In my school days I never really learned how to learn a language.  As a result, I spent years struggling and failing to learn various foreign languages.  To help me finally become successful in my language learning, I had to research and learn about the techniques used by the seemingly “natural” language learners.  I learned that successful language learners develop three very distinct areas of their minds.

Speak It To Learn It

The first pillar of language learning is to practice speaking.  This is the primary skill to develop and also the most neglected aspect of language study.  If you want to learn to converse in a second language, you have to speak it, often.  It is that simple.  The main purpose of learning a language is to communicate.  However, if you spend all of your time making lists of words and learning about grammar, you will never progress past a simple conversation in the language.

Listening – Immerse Yourself In The Sounds Of The Language

The second pillar of language learning is to practice listening.  In addition to being able to speak the language, you have to be able to understand the person who is speaking to you.  You have to expose yourself to the sounds of the language.  For this to be possible, you need to immerse yourself in the sounds of the language.  Spend as much time as possible listening to podcasts, conversations around you, the radio, radio, etc., all in your target language.  At first everything will be unintelligible.  However, over time you will begin to recognize certain repeating patterns and phrases.  In time, you will begin to comprehend individual words.  Finally, one day, you will begin to start to understand meaning.  However, all of this takes time. It is necessary to expose your ears to to the sounds of the language.

Reading Practice

The third and final pillar of how to learn a language is to practice reading.  It is easy to disregard this step, but it a very effective method of learning a language.  As with listening, reading is a method of immersing yourself in your target language.  The key is to read, as often as possible, newspapers, popular magazines, and web pages in the foreign language.  This helps you learn the language in context, as it is actually used.  You will also develop a sense of correctness about the language.  You will know when things just look right

To maximize your success with your language, a good starting point is to study how to learn a language.  Successful language learners devote time to each of the three main pillars of language learning: speaking, listening, and reading.

 




By: Chris Chan