Intro
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| Becky: Welcome to a special Inner Circle Audio Lesson! I'm Becky and I'll be your host. My co-host today is the founder of InnovativeLanguage.com... Peter Galante! |
| Peter: Hi everyone! Peter here. |
| Becky: In this Inner Circle, we’re talking about the guaranteed way... |
| Peter: ...To double your speaking time in your target language. |
| Becky: You’ll learn why most learners simply don’t make fast progress with speaking. |
| Peter: How I doubled my speaking time... |
| Becky: ...with our 101.com Audio and Video lessons and a bit of structure. |
| Peter: ..And how you too, can double your speaking time with our lessons. |
| Becky: All so you can master your target language and finally reach your goals! |
| Body |
| Becky: Listeners, welcome back to the Inner Circle. |
| Peter: Last time, you learned why it’s important to do a mid-year review of your progress... |
| Becky: ...and about the law of increasing motivation. |
| Peter: In other words, how to grow your motivation and language success over time. |
| Becky: This time, we’re going into more actionable learning tactics... |
| Peter: The kind you can apply right now with our learning system... |
| Becky: ...and our audio and video lessons. Alright, Peter. Last time, you set your goal to 23 minutes. September’s done. |
| Peter: That’s right. There are just three months left in the year. |
| Becky: Where are you with your Spanish goal? |
| Peter: Well Becky, I’m done. As of... Saturday. |
| Becky: How many minutes are you speaking? |
| Peter: 30. |
| Becky: 30, impressive. Really? Hold on, but you were at 20. You promised 23. |
| Peter: I did. |
| Becky: So you made 10 minutes of progress in one month! Actually, a bit more. You didn’t cheat, did you? |
| Peter: Oh, Becky. Always the optimist. |
| Becky: You usually go up by small increments, like 2 or 3 minutes. |
| Peter: Well, that’s true. Here’s what helped me go up by 10 minutes in the last lesson. I trained my in-person tutor... to use our audio and video lessons in our lessons. |
| Becky: But how does that help you... and our listeners to speak? |
| Peter: Let’s get into that Becky. |
| Becky: Listeners, today we’re talking about the guaranteed way to double your speaking time. |
| Peter: And in this Inner Circle, you’re going to learn... |
| Becky: One: Why most learners simply don’t make real progress with speaking |
| Peter: Two: How I doubled my speaking time |
| Becky: ...with our 101.com audio and video lessons... and a bit of structure. |
| Peter: And three: |
| Becky: How you can double your speaking time as well. |
| Peter: Now, before I get into what I did, let’s start with that first point. |
| Becky: One: Why most learners simply don’t make real progress with speaking. |
| Peter: This will help you understand my learning tactics later. |
| Becky: Alright. Why is real speaking progress so hard to make? |
| Peter: Okay. Let’s say you have a chance to practice speaking. Maybe you have a tutor. |
| Becky: Right. |
| Peter: They can and will improve bits and pieces of your speaking... like pronunciation and correcting your grammar... |
| Becky: ...And you can talk about your day and common topics. |
| Peter: But... without proper preparation on both sides, the student and teacher, that’s kind of it. You’re limited. If you try to have a free conversation... |
| Becky: ...You’ll probably fall flat at some point, right? |
| Peter: Exactly, Becky. You run out of things to say and talk about. You run out of words and topics. |
| Becky: Huh. That’s true. Even outside of language learning... it’s easy for conversations to die when you run out of things to talk about. |
| Peter: I’m flashing back to the dating scene. Yes! |
| Becky: Interesting that you went there, Peter. |
| Peter: So the free-style method is nice... and it’s great for advanced learners or people who do serious preparation... |
| Becky: But it’s probably not so great for beginners. |
| Peter: You got it. But listeners, there is a way to double your speaking time... |
| Becky: ...even if you’re an absolute beginner. Even if you’re low on words and grammar. |
| Peter: And that’s by adding structure. |
| Becky: Peter, what exactly do you mean by structure? Like putting themes to your conversations? |
| Peter: Well, let’s look at that in the second point. |
| Becky: Two: How Peter doubled his speaking time with our 101.com audio and video lessons and a bit of structure. |
| Peter: I like it, Becky. Ever the marketeer. I didn’t quite double my speaking time but I did have a massive jump. 10 minutes of progress in my last lesson. And we mentioned how free conversation can hit a dead end. |
| Becky: We did. |
| Peter: Well, a lot of my lessons with my in-person tutor were based on her materials and free conversation. |
| Becky: That seems like a standard approach. I would say most tutors do that. |
| Peter: Right. But remember, in my own time, I use SpanishPod101 lessons. And I use Premium PLUS MyTeacher too. |
| Becky: Hmm. So it sounds like there’s a gap between what you learn with her... |
| Peter: ...and what I learn on my own time. There’s no real structure to my overall Spanish learning. |
| Becky: I see. |
| Peter: But with our 101.com lessons, for example... the SpanishPod101 Absolute Beginner Series that I’m using...they’re very structured. |
| Becky: Yeah, you’re guided from lesson 1 to 2 to 3... |
| Peter: And they progress in a linear fashion. Each lesson builds on the previous one. |
| Becky: So you learn new conversations based on what you’ve learned before. |
| Peter: Exactly. And the grammar and vocabulary also build on what I’ve learned before. |
| Becky: It sounds like you’d need to close that gap then. Add some structure. Build a bridge. |
| Peter: Perfect expression Becky because that’s exactly what I did. I built a bridge. I trained my in-person teacher to use our lessons as the basis for our conversational lessons. |
| Becky: Oh wow. So, your in-person lessons are structured around the SpanishPod101 lessons? |
| Peter: You got it. We’ll both prepare with the same SpanishPod101 lesson. |
| Becky: And what happens during the lesson? |
| Peter: We typically start a lesson with free conversation. Just catching up. The basics. Questions like “How are you?” and “What did you do last weekend?” |
| Becky: All in Spanish? |
| Peter: Right. I mean, the answers are usually quite similar. “I’m fine.” And “oh, I went to the movies last weekend.” But after that, we would normally do drills. My teacher would prepare them. Great, but not really helpful for conversation. But now that we’re using SpanishPod101... we jump into the lesson dialogue. |
| Becky: How does that work? |
| Peter: Well first... we’ll chat about it in Spanish. For example, she’ll ask “Did you understand the dialogue from the lesson?” And I’ll reply in Spanish, not super linguistically advanced, but still in Spanish, with my opinion of that particular dialog. |
| Becky: Okay, clever way to keep the flow going. |
| Peter: For example, I’ll tell her which part I didn’t understand, of course in Spanish. Or I’ll summarize the dialogue. Of course in Spanish. |
| Becky: So, you’re talking about the lesson and you’re doing this all in Spanish. |
| Peter: Exactly. Then we’ll read the dialogue out loud. I’m Person A first. She’s Person B. Then we reverse roles. If I have any pronunciation problems, which to this date, I’ve always had, she’ll correct me. |
| Becky: ...and the in-person lessons are now mostly focused on practical dialogues. |
| Peter: So, instead of having our free conversation die... and struggling over topics that are a bit over my head, our conversations last longer. |
| Becky: You have a clear focus to move on to next. You do a bit of small talk. |
| Peter: Then we move onto the lesson and we talk about it. All in Spanish. |
| Becky: And it’s an actual, practical conversation that you’re practicing. |
| Peter: You got it. And just like our audio and video lessons, they have a flow to them. After the dialogue and speaking about that. we move onto the cultural points. |
| Becky: Yeah, that’s pretty important, right? |
| Peter: It’s actually my teacher’s favorite part because sometimes she learns something new in our cultural tips because they’re so up to date. A lot of the material is written less than a year ago and my tutor now lives in the United States so she’s been out of her home country for a while so she’s like “oh wow, this is, I didn’t know that.” |
| Becky: Right. It’s like deeper than just the language itself. |
| Peter: And this gives us another talking point to speak about in Spanish. |
| Becky: Right. But you cover grammar and vocabulary too, right? |
| Peter: Exactly, just like our lessons, Becky. In fact, I make it a point to use the grammar points in our conversation. |
| Becky: Really? How so? |
| Peter: The last SpanishPod101 lesson we did covered the grammar point for “to want.” So, because I did the preparation beforehand and my teacher did too, I used it as much as possible. For example, I gave her a few lines like, “I want to go to Spain next year. I want to go camping. I want to go to the movies this weekend.” |
| Becky: And she corrects you or comments on it along the way? |
| Peter: Exactly. And actually, because she did the preparation beforehand and she knows the grammar point, I’m trying to master, she always says “good job, oh you did it” And very very encouraging because she knows when I accurately use the goal of the lesson. |
| Becky: Okay, I understand what you mean about structure now. But I bet the listeners want to know how you almost DOUBLED your speaking time. |
| Peter: So listeners, you know how my lessons are structured now. There’s the free conversation at the start. Which takes about 7 minutes now, all in Spanish |
| Becky: Definitely a good warm-up. |
| Peter: Then we move onto the dialogue. The SpanishPod101 dialogue. 5 minutes. So that gives us 12 minutes. The cultural points will take us 3 to 5 minutes or so. |
| Becky: And the grammar? |
| Peter: That’s another 5 minutes. And again, the times can vary if we’re really engaged in talking about something. So right now, we’re at 20 minutes Becky. There’s some more free conversation towards the end that usually relates to the lesson. Since the lessons give us talking points, it’s very easy to find something to talk about. So it really adds up fast. |
| Becky: And you do this all in Spanish. |
| Peter: 99% Becky. |
| Becky: Really. Doing it all in Spanish. |
| Peter: All in Spanish, Becky. Yes. Really! All in Spanish! I’ll slip in an English word here and there just to keep the flow. |
| Becky: I knew it, I knew it! English is slipping in! |
| Peter: You know, there’s point in my life when it was like, I’d do everything to resist putting English into the conversation, but sometimes it flows. You know, just to keep the conversation moving, it’s worth the sacrifice. |
| Becky: I think they call it Spanglish? So... because you’ve begun to structure your lessons around SpanishPod101 lessons... |
| Peter: ...my speaking doesn’t fall flat like free conversations can do. If the conversation flows well, we keep running with it. But as soon as it dies down, we have the SpanishPod101 lesson to move back to to give us another starting point, and get us speaking Spanish very fast. |
| Becky: And there’s a lot to talk about. The dialogue, the grammar, the vocabulary, and the cultural insight. |
| Peter: And that’s what makes our conversations last so long... |
| Becky: ...it’s what helped you almost double your speaking time. I see now. |
| Peter: So listeners, I bet you’re wondering... “Great. But how can I apply this and speak more of my target language?” |
| Becky: Let’s get into the third point. |
| Peter: How you can double your speaking time with our audio and video lessons. |
| Becky: Listeners, it’s very easy to run out of things to say. |
| Peter: Especially if you’re a beginner and you lack the grammar and the right vocabulary. |
| Becky: Right. But if you have a structure to follow... like the lesson... |
| Peter: ...There is always something for you to fall back on. It’s like a safety net. All of the work is done for you. If you want to go out on your own, go as far as you can. But if the conversation dies down, you always have a home base to go back to and start the lesson going again. |
| Becky: So here’s you how can speak more of your target language... |
| Peter: ...and especially if you’re taking in-person lessons with your tutor. |
| Becky: One: Definitely listen to and review your current audio or video lessons. |
| Peter: This will give you a lot of topics to talk about and the relevant grammar and vocab.... |
| Becky: ...which most beginners lack. |
| Peter: Think about it. If you wanted to talk about a vacation as a beginner... you’d realize you need to know words like “vacation”, “cruise”, and “holiday” in your target language. |
| Becky: And you might need some grammar points to help you express ideas. |
| Peter: Our audio and video lessons will provide you with all of these. |
| Becky: So listen to the lessons and prepare ahead of time. |
| Peter: Two: Talk about the dialogue presented in the lesson with your tutor. Talk about what you understood. What you didn’t understand. What you liked. |
| Becky: Then, read the dialogues out loud together. This definitely counts. |
| Peter: Three: Move on to the grammar and vocabulary. Ask how certain words are used. |
| Becky: Also, try to interweave the grammar points into the conversation. |
| Peter: Four: Talk about the cultural insights presented in the lesson. |
| Becky: Right. If you’re prepared, you’ll already know the relevant words and phrases for it. |
| Peter: And five: use the lesson as a basis for more conversation. |
| Becky: If the lesson was about taking a holiday, talk about your own. Or where you want to go. Ask your tutor or friend about their plans. |
| Peter: The point is... you get to speak more of your target language and double your speaking time... |
| Becky: ...simply by using the lessons, and using each part as its own talking point. |
| Peter: Everything – topics, vocab, grammar, culture – is given to you, so that you can use it... |
| Becky: And your conversations don’t fall flat. |
| Peter: Listeners, we’ve also included a PDF on how to use our lessons to keep your in-person classes in your target language for as long as possible. |
| Becky: Now, Peter, what if they don’t have a tutor? |
| Peter: Probably, the next best solution is Premium PLUS where you interact with a teacher over audio and email. |
| Becky: So if they have a question about the dialogue, they can just send it to the teacher through email. |
| Peter: Exactly. Here’s a quick walkthrough of how someone can use Premium PLUS the way a student would with an in-person teacher. |
| Becky: The dialogue. |
| Peter: You record yourself reading all the lines of the dialogue, then mail it to your teacher for feedback. |
| Becky: The grammar. |
| Peter: You let the teacher know which lesson you’re doing and the teacher will craft an assignment to let you practice the particular grammar of that lesson. |
| Becky: The vocabulary. |
| Peter: Create sample sentences or write a small passage using the vocabulary from that lesson, mail it to your teacher, and she’ll tell you how accurately you are using that vocabulary. |
| Becky: And the cultural insight. |
| Peter: This is actually the most fun. You can actually send your teacher a recording or a write up about the particular cultural insight. And many times, the teacher will get back to you with a lot more information because teachers are people too. When you talk about something they are interested or like, they got a lot more passion than.. “How do you say this in your language.” |
| Becky: Right. I’m sure they’re going to draw on personal experiences. |
| Peter: I mean, Becky. We both taught English, right? |
| Becky: Yes. |
| Peter: When someone asks me about the weather, my answer is much shorter than talking about the Yankees. |
| Becky: Let’s not talk about the Yankees. |
| Peter: But the point is that focusing on culture will... you’ll see the responses you get from your teacher usually will be much longer and in depth. |
| Becky: That’s a good point. So listeners, use the PDF we’ve provided as a guide... |
| Peter: ...and checklist to double your speaking time. Now remember, I shared my SpanishPod101 material with my tutor and teacher. And I recommend that you do the same. You can share the content with your teacher in order for the teacher to prepare. |
| Becky: So if you don’t have a tutor, just tell your Premium PLUS teacher what lesson to prepare. |
| Becky: Alright, Peter. You’re done. You’ve reached your goal. What are you going to do next? |
| Peter: I’ve reached my 2015 30-minute goal. |
| Becky: 2016? You’re going to make a new goal? Or are you going to Tokyo Disneyland? Which one? |
| Peter: Well that's the beauty of goals. The 30 minute goal is psychological. I like my tutor, I like the language more and more, so I’m going to keep going. I’m going to shoot for a goal of 35 minutes for my next... next month. |
| Becky: By year end? 35 minutes? |
| Pete: So I’m setting a goal of 45 minutes by the end of the year. I’m extending my lesson time with my tutor by 15 minutes. |
| Becky: So you’re going to do 5 minutes a month. October, November, December. Reaching 45 by the end of the year? |
| Peter: That’s right. |
| Beck: That sounds great! Listeners, be sure to set your monthly goals as well. |
| Peter:... and email us at inner dot circle at innovativelanguage dot com. |
| Becky: We want to know how you use our lessons to improve your speaking skills. |
Outro
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| Becky: Well, that’s going to do it for this special Inner Circle lesson! |
| Peter: Bye everyone! |
| Becky: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
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