Do you need to learn Spanish to communicate with someone nice you met in Spain last Summer? Or to travel through a Spanish-speaking country and communicate in with the locals? Maybe you need to write a formal text to your boss? Or to speak at a conference in front of a native audience in Spanish? I’m going to explain to you which methodology is used most in teaching Spanish as a foreign language in order for you to be able to communicate successfully in Spanish. It’s called the task-based communicative method.
What is the task-based communicative method?
The task-based communicative method will help you to become passionate about communicating in Spanish because it has one key purpose: to learn Spanish in order to communicate and exchange ideas with Spanish speakers, and to understand them.
The objective of this communicative method is to learn everything you need to know in order to successfully communicate with other Spanish speakers. But how exactly do you learn to communicate? By practicing grammar in an indirect way! Your goal is not to memorize all sorts of grammatical structures, it is simply to know how to use them when you want to get across something specific in Spanish. The communicative method will help you to express yourself when you want to communicate a message to your family, friends or colleagues, depending on whatever situation you find yourself in.
In my online Spanish course you will learn to speak fluently in real situations, as we will elaborate a study plan according to how exactly you want to use Spanish, and taking into account the type of people you are going to be speaking with. It is about studying the language in its true context, not out of books, and also by using material that will be really useful.
How can we develop the communicative method in online classes?
Student, it’s all about you!
You are the one who is going to discover the grammar rules for yourself and I, the teacher, will be your guide throughout the learning process. I will show you how to find out how Spanish works for yourself, through real-life language samples (audios, texts, videos, etc.) Why learn in an inductive way? Because when you discovers for yourself how the language works, and then put it into practice in writing, and, above all, oral, exercises, then you will be able to memorize grammatical structures more easily.
It’s your way of working
Although in each lesson we will develop all the necessary skills to understand oral and written Spanish, we will give a prominent place to conversation, and to improving your communicative and intercultural competence. I will help you to communicate in Spanish skillfully with native speakers and to express yourself fluently in real-life conversations. This will enable you to participate actively and successfully in the dialogues, with the help of a step-by-step method we will go through progressively. At the start of each class, I will guide you more in the tasks. As the class goes on, the tasks will get progressively more complex, and you will see that you are able to use everything you have learned throughout the lesson in the dialogues.
You decide the format
With online Spanish classes that use the communicative method there is a great advantage: you are the one who decides the format. What we mean is that it is you who will explain to me how and with whom you are going to use your Spanish. Based on that, I will adapt the lessons to your communicative needs. We will work through and act out the exact situations that you will be involved in, and in this way your learning will be as personalized as possible. Maybe you need to practice how to speak in Spanish in a work environment and master the more formal aspects of the language, or perhaps for you it will be typical conversational situations to help you relate to your partner’s Spanish-speaking family. Whatever you need to learn Spanish for, let’s get down to work!
How are we going to learn in our online class?
Imagine that you are having dinner at the house of some Spanish friends you haven’t known for long. You like them very much, you feel comfortable with them, but it’s late and you want to go home because you need to get up early the next day. You know the normal vocabulary to say goodbye, and so you’re sure you can just say a set formula like: ¡Hasta otra, nos vemos otro día! (See you later!) But will this expression be the right one in that situation? No, not at all! If you use it then you will seem a bit curt, abrupt, and pretty ungrateful! To deal with the situation well, you will probably have to justify why you are leaving, and you should also bear in mind that farewells are usually quite prolonged. In Hispanic culture it is normal to say goodbye several times before leaving, and don’t forget to say that you’ll have to meet up again soon.
The advantages of online Spanish classes that use a communicative method go beyond the development of linguistic competence. They are also concerned with the development of sociocultural competence, that is, we are going to take into account that communication in Spanish takes place with real people, who belong to a specific social and cultural community. What I’ll do is to teach you something more than just the language. I’ll help you understand the system of sociocultural codes of conduct that are essential to know when you are communicating in Spanish.
In order to improve your conversational competence we’ll find out the logic of the grammar in the context of each type of conversation. We’ll also use exercises that will help you assimilate these rules through the understanding you’ve acquired, because if you understand correctly when to use the structures it’ll be easier to apply them in real life. Taking into account your conversational objectives, we’ll practice listening to real-life dialogues to work on your oral comprehension, we’ll create stimulating conversational situations to practice with, and we’ll do role-playing games, etc.
Do you want to get passionate about Spanish, learning online with me, using the communicative method? Would you like to have online Spanish classes to communicate fluently and win over the Spanish people you speak with? Ask for a free trial class, you’ve got nothing to lose!
