Infused Reading - Spanish

Infused Reading Spanish Â

Notes For Teachers

Caleb Gattegno

Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc.

Programmed for the Apple II family of microcomputers by A.C. Gattegno and M.J. Hollyfield First American edition published in 1982. Reprinted in 2009.

Copyright Š 1982-2009 Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc. Author: Caleb Gattegno All rights reserved ISBN 0-00000-000-0 Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc. 2nd Floor 99 University Place, New York, N.Y. 10003-4555 www.EducationalSolutions.com

Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................ 1 Part I: The Vowels........................................................3 Part II: The Consonants ............................................... 7 Tests 1 And 1’ ............................................................. 13 Test 2 Or 2’................................................................. 17 Test 3 Or Further Readings 1 And 2............................ 19 Conclusion................................................................. 21

Introduction

Spanish was chosen for the first courseware because it was possible to demonstrate infused reading on a 90-word text which displayed all the sounds and all the corresponding spellings of that language.

The composition of that text is the first hurdle to be jumped.

Once one has been found it becomes possible to do the work systematically in a manner we shall describe in detail below and that we shall call “approximation from within.”

CUANDO LLEGAMOS A CASABLANCA NOS VIMOS RODEADOS POR GENTE TAN AMABLE QUE NOS ARREPENTIMOS DE NO HABER ESTADO ALLI MAS TEMPRANO. NOS LLAMARON DE CASA PARA DECIRNOS QUE UN LIMON CUESTA HOY LO QUE COSTABA UN KILO DE AZUCAR HACE UNA SEMANA. EL HUMO DEL HORNO DE LA CASA DEL GUIA NOS HIZO TENER HAMBRE Y EL HIJO DE LA DUEÑA NOS INVITO A COMER. LES HE DICHO

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Infused Reading Spanish

TODO LO QUE SE DE LAS MUCHACHAS DE TENERIFE QUE FUERON CONMIGO A LAS PALMAS EN UN TAXI. The essential work done is on vowels. There are only five in Spanish, four of which have two spellings and one that has three.

Once the vowels are mastered the consonants can be introduced one at a time much more speedily than the vowels.

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Part I: The Vowels

The vowel A is introduced by letting the computer select each sample in turn as it scans each word from left to right and the text from top to bottom and restoring on the screen only the A’s in the places they occupy in the text.

Thus, when the full text reappears and the A’s only are made to flash, the illiterate student can find that he knows that fraction of the original text (also in its other Spanish spelling HA) .

Pressing the space bar removes the text and the second vowel (here O and HO) is treated as A was. The full text can be called by touching the space bar and the students see the O’s too in their places.

Another touch of the space bar (available for shifts as soon as a cursor makes its appearance on the bottom left corner) produces all the A’s and all the 0’s as the superposition of the first two showings of vowels, each of these two vowels occupying the place it has in the text. The 0’s only are made to flash in turn

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Infused Reading Spanish

from left to right and from top to bottom when the text reappears.

Another touch of the space bar will give us similarly all the E’s scanned as before, followed by a text integrating them all as E or HE. The three vowels A, O, E, and their alternative spellings HA, HO, HE, reappear in their places in the text when this is scanned from left to right and from top to bottom. This is followed by the text integrating them and in it then every E in turn is made to flash to indicate it is the just-met new item of the text.

All the I’ s are taken on next, in the same sequence of moves as the first three vowels except that now HI and Y will trigger the same sound as I. When all four vowels above appear in turn in their places in the text a good part of the text has been covered and a good proportion of the text seems conquered. The text reappears integrating them all and only the I’s are made to flash in turn as the new ones conquered.

The last vowel U (as well as its other spelling HU) is treated in a similar way. When followed by A or E it becomes a new sound which is familiar to the speakers.

Thus we have in 9 modules

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Part I: The Vowels

1

met all the vowels,

2 their places in the text, 3 a sound in every word, or more than one, and 4

a feel that a good fraction of the text is at hand.

But no sense that it is a Spanish language text for everyone who speaks Spanish but does not read it yet.

It is suggested that no sound be made part of the computerized unfolding program on tape or otherwise, but that someone who speaks Spanish be present in the class and sound the first two or three appearances of A (and when HA appears also) and leaves to the students the job of making that sound as many times as it appears on the screen thereafter.

When the 0’s appear separately, the sound associated to it in the two spellings is presented and practiced. The two vowels A and 0 (and their alternative spellings) appear together and this exercise serves as a test that they are known individually as different.

Plenty of practice is available in these modules so that almost everybody will know them perfectly.

This correspondence sound/sign establishes the five vowels and their alternate spellings: A

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O

E

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I

U

Infused Reading Spanish

HA

HO

HE

HI Y

both as sounds and spellings.

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HU

Part II: The Consonants

The rest of the work is easier still.

Here too only one item is presented at any one time.

To be sure of not creating problems to the newcomers to the game of reading, the sequence we selected is as follows: 1

As all the S’s appear in their positions and with their two additional spelling C and Z, the voice would say AS and OS and ASA and later HACE and HIZO as well as the few words ES, SE, leaving the others to the students.

HACE and HIZO and ES, SE, are Spanish words, the first met in this course.

2 The second consonant selected is R although it will produce no new word. In Spanish this letter has been given two sounds: one, at the beginning of words (and, when it is between two vowels, with that sound it has been given the spelling RR) and the other, at the end or middle of words. The

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Infused Reading Spanish

natives would not confuse these sounds, used in all Spanish speech.

3 The third consonant C (with its other spellings QU and K) will provide three words QUE, CASA, AZUCAR. Phrases like QUE SE, QUE ES, carry meaning but groups of sounds rendered by CUES and COS may not.

4 The fourth consonant N is introduced yielding words or groups of letters which will sound when integrated in words. EN, UN, NO, UNA, NOS, HORNO. Phrases like NOS HIZO, HACE UNA, EN UN, will tell students it is their language they are uttering in response to the game of sounding what they are asked to produce by blending known vowels and consonants or syllables.

5 The fifth consonant D will produce words like CUANDO, RODEADOS, DECIRNOS, much more complicated than the numerous DE. Phrases like DECIRNOS QUE UN KI 0 DE AZUCAR will suggest the missing letter.

6 The sixth letter M, produces new words: MAS, SEMANA, HUMO, COMER, and the phrases HACE UNA SEMANA, A COMER. 7 The seventh consonant L yields the useful words EL, DEL, LA, LO, LAS, LES, ALMAS, LIMON, KILO, and a number of phrases: QUE UN LIMON, LO QUE, UN KILO DE AZUCAR, LA CASA DEL, extending the deciphering of the original text.

8 The eighth consonant T, produces TAN, TODO, ENTE, TENER, CUESTA, and the phrases TODO

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Part II: The Consonants

LO QUE SE, LO QUE CUESTA, NOS HIZO TENER, to add to the above.

9 The ninth consonant LL, and another of its spelling Y yield the words ALLI, HOY, and LLAMARON and the phrases NOS LLAMARON DE CASA, ESTADO ALLI, CUESTA HOY LO QUE, to add to the previous ones.

10 With the tenth consonant selected, i.e. F only two words are found and almost at the end of the text: TENERIFE and FUERON. This last word yields the phrase QUE FUERON CON. 11 The eleventh consonant P proposes both short and useful words like POR and PARA but also the words PALMAS, TEMPRANO, and ARREPENTIMOS, the last two long enough to challenge newcomers to reading. In the phrases QUE NOS ARREPENTIMOS DE NO, ESTADO ALLI MAS TEMPRANO, A LAS PALMAS EN UN, the language is already more challenging, particularly if fluent reading is required from the students once the various new words have been decoded.

12 There is only one word requiring the twelfth consonant the nasal N and it will only be complete after the thirteenth is introduced.

13 This is B with its other spelling V too. The words VIMOS, INVITO, HABER, COSTABA, CASABLANCA (in which the nasal N appears), HAMBRE, now allow numerous phrases and sentences to be formed. NOS HIZO TENER HAMBRE, NOS INVITO A COMER, DE NO HABER ESTADO ALLI MAS TEMPRANO, NOS

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Infused Reading Spanish

VIMOS RODEADOS POR, QUE UN LIMON CUESTA HOY LO QUE COSTABA UN KILO DE AZUCAR HACE UNA SEMANA. Such strings of words will confirm the students in their feeling that they have learned to read.

14 The fourteenth consonant G which appears in the words CONMIGO, LLEGAMOS, changes spelling before I (and E). In the word GUIA it is given a mute U. Now the students could read: CUANDO LLEGAMOS A CASABLANCA, QUE FUERON CONMIGO, EL HUMO DEL HORNO DE LA CASA DEL GUIA which were excluded thus far.

15 There are two words in this text which require the Spanish CH and they appear towards the end: the word DICHO and the word MUCHACHAS. These allow students to add to all the above phrases and sentences new and longer ones: LES HE DICHO TODO LO QUE SE DE LAS MUCHACHAS DE TENERIFE QUE FUERON CONMIGO A LAS PALMAS EN UN TA I. 16 With this sixteenth consonant X the students will be able to read the last, word TAXI and add this word to the long sentence of #15 above.

17 One word on line 2: GENTE, and one on line 9: HIJO require the two spellings associated with the guttural sound which, before E and I is often written G and before all vowels J.

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Part II: The Consonants

Now students can read RODEADOS POR GENTE TAN AMABLE and append it to previously mastered phrases or sentences.

18 The last consonant N (written here as an N only because the computer does not offer the tilde) serves to form the last word still not decoded DUENA and the phrases EL HIJO DE LA DUENA. *

*

*

At this stage the whole text has been surveyed and a number of times. It may be so well known to the new literates that one can suspect that it has been memorized and therefore there is no certainty that they are independent readers and can transfer their newly acquired powers to other texts. If they could, no one would refuse them the title of literates.

What follows concerns itself with ascertaining that the transfer of learning can easily follow from our approach to reading we developed with the help of the power of the computer. It would also justify the name of INFUSED READING we gave to it.

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Tests 1 And 1’

We selected 24 phrases from the text studied in Parts I and II above. They have all been read and more than once, but always in the same order.

The computer random function allows us to present any one of the 24:* permutations none of which will coincide with the one in the text.

Hence, if students can read such a random sequence of the 24 strings of words we can deduce that at least that kind of transfer has been mastered.

We offer two versions of the same test differing only in that the first (Test 1) has its lines presented at a slower pace than the second (Test 1’).

Here is one of such permutations:

* 24: read “factorial 24” is short for 1×2×3×. . . . . ×23×24.

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Infused Reading Spanish

1

EL HIJO DE LA DUENA

2

EN UN TAXI

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LO QUE SE DE LAS MUCHACHAS

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DE CASA

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DE NO HABER ESTADO ALLI

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EL HUMO DEL HORNO

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CUANDO LLEGAMAS

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NOS LLAMARON DE CASA

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HACE UNA SEMANA

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MAS TEMPRANO

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NOS INVITO A COMER

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LO QUE COSTABA UN LIMON

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QUE FUERON CONMIGO

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ESTADO ALLI

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CUESTA HOY

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DE LA CASA DEL GUIA

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UN KILO DE AZÚCAR

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NOS HIZO TENER HAMBRE

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PARA DECIRNOS

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NOS ARREPENTIMOS 14

Tests 1 And 1’

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LES HE DICHO TODO LO QUE SE

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PARA DECIRNOS QUE

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NOS VIMOS RODEADOS

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FUERON CONMIGO

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Test 2 Or 2’

The following text is one step removed from what will be the final weaning from the original text.

LO QUE SE ES QUE LAS MUCHACHAS NOS INVITARON A COMER. NOS FUIMOS A LAS PALMAS EN UN TAXI. EL GUIA Y EL HIJO DE LA DUENA VINIERON CON NOSOTROS. NOS LLEVAMOS LIMONES Y AZUCAR. TENEMOS HAMBRE Y NOS ARREPENTIMOS DE NO HABER COMPRADO PAN. TENERIFE ES LEJOS DE CASABLANCA. EL VIAJE CUESTA HOY MUCHO MAS DE LO QUE COSTABA HACE DOS ANOS. CUANDO LLEGUEMOS A LAS PALMAS, LLAMAREMOS A CASA PARA DECIRLES QUE HEMOS LLEGADO. As can be seen, a number of phrases of the original text have been retained in a story which although new, relates to the previous one. The presentation in phrases rather than words generates the link between the written and the spoken languages. The latter is supposed to be owned by the students

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Infused Reading Spanish

and if they can use fluency in reading as they use it in speech, comprehension will be eased and even enhanced.

We can measure a) by a count of how many of the new words of this text can be easily decoded as the text unfolds, and b) by a timing of the reading as compared to the unfolding imposed by the computer (and that can be considered as our estimate of fluent reading), to what extent the students approach what literate people do in the same circumstances.

This seems to us a fair measure as well as fair treatment, of the students’ learning.

If all goes well we can say unequivocally that Infused Reading is a valid way of teaching reading.

According to how many misreadings occur or how disheartened the students are, because of the differences between the Test text and the original text, we can revise our favorable judgment of Infused Reading as presented in this computer version.

Our pilot sessions were such that we expect that all will go well for average or ordinary Spanish speaking students of ages 6 and more.

Test 2 is presented at a slower pace than Test 2’.

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Test 3 Or Further Readings 1 And 2

For those reading teachers who require the total transfers of the skills imparted by all the activities above, we offer two texts which have nothing to do with the original text and that of Test 2.

The difference between these text 1 and text 2 is not in the difficulty of the contents but in the speed of unfolding of the sequences of phrases in the two texts. The appearance of the phrases of Further Reading 2 is slightly faster than for 1.

Here are the two Texts.

FURTHER READING 1 UN DIA DE LA SEMANA PRÓXIMA IRE A LA CAPITAL. QUIERO COMPRAR ROPAS QUE NO SE ENCUENTRAN EN ESTE PUEBLO. ME LLEVARE BASTANTE DINERO PARA DOS

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Infused Reading Spanish

VESTIDOS Y UN ABRIGO NECESITO ZAPATOS TAMBIEN. PERO NO LOS COMPRARE ESTA VEZ. ENTONCES, TENDRE. UNA RAZON MAS DE SALIR OTRA VEZ A LA CAPITAL DE NUESTRO PAIS QUE ES TAN LINDA. FURTHER READING 2 UN HOMBRE, UNA MUJER, DOS CHICOS ENTRE DIEZ Y DOCE ANOS, ENTRARON EN UN HOTEL A LAS CINCO DE LA TARDE. TENIAN HAMBRE Y NO HABIA NADIE EN LA COCINA. SOLO PUDIERON PEDIR TE Y BOCADILLOS. ESTOS FUERON PREPARADOS CON PAN BLANCO, MANTEQUILLA Y CARNE ROJA. EL PAN ERA FRESCO, PERO LA MANTEQUILLA NO, Y LA CARNE DEMASIADO ROJA. COMO TENIAN HAMBRE SE LO COMIERON TODO EN DOS MINUTOS.

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Conclusion

We are prepared to give a certificate of literacy to any student who has gone through our computer program by himself. We expect that they will transfer their acquired skills to reading newspapers, popular magazines and contemporary light literature. We leave to users the choice of such texts for their own edification about the carryover of the effects of learning to read so swiftly through Infused Reading.

On this text we referred to Spanish only but we have materials for French and English and intend to develop others.

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