视听说2(第三版)Unit1_P16How I learned Spanish

新视野大学英语

视听说教程2（第三版）

Listento the world: Sharing

Furtherpractice in listening: Long conversation and Passage 1 &2 

Passage 1

Scripts

I began learning Spanish when I was in high school, using a traditionalacademic method of studying verbs, sentence structures, and grammar by usingtextbooks and not much else. I found it very easy to learn, but was frustratedwith the slow pace and repetitive nature of all my Spanish classes. So I workedextra hard in my spare time and asked my teacher if I could skip a level by theend of the semester.

This was unsuccessful, however, because the school was not willing totest me or otherwise

prove that I could be successful in the top level after skipping alevel. This made things even more frustrating, as then I was stuck in a classwhere I already knew the material!

Then I went on to college where I then used the language extensivelyboth in and out of the classroom. I studied Spanish literature, culture, andlinguistics and very much enjoyed the cultural and linguistic elements, butfound the in-depth study of literature a very unbalanced way to study Spanish.

I got a lot out of using my Spanish outside of the classroom, includinga trip to Mexico with a church group, where I found myself acting as aninterpreter. It was certainly challenging, but it was also a lot of fun.

I then also volunteered to be an interpreter in the community schoolsand also used my Spanish to teach English to some Spanish speakers. This isprobably where I learned the most!

Q1: What do we know about the speaker’s Spanish learning experience inhigh school?

Q2: What made the speaker feel frustrated while leaning Spanish in highschool?

Q3: What did the speaker say about her study of Spanish literature incollege?

Q4: Which experience benefited the speaker most in terms of her use ofSpanish?

Key

D A C D