A Students Guide To Learning Spanish Vocabulary

Welcome! The staff at LOFOTEN certainly hope you'll find this guide on increasing your list of basic Spanish words helpful. Should you have any questions please contact the director of languages in the main office building on campus.

1. Introduction

Most "teach yourself Spanish" courses are designed with the adult learner in mind and assume that you have no prior knowledge of Spanish whatsoever.

The information is based and presented around real life situations that most tourists would expect to encounter on a holiday experience abroad. This is not to say that the material is wholly unuseful to the more serious language students among you. All learning is valuable when it comes to a foreign language. For example, many useful resources can be found for free such as this page for how to learn Spanish words and phrases.

The goal of any self-study course should be to firstly give you a solid understanding of the structure of the Spanish language and secondly to provide you with enough vocabulary that you will be able to express yourself in basic, everyday conversation.

2. The Four Essential Aspects To Language Learning

a) Listening and comprehension

b) Speaking and communication

c) Reading

d) Writing

Of these 4 aspects the ability to understand Spanish when it's spoken to you and the ability to express what you want to say in return are by far the most imporant and useful.

3. Spanish Vocabulary

Studies show that we still understand very little about how the human mind acquires vocabulary but what we do know is that it's important to combine regular contact with the language and to only concentrate upon learning words which are actively being used the most.

It's common for over ambitious students to want to learn quite obscure words such as "pine trees" or "boat rudder" however you efforts will be much better rewarded by sticking to learning a core set of Spanish vocabulary, the kind of words that you see in magazine interviews are an excellent example of active vocabulary.

In certain circumstances there is a valid reason for learning specialized vocabulary such as if you were taking Spanish guitar lessons for example and needed to know the names of the various parts of the guitar. Obvsiously these would not be words worth learning for ordinary conversation but the student would find them used very frequently in their own personal situation while interacting with a teacher.

Continue reading > Spanish Pronunciation And Practice