Linguata
Second language aquisition
What is the best way of acquiring a second language?
The answer to this depends on what you want to achieve. The Linguata approach is essentially practical and is designed to give you the skills and confidence to begin speaking a second language at the basic level of engagement.
What is meant by 'the basic level of engagement'?
This level enables the speaker to interact politely in order to make enquiries, effect introductions, use greetings, express thanks and offer apologies. The speaker also has the beginnings of a vocabulary related to the different kinds of interaction. In many ways this is the most rewarding stage of language acquisition because concrete results are obtained relatively quickly in return for a moderate amount of effort. For instance the difference between being unable to say 'please' and 'thank you' appropriately and being able to do so is disproportionate in terms of its goodwill potential. This would be too obvious to need stating were it not for the numbers of people who still venture abroad without having acquired even this and other basic skills.
Can Linguata help me do these things, i.e. make enquiries, effect introductions, use greetings, express thanks and offer apologies, etc?
Emphatically yes. This is precisely what Linguata is designed to do.
What ideas underlie the Linguata approach?
An enormous amount of research has examined the conditions which favour the acquisition of a second language*. There are in fact a surprising number of different approaches to language teaching, not all of which agree with one other. For our purposes, however, several guidelines emerge:
First, the 'fun principle': the teaching method should be enjoyable and employ varied techniques. For this reason Linguata offers a range of techniques, including games, to help the student sample different approaches and maintain interest.
Second, the 'principle of interactivity': the more the student interacts actively with material the better for acquisition and retention. In Linguata the student has a decidedly active role in most of the learning modules.
Third, the 'little-and-often principle': vocabulary is best served in small amounts which can be rehearsed repeatedly. In Linguata the student is initially presented with 'bite-size' vocabularies to master but is able to modify them according to need by adding or deleting words and phrases.
Fourth, the student should model on a native speaker. In Linguata language programs the student listens to native speakers and is enabled to 'tune' his or her voice by comparing their own speech directly, both visually and audibly, with that of the original. Using the opportunity for repeating and correcting one's speech is perhaps the most important single factor in the successful use of a Linguata language program. Students will not only be rewarded by the sight and sound of their own speech approximating to that of the native speaker but the process of rehearsing in this way helps overcome any resistance due to shyness or embarrassment.
*The interested student will find good introductory articles on this subject in Wikipedia.