Read the left side and enjoy understanding español. Use the right side if you need it to help you.
In the 1970s and 1980s un señor que se llama Stephen Krashen developed a theory about como los humanos aprenden lenguaje. Aprenden means they learn, like what apprentices are supposed to do!
un señor = a man
que se llama = who is called
como los humanos aprenden = how humans learn
There are a couple of words that mean understand en español: comprender and entender both mean to understand. Entender reminds me of the Entente Cordiale which was meant to mean Friendly Understanding … Wikipedia tells me that was un acuerdo diplomático between the UK y Francia, signed en el año 1904.
en español = in Spanish
comprender = to understand
entender = to understand
un acuerdo diplomático = a diplomatic agreement
en el año = in the year
Back to the main theme of como los humanos aprenden lenguaje: en la opinión de Stephen Krashen el lenguaje that you can comprender o entender is the only mechanism that results in the increase of underlying competence.
como los humanos = how the humans
aprenden lenguaje = they learn languaje
en la opinión de = in the opinion of
comprender o entender = understand or understand (!)
En mi opinión es importante for us students, estudiantes, to focus on lenguaje that we can entender and that carries meaning for us. It is good, sí, está bien, entender a sentence like “Él no quiere tomar el tren,” … he no want to take the train. But a sentence like that in isolation doesn’t carry meaning for us, so it doesn’t easily become una parte de nuestra conversación. Nuestra means our. I like that word. Nuestra conversación.
en mi opinion es importante = in my opinion it’s important
estudiantes = students
lenguaje = language
sí, está bien = yes, it’s good
el no quiere tomar el tren = he doesn’t want to take the train
una parte de nuestra conversación = a part of our conversation
El otro aspecto of lenguaje that we can both entender and that has SIGNIFICADO for us is it more interesante, more satisfying to entender, and we can forget about el lenguaje y concentrar on the message, el mensaje, allowing el lenguaje to lodge in our brains without the useless effort of boredom.
el otro aspecto = the other aspect
significado = meaning
concentrar = concentrate
el mensaje = the message
About la autora.
I have come to esta idea having taught lenguaje since 1998 … ¡mucho tiempo! The word for I think is pienso. It is like pensive, and you are full of thoughts when you are pensive, right?
Pienso que el uso de Spanglish provides a good bridge to help you cross from inglés to español. Spanglish gives us una manera para completar nuestros mensajes before you have enough español para comunicar all your ideas, and I hope that by using Spanglish you will get to ese gol mucho más rápido.
¡Let la clase comenzar!
la autora = the author
esta idea = this idea
mucho tiempo = a lot of time
pienso que el uso de = I think that the use of
inglés = English
español = Spanish
una manera para completar nuestros mensajes = a way to complete our messages
ese gol = that goal
mucho más rápido = much more quickly
