Cite
Europe, the large shopping centre near the shuttle terminal.
I was standing in the queue, waiting to pay at the checkout.
There was a young girl in front of me. Her friend joined the
queue.

'Excuse me please', she said, as she walked in front of me.

Time for some fun, I thought.

 E Y E S W I D E O P E N / 127

'How did you know I'm English?' I asked.

The girl blushed.

'Well, everybody speaks English', she mumbled.

I took great delight in pointing out that the majority of the

people in the shopping centre - despite the vast number of
English tourists there - probably did not want to speak
English, even if they could. They were French, and didn't
they have every right to expect us at least to try to speak
their language? We were guests in their country.

Both girls looked a little ashamed. We chatted for a while as

we waited to be served. Yes, they were on a school trip and
they had done a little French at school. They did know
the French for excuse me please, and although what they
produced was what usually appears in text books rather than
what the French normally use, it would have done.

I asked them to listen to some of the French people who

were standing in the other queues. It took about 30 seconds
for them to establish that most French people said 'pardon'.
if they trod on your toe or needed to get past. We looked at
some of the signs around us and tried to work out what they
meant. As we got nearer to the till, we listened to what the
cashier was saying and how the French customers replied. I
am pleased to report that my two new friends managed to be
polite in French when they paid for their goods. They were
actually using mainly things they had met before but not
rehearsed in a real situation. They were adding in a few
things they had just learnt.
1 2 8 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

A little while later I sat in a salon de the. I actually found

myself cringing as I heard teachers - perhaps from the same
school as the girls - talking in English loudly to make the
shop assistant understand. You don't actually need much
language to point to a cake you want and order a drink. The
language staff from that school could have rehearsed it
with their colleagues, and keeping eyes open would have
reminded them of the vocabulary they needed as they
looked at the menu. If they had kept their ears open, they
would have heard plenty of model sentences to help them
place their order. I even provided one myself.

THE WRITING ON THE WALL

Are you a compulsive reader? Are you like me - do you
read the cereal packet over and over every morning, even
though you know exactly what it says? If you see words
do you have to read them? If so, and most adults are
like this, don't shut down just because you are in a foreign
country.

There are words everywhere:

* road signs

4 shop windows

+ restaurants

4 adverts

+ safety instructions on planes, trains and ferries

4 information signs
 E Y E S W I D E O P E N / 129

* washing instructions

* manufacturer's instructions.

Some of these signs may be presented in many languages

and often visually as well. This is good for helping you to
understand. You gain a subconscious knowledge of these
words and phrases. A good trick is to make an effort to use
and learn a few. Some may end up in your note book. You
will find it useful to set yourself a target of how many you
want to learn a day.

Some of this material is available in your own country. You

may like to set yourself a target of how much to learn a
week.

VOCABULARY TEST
One pupil I took on an exchange visit to Germany made
very good use of his walk to school with his partner. They
tested each other on the words for the objects they saw
around them. You could do this at home even. Just look
around for ten minutes a day. List down, in English, all the
objects for which you do not know the word in your chosen
language. Then look them up in your dictionary. Learn
them.

When you're in the foreign country, though, this becomes a

little easier. You often have more time. If you're on holiday
you have more leisure anyway, and this is a very appropriate
activity. If you're on business, it can be hectic but there are
often substantial chunks of time when you have nothing to
1 3 0 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

do. And you're surrounded by the language, so you may

have some of those words in front of you in spoken or
written form.

EAVESDROPPING
Become a language detective. Listen to conversations on the
bus, in the supermarket queue, and in the bar. Then there
are those train and airport announcements. Or the tanoy
system in the supermarket, asking for cleaners or super-
visors, or telling you of the latest offer. Of course, these are
often difficult to understand even in your own language. But
when they are clear enough, they are easier to understand
than ordinary conversations, because you know roughly
what to expect.

If you are a relative beginner, you may find it hard to

understand anything you hear. But don't worry. Let the
rhythm and intonation of the language wash over you, and
when you do speak, using something of which you are sure,
try to use the patterns of language you have heard.

Robert was an interesting pupil. He came to France with us

on an exchange visit. He had always found French a struggle.
Yet he managed to mimic the rise and fall of the French
voices around him and the pace of the speech he heard. He
spoke gibberish at first, but gradually words began to form.
By the end of our time there he was speaking in simple
sentences with a perfect accent and pronunciation.

A good source of 'free' listening material is the car radio. As

you go along the motorway, signs usually tell you where the
 E Y E S W I D E O P E N / 131

local radio channel is found. Often these will be like our own
local channels and like our Radio 2 and Radio 5. In other
words a good mixture of music and speech. The speech will
include short news, weather and traffic reports - just as
you'd expect. When the music comes back on, you have time
to mull over what you have just heard.

We lived in Holland for two years. Our children attended a

school in Amsterdam and we lived in Haarlem. On a good
day, the journey took 40 minutes. The radio was on all the
time. My daughter was 7 and my son 9 at the time, and they
would swear that they didn't understand Dutch. There was a
report about three house fires. Two children the same age as
mine were rescued from one of the houses. My daughter
commented that she thought the children would have been
very scared. My son remarked that it was odd that house
fires always seemed to come in threes. They were surprised
when I pointed out that they had just heard all of that in
Dutch. They had a few lessons at school, they listened to the
radio for at least an hour and 20 minutes every day - and
they listened to Dutch story tapes.

They had some favourite Disney story tapes in English -

such as The Lady and the Tramp and The Aristocats. Iitocats, Ia.
managed to find the same ones in Dutch. We listened to the
tape and followed the story at the same time. They under-
stood it, because they knew the story and they recognised
the pictures. Could you bear to use a story tape?

Then there's television and the cinema. Watch something

with which you are familiar that has been dubbed. Like the
soaps. It might be quite a joke listening to Harold Bishop
132 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

speaking fluent French, but you'll understand him. It's likely

to be an old episode anyway. You get most of the meaning
from the visuals and what you remember, but the language is
going in at the same time.

And even watching the soaps produced in the country of

your stay is good. Soaps are very predictable and quite
visual.

CREATIVE OBSERVATIONS
Your creative writing is usually best when you immerse
yourself into a scene and describe what all of your senses
perceive. Good writers can create or recall the scene in their
mind and then write about what they see, what they hear,
what they feel, what they smell and if appropriate, what they
taste.

Could you write creatively in your chosen language? Perhaps

not easily until you are beyond the level of operational
competence (see Appendix 1). But you probably could
with the help of cloned structure, your dictionary and your
knowledge of your language's grammar. And there are all
those other auditory and visual prompts around you. Just
stand for five minutes and see what you take in.

If you close your eyes, your other four senses will work
harder. We are going beyond the linguistic here. We are
taking on the culture too. Yes you will see the road signs and
what the shop windows say. But you will also notice how
your native speakers greet each other, at which angle they
leave their knife and fork on their plates and how their
 E Y E S W I D E O P E N / 133

houses have narrower doorways and taller ceilings. Yes, you

will hear how they ask for help and express joy and sorrow,
how and where they gossip, but you will also hear the
different noise their cars make because of the way they
drive, that the song birds sing more clearly because there
is less traffic and the policemen blow their whistles more
frequently. You may notice the warmer air, the rougher road
beneath your feet and you may pick up through your shoes
the rhythm of the way others walk. You may smell the
stronger coffee, the fresher fish or flowers which we do not
have. You may even taste and enjoy a drink you have
not met before, a new flavour of ice cream and vegetables
cooked a different way. You may write about this if you
wish. But even if you don't want to or feel you can't, you will
begin to take on the habits of the nation along with their
language. You will speak more convincingly because of
it. You understand these people better, and that also aids
your subconscious when it fits the pieces of the puzzle
together.

TEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE BUSINESS TRAVELLER

1. You are welcomed on to your flight in English and the
language of the country to which you are flying. Try to
internalise one of the phrases you hear.

2. The safety instructions will also be in both languages. If

English is second, try to work out what they say as you
hear the foreign language. If you hear English first, pick
out a phrase you are going to listen out for.
134 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

3. You look through the in-flight magazine. Try to read the

section in the foreign language, just referring to the
English version if you get stuck.

4. Watch and listen to the cabin crew. There is a general

way the cabin crew operates in any culture or language.
But they will use some of their own body language.

5. Listen to what they say to passengers and how the

passengers respond. Can you clone that? Do this, even if
they know you are English and speak English to you. If
you're feeling brave, you can make a point of replying in
the foreign language.

6. As you wait for your baggage to arrive, do some creative

observation. Try to write at least one phrase down in
your note book.

7. As you queue to go through customs, if appropriate, and

passport control, listen out to the exchanges between
the travellers and the officials. Is there something there
you can adapt?

8. In the taxi, try out your carefully rehearsed small talk.

Listen to the radio. Enjoy the rhythm, the intonation,
the pronunciation and the accent, even if you do not
understand every single word.

9. As you register at the hotel, take your cues from the

people in front of you. Work out what the receptionist is
likely to say and how you should respond. Read the
walls.
 E Y E S W I D E O P E N / 135

10. In your room, flip through the TV channels. Maybe

you find a football match. You know what's going on
because of what you see on the screen. You can guess
what the commentator is saying because of the way
the crowd is reacting. And you find out the words for
goalkeeper, goal, half-time, if you didn't know them
before, because they are scripted at the bottom of the
screen. Consciously listen for at least one phrase you
will remember. And then let your subconscious do the
rest.

And you've only just arrived!

TEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE TOURIST

1. You arrive at the first motorway service area in the
country which speaks your language. You fill up with
petrol. Rehearse your numbers and polite phrases as
you go to pay. Take your cues from the people in front
of you at the checkout.

2. As you drink your coffee in the restaurant next door,

listen to conversations going on around you. Even if you
do not understand every word, listen to the music of the
language. Try to install its rhythms in your head so that
you can use them when you speak. Read the walls.

3. Have a browse through the shop. Is there a manual for

your car there? Would it be good to buy one? Or maybe
the one which comes with your car has pages in your
chosen language. Have a look through before you set
off again.
1367 T H E C O M P L E T E G U I D E T O L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

4. Listen to the local radio as you go along. Is there some-

one else in the car who is learning the same language as
you? Maybe you could try to work out what you have
heard as you go along.

5. If you are not the driver, look at signs on the other

vehicles and at the side of the road.

6. You see a tourist information point. You stop and go in

and have a look. Pick up the brochures which look as if
they would be of interest. Later, when you are at your
destination, make the effort to read the part written in
the language you are studying. Only refer to the English
- if there is any - if you can't work it out. And then see
how it means what it means.

7. You arrive at your destination. You rehearse the phrase

you are going to use when you check in. You may be
able to take some cues from other people in front of
you. If you have to wait, read the walls.

8. You decide to do some shopping. Rehearse your polite

phrases. Listen to the supermarket announcements. See
if you can mange to buy the offer of the day. Read all
the writing you see.

9. You find a piece of advertising put under you wind-

screen wipers. Don't bin it. Take it home and read it.

10. You notice a family of native speakers next door. They

are a similar 'shape' to your family. Eavesdrop a little
on their conversations. Have a few rehearsed polite
 E Y E S W I D E O P E N / 137

phrases, so that you can make a contact. Let your

children play together.

And it's only the first evening!

Reread this chapter every time you go abroad until you are
doing all of these things instinctively

THE STORY SO FAR

You are making good progerss in your chosen

language, and you are using a varietu of good hanit,s

You read everything in sight,

You listen carefully and pick up the music of your

chosen language along with many mew experassion,
which you hear,

You are using your other sensed to help uou to

become more like the pople whose language you
are ;aearoig

You are maximising he learingnoppotatingiyour

meet when aborad.
 11

Have a Go

In this chapter we shall:

* take the fear out of risking your version of your language

on a native speaker

+ look at language you can try out

+ create a need to talk

* learn to be proactive in looking for language - the

magpie instinct in reverse

4 find sources of help for the above.

TAKING AWAY THE FEAR

We all have some nervousness about trying out the language
we have acquired on native speakers. But as with any fear, it
is quite useful to look at what is the worst that can happen. It
is also good to look at the best which could happen and the
stages in between.

The worst
The person to whom we are speaking will not understand
a word and actually walk away from us. There are two
comments to be made:
 H A V E A GO / 139

4 you won't actually die because of it

4 is someone who is so impatient really worth com-

municating with?

Either way, you don't actually lose.

Boring or frustrating the person to whom you are speaking

Yes, it can be very tiring when you have to speak your own
language slowly. You need to enliven that experience up for
the person to whom you are speaking. Apologise for speak-
ing so slowly. Have you noticed if you put yourself down a
little, others pull you back up? Smile a lot as well. They will
be charmed. They will be flattered that you want to use their
language.

They may come at you in a full-speed torrent

They may not make any concession to the fact that you are a
foreigner and that you have not completely mastered their
language. But now it is your turn to be flattered. They were
obviously impressed with what you said and how you said it
and have assumed you know a lot about their language. You
can carry on impressing them if you are prepared.

+ Anticipate what they might be including in their reply.

4 Listen out for key words. You could have worked these
out in advance.

4 If the above does not work, ask them to repeat what they
have said.

* Ask them to speak more slowly.

1 4 0 / T H E C O M P L E T E GUIDE TO L E A R N I G A LANGUAGE

* Tell them you do not understand. They will probably

simply repeat what they have said, slow down and use
more gesture and facial expression to clarify their
meaning.

* Explain that you are a learner of their language and

are eager to carry on speaking. Thank them for their
patienc.e.

The best that could happen

They understand you perfectly and reply with something
which is absolutely clear to you. This does pose another
problem, however - you now have to be ready to continue
the conversation.

Anticipation of what might come next is the key at all times.

TRYING IT OUT
In Chapter 6, we looked at making speaking practice more
effective. You remember, you go through it all several times
with a partner, changing roles, then changing expression and
eventually altering the conversation to some extent. The
next stage is to get someone in the know - your teacher or
your learning partner - to introduce something un-
predictable. You move from the known to the unknown.

However you don't have to be a fortune teller to work out

what might come into the unknown. If you're going shopping
for greengroceries, you might be invited to try some nice figs
that they just got in that morning. You can look out for these
sort of exchanges in your own language first.
 H A V E A GO / 141

Then, if you know you are going to face a particular situation

soon, you can practise beforehand with a partner from your
class, verifying the language you need with your teacher or
your learning partner.

Look at the following situation.

You are going on a visit to your twin town and are going to
stay with a family similar to your own. You may anticipate
that you are going to find yourself in the following situa-
tions.

+ Answering questions about your own family.

* Understanding information about the town you are living

in.

4 Being offered food and drink.

> Being tired and wanting to go to bed. When you

take your language learning seriously and really make an
effort to understand and contribute, it can be very tiring
mentally. However, you often go to bed and then are
unable to sleep. Those new words and expressions are
going round and round in your head. But it shows it's
working, and then if you dream in your chosen language,
you really are on your way.

* Having to read a story to a young child in the family.

4 Talking about your leisure activities.

4 Checking out times when events are going to take place.

1 4 2 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A LANGUAGE

+ Making an excuse to leave the house because your

hostess is looking tired and you want to give them a
break.

Let's take just one of those situations and anticipate what

might come up. So, you read to a young child in the family.
You look at a picture book. The child asks you questions
about the story. You also ask the child questions about
the story and discuss the pictures. The child then asks you
personal questions - for example 'Have you ever seen a
wolf?' You ask the child something similar. 'Have you got
any pets?'

Of course, other people will come up with different lists and

possibly all the rehearsal you have done may not meet the
situations you actually encounter. But won't your language
have improved? This type of rehearsal differs considerably
from the practice mentioned in Chapter 6. There, you move
from what is in the text book towards the real-life situation.
Here you start with the real-life situation. Both are valid.

This is a very common feature of learning by phone and

occurs also in some tailor-made lessons. You negotiate with
your teacher what you want to learn. Then you are given
patterns to try out, practise and eventually learn by heart.

In other types of courses, you may not be able to determine

what you want to learn in advance. However, if you've taken
on board all the other techniques mentioned in previous
chapters, you will not be starting in a vacuum. You will have
a fair amount of language and will have a good idea of how
to create extra language. You will only need your teacher or
 H A V E A GO / 143

learning partner to verify and help you plug the gaps more
quickly.

CHAT UP EVERYONE
If you go to a supermarket in Britain on a Friday night, you
will see lines of people not talking to each other. At most
they're saying 'Oh, I forgot the cabbage, can you go and
get one?', generally just conducting transactions about the
essentials. But what a great opportunity that is to talk!
Cultivate it in your own language and it will be easier in the
new one.

Rehearse a few things you might discuss in such a queue.

Even if you just say a little, you may be presented with many
good patterns of language which you can later adapt, clone
and note in your book. Here's a list for starters.

* animals

+ children

4- football

+ the weather (rather British, but the Dutch do it too and

it's an easy one to talk about)

+ the price of petrol

4 the youth of today

4 politics (if you're brave).

Dale Carnegie recognised the value of making an effort to

get to know people by talking to them about what they
144 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

found interesting. Connie Ten Boom took tips from his book
written in 1936 How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Talking to a member of the Gestapo about his dog helped
her to escape imprisonment. Can you make an effort to open
a conversation with everyone you see? Could you admire
someone's pet? Talk to a child? (In the presence of their
parents of course.) Comment on the lateness of a bus, the
beauty of a painting, the delight of a walk in the country with
the stranger who is sharing that with you? You'll surely pick
up a lot of new language that way. But that might not be the
only thing. You will also win new friends and influence
people. The language is beginning no longer to be the main
point and at the same time becoming even more important.
And the habit may spill over into your own language. How
much richer your world is going to become!

One of my pupils did better than I expected in his oral exam

one year by doing just this. He was bright, and he had a
certain linguistic competence. However, he was rather lazy,
and I knew he had not done enough work. Sure enough, the
evening before the exam, he went out to the park instead of
staying at home to revise. How lucky he became, though. He
met a group of French girls there. He chatted them up,
something he was rather good at, in his somewhat under-
developed French. He rehearsed for the oral exam the next
day with them. He rehearsed a few other things too. There
were several consequences.

4 He did well in his oral exam.

+ His French improved generally.

* He was invited to France

 H A V E A GO / 145

vvvHe made friends for life - he has actually married one of

those girls he chatted up that night.

THE STORY SO FAR

You are continuing to progerss in your chosen

language. ad you really are acquirng a wealthof
good learing habit,

you are facing the fear you may havce about havinga
go/'//

Yiou have started to overcome that fear.

You have learnt how to anticipate and rehearse/

You have started to take every opportunity to hodld

conversations,

You are beginning tio proactively seek productive

language.
 12
What Next?

In this chapter you will:

* look at the extent to which you have achieved your goals

+ complete an action plan to deal with what is missing

+ identify anything extra you have achieved

+ identify what else you would like to know

+ create a new set of goals

4 consider whether you wish to continue learning in

the same way or whether a change of style might be
appropriate.

HOW YOU HAVE BEEN USING THIS BOOK

Perhaps you have read this book from cover to cover, as
bed-time reading or to occupy yourself on a train journey.
That is great! You are in touch with the bigger picture.
Hopefully by now you are bubbling over with excitement
and want to try out what has been suggested. You may well
want to go back and take a week or so putting into effect
what has been described in each chapter. I strongly suggest
 W H A T N E X T ? / 147

for the moment, though, that you carry on reading to the end
so that you complete the picture.

At some point, though, you will have worked through all of

the suggestions and you will be ready to take a look at how
much you have achieved of what you set out to do.

LOOKING AT YOUR MIND MAP

Take out that mind map you created when you were
deciding which sort of course to follow. Highlight in a bright
colour anything which you feel you have not yet managed.
Add in another colour anything extra that you are aware
you've achieved. You may even be lucky and find that the
extras outweigh the deficits. Nevertheless, you will now want
to deal with what is missing.

If I look at my original mind map, I will see that I haven't

managed to complete everything in the 'put the world right'
section. I have, however, also learnt to order food and drink
in cafes and restaurants and obtained a fair understanding of
recipe books. That makes me feel good. But I still want to do
something about putting the world right.

This time I make a list. I have succeeded in reading the

newspapers quite well, and I can describe my opinions, but I
am still not reacting quickly enough to what other people say
and sometimes not even understanding what they say in
response to my ideas. I have acquired some of the habits
recommended in this book but need to sharpen them a little
in this context. Therefore, my list may look like this:
1 4 8 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A LANGUAGE

* Carry on reading the newspapers and watching current

affairs programmes. Try to spend a little more time on
this.

+ Rehearse my argument and the answers to the counter

arguments. (I can probably find some good phrases to
use in the newspapers and by listening to other people
debating.)

+ Use the dictionary, my teacher, my tandem partner and

my knowledge of Dutch grammar to help me structure
the language I need to learn.

+ Make sure I know how to ask people to repeat or speak

more slowly.

+ Always smile, even when disagreeing.

* Don't let them speak English to me. I must really insist

on speaking Dutch. This is particularly important in the
Netherlands.

There is a stage of struggle we all go through. What we need

from native speakers at this point is sympathy and patience.
We cannot become fluent until we have gone through that
stage. The Dutch can be too kind. And whichever language
you are studying, you will often meet this sort of helpfulness
which is really not all that helpful.

Can you make a similar list? You may never look at the list
again after you have made it, but there is something about
writing down your goals which affirms them. And it is some-
thing to hold yourself to.
Fig. 4. Mind map 2.
1 5 0 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A LANGUAGE

MAKING A SECOND TYPE OF MIND MAP

There are probably certain aspects of life in the countries
which speak your language that appeal to you. Maybe you
want to go deeper into these. What is the bottom line of why
you want to do these things? Make that the centre of your
new mind map. Your next layer should list the activities you
had in mind. Then come the areas of vocabulary you need,
then structures, then parts of grammar, and if there is room,
your list of what you must do. Mine looks like the one in
Figure 4.

What we have produced is a bit of a side water, a tangent. It

is something which is very personal to us. We probably also
need to have a more general look at how we are to continue
learning our chosen language. If you have worked through
this book up to this point, you will have a fair idea of how
language learning works. You will probably come up with a
similar mind map to the one in Figure 5 for learning Italian -
something which I would like to do soon. What may differ
the most is the very outer legs, which is very personal and
where we recognise our own strengths and weaknesses.

Create your own version of mind map 3 to lead you to a list

of tasks you would like to commit yourself to doing.

My list looks like this:

+ Meet up more often with Sally to practise conversations

we have had in class.

4 Do those conversations with different emotions.

+ List role-plays to practise with Tania or Sally.

Fig.5.idmp.3..
152 / T H E C O M P L E T E GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

4 Get some of the readers for beginners.

4 Look at some children's books.

+ Read the newspaper for gist, but also pick one or two
articles for more intense reading.

* Practise writing. Adapt what I have read.

+ Look carefully at the mistakes I have made.

4 Practise composing my own structure by writing a little

every day.

+ Use the tapes in the car.

4 Use the tapes while ironing.

+ When in Italy listen to conversation around me.

* Go through the grammar book - revise the five points of

grammar.

+ Work on holiday homes, visiting new places and talking

about the family.

You now have three mind maps and two lists to shape what
you might do next. But we haven't finished yet.

METHODS OF LEARNING
Different methods of learning languages have been favoured
at different times. The common sense approach has usually
overruled, and most teachers have adapted a mixture of
them. We all have different preferences, in any case, in the
way in which we learn. No method will work, however,
unless the learner is engaged in their learning and takes
 W H A T N E X T ? / 153

responsibility for it. If you have followed the suggestions in

this book, you have sampled a little of all of these methods
and you are taking responsibiity for your own learning.
Perhaps it is now time for you to look at them more closely
and decide which ones help you the most. This is another
key feature in you designing the next stage of your study.

Grammar grind
A rather cruel name for something which actually worked
quite well. It was favoured up until the mid-sixties and
derided in the seventies. You worked systematically through
the grammar, starting with the easiest point and coming
finally to the most complex. It could leave learners with a
thorough understanding of the grammar of the language but
unable to use it. Remember my cheese sandwich?

The direct method

This was an attempt to mimic the way we acquire our own
language. The teacher would rush into the lesson, shouting
'Good morning, class.' Everyone thought they meant 'I'm
sorry I'm late.' Learners under this method were never put
off when they went abroad. But neither could they make
themselves understood. They did develop some good coping
strategies, however.

Drills and patterns

Language stucture is introduced as you need to know it and
drilled into you. There is still an emphasis on grammar, but it
is not made explicit to the learner. You practise a pattern.
New language was often introduced with flash cards, and
then you completed the drill on the language laboratory.
154 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

It went something like this:

David played tennis.

Hockey
David played hockey.
Swimming
David went swimming.

(You have to learn the exceptions at the same time as the

rules!)

As you can see, it is very much like our cloning and adapting
activities. But it can be deadly boring and it misses out many
other important aspects of language learning. It killed off the
language laboratories, as they were used mainly only for this
sort of drill. They are coming back now, and are being used
to allow learners to listen as well as speak and are often used
with videos as well.

Communicative language learning

The message here is communication, communication, com-
munication. Exercises are set up so that the learner is
genuinely communicating. The language has worked if the
outcome is correct. Often each partner has information
the other doesn't. A simple example is that each has half a
TV guide. They ask each other such questions as 'What is on
Channel 4 at 7 pm?' These are very realistic exercises, but do
not always develop grammatical and structural accuracy.

Target language
The teacher speaks all the time in the language you are
learning. They do this, however, in a much more conscious
 W H A T N E X T ? / 155

way than with the direct method. They always aim to make
sure the student understands. At the same time the student
becomes used to hearing language as communication. The
learner develops coping strategies. Again, little time is
available for adding in the knowledge of accurate structure.

Current practice
Teachers talk a lot about good practice. When a system is in
development it is often hard to describe. However, most
people in language learning would probably agree that you
need to:

+ talk

4 speak

+ listen

4 read

+ write

4 understand and use structure

* communicate

* deal with authentic texts

^ cope in the real situation.

Courses at the moment are being geared to enable you to be

able to do just that and are combining the best elements of
all the methods described above. Which areas of the list
above need more work?
156 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

There are a lot of similarities between learning to play a

musical insturment and learning a language. The scales
are like the drills. Music theory is like the grammar. You
rehearse and practise set pieces until you have them fluent.
Then you are able to sight read and you are able to put your
own language together, using a grammar reference to help
you. You can even compose music and you can write and
speak as spontaneously in the new language as in your own.
Eventually, you move an audience.

Perhaps that is why one of my most successful students was a

friend who used to give me piano lessons in exchange for
French lessons. We found many parallels and it was useful to
compare how we were learning.

But you may not be musical. There is also an analogy with

sport. If you are sporty, you might like to work it out.

You are in a very strong position, if you know what you need
to know. You proably do now. Now you need to work out
where to find that knowledge and how to acquire the skills
which go with it.

LEARNING STYLES AND SETTINGS

Finally, take another look at Chapter 2. You probably don't
need to fill in the charts all over again, but look at the
advantages and disadvantages of each sort of course and
have a look at the different settings in which you could work.
Do you feel you want to change something now?
 W H A T N E X T ? / 157

LOOKING AHEAD
You can now plan your next course. You have:

* Completed a certain stage of your study.

4 Looked at your first mind map and identified any gaps

(and hopefully congratulated yourself on all the extras
you have achieved).

4 Created a second mind map identifying certain very

personal goals.

* Created a third mind map with knowledge of how

language learning works and identified areas in which
you need to work more.

* Considered which methods suit you best.

4 Reconsidered which settings suit you best and the type of

course you might now follow.

Now, decide how you want to proceed.

 13

Keeping It Ticking Over

In this chapter you will see:

+ how fluency and accuracy carry on improving

4 how you can continue to gather language

+ how you can keep your spoken language fluent

4 how you can carry on improving your reading

* how you can keep on practising writing

4 how you can carry on improving your listening

4 how you can adapt life-long habits so that you continue

to learn your language without even noticing.

WHERE YOU ARE NOW

You may have completed your course. You might have
attained all of your goals. In which case, you are probably
delighted. So you may have decided not to carry on with any
formal learning. However, you do not want to lose your
newly acquired skills and knowledge. What can you do to
keep it all ticking over?
 K E E P I N G IT T I C K I N G O V E R / 159

WHAT USUALLY HAPPENS

Even if you don't touch your new language for a while, you
will not actually forget everything. It may get a little rusty,
but it will still be there chugging away like a computer
program you had forgotten was running. You will never
forget completely.

I used to take a second stage adult French class. Just a few of

the members had done one year of French the year before.
Most of the rest had completed five years of study at school
but many years ago. As soon as they started classes, it all
came flooding back, and by the end of the year, they were at
least level with where they were when they left school. In
some cases they were beyond that.

If you actually do do something to keep your knowledge and

skills up to scratch, they will carry on improving.

In my own case, I would say that my French and German are

much better than they were when I left university. I may not
have the in-depth knowledge any more of the most complex
of the grammar, or of the more literary vocabulary. On the
other hand, my fluency and ability to deal with everyday
language has improved no end. This is probably because:

4 In 25 years of teaching, I have had almost daily contact

with the language.

+ I have gone on several exchange visits with schools.

4 I have maintained friendships with speakers of these

languages.
1 6 0 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

* I have used several strategies to improve my reading,

writing, speaking and listening, and worked in a way that
seemed more like pleasure.

In other words, I have continued with the habits I have

described in this book.

MORE THAN TICKING OVER

The slightest amount of work you continue to do will move
your language skills and knowledge forward. Fluency and
accuracy will carry on improving.

You may, for instance, be quite good at negotiating in a

shopping situation. Yet the words still stick a little on the
way out. Any rehearsal - and the 'real' situation is always a
rehearsal for the next time - will make the whole transaction
smoother.

You may be communicating well, but are still making tiny

grammatical mistakes. The person to whom you are speaking
may correct you, either consciously or unconsciously, or they
may, without thinking, present you with an accurate pattern
of language which you, also consciously or unconsciously,
then pick up. What was fluent becomes accurate.

As you continue to look up new words and expressions when

you prepare to write, grammatical structures become more
familiar to you. You rely less on your grammar book and
dictionary. What was accurate but painfully slow becomes
fluent..
 K E E P I N G IT T I C K I N G O V E R / 161

If you have reached a satisfying plateau, there are never-

theless several things which you can do, which are not
onerous, and which will not only maintain your level of
knowledge and skill, but will also keep the accuracy and
fluency gradually improving.

Carry on gathering
You will probably want to keep your note book or computer
file record alive. However, you will not perhaps want to add
to it as often as you have been doing. Give yourself a goal
now of how many phrases you want to add per month or per
week. And always look out for new material when you are
abroad.

It is good to spend some time learning as well. Again, you

may reduce the frequency. Keep your note book in a place
where it is easy to pick up. Leaf through it at odd moments -
whilst waiting for the bus, on the train, while you drink a cup
of coffee - maybe even when you're stuck in a traffic jam.

Using a computer program

Even if until now you haven't used a CD language course, it
may be something you could add on to what you have been
doing. Could you agree a time with yourself that you would
spend on the language programme every time you begin or
finish work on the computer? Five minutes? Ten minutes?
Twenty minutes?

Speaking and talking practice

Hopefully you will keep in touch with your learning partner.
Agree certain times that you can meet up or speak on the
phone. Mix business with pleasure. Complete some focused
1 6 2 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO LEARNING A LANGUAGE

exercises, where you both agree on what you want to

improve, but also just have some relaxing times, when you
pick up the language passively.

Maybe you could also arrange to meet up with your former

classmates, perhaps once a month. Make it a social occasion.
But speak your language all of the time.

And you will no doubt continue to go to the countries which

speak your new language. Even though you may feel a little
rusty because you haven't used it for some time, you will
carry on building on what you already know.

Reading
At this stage you will probably want to do mainly the exten-
sive type of reading. As much as possible read in your new
language:

+ magazines

4 newspapers

* anything written which is of interest in your worlds of

work and leisure.

You will find that after a while you forget that you are
reading a foreign language. You are reading for information.

It would, however, greatly enhance your reading and general

language skills anyway, if from time to time you did a little
intensive reading. Take a text and totally unpack it. Make
sure you understand every word. Look at the structure in the
sentences and why they are built the way they are. Find a
 K E E P I N G IT T I C K I N G O V E R / 163

few sentences to adapt for your own use. Write a couple of

phrases in your note book. Make a decision now about how
often you will do this.

Writing with a purpose

You may now feel able to write personal and business letters
and e-mails. Even if you have to keep on looking up
words and patterns to adapt, you know what you need to
know and where to find it. You may be adapting from the
dicitonary, ones you have seen or ones your learning partner
has sent you. Gradually the communication will become
more important than the language you use to effect it. The
language just becomes the means to the end. And it won't
matter if you make mistakes as long as you communicate
correctly.

But you may want to carry on improving your accuracy. In

that case, set up some exercises with your learning partner.
Ask them to correct certain pieces of writing. You do
the same for them. If you both use Word, you can 'track
changes', and that will help you become more aware of
where you are making mistakes.

You may wish to be even more proactive. Perhaps you

could carry on seeking new texts to adapt. Perhaps you could
keep a diary. It is better if you can have this sort of work
corrected, but even if not, just doing the work is beneficial.
You will become more aware of structure and gradually
make fewer mistakes.

You may even be tempted to look in the grammar book and

really master that backbone of your chosen language. Often,
164 / T H E C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

grammar becomes easier after a while. You become more

familiar with the metalanguage. Also, once the pressure is
off to learn by a certain time, you can take in the information
more gradually.

Listening and hearing

Watch TV in your chosen language if you can. This is really
more like listening and seeing. Soon you will be enjoying the
entertainment rather than being conscious of learning. If you
watch programmes produced in the country which speaks
your language, you will be taking in some of the culture as
well. If you have no access to such channels, can your
learning partner send you videos now and then?

Can you listen to other tapes? Libraries often have tapes,

which you may borrow, to accompany their language
courses. Listening to a different tape from the one which
goes with the course you studied can bring you fresh ideas.

And listen, listen, listen when you are in the country where
your chosen language is spoken.

Going native
Reread Chapter 10 each time before you go abroad. Let
the suggestions made there become a habit. Once they
have become a habit, you will no longer be aware that you're
working at your language. And your skills and knowledge
will continue to grow.
 K E E P I N G IT T I C K I N G O V E R / 165

CROSSING THE THRESHOLD

Something happens to all language learners. It happens at
different times for different people. Suddenly the struggle
stops. If you are fortunate, this may have happened before
you stopped your formal lessons. But if you persevere, there
comes a point where it stops being a battle, when you stop
forgetting old items as quickly as you meet new ones, and all
of a sudden the language becomes a tool which is really
useful and easily used. There is still some way to go, but now
you are comfortable. There is now no going back. And at
that point, your language learning really becomes a leisure
activity rather than something you are studying.

You may be surprised that this stage did not come early on
for me. I actually think it could have come a lot earlier if I
had known how the process worked. I saw many of my
classmates and later my own students reach that level sooner
than I did. But I did reach it, sometime during my A-level
study. I had dreamed of being able to use my languages
naturally, and suddenly I was able to. I have not looked back
since. They are all still improving daily.

IN SUMMARY

You have studied your chosenn languagem using useful

habits to arrive tat a certian laevel of competaem

You know that your fluentvyu and accurey will carru

On improving, even is ouor dollitle.

Yopi jabit of collecting language is so ingrained that

you will probably do it for the rest of you life.
166 / THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

You know how to practise speaking,

You are reading for pleasuer and infromation in your

new language.

You are communicating in wriring and at the same

time improving yiur writing,

You are being entertrainged whilest ou improve youuo

listening skills,.

You arkonow how to make the most of everuy visti you

make to the countries where your chosen language is
spoken,

You have acquired language learingi hagbit whinch

will allow you to carry on inceratisng your konowldedge
and improving your skolls,

Well done!
 Appendix 1
Levels of Competence

I have created my own definition of a level of competence

which is needed for the language you are learning to be
useful to you. It resembles the European Languages Port-
folio's Level Bl, National Curriculum Level 5/6 and would
lead to a GCSE grade of C or above. If you are interested in
looking at other levels, you may like to study the web sites
listed below.

LEVEL OF OPERATIONAL COMPETENCE

General description
You are able to communicate quite well in the language but
with some effort. You can operate in everyday situations.
You can understand and make yourself understood when
working with a sympathetic native speaker.

Talking
You can make everyday transactions - such as shopping,
following directions, ordering food in a restaurant and
checking into a hotel. You can make polite small talk. These
168 / T H E C O M P L E T E GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

are not as yet easy, and you still are not all that fluent in
these situations. However, you can manage.

Listening
You can understand announcements at trains stations, air-
ports and supermarkets as long as they are reasonably clear.
You can understand brief news and weather reports. You
can understand a little more on television, because you have
visual clues as well. You can follow a quiz programme and a
series with which you are familiar, though you will not
understand every word.

Reading
You can understand the gist of newspaper and magazine
articles, especially when they are in a format with which you
are familiar. You can understand personal letters and simple
business letters. With extra work, you can understand every
word of something written in simple language.

Writing
You can adapt a letter from your dictionary or course
book, though you will still have to refer to a dictionary and
grammar book. There will probably be some mistakes still,
but none that will interfere with communication.

Grammatical awareness
You understand the five points of grammar (see Chapter 9)
and how they work in your language. You do not yet know
all of the details off by heart, but you are aware of what you
need to know.
 APPENDIX 1: LEVELS OF COMP.ETENCE / 169

Body language
You are aware of the body language which goes with your
chosen language. You are beginning to use it, even if self-
consciously.

Cultural awareness
You are becoming aware of cultural issues which affect the
way you use the language.

OTHER LEVEL DESCRIPTIONS

European Language Portfolio, Modern Languages Division,
Directorate General IV, Council of Europe, France.
http://culture.coe.int/lang
National Curriculum, TSO PO Box 29, St Crispins House,
Duke Street, Norwich R3 1GN. http://www.nc.uk.net/
servlets/Subjects?Subject-MFL

EXAM BOARDS
AQA, Assessment and Qualifications Alliance Publications
Department, Aldon House, 39 Heald Grove, Rusholme,
M14 4NA. Tel: (0161) 953 1170. [email protected]
www.aqa.org.uk
CIE, Cambridge International Examinations, 1 Hills Road,
Cambridge CB1 2EU. Tel: (01223) 553554.
[email protected] www.cie.org.uk
Edexcel, Stewart House, 32 Russell Square, London WC1B
5DN. Tel: (+44 1623 450481). www.edexcel.org.uk
OCR, Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations,
Syndicate Buildings, 1 Hills Road, Cambridge CB1 2EU.
170 / T H E C O M P L E T E GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Tel: (01223) 552552. [email protected]

www.ocr.org.uk
SEG, Southern Examining Group (part of AQA),
Publications Department, Aldon House, 39 Heald
Grove, Rusholme, M14 4NA. Tel: (0161) 953 1170.
[email protected] www.aqa.org.uk
 Appendix 2
Language Courses

BUSINESS SCHOOLS
Berlitz, Lincoln House, 296-302 High Holborn, London
WC1 7JH. Tel: (+44 207) 611 9640. www.berlitz.com
Ceran, Ceran Lingua Group, Avenue du Chateau 16, 4900
Spa, Belgium. (+32 87) 791188. www.ceran.com
Goethe Institute, 50 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road, Southouth.
Kensington, London SW7 2PH. Tel: (+44 207) 596 4000.
www.goethe.de/gr/lon/enindex.htm

COMPUTER-BASED LEARNING
Bridge House Languages, 4 Old Bridge House Rd,
Bursledon, Hants SO31 8AJ. Tel: (+44 23) 8040 5827.
[email protected]
www.bridgehous.btinternet.co.uk
cactuslanguage (French, Spanish, Italian, Portugese in
France, Spain, Italy, Latin America and Portugal),
Santa Fe Trading Limited, 9 Foundry St, Brighton, East
Sussex BN1 4AT. Tel: (+44 1273) 687 697.273) 687 697.
www .cactuslanguage .com
Learn Foregin Languages On-line, http://members.
fortunecitv.com/nichokohwk/forei1gnlanguages.html
1727 THE C O M P L E T E G U I D E TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

Linguaphone, Linguaphone Institute Ltd, Liongate Enter-

prise Park, 80 Morden Road, Mitcham CR4 4PH. Tel:
(+44 (0)20) 8687 6210. [email protected]
www.linguaphone.co.uk
Lingulearn. Tel: (+44 1273) 597169. info@lingualearn
www.lingualearn.co.uk
Net Learn Languages, 1 Roman House, 9/10 College
Terrace, London. Tel: (+44 20) 8981 1333.
[email protected] www.nll.co.uk
Prima Language Service Ltd Victoria House, Victoria Road,
Farnborough, Hants GU15 7PG. Tel: (+44 1252) 377595
[email protected] www.prima-global.com

HOME STAY
Ramapo (Spanish), The Study Abroad Office, Ramapo
College of New Jersey, 505 Ramapo Valley Road,
Mahwah, NJ. Tel: (07430 + 1(201)) 684-7262. E-mail:
[email protected] www.ramapo.edu
TIataoni (Spanish), Calle Primera Norte No 8, Buenavista de
Cuellar, Gro., Mexico, C.P. 40330. [email protected]
www.eltlatani.com

RESIDENTIAL COURSES
cactuslanguage, as above
Don Quijote (Spanish in Spain and Peru), PO Box 218,
Epsom, Surrey KT19 OYF. Tel: (+44 20) 8786 8081.
[email protected] www.donquijote.org
Enforex (Spanish), c/o Lanacos (see below).
International Language Schools (Chinese, French, German,
Italian, Spanish and Russian in China, France, Germany,
 A P P E N D I X 2: L A N G U A G E C O U R S E S / 173

Spain, Italy, Latin America and Russia), 1-3 Farman

Street, Hove, East Sussex BN3 1AL. Tel: (+44 1273) 201
410. [email protected] www.ef.com
Lanacos (French, German, Italian and Spanish in France,
Germany, Italy and Spain), 64 London Road, Dunton
Green, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 2UG. Tel: (+44 1732) 462
309. [email protected] www.lanocos.com
Language Courses Abroad (French, German, Italian andlian anad.
Spanish in France, Germany, Italy, Latin America and
Spain), 67 Ashby Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire
LEU 3AA. Tel: (+44 1509) 211612.
[email protected].
www.languagesabroad.co.uk
Vis a vis (French in France, Belgium and Canada), 2-4
Stonleigh Park Road, Epsom KT19 OQT. Tel: (+44 20)
8786 8021. [email protected] www.visavis.org

SCHOOLS OFFERING TAILOR-MADE COURSES

Bridge House Languages, 4 Old Bridge House Rd,
Bursledon, Hants SO31 8AJ. Tel: (+44 23) 8040 5827.
[email protected].
www.bridgehous.btinternet.co.u.k
Prima Language Service Ltd, Victoria House, Victoria
Road, Farnborough, Hants GU15 7PG. Tel: (+44 1252)
377595. [email protected] www.prima-global.com

LOCAL AUTHORITY COURSES

Consult your local council, and look out for adverts in the
local press. Libraries often also have details.
1747 T H E C O M P L E T E GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA. Tel: (+44 1908)
274066. www.open.ac.uk

UNIVERSITY CONTINUING EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS

Aberystwyth University, The Centre for Continuing
Education, 10/11 Laura Place, Aberystwyth, SY23 2AU.
Tel: (+441970) 621580. http://www.aber.ac.uk/courses/
conted.shtml [email protected]
University of Bath (in Swindon), Tel: (+44 1793) 690909.
http://www.bath.ac.uk/swindon/parttimecourses/
languages.html
Bristol University, Tel: (+44 117) 928 7172.
http://www.bris.ac.uk/cms/ppo/modern_languages.htm
[email protected]
Cambridge University, 11 West Road, Cambridge, CBS 9DP.
http://www.langcen.cam.ac.uk/index.htm
City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V OHB.
Tel: (+44 20) 7040 506. http://www.city.ac.uk/conted/
cfa/htm
Coventry University, School of International Studies and
Law, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB. Tel: (+44
24) 7688 8256. http://www.coventry.ac.uk/acad/isl/ulp/htm
[email protected]
Liverpool University, The University of Liverpool, 19
Abercromby Square, Liverpool L69 7ZG. Tel: (+44 151)
794 6900. http://www.liv.ac.uk/conted/
[email protected]
Manchester University, Tel: 0161 275 3273. www.man.ac.uk/
cce/courses/modlang.htm [email protected]
Portsmouth University, University of Portsmouth
 APPENDIX 2: L A N G U A G E C O U R S E S / 175

Information Centre, Guildhall Walk, Portsmouth,

Hampshire PO1 2RY. Tel: (+44 23) 9284 3960.
http:/www.port.ac.uk/courses/fe/search/index.htm.
[email protected]
Sheffield University, 196-198 West Street, Sheffield SI 4ET.
www.shef.ac.uk/til.l
Southampton University, Tel: (0800) 085 63 61.
http://www.newcollege.soton.ac.uk/Part-time/
basic_parttime_lang.htm.htm
Sussex University, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton
BN1 9RH UK. Tel: (+44 1273) 606755.
www.sussex.ac.uk/central/parttime.shtml
[email protected].

More and more universities are adding languages for mature

students. Therefore it is also worth checking your telephone
directory which should list all departments of your nearest
university. If you cannot find a continuing education depart-
ment, try the main switchboard. Or type in 'X+University+
continuing+education' or 'lifelong learning' into the search
box on your favourite internet search engine.

Also try http://www.education-world.com/higher_ed/

college.shtml.
This page intentionally left blank
 Appendix 3
Materials

GENERAL
Authentik (GCSE - Advanced Level in French, German,
Italian and English), 27 Westland Square, Dublin 2,
Ireland. Tel: (+353 1) 677 1512. [email protected]
www. authentik .com
BBC Education PO Box 1922, Glasgow G2 3WT. Tel:
(08700) 100 222. www.bbc.co.uk/schools
Chancerel International Publishers Ltd (materials for the
business learner), 120 Long Acre, London WC2E 9ST.
Tel: (+44 20) 7240 2811. [email protected]
www.pourparleraffaires.com
Collins, 77-85 Fulham Place Road, London W6 8JB. Tel:
(+44 8700) 900 20 50. [email protected]
www.fireandwater.com
LCP, FREEPOST CV2662, Lemington Spa CV31 3BR. Tel:
(+44 1926) 886914. [email protected] www.lcpuk.co.uk
Nelson Thornes, Delta Place, 27 Bath Road, Chetlenham,
Gloucestershire GL33 7TH. Tel: (+44 1242) 221914.
[email protected] www.nelsonthornes.com
1 7 8 / T H E COMPLETE GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A LANGUAGE

COMPUTER COURSES
urolog www.aurolog.com
Encore www.encoresoftware.comm
Eurotalk www.eurotalk.co.uk
GCSE www.gsp.ee
MindMan Personal www.mindman.com
Personal Tutor www.bridgehouse.btinternet.co.ukk.
Transparent www.transparent.com
Urban Spanish (Spanish) www.towerofbabel.co.uk
wordProf (French vocabulary for all levels)or alaktnaovaekals
www.wordProf.com

DICTIONARIES
Collins, as above.
Oxford, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street,
Oxford OX2 6DP. Tel: (+44 1865) 267652.8645043267394
[email protected] www.oup.com

GRAMMAR BOOKS
Collins, as above.

LISTENING MATERIALS
Authentik, as above.
Champs-Elysees (reading and listening materials for adults,
beyond operational competency in French, German,
Italian and Spanish), FREEPOST LON 295, Bristol BS1
6FA. Tel: (0800) 833 257. www.champs-elysess.com
 A P P E N D I X 3: M A T E R I A L S / 179

READING MATERIALS
Authentik, as above.
Champs-Ely sees, as above.
International Press Network (supplies newspapers and
magazines in Arabic, French, Gallic, German, Italian
and Spanish), 1-3 Dufferin Street, London EC1Y SNA.
[email protected] www.interpressnetwork.com
This page intentionally left blank
 Appendix 4
Some Further Reading

(For the very brave!)

Noam Chomsky, New Horizons in the Study of Language

and Mind, Cambridge University Press.
Noam Chomsky, Language and Problems of Knowledge, The
MIT Press.
Noam Chomsky, Reflections on Language, Ashgate
Publishing.
Noam Chomsky, Language and Responsibility, Harvester.
Noam Chomsky, Knowledge of Language, Praeger.
Noam Chomsky, Language and Mind, Thomson Learning.
Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates
Language, HarperCollins..
Steven Pinker, Words and Rules, Phoenix.
Steven Pinker Pinker Language Learnability and Language
Development, Harvard University Press.
This page intentionally left blank
 Appendix 5
Useful Web Sites

http://www.alphabetsoupfli.com
http://www.boniour.org.uk/default.ht.
http://www.centralbureau.org.uk/
http://www.christusrex.org/wwwl/pater
http://www.eurocosm.com/
http://www.foreignlanguagehome.com
http://www.hallo.org.uk/
http://www.hola.org.uk
http://www.ika.com/cuentos/menu.htm/l
http://www.languages-on-the-web.com
http://www.penpalnet.com/.
http://www.slf.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http ://w ww. steadylearning. com/
http://www.vokabel.com/.
http://www.worldpath.net/~hiker/iloveyou.htm 1
This page intentionally left blank
 Appendix 6
Cloned Letter 2

Dear Jim,

I started my new job at Kendrick's last week. The officesfices

are in a new building. The journey there is a bit quicker.
It takes ten minutes by car. We start work at 8.30 am and
finish at 5.15 pm. I miss the flexitime from Broderick's.
We have a whole hour for lunch.
The staff can use the staff sports club. We also have a
good canteen and a bank on site.
I have got to meet all of my colleagues. I work mainly
with Sally Johnston. She has been with the firm for ten
years. She is very lively and friendly.ly.
The work is very interesting and I may have the chance
to travel abroad soon...
Hope everything is alright with you all. Let us know
your news.

Toni.
This page intentionally left blank
 Index

accuracy, 160,163,165 118

adjectives, 94, 97 cultural awareness, 169
adverbial phrases, 116 current practice, 155
AQA, 169
articles, 119 definite article, 119
diary, 122,163
bi-lingual dictionaries, 41, dictionaries, 22,41,101,
49, 76, 84, 87 104,105, 178
body language, 94,100,134, direct method, 153,155
169 direct object, 116
Business Language Schools, drills and patterns, 153
26, 35, 171
business traveller, 133 e-mail, 6, 98, 99
European Language
Chomsky, 108, 181 Portfolio, 169
cloning, 7, 95, 100, 104, 105, exam boards, 169
154 exchange visit, 6, 56, 68, 83,
Communicative language 129,130,159
learning, 154 extensive reading, 86, 87
computer based learning,
171 fluency, 6,158,159-161,165
computer courses, 178 formal lessons, 21
conditional, 114,123 four skills, 86
conjunctions, 119 further reading, 181
course books, 25, 40, 44-45, future, 113, 114, 123
188 / T H E C O M P L E T E GUIDE TO L E A R N I N G A L A N G U A G E

GCSE, 14, 23, 43, 87,167, 70-73, 140,143, 163

177, 178 learning styles, 25-32, 36,
gender, 97-111,117,122,124 156
Get-By, 25 level of operational
Goethe Institute, 27,105, competence, 22-23, 36,
171 42, 87,123,132,167
grammar, 7, 43, 44, 46, 52, levels of competence, 167
69,118,122-125,132,148, listening, 48, 51, 63, 75, 86,
153,159,164,168 130-132,134,164,166,167
grammar books, 22, 40, 43, local authority classes, 24,
101,178 35,37
Grammar Grind, 153
materials, 41,176
hand-outs, 50 mind map, 17,19, 22, 27, 38,
Home Stay, 29, 35, 37,172 46,47,51,53-54,67,147,
How to Win Friends and 149,150,151
Influence People, 144 MindMan Personal, 19, 178
mistakes, 50, 70, 80,100,
idioms, 16 106,121-122,152,163,
imperfect, 114 168
indefinite article, 119 mood, 111, 121,124
indicative, 111 multi media equipment, 40,
indirect object, 116 47
intensive reading, 86, 89
internet, 38, 42, 44, 62, 73, Noam Chomsky, 108,181
90,175 National Curriculum, 23, 87,
167
junk mail, 63, 91 native speakers, 6,13, 27,
48, 81, 85, 91,132,136,
key words, 76, 84, 90,139 138,148
nouns, 90,104,119-120,121
Language Courses, 8,171 number, 19, 22, 80, 111, 118,
learning partner, 6, 49, 124
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OCR, 150 47, 71, 73, 74,156, 157

on-line/off-line, 33, 35 speaking/talking practice,
30, 47, 75-76, 138-145,
participles, 120 161,166
parts of speech, 111, 115, 123 subjunctive, 111, 115, 124
passive, 112, 123
past, 113, 123 tailor-made courses, 27, 173
patterns of language, 6, 8, target language, 154
75, 81, 85, 130, 140 television, 49, 62,131-132
person, 111,112-113, 121 television and video
pluperfect, 114 equipment, 49
plurals, 117,122,124 tenses, 111-115,121,
prepositions, 111, 117, 121, 123-124
123 The Central Bureau for
present, 113, 114 Cultural Exchanges and
pronouns, 121 Visits, 72
put the world right, 10, 15, The Open Unversity, 31, 40,
66,68 174

radio, 62, 86, 130, 134, 138 vocabulary, 21,48, 51,52,

reading, 6, 23, 62, 83, 86-93, 53,54,57,68,69,81,97,
152,158,162,166,168, 181 129, 150
reading materials, 7, 90-92, voice 111, 112, 121, 123
93,178
recordings, 48 web sites, 88, 90,180
regular verbs, 100 word order, 111, 115,121,
rehearsal, 77-80,143 123
relative pronouns, 124 working on the phone, 5,
residential courses, 29, 40, 33,78,80,81,142,161
172 writing, 23, 41,47, 51,86,
98,100-106, 107,121, 132,
SEG, 170 163,166,168
settings, 5, 24, 32, 34, 39, 46,