Moreover, it helps me assess the student’s speaking and listening skills and gain insight into their understanding of Spanish grammar. Within the first few minutes of your first session, your Spanish tutor can identify shortcomings and patterns of mistakes in your pronunciation, something that language books and automated programs can’t ever figure out.Īfter trabalenguas, I usually initiate a short conversation, which helps me get to know about the student and their interests, thereby establish a casual, welcoming learning environment. Not only are trabalenguas a fun icebreaker and a good way to get over any first session jitters, they’re also a powerful shibboleth in the original, biblical sense of the word: in the hippopotamus tongue-twister, does the student know that la hache (the letter h) is silent, or do they pronounce it like the English letter?įor other trabalenguas, does the student know that la be and la ve (the Spanish letters b and v) are indistinguishable when spoken? If they don’t know these subtleties, that means I’ll have to go over the fundamentals of Spanish pronunciation with the student in the near future. Who will help Hiccup the hippopotamus get rid of his hiccups? ¿Quién le quita el hipo al hipopótamo Hipo? One of my favorites is the following:Įl hipopótamo Hipo está con hipo. I always begin my first Spanish session with trabalenguas, or tongue twisters. When you’re starting out Diagnostic testing catalyzes Spanish acquisition I hope that over the course of this article, you’ll also come to appreciate that tutoring can be an invaluable, incomparable resource for learning how to speak Spanish. Throughout these teaching and learning experiences, I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of language tutoring with experienced Spanish teachers for several reasons, no matter what proficiency level you’re starting with or hope to achieve. In other words, I’ve experienced firsthand the highs and lows of second language acquisition in addition to witnessing them in my students. More recently, I’ve also been on the other side of the pedagogical equation as I’ve made my way through intermediate German and scraped the surface of Italian. Over the past several years, I’ve tutored and taught Spanish to dozens of students of every age and skill level, from young campers learning their very first words to adults striving to connect to their Spanish-speaking family, friends, and communities.
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