I try to ask all students what their biggest weaknesses are in Spanish. Almost everyone mentions not being able to understand natives when they speak. And when I talk to students, I often realize why:
1) They have gaps in their vocabulary.
Some students can discuss science, but they don't know that pararse means to stand up. Others might have been learning for months, but can't recognize the word algo (something), one of the most frequent in the Spanish language. When you know infrequent words but lack frequent words, those are vocabulary gaps. Unfortunately, language courses might make this worse by teaching you 10 names of fruits in one lesson instead of staying focused on building a core vocabulary.
2) They're not clear on Spanish pronunciation.
You can notice this when they use their L1 pronunciation for some letters. For example, they might pronounce the J as they do in their native language, or might use diphthongs where there actually should be none. Also, they might find natural, connected, accented speech confusing.
As in physics, having clearly stated the problem, the solution is pretty obvious:
1. Fill your vocabulary gaps
* Go through a frequency word list or frequency dictionary with your tutor. (These lists and dictionaries might have errors and need clarification)
* I recommend you first use Fluent Forever's Spanish list, because it groups words by theme and adds an illustration to each page. This way, you can come up with little stories using the new words, inspired by the illustration. I also take each story as a chance to teach common sentence patterns (aka grammar) that use these words.
* Fluent Forever's list will give you a good base of frequent words for language learners, but it's not strictly frequency based, and it's too basic (only around 600 words). After that, you can proceed with Routledge's A Frequency Dictionary of Spanish (5,000 words). One of my students got the paperback version and, excitedly, is filling a mirror with post-it notes of new words.
I know there are also free resources, such as the RAE word list (text-based) and the Subtlex list (subtitle-based). They have their uses, but for systematic learning the resources I've mentioned above are better, in my opinion. I'll explain this in a future post.
Having filled your vocabulary gaps, let's put your now well-rounded vocabulary to good use:
2. Transcribe audio
If you're intermediate or advanced, you might think you can understand (almost) everything when natives speak, and indeed, you might be able to pass a listening comprehension test. But you don't realize how much you're actually missing until you try to write down each and every word you're hearing.
This exercise, of course, must be done on your own, as homework. Use a video or audio that has a transcript or subtitles. Your tutor can help you find something appropriate for your level. When a student tries this for the first time, he might be surprised and afterwards tell me: "It was way harder than I thought". Yes, it is hard. And that's exactly why it's so good to improve: When you transcribe, you're forced to decode each word and each sound. You will have lots of moments that feel like an epiphany: "Oh, so that's how you actually pronounce this", or "Wow, they omit so many sounds when they speak!".
As Morpheus from The Matrix would put it, "No one can be told how native speakers actually speak. You have to see it for yourself."
After a few "Aha!" moments with this exercise, you might want to review Spanish phonology. For example, Fluent Forever's videos on Spanish pronunciation on YouTube. They will now make a lot more sense than the first time you watched them.
Transcription will also help you to notice the little things of the Spanish language that are untranslatable and that you might easily ignore when you're just listening to pass a test, or when you're just reading to get the gist of an article. So this exercise will also improve the way you express yourself in Spanish!
