Monolingual language learning

One of the reasons I came to Spain was to practise using Spanish, and to try to improve my vocabulary and fluency. So you may be wondering how I´ve been going, and what strategies or methods I´ve been using.

First, I´ve been spending a lot of time using Spanish with Spanish-speakers. After all, what better way to actually use Spanish? It might sound obvious, but it can be so easy to use English when travelling. Out of the 7 people I spend most of my time with, only 1 doesn´t speak English fluently, even though all of them speak Spanish fluently, and three of them also speak at least a third language fluently as well. Our two lecturers at the moment, and the lecturer we had for the first three weeks, are from the USA, although they have all spent more than a decade working in Mexico. It is actually harder to not use English with other native speakers of English, especially when the only other people in a conversation are native English speakers!

Second, I have a notebook which I carry to class specifically to record words which are new to me or are used in a different way from what I would have expected, or which I simply did not understand! Every now and then I sit down and flick through the pages to see if I can work out what any of them are, or take an opportunity to ask one of my classmates what the word or phrase means. In complement to this, I have also bought a Spanish dictionary here – one only in Spanish. It is designed for school children, which means I can generally understand the Spanish explanations of the words I´m less familiar with. It is also a chance to see words used in phrases at least, if not in full sentences.

Third, I ask for help A LOT! This is also harder than it might sound at first. It is much easier to smile and nod, as if I understand a conversation. It takes a lot of courage for me to interrupt the conversation and ask for an explanation. The good thing is, the others are very kind and patient and willing to explain pretty much anything!

Fourth, I have been offered the chance to have language lessons once a week (more or less) from the other female student, who lives in the same building as me, and also happens to be the only one who does not speak English fluently. She has quite a bit of English, but not enough for a conversation, which means we focus on my use of Spanish. So I have, for the first time, the opportunity to try monolingual language learning. After she offered, I wrote down a list of things I want to be able to do in Spanish, and a list of topics I would like to be able to talk about in Spanish, to give some direction and focus to these times. The first session we had involved me collecting words (nouns and verbs) relevant for the home context. It basically involved a lot of me pointing at something or holding something up and asking (in Spanish): what is this? Or, what do you do with this? (To get verbs and sentences.) There were a few other phrases and questions I used, but these were the core. Every now and then she would offer things which came to mind in relation to things like the fridge and freezer, such as how to talk about refrigerating, freezing, or defrosting food. Every new word I wrote down in another notebook which I specifically bought for this purpose, and afterwards I wrote as many sentences as I could think of in paragraphs and something like a story, and she read them and made a few corrections for me. She also knows that I would like to be corrected if I say something incorrectly – especially in relation to how I use verbs and nouns.

It is great to have someone walking alongside me in this language journey, especially as she knows and celebrates with me when I use new words correctly!