Sheltered Initiation Language Learning - Italian Lesson 2: practice fluency

Sheltered Initiation Language Learning

Return to previous lesson

Italian Lesson 2: practice fluency.

Preparation: Say the associations aloud,

the FATHER has a pod-ray

does the frat tèll low people to be a good BROTHER?

he IS SINGING to make contact

he IS SLEEPING in dorm A.

met he co-workers with the DOCTOR?

THE eel

…now say the words.

padre

fratello

canta

dorme

mèdico

Step 1: Word-Quiz

Translate each of the following words.

1. the

2. is singing

3. father

4. doctor

5. brother

6. bread

7. please

8. is sleeping

9. chicken

10. tea

Step 2: Pattern-Drill
Il padre dorme.
Practice the sentence-pattern by saying your own sentences.

Practice until you can say any sentence. Now say several sentences of the new pattern, and thus "tell (simple) stories."

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 use the situation of 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.

• BEWARE OF "GRAMMARITIS"!Remember that not using an ending (The three child go to many store tomorrow) is better than struggling to put on what might be the wrong ending (The three childs will went to many storedren tomorrow).

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
1.	durata	tè	padre	conto	dorme
2.	pollo	favore	canta	panna	ni
3.	medico	fratello	pane	benedire	il

(Hint: you know all but four 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.

Dove va il ragazzo? Il signore va alla scuola col maestro che insegna matematica. Il maestro legge bene in giapponese, ma non canta ni in inglese, ni in italiano. La lista de corsi è molto assortito. Che cosa vuole studiare? Vuole studiare la letteratura. Ma il maestro non sa niente sulla letteratura. Il signore parla col maestro, ma non trova il corso che vuole.

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.

Italian lesson 3

Main Menu

Intermediate exercises