Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Spanish Rap Giveaway

What could be more catchy and fun than listening to rap to learn Spanish? I came across a sample video of Spanish rap by John de Mado and my kids loved it. I have to admit I enjoyed it too! The great thing about this CD and DVD it is for all ages. Kids and teenagers will love it the same!


From his website:

"John De Mado has been a vocal advocate for language acquisition in the United States for many years. John De Mado is fluent in English, French and Spanish. He has co-author of various foreign language textbooks published by Holt McDougal and McGraw-Hill, Inc. Since 1993, Mr. De Mado has directed John De Mado Language Seminars, Inc., a full-service consulting firm dealing exclusively with language acquisition issues. He has also been the Foreign Language Instructional Leader to Shepaug Valley Regional School District #12 in Connecticut where his primary task was to articulate a K-12, content-related language program. "

Here is a clip with family vocabulary:




I learned a lot by interviewing John De Mado. It helped me understand the language acquisition process better. It made me feel better about teaching my children Spanish and the mistakes I make. He talked about how we think language is "fossilized" like set in stone and never changes, whereas, it is constantly changing. If my children or I make a mistake, it doesn't mean they can't change it later.


Want to win an incredible Spanish rap DVD and CD called Festejemos?


This is what you need to do:

Click here to read the interview. Come back to this post again and comment telling me one thing you learned from about language acquisition from the interview.

For additional entries:

After reading the interview and making a comments you may do one or more of the following things to increase your chances of winning!

*Go to John De Mado's website here and come back and make a comment telling me one thing you learned about him.

*Become a follower of this blog. Click on the Follow button on the right side bar. Come back to this post and comment saying you are now a follower. (Comment even if you are already following :)

*Blog about this giveaway, come back, comment and give me a link to your giveaway post. Or e-mail 4 friends about this giveaway with a cc to wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com. Come back and make another comment telling me you sent e-mails.

Good luck!

Contest ends Monday August 24th at 10 PM Central Time.


Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. You can only win one signed book. Contest ends August 24th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on August 25th and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

34 comments:

Christine said...

I remember feeling very vulnerable in my high school spanish classes and very self conscious about making mistakes. I learned that I don't need to stress about correcting my kids all the time.

Christine said...

What I learned about John De Mado is that he consulted US Dept. of Defense schools in Europe.

Christine said...

I already follow your blog.

Maria Babin said...

Amazing! I was just trying to explain this concept to my sister Roberta yesterday over the telephone! She was concerned because her son "invents" words when all she wants is for him to repeat a word in Spanish! I told her that it's part of the learning process that multilingual children often invent "their own language" (L3 according to John De Mado). Fascinating interview!

Maria Babin said...

Humor facilitates language learning. This I learned from Madame Chantal Thompson at BYU who would always tell us to play the "clown" when we were teaching French at BYU. For example if a student got an answer wrong: mock shocked, hurt and unbelieving face and body language. The students would laugh and then they would come up with the right answer.

Maria Babin said...

I already follow your blog!

Christine said...

I posted about the givaway. Here's my link.
http://bunsyadventure.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-love-rap.html#links

GaryPaulson said...

The interview opened my eyes that there is a difference between errors and mistakes. His statement that:

"Contrary to most instructional belief and practice, error is critical to language acquisition"

frees me to practice more and not fear that my mistakes will be 'burnt in'.

Thanks!

GaryPaulson said...

Reading his site, I learned that Mr.De Mato has an extensive background in language acquisition and has produced materials for both French and Spanish instruction.

GaryPaulson said...

Looks like I need to reference the fact that I have subscribed to this blog. BTW, I enjoy the posts too!

GaryPaulson said...

As my final shot at the free CD/DVD I put a post up on both Facebook and Twitter about the giveaway and the blog.

The twitter post and on my facebook page.

Hope you get lots of traffic :)

Anonymous said...

I am already a follower of your blog.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was interesting to learn the differences between errors and mistakes.

Ana L. Flores said...

Loved, loved the interview.
I was especially happy to read he made a distinction between making mistakes and errors.
It is important to allow their developing brains the flexibility to make their own deductions the way they can handle it.
Thanks for this!

Little Linguists International Preschool said...

Great article, I posted it to all my parents. It's great to confirm that kids will make errors as they are learning the language.

Susan said...

Hi--

I just realized that I forgot to add my name to my posts, so I will try this again. Sorry about the anonymous posts.

I am already a follower of your blog.

Susan

Susan said...

I thought it was interesting to learn the differences between errors and mistakes.

Susan

Susan said...

I learned that John de Mado, started his language studies in high school, and that the first language he studied was French. I love his material. Even if I don't win, I am buying the CDs and DVD.

Susan

Susan said...

Hi--

I sent out an email about this giveaway.

Rebecca Harlow said...

Hello! I was fascinated by the "interlingual" stage that John describes. I have heard it happen so often, especially in my ESL students who are picking up American slang by studying in a US high school. Now I know it is normal and to be expected!

Rebecca Harlow said...

John is truly a driving force in our profession! I had no idea he was such a renowned author among well-known publishers. I also did not realize he wa fluent in French as well as in Spanish!

Rebecca Harlow said...

I am now a follower and know that I will be learning many new things. I am starting a new job this year as well, so this all fits in perfectly for me!

Rebecca Harlow said...

My email has been sent to 5 Spanish teachers. I know they will benefit from the link and from learning about John's techniques and CD's.

Rebecca Harlow said...

I too have always felt very vulnerable about making mistakes, not only in my Spanish classes, but also around my Mexican husband's family. They do willingly correct me, but a few of them enjoy laughing at me, the "gringa" who will always sound like a "gringa!"

Johanna said...

I was glad to read he believes it is important to:
err freely for the broader goal of communication.

I do this often as I try to expand both my French and Spanish language.

Johanna said...

He has designed language programs for middle school and high school in French and Spanish

Jen said...

I just found your weblog today. I wish I had read this interview when my 8 yo was a baby and I decided not to try speaking Spanish with her because I didn't think I was fluent enough. Very interesting to read that language learning is about taking risks, allow oneself to be vulnerable, and intuition.

Jen said...

I am now a follower of Wanna Jugar with Migo!

Señora Ochoa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Señora Ochoa said...

I learned the term "interlanguage" from reading your interview with John De Mado. I knew there must be a term for this phase of language learnign but was not sure. I remember back when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras that all of us volunteers went through a period while in country when we spoke to each other in an interlanguage. We just thought we were being cool- blending the 2 languages.

Señora Ochoa said...

I just signed up to follow your blog. I look forward to sharing more in the future. Even if I do not win the giveaway, I would love to find out where to buy a copy of this CD. I am a middle school teacher who loves to use music and get goofy with her students.

Asiyah said...

I am relearning Spanish (had 4 years in high school and college) and my husband it learning it with me for the first time. We agreed to incorporate Spanish into our everyday language so that our children are bilingual. But the De Mado interview confused me on the 'error correction' point. Is he saying that we should not point out the errors but instead continue speaking Spanish correctly as if the other speaker didn't make a mistake? If so, this is a very different approach than I learned in formal school.

Delia said...

Shocked. I'll do my best not to correct my children or my students.
Delia

Delia said...

Finally I'm a follower. Love the site.
Delia