Learn Spanish by Using The Chunking Strategy — Effective Learning?
Chunking refers to an approach for making more efficient use of short-term memory by grouping information.
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Why Chunking Is Useful for Improving Memory
How to Use Chunking to Remember Things. Chunking lets us take lots of small bits of information – new words – and put them together so we have one larger thing to remember.
This larger thing – a phrase – is more meaningful than single words. So, it is much easier to remember.
Chunking allows us to have a lot of useful phrases on hand when we have conversations in a second language. Rather than having to find each individual word when we want to say something, we can find an entire chunk. This makes our speech much faster and more fluent.
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Chunking Spanish: HACE UN RATO
Chunking Spanish: ESTABA YO AHÍ // YO ESTABA AHÍ
Chunking Spanish: JUGANDO A LA PLAYSTATION
Chunking Spanish: TRÁNQUI // TRANQUILO
Chunking Spanish: Y ME LLAMA UN AMIGO
Chunking Spanish: YO TENGO UN AMIGO
Chunking Spanish: DE BUENOS AIRES
Chunking Spanish: VIERON
Chunking Spanish: BUENOS AIRES ES LA CAPITAL DE LA ARGENTINA
Chunking Spanish: PARA EL QUE NO LO SEPA
😊If you ever need to learn a Spanish sentence or passage quickly, practicing in chunks is a great way to get it! Why? Because the chunks start off so small, you can usually remember stuff long-term, allowing your brain to learn long sentences more quickly.
ResponderBorrar.
HOW TO
•Listen how it is pronounced!
•Start with a small chunk (group of words). Typically, the brain retains better what is being pronounced instead of the visual chunks.
•Always add one extra chunk at the end of the group of words. This helps bridge together each chunk as you learn them.
•Focus on pronunciation first, not the meaning of the chunks.
•Repeat each chunk 5-7 times, depending on your comfort with it.
•Begin combining chunks together. Repeat each of these larger chunks between 5-7 times.
•If your larger chunks have mistakes, go back and practice the smaller ones.
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ADVANCED TIPS
•Find a working tempo for you! If you are fluent in your smaller chunks, don’t be afraid to practice with larger chunks!
•Don’t rush progression, but try to repeat chunks quickly. This will allow you to have more repetitions in a shorter amount of time.
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PRO TIPS
•Still not getting it in your brain? Memorize it! Because these chunks are so small, memorization should come pretty easily! Muscle memory is what you’re aiming for, and this is one of the best ways to get there!
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Obviously, nothing beats slow practice, but I’ve used this trick numerous times when learning languages. Give it a try, and let us know your results in the comments! #GrammrOff 🍒
Languages are acquired in prefabricated chunks – words, collocations and expressions that we hear repeatedly. This is why kids go from babble to speaking – to the amazement of their parents – seemingly overnight.
BorrarTo give you an example, “Yo tengo” is a chunk. Many have used those two words together in that order a multitude of times in their lifetime.
It’s a set expression that you heard and learned as a whole, and are able to create an infinite number of expressions by adding another chunk (a name or an action). Thus, "un amigo" and "hambre" are other chunks that you’ve also learned.
What we do as fluent speakers is essentially put together or insert pieces of prefabricated language. Very little of what we actually say is original content.