Reading: When to Start “Pobre Ana”?
Reading focuses a little bit on translation. A
student or even teacher translates a paragraph for the
class. They then all discuss it.
There are two circles. A small circle. In the small
circle there are the words and phrases we teach for
fluency. The TPRS phrases are in the small circle.
WE teach this through repetitive questioning. We
always work in the small circle with the stories.
We need a relatively few words for fluency. An
average adult only uses 1800 different words in every
day speech. This suggests the fluency circle of words
is a small one for language learners since it would be
a lot less than 1800. Maybe we can be pretty good at
speaking a language with only a few hundred words.
There is another circle. It is the big circle. The
big circle is the reading circle. These words aren’t
practiced. We just tell them the meaning of these
words. REading is done in the big circle.
We translate and discuss. But the discussion is done
in the small circle. (The limited words that students
know for speech.) So that is why we can start Pobre
Ana the first week. We don’t care about the big
circle words. WE just discuss and keep our discussion
in the small circle and it all works.
Blaine
