Overview
Writing sentences, passages, and pages is an amazingly effective language learning strategy to remember vocabulary. Of course, you don’t have to go the whole page route to improve your vocabulary comprehension. Even a few sentences a week can produce great progress towards your Spanish learning goals.
A huge advantage of writing to is that it takes minimal supplies to get started. All you need is a pencil, pen, or marker and a piece of paper and you are all set for your writing journey. Now, for this exercise, you will need to have had set your Spanish language goals. Or, at least, have a few of your desires written down in regards to why you want to learn Spanish. If not, don’t worry, here is a link to blog post that will tell you all about it – https://spanishblueprints.com/spanish-goal-setting-2022-creating-outline-youtube/. This step is helpful because you will write about a topic that you currently want gain more comprehension in.
My Example
Currently, one of my goals for 2022 is to have deeper conversations about food, food industry, cooking etc. To reach that goal I have been consuming a lot of content related this topic. I watch MasterChef Mexico, cooks on YouTube, and read a variety of recipes online. In doing so, I get accustomed to the words, phrases and sentence strucutres that is used in this area. Now, for this exercise, to measure how well I am retaining my new words and phrases related to my topic, I decided to write the recipe for a dish that I like to cook (see example at bottom of post). Just that simple I have a nice piece of written work to measure my progress but what should you do?
Directions:
1. Have your goals and/or desires to learn Spanish list handy
2. From this list choose one topic in which you want to increase your vocabulary
3. Write out a store or process that is related to this topic
4. Read through it and analyze if you are including new vocabulary that you have studied
5. Have a friend, tutor, or a fellow language learner or Spanish speaker online correct your written work
6. Revise your writing again and then try to improve for the next time you do this exercise
7. Continue to make these writings throughout your time learning the particular topic
8. Wash, rinse, and repeat
Tips
1. Time yourself for a greater challenge. This will mimic your response time when you are speaking.
2. Don’t have any distractions while you are writing
3. Get your writing corrected on apps like Hello Talk or tandem and through websites such as Facebook (Facebook Groups), Reddit, and Twitter
4. Write down whatever pops into your head and don’t look up any words in a dictionary or translator. You will acquire more vocabulary the more you study and write out the new words and phrases.
5. Don’t be stressed when doing this exercise and most importantly, have fun!
Questions
1. Did you enjoy this exercise
2. What type of vocabulary do you want to learn
3. Was it difficult to come up with an idea for your writings
4. Did you make a lot of mistakes
5. Did you improve in future writings with including new phrases and words
Recipe Example
Les voy a compartir como yo hago esta rica receta.
Primer que necesitamos para los ingredientes?
– 2 libres de Pollo troceado
– una cucharada de ajo molido
– una cucharada de pimienta negra
– una cucharada de sal
– una lata de pollo de caldo
– una paquete de zanahorias
– 6 pedazos de apio
– un paquete de pan crudo
Primero, precalentaremos una olla de agua media al fuego alto. Mientras va hirviendo preparamos los vegetales y pollo. Sazonamos 4 pedazos de pollo por ambos lados.
Cortamos el apio y zanahorias en pedazos pequeñitos para que sea mas fácil hervir y ser suave. Cuando el agua esta listo vamos a echar el pollo primero en el agua hervido desde que se tarda mas ser cocido bien por adentro. Además, dar sabor al agua con los sazones ya preparados.
No deja que el pollo dore completamente antes de que añadir los vegetales o será demasiado cocido y seco. Nos ponemos los vegetales con la olla y echamos la lata de pollo de caldo también. Deja hierve por unos 20 minutas hasta que los vegetales sean blandos. Ahora, añadimos el pan a todos nuestros ingredientes y se deja cocinar por unos 10 minutos mas.
Ya estas con este rico plato!
Disfrútate