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"This way of learning a language made complete sense to me. Working with the SpeakEZ German course, I was able to understand more in 2 weeks than in five years of German in school!"
-- Asbjørn Finsnes
"The way in which this method is presented provided me with language that will suit me in a foreign country instead of a collection of unusable vocabulary words.
Those who have studied languages realize that looking-up individual words cannot convey a language in the correct manner. Becoming fluent means being able to verbalize ideas ; not learning technical rules and identifying the Past Predicate Indicative.
The audio part of this method has been my favorite portion of the learning process. Not only is the pronunciation slow and clear, but it is presented so that I remember the flow of sentences and concepts.
Thank you for the opportunity to work with this amazing program; it has been a blessing for me."
-- Destiny Yarbro, College Student
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Remember How Your Mommy Talked To You?
by Nathalie V. Fairbanks
There is a lot we can learn about learning a new language from watching children learn their native language, which we also refer to as "mother" language.
Remember the last time you talked to a mother? She starts out, "Oh wow, I can't believe it took me so long to get here, and then this dog sat in the middle of the road, ..." and continues to tell you about her day, and then, with hardly a transition, turns to her baby and goes "Hiiiiii sweeeeetie! How's my baaaaaby? Oooooh, you're sooooo cute!"
I'm sure you too are fluent in "Motherese" -- we all speak it, fathers, mothers and children alike. You start talking to a baby, and before you know it, your pitch rises as much as an octave, you elongate your vowels and every sentence has a sing-songy melody.
Research has shown that "Motherese" exists in every language: caregivers in all cultures intuitively speak to their babies much more clearly and slowly than to other adults. Their sentences are shorter and simpler, and they repeat the same thing over and over, in slightly different variations: "Here's my pretty girl, aren't you a pretty girl? So pretty, my little girl!", etc.
The authors of "The Scientist In The Crib" report of studies done with infants which show that infants prefer to listen to someone speaking to them in "Motherese" rather than "normally."
What can we learn from this?
For one, being exposed to this type of talk helped you learn your first language, so chances are it will be helpful to learn a new language.
Now, I doubt you'll get your language teacher to talk to you like that... I think that's asking a bit much. (If you do, though, let me know!)
You could try and hang out with a family that just had a baby. Logistics aside, you'd learn very quickly -- that's probably why au pairs come back with great second language skills!
What does work and is part of Vera F. Birkenbihl's way of learning a language is to listen to a recording of your lesson text where each word is pronounced slowly and enunciated very clearly. There is a pause after every word, so that you can learn where one word ends and the next one begins.
This skill is a challenge for every language learner in the beginning, when you feel that native speakers talk a million miles a minute and emit one long spaghetti of a sound without taking any breaks.
The recordings used in SpeakEZ Step 2 (Active Listening to slow recording) are as close as you'll get to having your Mommy talk to you in the new language. Click here for an example in German: http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/W5dJN9GQ
Ask a native speaker friend to record your lesson texts in that way, and then listen to them again and again and again.
This will dramatically improve your listening comprehension as well as your pronunciation -- no worries, it won't make you sound like a toddler!
© 2007 Nathalie V. Fairbanks
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