“What’s different about Excelerate SPANISH?”  This is the question I hear most often at homeschool conferences.  I love answering it, and I think you’ll love the answer, too!

It’s really no exaggeration to say, “What’s different is everything.”  Excelerate SPANISH is truly unique from the other choices available to homeschoolers today!  Read the reviews and do a quick google search, and you’ll find that homeschool bloggers also find the program to be unique and amazing and fun.

To be specific, though, what’s different is the humor.  And the multiple intelligence  approaches.  And the comprehensible input.  And the focus on fluency.  And the connected discourse (an essential characteristic of proficient speakers according to ACTFL).

Excelerate SPANISH lessons cater to multiple intelligences to teach your student holistically.  The neuroscience behind the theory explains how physical actions, such as those used in Total Physical Response or TPR, help us to learn language.¹   TPR increases motivation and personal meaningfulness, therefore your student’s retention also improves.  The entertaining skits and action sequences are quite novel, often silly, and always attention-grabbing.

You may be surprised at what the use of humor can accomplish in a foreign language program.  Laughter is a powerful tool!  You see, your student’s positive feelings about the content (the stories that are told) will also influence his/her feelings about the form (the language used to tell those stories).  After all, “what we learn with pleasure, we never forget.”²  Fun contexts honor the concept that “in the brain, emotion and cognition are distinguishable but inseparable.”³

Of course, there are other programs available that offer cute contexts.  Unfortunately, many of these are “fluffy” (they constitute of “twaddle,” as Charlotte Mason might say).  Excelerate Spanish is content-rich, utilizing high frequency vocabulary and loads of helpful everyday structures (grammar).  As the student internalizes the patterns and flow of the language, output (speech) comes naturally.  When connected discourse is sufficiently modeled, then connected discourse is also produced…  And that, my friends, is fluency!

Experience the Excelerate SPANISH difference for yourself, and give your student the incredible gift of second language proficiency that lasts.  Order today!

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References

1. Hannaford, C. (1995). Smart moves: Why learning is not all in your head. Arlington, VA: Great Ocean Publishers.
2. 2- Mercier, Alfred
3. 3-Schumann, J. (1994). Where is cognition? Studies in Second Language Acquisition 16, 231-42.

What is Total Physical Response and how can it help you with foreign language acquisition?

Total Physical Response confers tremendous advantages to language learners.  TPR has been demonstrated to:

1. Reduce student inhibitions
2. Facilitate long-term retention
3. Reduce anxiety and stress
4. Help academically weaker students
5. Train students to guess from context
6. Increase student confidence
7. Offer a refreshingly different style of teaching/learning
8. Provide more effective, comprehensible input
9. Encourage active listening
10. Access and capitalize on the strengths of the right brain
11. Offer easy ways to review
12. Keep the class in the target language more
13. Promote goodwill between student and teacher
14. Incorporate humor
15. Increase interest and enjoyment

That is quite a list of benefits, isn’t it?  What great news for language learners of all ages!  And it’s important food for thought for parents and teachers as we select our curricula.  After all, couldn’t we all use ways to work smarter, not harder?

Excelerate SPANISH incorporates TPR into every. single. lesson.  All students can enjoy this fabulous “brain-switching” approach and the feeling of success it provides!  Nothing breeds success like success, after all.

Whether your student is a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner–or has special needs or is gifted or is average–Total Physical Response can empower, motivate, and achieve the success you want for your foreign language program!

Accelerate Language Acquisition.

Unleash Creativity.

Promote Excellence.

Discover the Power of Story.

Excelerate SPANISH

90 DAY GUARANTEE
Love it or your money back!

I taught Spanish in the public school classroom for 10 years, mostly at the high school level, then to homeschooled students (mine and others) for about 8 years. I am not a fan of traditional, formal curricula for foreign language learning. Some students will learn in spite of them… but many more inevitably wind up complaining, “I took x number of years and can’t speak a word.”The long-term retention (even short-term retention, in many cases) just isn’t there.

Fortunately, there are brilliant and talented professionals who have analyzed how the brain works and how we human beings acquire language. If you want to be sure that your curriculum choice aligns with how your child’s brain works, check out the following articles by Dr. Stephen Krashen and Dr. James Asher.

Dr. Asher’s article “Language By Command: The Total Physical Response Approach to Learning Language” explains his effective TPR method and describes the results. The claim is phenomenal:

“In study after study for 25 years, laboratory experiments and classroom observations have demonstrated results that were extremely positive. When the instructor skillfully uses the target language to direct the student’s behavior, understanding of the utterance is transparent, often in only one exposure. Also, the understanding is achieved without stress and then retained for weeks, months, and even years.”

My personal experiences as a language learner AND as a teacher of foreign language completely agree with Dr. Asher’s studies and observations!  Don’t we all want those positive results, transparent understanding, accelerated learning, and long-term retention??

A fascinating article by Dr. Stephen Krashen highlights the advantages of natural approaches that offer students comprehensible input or CI.  He indicates that “communicative situations” help students to acquire the language:

“Students in classes that provide lots of comprehensible input (e.g. methods such as TPRS) consistently do better than students in traditional grammar-based classes on tests that involve real communication and do just as well, and often better, on grammar tests. These students have acquired the grammar and vocabulary of the language naturally, and can use what they have acquired in real communicative situations. They are also more likely to continue foreign language study.”

The value of CI and “communicative situations” is confirmed as Dr. Krashen explores the intriguing success story of a Hebrew learner named Armando.  Armando became so fluent that he actually fooled native speakers, prompting Krashen to consider the implications for optimal foreign language acquisition. His conclusions:

“Armando’s case…shows us that one can do quite well in second language acquisition without living in the country in which the language is spoken and without formal instruction. The crucial variables appear to be comprehensible input and having a good relationship with speakers of the language.”

Dr. Krashen also believes that a complete absence of formal grammar instruction appears to be irrelevant as it relates to the successful acquisition of a second language!  Yet what is the focus of so many foreign language programs?  Isolated grammar!

Why do we keep doing this??

Putting the research into my own words, this is how I would describe effective foreign language curricula:
1. Lessons mimic real-life situations using as MANY senses as possible… sight, taste, touch, etc.
2. Vocabulary words and structures are embedded in meaningful contexts (no rote drills).
3. Interest level is high–topics or situations are appealing to students.
4. Low–preferably zero–frustration for the student. Foreign language learning should be pleasant!

Excelerate SPANISH combines TPR with comprehensible input (CI) and realistic “communicative situations,” and further adds humor and suspense in order to fulfill each of the criteria above.  The TPR element appeals to visual and kinesthetic learners and activates the motor cortices of our brains, accessing more of the brain than so-called “traditional” methods.  Exciting action sequences, fun stories, and stimulating reading material draw upon the retaining power of the limbic system.  24 full-length lesson videos on 4 DVDs provide all of the necessary instruction for the program, and the coordinating lesson book and workbook furnish students with practice opportunities, activity suggestions, and more.  And of course, the answer keys take any guesswork out of the equation!  It’s comprehensive and easy to use.

Reviewers agree!  Click the photo above and here for reviews.

Try Excelerate SPANISH at no risk!

Accelerate Acquisition.

Unleash Creativity.

Promote Excellence.

Discover the POWER OF Story.

Excelerate SPANISH.

90 DAY GUARANTEE
Love it or your money back!