IDIOMAS
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
It goes without saying that not everybody
agrees on the approach to follow when
it comes to learning a second language.
Some people prefer a grammar approach
and start learning a language trying to
use the correct grammar constructions
and vocabulary, while others prefer to be
a little bit more “unconventional” and try
to learn a language by listening (either via
tv series or podcasts or even songs) and
speaking it, regardless of the mistakes
they can make in this latter skill.
People may wonder which approach is
better, which is the one that should be followed.
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The answer, as you may deduce, is
not easy.
When learning a second language, people
have their strengths and also their
weaknesses in the different skills: There
are people with a superb knowledge in
grammar and vocabulary but that are almost
unable to utter a word in English, let
alone establish a conversation with someone
in this language. Some others, are just
THE
ENGLISH
CORNER
Texto: DIEGE
the other way round, they can keep a conversation
quite easily and understand his/
her conversational partner quite well but
show a clear lack of accuracy, although
they can make themselves understood.
Spanish education has been, unluckily,
grammar based and normally the first
aforementioned type of learner is the
prototype usually found.
Why has this been so? Different reasons
could be put forward:
• The big number of students per class
(25 average),
• Films and TV series dubbed from their
original language into Spanish,
• Foreign language classes not being carried
out in the target language,
This has led to an enormous delay in
learning the ropes of listening and speaking
skills.
Of course the perfect learner would be a
mix of both archetypes. It doesn’t matter