Here is my advice to anyone out there who is learning a language.
Whether your language learning journey is smooth or rife with struggle, these three steps will help you along the way, giving you the results you strive for.
“Learning another language is like becoming another person.” – Haruki Murakami
1) Quality input
Comprehensible input and explicit instruction are paramount. You need guidance on the language. Second language acquisition research shows that adults benefit more from explicit instruction that they do from implicit instruction.
When you’re a kid, you can learn implicitly. Meaning, even if no body spells it out for you, you’ll still learn. Be it peripheral, exploratory, or implicit learning. Learning through the environment.
However, adults tend to learn better when a language structure or grammar rule is presented to them.
The point here is that you need good input.
This can come in the form of a language class, a traditional solution.
But in the age of technology enhanced language learning, you might opt into self-study. There are loads of free apps and YouTube channels out there teaching the language you are learning.
Within the same vein, if you want to go the extra mile and are super intrinsically motivated then I have a pro tip for you. Seek out authentic materials.
The internet is a gold mine for this.
Literally we have access to high-quality materials at our fingertips. But you have to be mindful of distinguishing between high- and low-quality materials.
For instance, you can find blogs, articles, music, film, television series in your target language that are only a click away! How amazing is that?
I encourage you to be selective about these authentic materials. Choose wisely. You might have to sift through until you find the right thing, but there is a lot out there to choose from.
2) Social interaction
Social interaction is integral to language acquisition. You will learn the language so much better, faster, and accurately if you practice it in an authentic context.
Simply put, practice what you learned in steps one and two on native speakers and on people who’ve mastered the target language. You want to be brave and try out the phrases, vocab, collocations, expressions, conjugations with people who use the language themselves. This is the time to take risks with the language and test out things you’ve learned. That is how you’ll retain these words and how the language will start to stick because you’re increasing your meta linguistic awareness and communicative competence.
Language is a living breathing entity. It’s complex and dynamic. And it’s always changing and adapting to the whims of society. Just think about how google and Facebook made their way into the dictionary but gramophone is phased out. Why’s that? If there’s a need for the word, it’ll become part of the vernacular.
3) Corrective feedback
If we want to see progress, we need to receive feedback.
This can be in the form of explicit feedback or error correction, but it can also come in a more covert way through our noticing.
So in other words you might get corrected by your teacher or you might explicitly request that your native speaker friend correct you when you make a mistake.
If you’re highly self-aware and attuned to the target language you might also rely on the noticing hypothesis. For example you might notice what you are saying (your interlanguage) or how you are pronouncing it is not quite aligned with how a native speaker says it. In this case, you’ve noticed the gap between your interlanguage and the actual language in question.
If you’re aware of that difference, you’ll make it your mission to converge on the correct usage.
So don’t poo poo error correction, because it is how we can move forward with the target language.
Alright, there you have it. My 3 tips on how to become better language learners in any language you set your mind and heart to!
“You live a new life for every language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.” – Czech proverb
Thank you for reading!!
