What are the audio files for the Student’s Book for? How do you work with them? I am going to reveal secrets of experienced teachers.
I would like to start with the fact that we begin to learn a language through our ears. As I was taught: “Language is initiated through our hearing.” This is a natural process.
When a child lives in a linguistic environment, he constantly hears the language, which is spoken by people around him. Then a child starts to recognize words and to repeat them. His speech starts to form in his native language (the language of his environment).
When Russian language is a foreign language for a child, he practically does not hear Russian language around himself. This means that teachers (and parents) need to make efforts to have a child exposed to more Russian speech. Audio files for the Student’s Book help us in this effort.
I can already hear your question,
“Why are there audio files for the Student’s Book, and not any other audio files?”
The answer is simple. In fact, there are no any restrictions here. You can listen to other audio files as well. But audio files for the Student’s Book are great for the following reasons.
First of all, they contain all those words that we learn in our Student’s Book and a child knows them.
Second of all, audio files contain different voices. Sometimes a person knows a word but cannot recognize it if it is said by a different person (i.e., voice). With the help of the audio files, we learn to hear and understand different voices.
And finally, audio files for the Student’s Book are easy to download on your smartphone and easy to listen to wherever you are.
How do we work with them?
1. We simply listen to the audio file (passive perception), upload the content into our subconscious, and soak in a rhythm and the sound of the new language. We can turn on the audio file and start doing our chores, talking while the audio file plays in the background. This is one of the exercises, and it does not require lots of effort.
2. We listen and repeat. We are getting ready for a conversation, training muscles of our speech apparatus and learning to pronounce Russian words. This does not require any special efforts, either. We can do any of our chores (water our flowers, wash dishes, pick up things) and simultaneously repeat the words and sentences after the announcer.
3. We listen and read a text with the announcer. This does require a special effort. Here you need the text from the Student’s Book in front of your eyes. You need to relate a written text to the verbal text. This exercise will pay off since we learn to read the text, the sentence or the word correctly. We immediately hear (not guess) the intonation and where the emphasis falls. This will be helpful for your speech. Initially we stop the audio file after each word or sentence and read after the announcer. Later we listen and repeat without stopping the audio file.
4. We listen and point at the picture of an object that we just heard. We connect a picture to an object we heard on the audio file. You need to have the Student’s Book for this activity since it contains all the necessary pictures.
5. We listen and write (this is dictation). You need to stop the audio file during a dictation. You need to prepare for the dictation in advance. For example, you can copy texts or words and solve crosswords or anagrams, which are offered in the Teacher’s Book and the Activity Book.
I want to assure you that working with audio files at least 10 minutes a day will help your students to reach significant results in learning Russian language as a foreign language.
In conclusion, I would like to mention that audio files for Student’s Books of the Soroka and the Sarafan courses can be downloaded for free from my website: SorokaM.com.
Please write your questions in the comments section below.
Have a good day!
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