October 31, 2009
Hate the whole vocabulary building process? You may want to consider that, as even advanced language learners need to continue to build their own stores of the language. Of course, the kind of details you require as a higher-level student might be a little bit different than those for someone who’s just starting out.
Fluency
Advanced language learners, at their stage, need to study for fluency. Rather than memorize individual words like beginner and early intermediate learners, however, your focus should turn to larger phrases and chunks. That’s because bigger, fuller components are typically what native speakers process. Since you’re gunning for the same ability, you’ll have to develop the same patterns of learning.
Memory
If you’ve slogged the whole early stages of language learning, you’ve probably done some research on memory techniques. Perhaps, even read up on how our memories work. Whatever knowledge you applied that worked for you, continue doing it. Except this time, do it in larger chunks, rather than the individual (sometimes incidental) words you used to do.
Contextual Guesswork
Learn to guess intelligently. Sometimes, you will encounter words or phrases you haven’t heard before. Rather than leaving it at that, try to “guess” what they mean based on the context of what else has been said. That, right there, is an important aspect of many advanced language learning software and courses – the ability to apply what you’ve learned before to illuminate presently confusing items.
October 30, 2009
So you’re a social butterfly. The last thing you want is for your language learning to take the way of the hermit. Just because you work solo with a language learning software doesn’t mean you have to lock yourself up in a room as your strategy for acquisition. In fact, many social-based activities can help reinforce your lessons and get you much needed time in the field.
Hit The Tables. Many colleges regularly see students who study a particular language congregating together during specific times of the day. Find the tables where those practicing your target language meet up and join them. A new face is always welcome as long as you have something to contribute.
Seek Out Local Groups. Chances are, there are local groups in your city where the target language is regularly practiced, either by expats from the home country or second language learners like you. Find them and ask around whether you can join in. No harm ever comes from asking and the good it can do you!
Set-Up Language Exchanges. Native English speakers who want to learn a foreign language have a tremendous upside: tons of people want to improve their English. As such, it’s considerably easier for you to find folks from overseas that you can swap language training with. They teach you their language, you teach them yours – the classic barter trade.
October 29, 2009
Having trouble memorizing vocabulary? You’re not alone. Memorizing has long been one of my weakest points, dating back to the good old days of elementary school. If your second language software lacks a few extra points to help you out in vocabulary building, try a few (or all) of these ones that have worked for me.
Apply images to words. Some words are easy to memorize using images. When memorizing “duck” in French, just picture a duck. However, not all words are as tangible in form. How do you memorize words like “patience,” “someday” or “courage,” for instance? My suggestion is to apply images according to how they sound by closing your eyes, repeating the word aloud and relating it to whatever picture comes to mind. It may sound corny, but it works like a charm.
Semantic mapping. In this method, you create an imaginary map of a language and plot the “location” of specific words in it, like they’re countries. Any time you need to access a word, just look at the map.
Write them down. Writing, for some reason, is very good for committing things to memory. Remember when your teacher made you write down to behave in the blackboard multiple times? It works like that.
Use keywords. One of my favorites is using keywords in English to words I’m memorizing in the target language. I use synonyms, antonyms, homonyms…anything, in fact, that sounds fun. Eventually, they acquire relative meanings in my head.
Feel it. Some people like to memorize by feeling the words. I’m not sure exactly how it works, since I’ve never done it. However, the general idea is geared towards kinesthetically-inclined individuals (about 20% of the general population), who may be able to relate more powerfully to “how things feel.”
Now, try the above techniques and see which one works best for you!
October 28, 2009
I’ve seen people use educational games to learn a lot of things, from Math to Science to History. But can it be used to help in the pursuit of language learning?
As far as the area of vocabulary building goes, I think games are one of the most effective learning tools. Compared to using various mnemonic and memory techniques, I find this medium to be one of particular note, because playing games is fun. Provided that the game is well-made and engaging (apart from actually being educational), this is one particular method you should look to pursue.
Beyond vocabulary building, I’ve found some games that help develop grammar and composition skills, provided you’ve already had the background lessons necessary for them. What I haven’t seen is a full game implementation that teaches all the basic aspects of a language, allowing you to acquire working skills. For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s an ideal platform for that kind of learning either.
If you find the accompanying practice exercises in your language learning software less than exciting, you can occasionally use games as a substitute. Some of the better ones I’ve seen online look to help reinforce certain aspects of the language and you may be able to use them as additional practice.
October 27, 2009
Some people contend that 100 words typically comprise 50% of all words employed in spoken conversation. Not only that, this is supposed to hold true in any language, whether it’s English, German or French. As such, memorizing those first 100 words and taking them to heart has been at the core of many language learning courses, whether they be software-based, classroom-style or in other forms.
As a result of this, a large part of early language learning involves memory techniques. Being able to associate meaningless strings of syllables with things that actually make sense to you is the typical first step for any language learner. How you’re able to pull this off will depend on how you memorize things and there are literally dozens of techniques aimed specifically at that.
How good of a speaker will you be with 100 words in your arsenal? Not too good, most likely. Regardless, having that stock to draw on should let you go a long way towards fostering sensible conversations, even if the delivery, phrasing and other facets of speech still leave much to ask for.
Many beginning language learners bemoan the fact that entire lessons are devoted to nothing but memorizing. Without having those basic items committed to memory, though, growing in your language learning goals just isn’t going to happen. The next time you find yourself frustrated at the excessive focus on memorizing, just remind yourself that once you get those 100 words down, you’ll find yourself a long way ahead.
October 26, 2009
As with many things in life, preparation is crucial to language learning. Sure, you can attend your classes and go through your language software lessons without doing any work beforehand. Do note that you’re seriously shortchanging yourself if you go that route.
Remember homework in school? That’s what preparation is. If you do your assignment, you’ll be ready for the next day’s lessons. Same with language learning. If you do sufficient prep work, the chances of drawing the most out of your lessons proportionately increase.
Lessons fill you with information. That’s all it does. Everything else, you end up doing for yourself. Just like attending an entire semester of PHP programming won’t guarantee you can actually acquire the skills to write a MySpace clone, finishing a language course doesn’t mean you’ll pick up everything that was taught. Put simply, if you don’t do work beyond following the lectures, you aren’t likely to get very far.
If your language lessons ask you to do exercises, listen to materials or perform some field work, don’t dismiss the instructions as unnecessary. More than likely, those are intended to improve how you absorb the lessons, allowing you to gain much more than what you’ll end up with simply going through the motions.
Older Posts » |
