Learn How The Online Language Tool Works!

Here you will learn about how to use the online language tool. If you do not already have Flash installed on your computer, simply download the Adobe Flash player. Once this is installed, choose your user preferences inside the language tool. Then just click on "next" each time you want to hear and see the next language lesson line.

Setting Language Lesson User Preferences

To customize which order you want to go through each online language lesson click the "Customize" button in the bottom right hand corner of the language tool. Option 1 is the default option which shows you each field in Loquella's recommended order. Option 2 allows you to hear audio first and view all sentences after. Option 3 allows you to view the English sentence first and then hear the audio and foreign language sentence second. Option 4 allows you to hear the audio and see the foreign language sentence first, and second view the English sentence. The choice is yours. Play around with all the options and find the one that works best for you!

English - Displays English version of foreign word, sentence or phrase.
Foreign language - Displays the word, sentence or phrase in the language you are learning.
Grammar Tip - Important information to note about how and when to use certain words, as well as other information the language learner needs to know about the word, sentence or phrase they are practicing. (Grammar tips are not available for each language lesson.)
Audio - The audio portion allows you to listen to how to pronounce the word in the foreign language.

You Choose Your Level Of Difficulty

You choose where you want to begin. This way, you can skip ahead or continue to repeat a language lesson until you feel comfortable with it. You choose your own level of difficulty as well as your own way of learning. Please visit the individual language lessons "table of contents" page to learn more about each language lesson.

Understanding The Language Course Method

The main method for learning used by FSI, and also used in this language course, is called "guided imitation". If you listen to the way you speak your native language, you will notice that you do not use the exact same variation of common phrases in every context. Instead, you change your way of speaking to adjust to each individual situation. Therefore, this language course is designed to help you master the foreign language in most situations that you could run into in daily life in a new country.

Pronunciation

The language lessons focus heavily on pronunciation. We focus the first language lessons in the series on pronunciation due to the importance that correct pronunciation will have on your ability to master the new language.

Basic Language Dialogs

The basic dialogs are the core of each language lesson. These dialogs are recreations of the real situations a language student is most likely to encounter, and the vocabulary and sentences are those he or she is most likely to need.

In the first language lessons, new vocabulary is introduced mainly in the basic dialogs. Sometimes, in the illustrations of grammar points, new words are introduced in order to fill out patterns needed to do the exercises. Each new word will reappear many times later in the language course to help you associate each word in many different contexts.

Language Pattern Drills and Grammar

The basic dialogs are the theme throughout the language course, and the language drills are the variations of those dialogs. Patterns of basic dialogs are expanded and changed in the drills.

Pattern drills are designed to allow you to practice the sentences and phrases you have learned, and the grammar tips are there to provide further explanation. At the beginning of each drill you will be given a basic sentence or dialog, then various kinds of drills that offer variations of those basic sentences and dialogs.

The language course consists of listening to and repeating basic sentences that illustrate the grammar point that is to be learned. This structure will give you enough clues to understand and use the pattern correctly in the drills that follow. These drills are mainly exercises that use substitutions, responses, and translations that highlight the grammar points that are being covered.

There are four kinds of language drills in each unit. Two are designed to vary some basic dialogs within the vocabulary you have already learned. The other two are oriented toward the structure of the language to provide coverage of important patterns.

All of these drills are planned to be quickly and easily repeated. If you find a drill to be too hard and you feel yourself getting stuck on the pronunciation, just go back to a previous language lesson and practice it until you feel ready to move forward in the language course.

Don't let yourself get discouraged by a particularly challenging language lesson, but also don't be afraid to go back and practice more before moving forward. The point to these language lessons is to allow you to work at your own pace, and to allow you to memorize these words permanently, not just remember them for a few days and then forget. The method used in this language course focus on teaching you a new language permanently and proficiently.

Notes On Specific Language Lessons
The Spanish language lessons are set in a mythical country called Surlandia. We use a mythical country to represent a typical Latin American country due to the diversity of Spanish speaking countries.

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