How do you close the gap between active and passive knowledge?

For many students it is recognizable: there is a gap between active and passive knowledge. Reading and listening (passive knowledge) is in better condition than speaking and writing (active knowledge).

Very logical, because recognizing something is simply easier than recalling something from your memory. As a result, it happens that students have their passive knowledge at B1 level and their active knowledge at A1.

But that's not actually the intention. In this blog article I want to give you 3 tips to close that gap.

Tip 1: make your passive skills more active

When reading and listening to Italian, students sometimes only look at the meaning. While there is a lot of learning to be gained here if you also look at and listen to other things.

However, the advanced listener who listens to a fragment can learn in a different way. If you have already learned in the grammar about adjectives, then focus in a text or audio fragment on only the adjectives. You will find that you learn a lot from this.

Namely: how do the adjectives behave? Not in theory, but in practice! If you pick this up, it will be much easier for you to apply it yourself. Imitating something is a lot easier than inventing something yourself on the basis of theory. But in order to imitate it, you must first recognize it.

You can focus on adjectives, but also on the tenses (how do you conjugate verbs), or on prepositions to name just a few.

The important thing is that you have already mastered the grammar, but that you are going to pay attention to this topic when reading or listening.

Tip 2: before writing: be precise

When writing, you really have to learn to be precise. You have to pay attention to a number of things. First of all the concordance, for example, making the definite article, adjective and noun correct (for example all feminine plural).

You can also visit concordance think of matching verb and personal pronoun. In addition, spelling is important. Make sure you write the word correctly.

Finally, I often see things go wrong with the sentence as a whole. Students are so preoccupied with individual parts of the sentence that they lose sight of the sentence as a whole. This creates illogical sentences that make no sense. This often becomes clear when you translate it into Dutch. Be precise! Take your time, check and double check.

Tip 3: before speaking: take a rest

People who reach the A1 level for speaking usually have passed the shyness stage and are no longer so afraid of making mistakes. However, you have to start using your analytical mind with something you usually do in Dutch without thinking: speaking.

In Dutch, the words come naturally and you don't stop to think about your thoughts. However, you must do this now. That's right. Speaking Italian correctly helps a little Mindfulness: be aware of your words, weigh them before uttering them.

This is quite tough for intuitive, spontaneous students. Before speaking, think about what you want to pay attention to. Speak calmly, thoughtfully, controlled. You will see that when you speak with peace and calm, speaking flawlessly also goes better.

Only in this way can you apply the theories you have learned to your speech. Because if you fall back in speed and spontaneity on what is already ingrained, you will make the same mistakes again. You have to change your habit, it doesn't happen by itself.