The Archivo de la Palabra

One of the basic problems that confront a teacher of foreign languages in the United States is that of providing the student, on all levels, with sufficient opportunity to hear the language spoken by natives. The use of native teachers has been found to be in some cases impractical, in others impossible, but the need exists nonetheless. Most of us, I am sure, are familiar with the problems of the student who does well in class, but finds himself at a loss, or at least in difficulty when trying to talk to or understand a native. How frequent the complaint of the G.I. in France or Italy: That's not the way it sounded in school! This may, but need not be, a reflection on the speech of the instructor. Many times the speech of the instructor represents a compromise, or a norm of language that is either non-existent or exists only in the speech of a particular area or level of society. This type of idealized or literary language would serve well if reading were our only goal, but the results thus obtained are inconsistent with the present stress on the oralaural aspects of language training. A number of teachers are presenting as it should be spoken, overlooking the difficulties the student will have, let us say, with the speech of a cultured Argentinian, which does not offer the familiar phonetic pattern of the instructor. What can be done to solve the problem? Obviously we cannot make even our most advanced students experts in all the regional and personal variants of a given language, but we can prepare them in part for the cruel blow of a first meeting with rapid, thoroughly elided, often careless and incomplete Spanish or Portuguese. A number of means have been suggested, and all seem to offer success up to a point.' In an attempt to provide maximum utility, he author has developed and expanded at Ohio State an Archivo de la Palabra, consisting of recorded material, in monologue form, of the speech of natives: visitors, foreign students, guest speakers, based on a collection begun by Professor A. H. Schuts. The technique employed is to prepare the speaker before the actual recording, stimulating him sufficiently to supply material for a fairly natural, prolonged (fifteen to thirty minute) talk on a topic of interest both to informant and to students

Art · Linguistic Studies and Language Acquisition · Literacy and Educational Practices · Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies