TeachOrTutor.com Presents: The Buzz

It can be a daunting task to learn a foreign language. This is because it will take you a few hundred hours to learn the 2,000 to 3,000 words that will help you to be fluent conversationally. While this may sound too difficult for someone who just casually wants to learn a new language, there are 7 tips that can help you learn the language a lot faster:

1. Flashcards are the single best and most efficient way to spend your time while learning a new language. In fact, if you learn 12 new words a day, 5 days a week you will learn 3,000 words in a year.

2.  Once you gain some basic understanding of the language it is a good idea to do some reading about something that you are interested in that language. This will help you to learn vocabulary and phrases that really interest you, which will help you to learn the language even faster.

3. Make sure that you are able to hear the language that you are learning as this is extremely important if you plan on speaking this language. You can use these tapes while you are driving or relaxing. In order to do this you are going to need more than 1 audio CD.

4. Some great, free opportunities to hear the language that you are studying are available via Internet radio. Herein you can be exposed to new vocabulary words each time that you listen to it. Listening to Internet news broadcasts from other countries, in the language that you are studying is a good idea because the more sources you have to listen to, the better off you will be.

5. It is very important to have daily contact with the language that you are learning. Even 10 minutes per day is a lot better than just studying the language for a few hours a day just once or twice a week. This is because you will need to frequently review what you are learning so that you can maintain what you have learned.

6.  Another great way to practice the language that you are learning is by having Internet pen pals around the world who speak the language that you are learning. These people can help you immeasurably and in turn you can help them with their English. There are plenty of free web sites and forums where you can find these people at.

7.  If at all possible, take the time to study and practice with others. You can always get a tutor to help you here. This type of instant feedback and interactivity cannot be gotten from a book, audio or other software. Herein you can also absorb what you are learning quicker because it is a lot more fun.

If you apply some of these techniques to your language learning regimen you will discover that you can learn a new language without requiring any more time from your already overtaxed schedule. In fact, this can actually use less time by streamlining your learning process in this way. This is because you are using your learning time more effectively. Good luck!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Teaching Tips, Study Guides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.