As a student of languages, I always do as I think is best to learn a new language. It is true that at some point one must study the grammar, but it is also true that most of the Spanish that you can learn is not in grammar books but in the things you enjoy the most: Books, films, bars…

I was shocked when I watched this TEDtalk because I Immediately noticed that’s exactly how I learnt English and French, and (started to) learn German: I’ve always enjoyed the process, which means I use whatever limited knowledge I have on the language I want to know better and I write, watch, listen and entertain myself.

Needless to say that travelling to a Spanish speaking country is always a good opportunity to understand Spanish better, but not only when you talk to the natives (which, I understand, may be a big step depending on which point of your learning process you are) but also when you go to buy groceries, when you stop at a sign on the street, when you overhear a conversation at the table next to yours, or even when you study your menu to see what you fancy that day.

Let’s not stop at the words and grammar. When we start to consider Spanish not only as a language that we need to learn in order to communicate better but also as a concatenation of cultural events (such as the mother yelling at her son at the beach or the shop assistant talking to their customers about those works that have paralyzed the road that morning, or many more scenarios you’ll witness if you stop and observe) then we start understanding and mimicking the intonation, pace and other important characteristics of fluent communication.

These are the things that are most difficult to learn if we limit our learning experience to books and classrooms (not impossible, just more difficult). Luckily, they are also the things that we can learn, enjoying our learning process by doing these things:

Students often ask me if they should watch the series/films with subtitles or without, and with English or Spanish subtitles. Well, that depends on how comfortable you feel without subtitles and how much you understand. The main idea is to enjoy, so if you feel that you aren’t getting anything of what you’re watching, then you definitely should use subtitles, and it doesn’t make your learning slower or of less quality because every little input you have in Spanish helps a million times. I promise, focus on enjoying, the rest will come!

Here you have links to some Spanish channels:

TVE

La Sexta

cuatro

antena 3

So, again, select the topics you are curious about, google them in Spanish (use a dictionary if you aren’t sure how to say it) and enjoy learning a new language thanks to the broad information you have access to nowadays. Take advantage of it.

This activity would be similar to the previous one, but this time, it gives you a different approach to Spanish culture. We all know that knowledge is power, well, this way you will be able to understand the attitudes towards work, politics, society of Spanish speaking people, and what’s more important, have topics to discuss when you travel to Spain that go further than the classic “hobbies, pets, plans”. Certainly, we all want to be fluent and be able to speak about interesting topics, but we also know that our vocabulary is limited, this way you’ll learn specific vocabulary on up to the minute information about the state of the country that you want to visit.

I’m not going to lie, reading the news in a foreign language is hard, so bear in mind that there’s no need to understand all of it. Hence, the first time you read the news in Spanish, just try to see how many words you do understand, then, the second time, try to figure out the general idea of what it’s been said. If you don’t put too much pressure on yourself, you’ll get there, I promise (I’ve experienced it myself).

Again, using the Internet as a tool for language learning is always a good idea. As you know, the listening is one of the most difficult parts of learning a new language, and it is as true as it was about reading the news, that depending on the point of your learning process you are, trying to understand everything (or something) the speaker is saying can be a bit frustrating.

As in point 3, what I suggest is to go step by step and I recommend you don´t put too much pressure on yourself, and start by just opening your ears to the different sounds, the intonation, the pace and (why not?) try to find out if you understand any words you might already know and identify. After a few podcasts focusing on sounds, the next challenge is to get the general idea of what they are saying and then, understanding the podcast.

Moreover, using podcasts as a learning tool is full of advantages: You’ll get used to the sounds, pronunciation, learn vocabulary on topics you are interested about, and you’ll also be exposed to new structures and grammar which will definitely improve your Spanish.

The best part is that you can do this while you clean, exercise, drive, commute… And it helps A LOT. Guaranteed.

Last (and least), to complement all these things is very advisable to use any of the many language apps there are (whether free or premium) on the market. Why only as a complement? In my experience these apps are normally very good for acquiring new vocabulary and also to practice some structures that are new for you and still don’t feel comfortable using. This is great, but without the actual practice (reading, listening, talking…) it’s also useless, as you’ll only be refreshing what you already know, and this new structures and vocabulary will be soon forgotten if you don’t actually use them.

In a nutshell, I recommend you use these apps to always keep in touch with your learning self, exposed to new information, but always do the rest in order to use this new information in other contexts.

One of the most important things I’ve realized through experience (both as a teacher and adult learner) is that when approaching Adult learning, two main points need to be taken into consideration: Motivation and lack of time.

Actually, most of times, one influence the other: If you only have a few hours a week to study Spanish, and you are forced to spend them filling gaps in grammar textbooks, you will probably find yourself too tired to do it, finding excuses not to sit in front of the book, and finally abandoning your prospects and dreams of making yourself understood in a foreign language.

Being aware of this and constantly looking for solutions to motivate my students, I became more and more familiar with the flipped classroom method, which, if carefully prepared and developed, can definitely tackle the lack of enthusiasm in language learners (and still challenge the most enthusiastic ones).

Flipped classroom is based on the idea of active learning, where the student needs to be responsible of their own advance and the figure of the teacher is there to accompany, orientate and challenge them. The key, therefore, to a successfully organized flipped classroom lesson are:

• Attractive and engaging material. Not too complicated nor too easy, with which the students can work on their own and that arises as many doubts and questions as it does answers and curiosity. Hence, there’s a need to focus on the design of learning material that can be used both outside the classroom (by the student, on their own) and inside the classroom, where it must incite discussions and arise questions. It must be a kind of material that catches your eye and leads to meaningful research of vocabulary, expressions, and practice. There is also an extensive variety of engaging activities that should be used to keep the student´s interactivity and motivation out and inside the classroom (creating infographics, projects, online discussions, etc.). It is, nonetheless, important to always consider the free time our students have, if they are adults these activities could require too much commitment.
• Tutoring. Even if most of the work must be done by our students, they must know and feel that their tutors are there to guide them. This method relies, among other things, in the arousal of doubts when working on your own, and this doubts, any teacher will agree, are the most valuable medium for learning. Tutors should always follow each student’s progress, answer their questions and make sure their motivation doesn’t fade.
• Collaboration. Online learning and its new companion, flipped classroom, can become a bit too independent. Learners might feel isolated and that’s the last thing we want to happen in our classroom (whether it is virtual or physical), specially while teaching languages. For this reason, connection and collaboration between fellow students should always be encouraged, and social media has proved to be an extremely useful tool to complement online and presential learning.

For this reasons we have developed a whole method that has proved to be very effective for both our online as well as our presential students, by combining flipped classroom with natural language exchange in our virtual AND physical classroom. The goal is to create a social environment where students and teachers can share and learn from each other, following our tutors’ guidance. Help us create a big community!