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beginning and advanced student must study, we are not talking about a grammar
definition. We are saying that there is not one language that would be used by
commoners and another that would be used by an upper class. Even though the example
sentence about the TV's split screen is not a sentence that we would want to include in the
first lesson, it does not represent multiple, specialized language divisions.
Finally, however, if beginning students stumble across something equivalent to an
English compound-complex sentence in a newspaper, they could skip it for the present
time and focus on the sentences they are able to use.
Appendix A: Introductory Lesson was included to illustrate the first lesson a non-
English speaking student will encounter in the Spoken English Learned Quickly course.
As you look at Appendix A, you will see that even though only simple sentences cast in
Chapter 5: Do You Need Both Beginning and Advanced Lessons? 23
Learning to Speak a Second Language
the present tense are used, they are, nonetheless, complete sentences. The first lesson in
this course requires that non-English speaking students start their language learning
experience with complete sentences used in everyday speech.
Making this model fit your own language study
Up to this point, the attempt has only been made to show that so-called beginning and
advanced sentences are unnecessary in an English language program. You will likely
discover very little in your target language that would require two levels of language
study any more than would be required in English.
You will need to learn normal greetings and salutations when you begin your target
language study. You will want to learn how to ask basic directions, how to find a store or
office, what bus to take, or how to make change. Yet, all of the vocabulary and phrases
you will use are a part of everyday language used by everyone, not just beginners.
Therefore, you should understand that the spoken language you want to learn is not
divided into levels. Throughout the entire time you will be learning your target language,
you will essentially be adding vocabulary and new syntax to a single level of language
complexity.
If you understand this concept, it will help you immensely. Your task is not to learn a
beginning language, progress to an intermediate language, and finally pass an exam on
the advanced language before you can finally begin talking to real people. Your task is to
immediately begin speaking your target language even though you may use short, simple
sentences and limited vocabulary. Language learning is a continuum. Everything you
learn to say correctly in your first week of language study should be just as useful in
normal conversation as the things you will learn later as you become more fluent.
There may be exceptions
Your target language may use specialized language for folklore, proverbs, weddings,
funerals, and when addressing individuals from a higher class of society. If that is the
case, you will need to learn those forms at some point if you aspire to that level of
fluency. Nonetheless, most of those specialized forms (excepting possibly those used
when addressing someone from a higher class of society) will be used very infrequently
in daily conversation.[5]
Designing the early lessons
A language course using the Feedback Training Method would normally begin with at
least one introductory lesson for students who are just beginning their study of a new
language. The first lesson would use simple sentences, a limited vocabulary, and
restricted verb tenses. The first Spoken English Learned Quickly lesson uses complete
sentences that are limited to the present tense. However, beginning with Lesson 2, all
lessons use verbs in past, present, and future tenses, and newspaper-quality sentences.
Chapter 5: Do You Need Both Beginning and Advanced Lessons? 24
Learning to Speak a Second Language
Nonetheless, even though this course uses normal though simple everyday
English sentences in the early lessons, there is another way in which the audio portion of
the course accommodates the student who has no previous knowledge of English. This is
demonstrated more easily than explained. This example comes from the text exercise in
Appendix B. The narrator records the phrase outside of the ellipses ( . . . ). The student
then repeats this phrase during the pause.
Audio recordings for the first few lessons would be structured like this:
A long time ago, (A long time ago,) there was a wise man (there was a wise
man) living in a mountain country. (living in a mountain country.) A long time
ago, there was a wise man living in a mountain country. (A long time ago, there
was a wise man living in a mountain country.) The country was beautiful. (The
country was beautiful.) But it was always difficult (But it was always difficult) to
find enough food. (to find enough food.) But it was always difficult to find
enough food. (But it was always difficult to find enough food.)
Audio recordings for later lessons would use longer phrases like this:
A long time ago, there was a wise man living in a mountain country. (A long
time ago, there was a wise man living in a mountain country.) The country was
beautiful. (The country was beautiful.) But it was always difficult to find enough
food. (But it was always difficult to find enough food.)
The variation, therefore, is not in the complexity of the sentence itself, but in the length
of the segments used to build the sentence. Thus, a beginning student with no prior
knowledge of the target language and a student who has gained considerably greater
fluency may use the same kinds of sentences. The structure of the audio exercises will
take into account these varying levels of fluency, though in later lessons the student will
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