Learning lots of sentences for a speaking or writing test Sometimes people struggle to prepare and revise for a speaking or writing test because they don’t know how to learn lots of sentences or they don’t even try in the first place. This class is going to give you ideas for how to ace your speaking and writing tests. It is all about the preparation…….

Study this picture for 1 minute. Try to remember as much as possible about it. Now tell your partner about the picture. Take it in turns to say something.

The first 10 steps to improving your memory Believe you can improve your memory. Use it or lose it. Eat and sleep well. Be more observant – notice things! Give yourself time to memorise and take breaks. Create vivid, memorable images. Pay attention – you can’t learn something you don’t understand. Get regular exercise and don’t smoke. Over learn. Learn a foreign language!

1. How many exclamation marks were there in the 10 steps? 2. What was the 3 rd letter of the 2 nd word of the 1 st step? 3. List all 10 steps in the order they appeared in the list. 2 u !!!!!! ! These sorts of questions are ridiculous and impossible for most of us to answer. We are not expecting you to train your memory for things like that, but rather be able to memorise vocabulary, grammar rules and phrases.

You have to learn your essay to reproduce in exam conditions. You have nearly three weeks. What will you do? First of all you would need to plan out what you wanted to say of course. You would do this by thinking about what Spanish you know already (rather than all the words you don’t know). You would use your vocabulary booklet, your exercise booklet and any other resources from your teacher. These would help you to plan what you want to say. Then you would need to start committing it to memory. To be at the stage where you can write your essay from memory you need to put in time to learn it and this needs to be an active process. Learning doesn’t just happen like that. You are in charge on this one. You need to use the strategies that we are going to discuss this lesson. Then you need to make a cue card with notes of what you want to write and the order you will write it in. More on this later….

Let’s take our first paragraph on preferences. Lo más importante para mi es la gente porque me encanta ir de vacaciones con mis amigos. Antes me gustaba ir con mi familia pero ahora es aburridísimo. ¡Qué horror! Lo menos importante es los deportes acuáticos ya que no aguanto el mar. Creo que los deportes acuáticos son muy peligrosos. Sin embargo, en el futuro me gustaría hacer la vela. You cannot learn it by looking at it – this process must be ACTIVE. You cannot learn it if you don’t understand it. This is why you have been asked to translate your preparation work. You cannot learn it all at once. Take a sentence at a time.

Translate this sentence into English Lo más importante para mi es la gente porque me encanta ir de vacaciones con mis amigos. The most important thing for me is the people because I love going on holiday with my friends.

3 – 2 – 1 Lo más importante para mi es la gente porque me encanta ir de vacaciones con mis amigos.

Odds and Evens ___ más ___ para ___ es ___ gente ___ me ___ ir ___ vacaciones ___ mis ___.

Odds and Evens Lo ___ importante ___ mi ___ la ___ porque ___ encanta ___ de ___ con ___ amigos.

Now use the English to translate. The most important thing for me is the people because I love going on holiday with my friends. Lo más importante para mi es la gente porque me encanta ir de vacaciones con mis amigos.

Now write again from memory. Lo más importante para mi es la gente porque me encanta ir de vacaciones con mis amigos.

When you have learnt the first set of sentences, rewrite the whole paragraph with just the first and last letter of each word. Lo m-s i e p--a mi es la g---e p----e me e-----a ir de v s c-n m-s a----s. A---s me g-----a ir c-n mi f-----a p--o a---a es a o. ¡Q-é h----r! Lo m---s i e es l-s d------s a s ya q-e no a-----o el m-r. C--o q-e l-s d------s a s s-n m-y p s. S-n e-----o, en el f-----o me g------a h---r la v--a. Then try to reproduce the whole thing just using this. Any words you keep forgetting make a note of for your task planning form.

How do I know that I know it? By now you might be at the stage where you feel confident you know the Spanish. What does that mean in real terms? You should feel happy with the following : I can look at my English version of what I want to say and do not struggle to remember the Spanish. I know how to pronounce the words I know how to spell the words I know if there are any words/phrases that are slightly ‘unusual’ to me. If you are aware you are more likely to remember it more accurately. If you cannot confidently say that you have achieved the above you need to go back and spend some more time on the learning stages. That is not a problem and you are not stupid! We all need different lengths of time.

REMEMBER... focus on sentences. focus on one paragraph at a time – don’t move on until you’ve learnt one. keep a record of the words you keep forgetting. you should be working on this every day between now and the exam.