Language Learning Strategies

To learn a foreign language, there are two main approaches. The first is to enroll in some official course, to attend classes and complete levels, until you reach your desired level.

The second approach is to design and plan your own path, based predominately on studying on your own.

Which one of these paths is the right for you, depends mostly on your situation.

Official course might be the best option for you if:

• You don’t have much experience learning languages on your own
• Your knowlege of grammar and structure of languages in general is limited
• You're not in a rush to learn the language
• You want not just to learn a language but to socialize and meet new people
• You don’t mind paying for the course
• You want to be able to work directly with the teacher to resolve any doubts you might have
• You’re not frustrated by slow progress
• You don’t have a lot of time each day for studying

Self study is a riskier approach, but potentially way more efficient. It is probably the best option for you if:

• You have some experience learning languages already
• You understand intuitively how languages work, and their grammar system
• You want to be in control of your own study
• You want to have a clear orientation and to know at any moment where exactly you are in the learning process (which phase you’re in, what you’ve covered so far, and what remains to be covered)
• You want to learn as much of the language as poissible as quickly as possible
• You find yourself conforable as an independent learner
• You can dedicate plenty of time each day to your studies

Now, if you choose the second option, here’s my quick outline of the whole process. At least this approach worked for me.

My framework for self-study of languages

Phase 1 – Get infromed ABOUT the language before starting the process

This can mean as little as reading Wikipedia article about your target language. The point is to get some basic info about the grammar of that language, what kinds of stuff you have to learn, which group of languages it belongs to, what the main challanges and difficulties you’re going to face in the learning process are. You can also do some research on the Internet, especially on various language learning forums. This will allow you to draw a mental map of the journey ahead of you, so you can prepare for it.

Having such a map, will help you in all the subsequent phases of the language learning process, and will allow you to always be oriented, and to never get lost.

Phase 2 – As quickly as possible learn basics of grammar and 2000 most common words

In the world of startups it’s called “Minimum Viable Product”. Once you know basics of grammar (for example, noun declension and most frequently used tenses), and 2000 most commonly used words, you can, albeit with difficulty, already use the language somewhat competently. Even if you encounter a completely unknown text, you’ll recognize grammatical structures you studied and words you learned. You’ll get some basic understanding. You can learn the most common words from sources such as phrasebooks, picture dictionaries, or even frequency lists that list the most common words in the order of frequency. When it comes to grammar, try to get a good textbook, for example something aimed at first year University students who study your target language, and you can study the grammar like any other school subject, as if you were preparing for an exam.

You can learn pretty much all the grammar (except some really exotic aspects) of almost any language, and 2000 most frequent words in as little as 2 months, if you spend many hours a day studying.

After that process you’ll have all of that studied and memorized, but not yet really assimilated, so in spite of your knowledge, you’ll find it very difficult to practically use what you learned.

Don’t despair, this is perfectly normal. Assimilation process starts in the phase 3.

Phase 3 – Get as much comprehensible input as possible in your target language

Once you have your grammar and 2000 most frequent words under your belt. You can start navigating the unexplored ocean of texts in your target language. At this point it’s important that you read and listen as much materials in your target language as possible. Try to choose a level that’s a bit hard for you to understand but not too hard. You can grab some books for children, short stories, jokes. You can find plenty of Youtube channels with comprehensible input aimed at different levels of skill. Spend some time in this phase without too much worry, until you assimilate a solid bunch of language, and until the structures start really engraving themselves deeply into your mind. All the knowledge you gained in the second phase will now be assimilated, and also broadened with plenty of new words and grammatical structures that you directly learn and assimilate from the context. I’d spend around 2-3 months in that phase before progressing further.

Phase 4 – Start using the language actively, get feedback, possibly a tutor

At this point you can start making your first attempts to use the language in writing and speaking. Start using the forums in the target language. The point is that you accomplish your communicative goals, that is to get your message across, and to get back the answers from the other users. Many of them will be happy to correct your errors and to encourage you in your efforts. At that point, you’re around strong A2, approaching B1 level. At that point it would be wise to get a tutor, which you can also find online on sites such as Italki. With them you can start practicing spoken conversation, and they will also help you correct your typical mistakes. At this phase it’s quite important to pay attention to mistakes that you make, so that you can correct them before they become too stubborn and too deeply entranched in your mind...

Phase 5 – Keep getting lots of input + actively using the language

This is a never ending phase. You need to stay in contact with the language to keep it fresh in your mind. Once you’ve solidified your knowledge and got rid of the errors, the only thing that remains is to keep using the language and even more importantly keep getting input in that language. This way your vocabulary will continue to grow and your skills will become more and more automatic and solidified. The good news is that once you reach a certain relatively high level in language, it becomes harder to forget it. On the other hand languages that we only learn to a low or low-intermediate level, can quickly fade if we don’t use them. So it’s a good idea to stay in active contact with the language for as long as possible, to make it a stable feature of your mind, and a stable skill that you have.