S1: Welcome to the Podcast
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What the podcast is about
In this first session, I am giving you perspective on what I hope to accomplish with this podcast and give you an overview, an idea of the goals of the podcast, and what I hope to offer you to help you learn Spanish, English and other languages through conversations with native speakers.
Highlights of This First Session
Learn Spanish English and other languagues (French, Italian and Portuguese) through conversations with native speakers.
My goal is to make conversations easy to understand by using a variety of strategies, appoaches, techniques and interventions so that you can learn in great part by listening to the podcast.
Learn languages in context and through communication. I will have conversations with natives speakers from different countries like Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Colombia, The United States, England, France, Italy, Brazil, Portugal, etc.
The aim of the podcast is to give you opportunities to listen to comprehensible input. We know from the research, from the studies in field of second language acquisition, that the most essential part to build your subconscious knowledge of the language, your intuitive command of a language, is by getting input that you can continuously and consistently understand. This input is usually calle "Comprehensible Input."
Another goal of the podcast is to help you learn a lot of vocabulary and help you grow your vocabulary.
Experts say that it takes about 15 meaningful encounters with vocabulary and phrases in context to be able to internalize them. This does not mean studying the vocabulary 15 times at different times with flashcards or vocabulary lists; it means encountering the vocabulary in meaningful context or messages where you are focusing primarily on what is being communicated and where you are able to understand the message.
You'll learn grammar in context. I will highlight grammar points to help you notice the grammar, but I'll help you focus primarily on the message.
There will be 3 levels, 3 types of conversation sessions: One will be tailored for beginners, one will be tailored for intermediate and one for advanced learners.
My goal is to publish one to three conversations sessions every Friday.
Most of the native speakers that I will have conversations with on the podcast offer private lessons on Skype. I’ll create a profile page for them on my website so that you can have a way to reach that native speaker in case you are interested in taking private lesson with any of them.
I’ll also have monologues from time to time where you can hear me or my contributors talk about different things from everyday life to give you comprehensible input.
I'll have conversations with other people like doctors, lawyers, dentists, nutritionists, teachers, and other professionals or people with a vocational training who can share with us their routine and the details of their occupations.