Sheltered Initiation Language Learning - Hebrew Lesson 2: practice fluency

Sheltered Initiation Language Learning

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Hebrew Lesson 2: practice fluency.

Preparation: Say the associations aloud,

lob a ball at DAD

row fetch a DOCTOR

a MAN on a leash

Charlotte IS SINGING

he IS STANDING UP calmly

he IS BUYING a cone, Ed

but leave Reeta if she won't speak IN HEBREW

…now say the words.

abba

rofé

ish

shar

kam

koneh

be'ivrit

Step 1: Word-Quiz

Translate each of the following:

1. doctor

2. is singing

3. in Hebrew

4. man

5. Dad

6. is standing up

7. is buying

8. apricot

9. meat

10. fish

11. please
(Review until you're fluent!)

Step 2: Pattern-Drill
Abba shar.
Ish koneh dag.

Now, practice the sentence-pattern by saying your own sentences.

It might seem like you can’t do much yet: But, because of the mathematics of combination, when you know twenty words, you can say almost a hundred sentences; and with 40 words, you can say many hundreds of sentences.

Step 3: Talk now!

For the "narrative" and "descriptive" sentence-patterns introduced in these lessons, you can talk about an imaginary "party": What does everyone do there?
Remember to speak loudly!

When you talk with native speakers:

•Take the initiative: Talk first, take the lead. Avoid saying "what?"
•Use what you know, and avoid what you don’t know. Say what you can say, adjust your needs to your vocabulary. Catch whatever words you hear, and guess meaning as effectively as you can.

•Don’t self-correct. Ignore corrections: have conversations, not lessons. If not understood, add more sentences.

Take the initiative when talking.
That’s the best way to know what’s going on.

COMPREHENSION EXERCISES: "skip-comprehension."

(a) Word Search: Translate each word instantly if you know it, and say "zip" if you don’t know it.

.	A	B	C	D	E	F
1.	rofé	ish	bad	kam	sar	dug
2.	meshamesh	dag	shar	basar	roveh	koneh
3.	vakashah	batsal	mishmish	esh	be'ivrit	abba

(Note: You know only 11 of these words.)

The lesson here is that knowing what you don’t know is just as important as knowing what you do know. In real-world use of a foreign language, you will inevitably hear much that you don’t understand. You must get used to picking out what you do know, and make your best use of it.

Never say "what?" !!!

Don’t be like the many "perfect" students of foreign language, who tour the world, dictionaries open, endlessly repeating, like robots:

Throughout your studies, you should never ask for repetitions, or say "what?" (even in the foreign language): Just say whatever you can, making no attempt to sound logical. This trick may be artificial — but not as artificial as saying "what?" all the time! If you follow this advice and never say "what?", you will soon find yourself speaking naturally.

(b) Write down (in English) each word that you know in the following story.

Paam ahhat betsohorayim, rofé ehhad ba pit‘om labayit hatsanua shel hamoreh, ve‘omer: "Dag, bevakashah!" vehamoreh motsi dag larofé. Harofé lo omer "todah", rak yoshev ve‘okhel. Ve‘ahhar kakh harofé omer: "Basar, bevakashah!" vehamoreh motsí larofé basar. Od hapaam hu shotek, ve‘ahhar kakh hu omer: "Mishmish, bevakashah!" vehamoreh motsí larofé mishmish.

Now, write your own one-sentence story (in English), incorporating all the words you recognized.
Your one-sentence "story" is, in effect, a "summary" of the given story. If you practice writing summaries in this way, you will find yourself improving their quality and accuracy.

Hebrew lesson 3

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