How To Learn Languages

Foreign language study boils down to a constant process of learning, forgetting a bit, and learning again, forgetting a little less, and then relearning again and again until the new language becomes a habit. (It's this way for foreign language teachers, too!) If you learn this way, you'll learn the language correctly and you will not forget the language, even if you don't use it for a considerable length of time.

Remember that learning a foreign language is like learning to play a sport or a musical instrument. Skill is developed through practice, correction, and continued use to form a habit. Your habit will become as strong as the opportunities for practice allow. Below are specific skill building tips.

• The new language that you are learning will be easier if you don't expect it to behave like English! It will have different sounds, and its words will have different kinds of meaning fitted together in un-English ways.
• Remember that language is a set of habits. You must learn to listen and imitate carefully. You must learn to memorize. To learn this new set of habits, you must practice, practice, practice until all the sets of new habits become automatic.
• Study out loud. This doubles your studying since you are studying with your eyes and with your ears at the same time. (If other people think that you're crazy, don't worry about them. They don't know any better.)
• Divide your assignments into small "pieces" and then "string" them together. You might try doing your foreign language work just before going to bed (before you get too sleepy to concentrate!). When you are dressing in the morning, try to remember and to repeat what you learned the night before.
• Make full use of the time which you spend in class.
• You cannot cram in a foreign language class. Studying a foreign language is steady day by day work. You can't cram for a swimming test. You don't learn habits and skills that way. You build on what you learned the day before.
• You need to think. As you think carefully about the material that you are memorizing, you will start to see some rules of the language - perhaps before they are explained to you! This will speed up your learning.
• When you are learning to read the foreign language, learn to guess intelligently.
• You will need to read over new words and expressions more than once in order to remember them.
• Never look up a word in the dictionary until you have read the whole sentence (or, sometimes, the whole paragraph) in which the word occurs.
• Come to class prepared. Read over the materials to be covered before coming to class.
• Sometimes, referring to your native language can be helpful, but at other times it isn't. You will often be faced with patterns, vocabulary, sentence structure, etc., in the language that seem odd, or even ridiculous. Keep an open mind and remember that you are dealing with a new language and its contents, not your native language.
• Get used to spending some time every day with your foreign language textbook. Try to devote extra time on the week-ends to studying. Since language is a gradual, continual process, you need to approach the material with steady, consistent study habits.
• Don't think that you have to be perfect. Set some short goals that are challenging but not unreasonable.

Developing the Listening Skill

• Pay attention to what is being said.
• Both listen and think about what you are hearing.
• Interest is essential to efficient listening.
• Don't let your mind wander, but do take advantage of any extra time between activities to reflect.
• After having a pretty good idea of what the teacher (or speaker) is saying, think ahead of him or her. Anticipate what is going to be said next.
• Listen attentively and pay special attention to points which the teacher refers to as "important or significant".
• Listen for mistakes of your classmates. Paying attention to their mistakes may help you avoid making them yourself.
• Concentrating on the main idea of what you hear is paramount.
• Active listening is a habit that will stand you in good stead the rest of your life, not just in your foreign language class.

Being Better at Speaking

• You must listen as much as you talk.
• Think critically, share ideas, and pose questions.
• Don't feel awkward, silly or embarrassed about trying to pronounce the new language as your teacher does or as you hear it on tape.
• When working in pairs or groups, speak in the target language, avoid going off task or reverting to English and chatting. Take advantage of the time in class (with your classmates and teacher present) to work with the language.
• Paraphrase. If you don't know the target language equivalent for a certain word, use other words to describe it or to get your point across. For example, if you couldn't remember the word for "party", you could say "a celebration with food and music". This is called circumlocution.
• Never feel embarrassed or afraid to ask questions. If your teacher makes you feel uncomfortable, he or she has a problem - not you.
• Remember, class discussions are as interesting as you make them.

Taking Notes

• Note-taking is a proven aid to listening.
• Take these notes in a systematic way, consistently and business-like.
• Keep all notes in one foreign language notebook, handy for study.
• Choose the best preference for you to understand the main points - paragraph, outline, cluster, etc.

Studying

• Nightly study and practice are in order.
• The less time that passes between the presentation of new material and your reviewing of your notes, the greater the retention rate, and ultimately, your understanding of new concepts.
• Memorize the main points of your notes, especially if you are studying for a test.
• Find an atmosphere which works best for you.
  • Create an atmosphere conducive to focused concentration.
  • For most students, sitting may be more effective than lying down.
  • Use adequate light.
  • Have a business-like attitude toward studying.
  • Have ready supplies and reference materials (books, dictionary, pens, paper)
  • Study with friends or a study group instead of just studying alone.
  • Study at home vs. the library
  • Study with quiet vs. having music in the background or head-phones.
• Use your study time effectively.
  • Know exactly what it is you should be concentrating on.
  • Plan specifically how to spend your study time. Break up your tasks into small units for more efficient concentration.
  • Keep up with assignments daily and diligently, even if your school is on a block schedule with the class meeting every other day.
  • Since language learning is a building process, review past materials while you are learning new materials.
  • Cramming is notoriously unproductive as a study method.
• Periodically reward yourself.
  • Don't feel guilty about taking a short break to have a snack, make a telephone call, watch the news, look at a magazine or the newspaper or watch a television program.
  • By rewarding yourself during study sessions, you'll study for a longer period of time and you'll accomplish a lot more. Sometimes you need to get away from the material to clear your mind and/or relax. Of course, take breaks in moderation!

Learning New Words
Learning new vocabulary is an important part of learning a foreign language. You might want to try a few of the following ideas:

Flash cards:	Using index cards, write the word in the target language on one side and the English equivalent on the other.
Lists:	Using the vocabulary lists in your textbook, or those supplied by your teacher, cover the target language column. Begin at the top of the list, working your way down. At each English word, write and say its equivalent in the target language. Each time you miss a word, go to the top of the list and repeat the procedure.
Categories:	If the vocabulary lists aren't already in categories (such as nouns, adjectives, verbs; or places, foods, etc.) you may want to group your new words into categories to help you learn them.
Color:	On your flash cards, use one color for all masculine nouns and another color for all feminine nouns.
Sentences:	Create sentences with the new words you want to remember.
Label:	Label objects in your house or apartment.
Repeat:	Repeat the new vocabulary words aloud.
Write:	Write the new vocabulary words over and over.
Record:	Record on tape the new words and their definitions.
Use context:	Let the context help you. Use the phrase or sentence to help figure out the meaning of a new word or expression.
Work with new verbs:	Learning and working with new verbs is an important part of learning a foreign language. You might want to try the following ideas:
Use color:	On your flash cards (or any other method you choose) use certain colors for certain verb infinitive endings. The use of color can also be incorporated in conjugating the verbs by using specific colors for specific subject-related endings.

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Improving your Reading Ability
(with permission from Paul Cankar, professor at Austin Community College, ©1996)
When reading in another language, remember that your ultimate goal is to understand the new written language, not to translate that language into English. In order to achieve that goal, your reading strategy should include the following four stages: pre-reading, first reading, second reading, and post-reading. It may sound like a lot, but each stage can be accomplished rather quickly, especially once these strategies become a habit.

Pre-reading:
Use other information. Before you begin to read, gather as much information as you can from the title, pictures or tables and their captions, and pre-reading activities. If you are reading a textbook, you can even look over the comprehension activities to see what kind of information you are expected to pick up as you read.

Scan for specific items. Before beginning a closer reading, scan (run your eyes quickly along each line) for cognates. Don't try to understand all of the text. Next, if you are reading a textbook, scan for all the glossed terms and read their definitions.

Skim for the general idea. Now skim (sweep your eyes rapidly over the entire reading), noting key words and phrases that stand out. Skimming will give you a general idea of the content of the reading.

First reading:
Read without stopping. The first time you read a text, try to read to the end without stopping to look up any words. You may have to skip a few words and phrases, but try to guess at their meaning.

Use context. To guess intelligently, use the information and ideas you gathered beforehand as well as the context (what comes before and after a particular word or phrase).

Visualize. Practice visualizing the meaning of the material rather than translating words into English.

Second reading:
Simplify. Read through a second time. If you encounter an especially difficult sentence, try to simplify it by finding the verb, its subject, and its object (if it has one); the rest of the phrases will now be easier to figure out.

Make notes. Make mental or written notes of words whose meanings are still unclear to you.

Post-reading:
Use the dictionary. Look up the words and expressions you don't know. Confirm your guesses and also find the meanings of items you were unable to guess.
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Dealing with Teachers' Expectations

• Since teachers have different expectations, pay attention to what is in the class syllabus. There are a variety of things which instructors may deem important: attendance, participation, no late homework or compositions, no make-up quizzes or tests, etc. Focus on what it is that your instructor expects from you and give it back to your instructor.
• Attend all classes and be on time. All teachers would love to have every student attend every class session. If for any reason you cannot attend class, notify your teacher before the class period when possible.
• Come to class as well-prepared as possible. This doesn't mean that you have the new material down completely, but that you have made an attempt to learn material before coming to class.
• Since language is communication, try to get used to participating actively in class. This involves answering questions when called on, volunteering answers, and asking questions when you don't understand something.
• Don't let things go by without looking at the supplementary materials and hand-outs. Do the workbook activities and the lab book activities. You may even take time to go to the library or stay after school to listen to (or borrow copies if possible) of the audio tapes or video cassettes.
• Cooperate and be flexible with your instructor, and be supportive of your fellow classmates.
• Keep the lines of communication open between you and your instructor. For example, if you are having problems keeping up due to your heavy work schedule or you were "less than perfect" in class because you were up all night writing a paper, let your instructor know. Don't let your instructor draw false conclusions about you.

Coping with anxiety

• Do you frequently feel nervous or apprehensive in your foreign language class?
• Do you often freeze when your instructor calls on you?
• Do you inexplicably go blank when taking a test in the foreign language?
• Do you dread your foreign language class so much that you are tempted to skip class or drop the course?

If you answered "yes" to one or more of these questions, you may suffer from foreign language anxiety.

If foreign language anxiety is a serious problem for you, you may want to use a few strategies to help you manage your anxious feelings. Ten coping strategies are listed below. Some of the strategies are especially useful for you. The right strategies to use are, of course, the ones that work best for you.

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