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Initial Knowledge Exam

SeanMc
New in Town
Posts: 9
Joined: February 5th, 2010 2:28 pm

Initial Knowledge Exam

Postby SeanMc » February 5th, 2010 9:32 pm

I'm new to the site and am uncertain where to begin. I have been studying the language off and on for many years. I have some knowledge but an nowhere close to being even conversational. I have no clue if I am advanced beginner, a lower intermediate, or at another place on the scale. My suggestion is to design some kind of initial knowledge test in multiple catagories. That would help us newbies know where to start, find out where we are strong and where we are the weakest.

Evandar
New in Town
Posts: 11
Joined: January 20th, 2010 8:38 pm

Postby Evandar » February 7th, 2010 9:45 am

Hey, Sean. A knowledge test would be nice, but until then I suggest you just check out the different levels, and you'll quickly find out when it gets too difficult. :)

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SeanMc
New in Town
Posts: 9
Joined: February 5th, 2010 2:28 pm

Postby SeanMc » February 7th, 2010 5:50 pm

Evandar wrote:Hey, Sean. A knowledge test would be nice, but until then I suggest you just check out the different levels, and you'll quickly find out when it gets too difficult. :)


In some aspects, the difficulty is rather early, while other aspects I am stronger. Is there a way I can narrow my focus to just one aspect, whether that be vocabulary, or just conjugation?

Evandar
New in Town
Posts: 11
Joined: January 20th, 2010 8:38 pm

Postby Evandar » February 8th, 2010 10:18 am

SeanMc wrote:
Evandar wrote:Hey, Sean. A knowledge test would be nice, but until then I suggest you just check out the different levels, and you'll quickly find out when it gets too difficult. :)


In some aspects, the difficulty is rather early, while other aspects I am stronger. Is there a way I can narrow my focus to just one aspect, whether that be vocabulary, or just conjugation?


I am the same. I am doing ok in reading Spanish, while understanding spoken Spanish is my big problem, as an example. So these days my main focus has become trying to understand when people speak Spanish, but I still do whole lessons, not only parts of them. I don't know what you find most difficult, but if you want to strengthen your grammar, I can recommend an e-book (maybe it exists as a normal book too) titled Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Spanish Grammar. This one is not for complete beginners, but if you've studied Spanish a little, it can be invaluable, as it has been for me. I gotta say, though, it would be close to useless if not for all the podcasts I've listened to. They really compliment eachother, I think.

jpv206
SpanishPod101.com Team Member
Posts: 26
Joined: January 1st, 2008 8:58 am

Postby jpv206 » February 9th, 2010 5:53 pm

Hi Sean,

Thanks for your question! SpanishPod101 is primarily a listening comprehension service; listening to the levels that you feel comfortable in, as well as levels that are below your level, should boost your listening comprehension.

Fernando and I have organized the levels around grammatical difficulty... not vocabulary... so I really do recommend you listen to any podcast that interests you at your level and below, just as Evandar says.

We do not have a placement test at the moment, so I really encourage you to listen to a bunch of stuff and see where you're most comfortable. As for specific language skills like vocabulary and conjugation, you might want to try some of our online features, available in the premium learning center.

Good luck, let me know how it goes! As always, thanks for coming to our site!

rodney
Established Presence
Posts: 57
Joined: January 21st, 2008 8:47 pm

Postby rodney » February 10th, 2010 12:07 pm

Qué pasa Sean,

I agree with JP and the others who suggested that you just start listening to the lessons. At the very least, listen to the lessons that interest you. My advice would be listen to all the beginner lessons (regardless of your level) and try out the more advanced ones and see what happens.

To me, learing Spanish is about learning how to communicate with people and not worrying so much about grammar and conjugations, you'll learn that stuff as a result listening to the lessons.

Don't think to much about your level or where to start. Concentrate on learning the stuff you need to know to be able to converse with people, and everything else will fall into place.

¡Suerte!
http://myspanishnotes.blogspot.com/
Read about real Spanish I learned from real conversations
No grammar, no verb conjugations, no textbook Spanish

isabelle67
New in Town
Posts: 1
Joined: December 12th, 2009 10:20 pm

initial exam

Postby isabelle67 » February 10th, 2010 7:14 pm

I agree that an initial self assessment test would be valuable.
It would also be nice to have some interim test-your-progress tests.

rodney
Established Presence
Posts: 57
Joined: January 21st, 2008 8:47 pm

Postby rodney » February 11th, 2010 11:51 am

If you search Google using "test your spanish level online" you'll find a ton of sites.

But be careful, I just randomly chose one and the initial level was using questions that required the future and imperfect past tenses, and the elementary level was using the subjunctive tense! The test is obviously rigged to convince you that you need to sign up for their classes.

But I'm sure you can find a much more accurate test. Maybe if any anyone finds a good one you can share it with the rest of us?

But for me, my measure of progress is by how well I communicate. Getting a good score on a test and being able to effectively talk to a real live person are two very different things.
http://myspanishnotes.blogspot.com/
Read about real Spanish I learned from real conversations
No grammar, no verb conjugations, no textbook Spanish

jpv206
SpanishPod101.com Team Member
Posts: 26
Joined: January 1st, 2008 8:58 am

Postby jpv206 » February 11th, 2010 4:50 pm

Folks, here's a loose description of how current SP101 lessons are organized:

ABSOLUTE BEGINNER SERIES: essential phrases and words that will help you survive in a Spanish language context.

BEGINNER SERIES: lessons focus on reporting the present situation, the immediate future, and narrating in the past. Imperatives are also used.

LOWER INTERMEDIATE SERIES: these lessons include conditional and subjunctive sentences, as well as colloquial expressions.

REFRESHER SERIES: these lessons have shorter dialogs. All verb tenses are in play. This series is more advanced in that the lessons are given almost entirely in Spanish, with breaks in English for advanced grammar.

I have organized these courses loosely around the listening comprehension guidelines given by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL); the levels correspond to what novice, basic, intermediate, and advanced learners (respectively) can expect to understand in terms of listening comprehension.

There are many other series available through SP101 that were published before I started working here. Although I know many listeners continue to enjoy those lessons, I can only claim pedagogical responsibility for the lessons that are currently being published. Therefore, if you're looking for your level, I highly recommend that you read my level descriptions above and place yourself in the appropriate series, of the series that we are currently publishing. Of course you may continue to enjoy the other series available here, but I was not a part of those lessons, and speak to the quality and uniformity of those lessons.

That said, I want you to know that all of these lessons are intended to challenge you; if you feel you're listening to the appropriate level but you're finding the lesson too difficult, please do let us know. Often you will be able to work through the challenges by participating in the discussion with the community, which we highly encourage. Also, Fernando and I are here to answer any questions you may have about lessons. Just leave your comment, or email us directly.

Thanks again for listening!

SeanMc
New in Town
Posts: 9
Joined: February 5th, 2010 2:28 pm

Postby SeanMc » February 11th, 2010 7:18 pm

Thanks to all who have posted here. I appreciate the support and suggestions.

Evandar wrote:I am doing ok in reading Spanish, while understanding spoken Spanish is my big problem...


This is my main issue. I know all the basics. I have enough vocabulary to communicate efficiently. My issue is being able to use what I know in conversation. I think that once I can talk, listen and reply, I can then add to everything. Things do not come instantly in Spanish. I am still hearing Spanish, translating it in my mind, then trying to translate my reply into Spanish. Additionally, if I do not know a word or phrase in Spanish, I have to think of synonyms in English until I find one that I know the Spanish word for. I am unable to keep up with the normal pace of a conversation this way. I cannot seem to get past this hurdle.

I am listening to everything, new and old, if for no other reason than to hear Spanish spoken daily. I found the 'Fast Track to Fluency Checklist - Premium' and want to use that as a good structure. (Is there a place where I can download a PDF file of a blank form?) I am using the idea of downloading just the conversations of each lesson and listem to them on shuffle. I am trying to find anything that can get me past this blockade. This is the reason I am here. I know that once I can get past this point that the rest will come naturally just by speaking the language. Any and all ideas are welcome.

jpv206
SpanishPod101.com Team Member
Posts: 26
Joined: January 1st, 2008 8:58 am

Postby jpv206 » February 11th, 2010 8:07 pm

Hi SeanMc,

Here's my advice, my friend...

If you want to learn how to ride a bike, you get on a bike and ride it.
If you want to learn how to eat with chopsticks, you pick up a set of chopsticks and eat with them.

Language learning is the same. There are four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
If you want your listening to improve, you listen to people (to media, to podcasts like SP101, etc).
If you want your speaking to improve, you talk to people (especially people you care about)
If you want your reading to improve, you start reading stuff that interests you.
If you want your writing to improve, you start communicating with people in the written form.

SP101 is a podcast, and what listeners tell me is that when they stick with a podcast form, their listening comprehension improves incredibly over a period of a few months.

SP101 is not a speaking, reading, or writing service, although we do try to provide a pronunciation module, some reading materials, and a forum for you to practice your written Spanish.

So the best we can do here at SP101 are provide some podcasts that are instructive enough to teach you, and entertaining enough so that listening is a pleasure, rather than a chore. Apart from that, I hope we can encourage you and motivate you to work on the other three skills. I'm also hoping we can build this forum and the lesson comments up so that the community becomes a resource for your language learning.

There are a lot of people out there that look at language learning as a pile of work; they look at it as something that they can dedicate a certain number of hours to, drilling and studying and memorizing.

Me, I'm not one of those people. My method is to a) get really good instruction, b) find people I care about who will talk to me in the target language on a regular basis, and c) listen to and read things that I find entertaining. It helps that I studied linguistics and teaching, but you should keep in mind that all over the world, every day, people learning language without any instruction at all--their first language--and they do it mostly through relationships.

To address your language hurdle that you described... that effort that it takes you to translate into English, translate back into Spanish, and that frustration you feel by not being able to maintain a normal conversation... what I recommend that you do is to put yourself in that situation more often. Some people learn to overcome that with daily exposure. Eventually, you'll give up on trying to translate everything for yourself, and learn how to go with your best guess, which is usually right. In the end, if what you're practicing is translation, which you don't want... practice guessing, and you'll become a better guesser. Take my word for it, a good guesser is much easier and much more interesting to talk to than a good translator.

I can go on for hours talking about what it takes to learn a language successfully. I hope this answers some of your questions, but I also hope we continue this conversation as you find your way past this hurdle!

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