Conversational Tagalog

Book excerpt: Conversational Tagalog is an introductory-level text that was created for adult foreign/second language learners of Tagalog. It is designed to give practice in idiomatic Tagalog conversation by focusing exercises on simple language functions. The lessons are developed to encourage the interactional nature of communication. The book provides situations that are relevant to the lives of adult students. The situations force students to think about the meanings and consequences of what they say. Cultural notes guide students and give them a sense of when, how, and with whom it is appropriate to use the forms contained in a certain set of dialog material. Conversational Tagalog explores various ways of teaching language through actual and simulated activities, always working toward communicative competence. Grammatical explanations and exercises are based on what appears in a dialog and are not predetermined in the construction of the dialog.