Language Cascades
Posted on | November 6, 2009 | 14 Comments
About 3 weeks ago, I accompanied my 4-year-old to play in a public play area. Watching her running around, I suddenly heard a mother beside me yelling at her kids, “¡Ven acá!” (come here).
My first impression was – ok, the Latino population has indeed increased in my area. My second thought was – what is the difference between “ven aquí” and “ven acá”? (‘aquí’ and ‘acá’ both mean ‘here’).
What is Natural Approach really?
Posted on | August 29, 2009 | 2 Comments
Keith commented on my previous post, questioning on how SRS can fit into the “natural language learning” model. After all, it is not natural.
It seems to be me that different “language naturists” have different degrees of “naturalness” in their approaches. By all means, I am in favour of the “natural approach” as opposed to the conventional classroom-style “structural approach”, which uses artificial materials tailored for learners, and encourages memorizing grammar rules, declension tables, and mechanical drills, and emphasizes on test results. I believe in using authentic contents (materials targeted for native speakers), light in grammar, focusing on comprehensive input and vocabulary building, and delayed output.
SRS and the Natural Approach
Posted on | August 13, 2009 | 5 Comments
The other day Kev posted an excellent question in my previous post. He asked:
If you spend progressively more and more of your time on reading and listening (as you should), wouldn’t the amount of time you spend on feeding/reviewing an SRS fade to zero? Therefore, is it worth spending any time at all on an SRS?
My short answer is ‘yes’. The amount of time you spend on feeding/reviewing an SRS should eventually fade to zero, but it still worths investing time in SRS-ing before you reach this point.
SRS Best Practices
Posted on | March 3, 2009 | 19 Comments
The key to language acquisition is vocabulary-building. The best way to build your vocabulary is through comprehensive input (i.e., reading and listening). An efficient way to maintain your vocabulary is to use an Spaced Repetition System (SRS). There is no doubt about it. Look around and you will see everybody in the language-learning circle talks about SRS. I myself have also experienced the power of it.
I would like to share with you a few of my SRS tips in this post. “Best practices” here simply refer to my own best practices I have discovered so far. Feel free to share with me your own best practices.
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-03-01
Posted on | March 1, 2009 | No Comments
- Loué le deuxième volet des aventures d’Harry Potter de la bibliothèque. Lu 2 chapitres dans le café. #
- Fini chapitre 3 de “la chambre des secrets” aujourd’hui. #
- 給了三歲半女兒一個小測騇.她以學懂這些字/Gave my 3.5 yr old daughter a quiz. She already knows these characters：人口手耳大小上中下水火天山兩米牛羊肉毛光月女. #
- Spanish Anki now over 700 cards. #
- Started Japanese Anki with 3 cards. Not sure if it will last. #
- LingQ’s ‘% of unknown words’ feature is still not back. Strange that I am the only one who feels inconvenient. Others seems to be ok w/o it. #
- Listening to an interview of Lorna Robinson, a Latin advocate. OMG! Is that RP that she speaks? http://tinyurl.com/bgjmwu #
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- Visiting Rio de Janeiro today and tomorrow.
- Just had an English/Spanish mixed conversation with a Skype friend for over an hour. We had not talked for more than 4 years.
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