The function of the audio is sometimes misunderstood. They are often thought of as a poor substitute for the native tutor and something to be avoided if learning can be accomplished by any other way. However, remember that the audio work is the core of this program. The time spent on the audio will make the difference between success and failure. The audio will repeat the same material over and over indefinitely, without the slightest change in punctuation or construction. This makes it possible to receive in a relatively short time the exposure to the countless repetitions you need to imprint a foreign language utterance in your mind.

From this point of view, it is almost impossible to overdo the audio work. Do not concentrate the audio work. Do not concentrate the audio work into one or two long sessions per week. It will never work! Audio work requires such intensive concentration that it can be effectively sustained only for short periods of time. Invariably, attention span and concentration waiver in marathon sessions. Find the limit of your own “audio attention span.” It may be as short as 15 to 20 minutes at a given time.

MANY SHORT SESSIONS
Remember: spread audio work evenly over the entire week. Many short sessions, even on a given day, are preferable to one long session. Experience has shown that “catching up” on the audio work, unlike doing so in reading, is virtually impossible. Whatever you do, do not fall behind.

FOCUS
If you find that you are putting in a lot of audio time, but nothing is sticking, the problem can be a lack of focus. Sometimes students put in time by mindlessly repeating material while their attention drifts away. This is known as “audio hypnosis,” and often results from undirected, unfocused audio work, or from trying to do too much at once. The cure is short, sharply-focused audio sessions.

REPEAT OUT LOUD
As you do your audio work, remember to repeat everything on the audio out loud. You cannot learn to speak just by listening. Silently mouthing the language to yourself will not work. You must speak aloud.

KEEP YOUR BOOK CLOSED
When you do audio work, do it with the text closed, unless specifically instructed otherwise on the audio. The point of the audio work is to train your mouth and ears. Of course reading along with the audio is easy—you are letting your eyes do all the work. Read and study the material first, but keep your book closed for serious audio work.

LISTEN TO UTTERANCES
If you are having trouble with comprehension in the audio work, you will have to spend extra time listening to utterances, and then stopping the audio to check yourself closely on how well you really understood what was said. Did you get it the first time? Drills, exercises, dialogues, and anything else on the audios can be used for this sort of intensive comprehension work.

DON'T GIVE UP!
Don’t give up on an audio that you don’t understand. Try listening to it and repeating it several times without the text in front of you. Then, if you are still uncertain, refer to the text in front of you. Then, if you are still, uncertain, refer to the text for an explanation. No matter what your first reaction may be, the audios are not too fast, and you must be able to follow them at that speed.

If while working with your audios, you experience difficulty in mastering long sentences, you might try the “backward build-up” technique: divide the sentence into short phrases, and begin drilling the final phrase. When you are comfortable with it, add the phrase (or few words) immediately proceeding it, and so on, until you have reached the words which start the sentence—at which point you will be reciting the entire statement without error and hesitation. You may need to rely on visual material initially, but do not consider the job finished until you can say the entire utterance without any help.

When doing the audio work, try to duplicate precisely the utterance on the audio. Think of yourself as an actor learning to play a character role, and attempt to copy in every possible detail the utterances you hear.