Fluency
When we are
learning a language, whatever that language might be, we find understanding
speech very difficult. Words are linked and it all just sounds like one big
word. It is very hard to know when one word ends and the next one begins. It happened
to me as I was learning English, when I learnt French and as I make my baby
steps in German. I still find it hard sometimes to understand the lyrics in
some songs!
Practice,
practice and more practice is the only way to crack this. Practice, exposure
and regularly going over vocabulary you have learnt,( as well as constantly
learning new vocabulary), so that you can recognise not just individual words
but patterns: prepositional phrases that are likely to follow certain verbs
(like ´voy … al cine/a la playa´), what we call ´collocations´ - words
that tend to go together – (like ´tocar un instrumento´, ´vino tinto´)
and many other cues that you can begin to predict as you become more and more
familiar with the language.
In this
presentation we are going to look at stress, the quality of vowels and what
happens when we run words together.
Every
language has its own system and that is precisely what makes learning it fun
and exciting. If languages were so similar that there was no degree of effort
involved, no surprise, no curiosity, we wouldn´t need or want to learn it. We
would probably be all speaking the same language.
But
language is not just a set of words put together to convey messages. It is so
much more than a tool to get things done. Many of the structures that we can
sometimes find so hard to crack owe their existence to particular traits or
mannerisms of the culture the language is intrinsically linked to. Learning a
language is learning a new code in which to operate, with its associated
cognitive benefits, (keeping our brains young and flexible), but it´s also key
to making conections to other cultures, to opening the door to intercultural
awareness, something that also helps us grow in a unique way.
All
languages have their way of allowing words to flow effortlessly in an attempt
to produce speech as easily as posible. It is all about being economical
(sometimes) and efficient (always).
Watch these presentations to know more about how language flows in Spanish:
Stress
2. Letters that sound the same
3. Running words together, assimilation
You may have to pause the recording on each page to be able to read.
