How to learn a language

New to learning a language?  Here’s a brief guide to what skills you will look to develop during the process, as well as specific techniques, beyond lessons and language software, that can help you get there.

Learning The Sound System. You’ll need to learn how syllables are pronounced, how intonations are made and how accents are used in the new language.  You achieve this by repeating words to yourself, reading aloud to yourself, singing to songs in the vernacular and other  similar activities.

Learning Vocabulary. Of course, you’ll need to know the words before you can use them.  That’s why you’ll arm yourself with phrasebooks, dictionaries and all sorts of memory exercises to commit the vocabulary to your recollection.

Learning The Grammar. Just like you internalized the early grammar constructs of English using nursery rhymes and simple stories, you will need to undergo something similar in your acquisition of a new language.  From parroting simple phrases to guessing the right sentences to use, you will eventually achieve a native (though, largely, non-academic) facility with the target languages of rules of language.

Learning To Comprehend. One important aspect of language acquisition is the ability to understand others who speak the language.  You practice this by guessing at the start, exposing yourself to a multitude of inputs, such as records, music and speeches, as well as by focusing your attention on the new language, thinking in it and similar activities.

Learning To Talk. All of the above skills come together as you learn to speak the language.  More than mere parroting of phrases from a language software, learning to talk involves being able to formulate ideas and expressing them concisely, in a manner that other people can understand.