How to Master Successfully Any Language of the World 19
Speaking and Listening Drills – Wardrobe, Re-Hearing, Fetching
At this level, oral communication is the best way of passing information. It is more
important than reading or writing at this stage. In a native way, toddlers usually hear their
native language and start to speak much earlier than they start to learn reading.
Listening and speaking practice will be best done in the following way: The teacher
explains a sentence, word by word, sound by sound, slowly, providing some mnemonics
if needed, or providing similarities to an already known language. Simulating the
situations, performing related activities, pointing to the objects will be best. But
clarifications should be done in your native language. The words meanings should be
clarified (most common and general at this level; special meanings – only if explicitly
needed). Grammar structures should be clarified, too. Repeat each word slowly, carefully
pronounce each sound. Then say the whole sentence to another learner. If you are drilling
on your own, you may drill with any big object, big enough. It can be a cabinet, or a desk,
a closet, or even a wall. The object must be 1) big enough, 2) it should be at your eyes
height, 3) it shouldn’t move, and 4) it shouldn’t have anything written or printed on it.
That’s why the computer display or a TV-set may only do if they are turned off. A book
will not do. It is small and it has printed words. Let’s say, you are drilling with a
wardrobe. Repeat the sentence to the wardrobe again and again until it goes without
hesitation, stumbling or any other difficulty. If you feel it is difficult to pronounce the
whole sentence, drill parts of it first. Than reconnect the parts and drill the whole
sentence.
Then you start to drill listening. The teacher says the sentence faster, changes intonations,
reduces sounds – the way native speakers use to say it fast. Sounding different voices
would be best (in a prepared course). You should be able to say this sentence to your
partner (or to the wardrobe) without doubt and at any pace. You may also learn to
properly reduce the sounds as native speakers do. The purpose is to learn to hear the
words said in different ways by different speakers / voices and to say them like a native
speaker. Common native speakers’ mistakes may be explained, but the correct standard
form is more important. Drill with your partner or against the wardrobe to perfection.
Generally, the perfection level that you obtain with this drilling, determines your
future speaking fluency. The better you drill now, the better and swifter you can a
sentence to your pal or to the wardrobe, the better you will speak the language in future.
It will be just much easier for you to speak ever since. It’s like your tongue will learn to
speak correctly, on its own. And YOU don’t need to think HOW to say, you will be free
to think WHAT to say. You don’t think HOW to pronounce something in your native
language, do you? You rarely need to stop and think about a word in most day-to-day
situations. You just speak your native language. You have drilled these sentences through
your life. You have said them in various ways since you were a child. And now your
Copyright © 2012 Dmitry Slomov. All rights reserved.
Dmitry Slomov is a language learning consultant, a tutor and the author of the Russian Language Course – Lessons with Dmitry
Contact Dmitry at: http://www.courseofrussian.com/en/contact.html
