The Language Learning Process

Why language learning is like working out

As someone who’s worked out almost every day for the past 20 years, I think a lot about exercise. And it seems to me that the advice I give to language learners is a lot like that I give to people who are trying to get in better physical shape. (Yes, that’s me in the photo above, after a workout while on vacation … I literally never take a break from exercise because “if you don’t use it, you lose it,” and that goes for fluency as well!) So what do I tell people? First …

You need to find something to motivate you

When people decide to lead a fitter lifestyle, they usually have something that inspires them to begin … whether it’s a warning from their doctor, the desire to keep up with their kids, or simply a good long look in the mirror. Language learners should find something that motivates them as well. Maybe it’s a TOEFL score that will be your ticket to a prestigious university or a better job. Maybe it’s an opportunity to live in an English-speaking country. Maybe it’s just a deep-seated desire to speak English better. Whatever it is, keep this motivation in mind because …

You need to accept that this is a long-term endeavor

You don’t become fit overnight, and you won’t learn better English overnight either. Furthermore, just like exercising, you need to keep at it to stay at whatever level you’ve achieved. There are no magic potions or shortcuts to attaining fitness or fluency. You have to make up your mind to stick with it over the long haul. In this case …

You probably need someone to help you

When you’re developing a fitness routine, you may choose to use a personal trainer or enroll in exercise classes. When you’re developing fluency, you may want to find a teacher or an English class. But if these don’t suit your personality or your circumstances, think outside the box. When I started exercising, I became very active on an online forum for people who work out at home. You may be able to find an online community of English learners, or just one learning partner. The goal here is to find an individual or a community who can help answer questions, give you advice, sympathize with your struggles, and provide motivation and support. Language learning is more fun when you make connections, which brings me to another piece of advice …

You should pick language learning activities you enjoy and that suit your learning style

I would never have continued working out for so long if I weren’t doing workouts I enjoyed. When I started 20 years ago, I was homeschooling my three children and couldn’t get to a gym regularly. Well, home workouts turned out to be perfect for me, and I still look forward to my morning exercise routine every single day. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, it’s going to be hard to keep doing it for any length of time. There are soooo many options for learning English, even for (relatively) boring stuff like grammar. Sure, you can get a grammar textbook, but you can also study with a teacher, or go to my favorite grammar website, or listen to YouTube videos or other online materials. And when it comes to reading and listening, the sky’s the limit! However, while you definitely need to choose activities you enjoy, you also need to realize that …

You have to push yourself to make progress

Language learning, like exercising, isn’t all fun and games. I absolutely love my workouts, but they’re hard work! At the end of a cardio session, I’m usually dripping sweat. When it comes to weight lifting, that last repetition is a killer! Same with language learning. Stephen Krashen, one of the biggest names in second language acquisition, theorizes that learners acquire language through input + 1. Input is the stuff coming in … whether it’s an episode of your favorite English series, a podcast, or a news article. +1 means that it’s just a little bit more advanced than your current level. It’s the same principle with fitness. If I always do bicep curls with a 10-pound dumbbell, when it no longer challenges me, my muscles won’t get any stronger. If I switch to 12-pound dumbbells, I’ll continue making progress. Same thing with language learning. You always need to be pushing yourself a little bit … not too hard or you might get discouraged, not so challenging that it’s no longer fun, but hard enough so that you keep getting better. You can speak a bit more confidently, you can understand more of what you hear, you can read more challenging material, you can write more quickly, with fewer mistakes. With a bit of effort, made consistently, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve!

 

Two languages

This may be a discouraging thought but the fact is, when you learn English (or most other languages), you’re dealing with not one but two languages … spoken English and written English.

In his lectures on the history of human language, Professor John McWhorter points out a couple of striking differences between spoken and written English:

  • Spoken English uses a much more limited vocabulary than written English. First, there are the “big” words that you are likely to encounter only in written English, and often in more formal or academic writing. Even native English speakers may have to look these up in a dictionary: words like adumbrate, derisory, and hyperbolic. English speakers will rarely use these in speech and, if they do, they will tend to sound a bit pretentious (like they’re trying to show off and impress people). But spoken English also limits more ordinary words; for example, we are likely to use a lot of rather than numerous, a great many, or a multitude of.
  • Spoken English has no punctuation. In spoken English, we don’t worry about whether we’re using complete or incomplete sentences; there are, in fact, no sentences. Instead, English speakers tend to put together “word packets” that, if written down, would not necessarily follow the rules of syntax that are expected in written English. Spoken English also uses shorter and simpler structures than written English. Professor McWhorter gives an example of this in a transcription of an academic conversation:

On a tree. Carbon isn’t going to do much for a tree really. Really. The only thing it can do is collect moisture. Which may be good for it. In other words in the desert you have the carbon granules which would absorb, collect moisture on top of them. Yeah. It doesn’t help the tree but it protects, keeps the moisture in. Uh huh. Because then it just soaks up moisture. It works by the water molecules adhere to the carbon moleh, molecules that are in the ashes. It holds it on. And the plant takes it away from there.

I have students who prepare for tests of speaking ability by writing down transcripts of what they want to say. But this hardly ever sounds natural. Here’s an example of a prepared, written response to a typical TOEFL question compared to a natural, spoken one:

Question: Some students prefer to work on class assignments by themselves. Others believe it is better to work in a group. Which do you prefer? Explain why.

“Prepared” written response:

Considering various aspects of this situation, I believe that it’s preferable for me to work on class assignments by myself. This is due to the fact that I’m a fairly solitary individual who profits more by working in isolation and by concentrating and focusing more fully and deeply on my assignments. As a true introvert, I feel more anxious and apprehensive when I have to interact with my peer group. Therefore, I believe that engaging in various academic tasks by myself results in a better performance and hence higher grades.

Natural spoken response:

Well, I guess I’d rather work by myself on my class assignments. I don’t know … I guess I’m kind of an introvert … I’m used to working by myself … you know, I listen to music and sort of tune out what’s going on around me and … actually, I get a lot of work done that way. You know, when I’m in a group, I get kinda stressed out … like, I’m more worried about saying something stupid or what people think about my clothes, or whatever … and seriously, my grades are actually better when I just do the work by myself.

What does this mean for you as an English learner?

Think about how you’re going to be using English in the future.

♥     ♥     ♥     ♥     ♥

If you are more interested in conversing with English speakers and listening to shows, movies, and lectures in English, then focus on spoken English.

  • Listen to as much “natural” English as you can. Flood yourself with English! I suggest some good listening resources in this article. My experience from learning French this way is that when you concentrate on understanding as much as you can and focus on “noticing” certain structures, phrases, and words, you eventually absorb them, make them “your own,” and use them in your own speaking.
  • Remember that even academic lectures and news broadcasts are still delivered in spoken English. The speakers may use less slang and colloquialisms like I’m gonna or you hafta, but their vocabulary will still be more limited and their structures will be simpler.
  • Rely less on textbooks, and more on “authentic” English – the way it’s spoken in real life. Even the best textbooks tend to provide conversations which sound unnatural and “written.” For example, in one textbook I read the following:

A: What about you? What did you do on Saturday?

B: I did not do anything special. I stayed home and worked around the house. Oh, but I saw a really good movie on TV. And then I made dinner with my mother.

In “real life,” the conversation would probably sound more like this:

A. Whadda ’bout y’all? How’d your Saturday go?

B. Ah, nuthin’ to write home about. Mostly just hung out. Got some stuff done around the house, I guess … and oh yeah, I streamed an awesome chick flick. Plus me and mom fixed something for dinner.

♥     ♥     ♥     ♥     ♥

If you want to study in an English-speaking country, reading academic texts and submitting essays, reports, or papers, or to work in an international company where you’ll be communicating in writing with English-speaking colleagues, then you’ll need to work on both spoken and written English skills.

  • Good English writing is an art. Mastering this art requires years, not months or weeks. As a case in point, the law school where my husband teaches employs two full-time writing instructors for 400 students — almost all of whom are native-English-speaking, American college graduates.
  • Just as lots of attentive, focused listening helps develop speaking skills, so lots of reading helps develop writing skills. What should you read? One good rule of thumb is to focus on reading material that you need to write. If you need to write engineering reports, read engineering reports. If you need to write general academic essays, read general academic essays. When in doubt, just keep reading. A great textbook that integrates academic reading and writing is From Inquiry to Academic Writing by Greene & Lidinsky.
  • Grammar and syntax, as well as vocabulary, are more important in written English, so you’ll need to focus more on these areas. There are a million and one English grammar books. I prefer Cambridge grammar for British English and the Azar series for American English, but you will find plenty of teachers who prefer others 🙂 My favorite online website for studying grammar is Teacher Paul’s Learn American English Online.
  • There are many, many books about becoming a better writer of English. Here are a few different articles listing some “best books about writing.”

10 Books to Help You Polish Your Writing & English Skills

Three Books That Will Immediately Improve Your Writing (Forbes Magazine)

The Best Books for Improving Academic Writing

My personal favorites are The Elements of Style by Strunk & White and The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker.

I also recommend the Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab for lots of practical advice on issues like citations, formatting, subject-specific writing, applications to college and graduate school, etc.

 

 

 

TOEFLitis

Do you suffer from TOEFLitis?

In my years as a teacher, I have encountered many students with a bad case of TOEFLitis.

They live their lives with TOEFL hanging over their heads like a big black cloud, sucking away all their joy and pleasure in life.

They’re like airplanes in a holding pattern, endlessly circling the same airport, unable to land. They take TOEFL multiple times … several times a month, many times a year. Their careers or life goals depend on a certain score, which seems to hover like a mirage in front of them … when they approach it, it disappears, or recedes even farther beyond the horizon.

They study for the test for hours each day, but feel they’re merely spinning their wheels, going nowhere. Maybe once they were positive, confident people, but now they are assailed by feelings of doubt and even hopelessness, seeing themselves as failures and lost causes.

Is there a cure for TOEFLitis? Perhaps not a complete cure, but I believe there are ways to combat these symptoms.

Spend time thinking about  your life beyond TOEFL. Sometimes people get so caught up in achieving a particular TOEFL score, they forget why they’re even studying English. They are so focused on THE SCORE, they ignore why they need to improve their English in the first place.

Perhaps you need a certain speaking score to be licensed as a pharmacist. What kinds of interactions will you engage in once you start working? Imagine being behind the counter talking to a young mother who is concerned about the possible side effects of her child’s prescription. How would you help to reassure her, to give her accurate information, to answer her questions fully even while other clients are impatiently standing behind her in line?

What if your TOEFL score is your entrée to a demanding academic program? You’ll be encountering complex texts written for native English speakers. You’ll be attending lectures where professors are speaking quickly, idiomatically, perhaps even with a non-standard accent. You may need to engage in complicated group projects with your fellow students, or write a 10-page research paper using multiple outside sources, or give a lengthy presentation in front of the class.

Is your English up to these challenges? Beyond the TOEFL and your goal score, you will be putting your English to the test in multiple ways. TOEFL is just a (less than perfect) way to assess whether you’re ready for them.

Identify your weaknesses and find creative ways to strengthen them. Too many students spend most if not all of their time “studying for TOEFL” … using TOEFL study guides, TOEFL YouTube videos, TOEFL websites, TOEFL prep programs. Not only is this exceedingly boring and tedious, but it may not be terribly effective. (If it’s really that effective, why don’t they get the score they need when they first take the test?)

Although TOEFL has four separate sections – reading, listening, speaking, writing – it’s also an integrated test, meaning that whatever you study will help your overall performance. If you master a new vocabulary word, for example, you may see it in the reading section, hear it in the listening section, or use it in the speaking or writing sections. Any effort you make to improve your overall English fluency can help raise your score.

There may be a particular skill you struggle with, or a particular section of the test that you need to score well in. I would still recommend that you pull away from the standard TOEFL training materials and find a variety of more engaging, enjoyable ways to improve your skills.

Need a higher speaking score? Find a conversation group or online partner or teacher to converse with. If you live in an English-speaking country, look into volunteer jobs, parent-teacher organizations, or book discussion groups.

Does your writing need help? Instead of writing endless TOEFL essays, try keeping a journal or blog. Or read interesting articles (I love The New York Times, The Economist, and The Atlantic Monthly) and study their organization, style, word use, and expressions. Try writing your own texts closely following these models.

Instead of listening to endless TOEFL lectures (surely the most boring lectures known to humankind), subscribe to The Great Courses Plus. Or find some good podcasts broadcast to native English speakers.

Same with reading. Find authentic English texts rather than TOEFL practice reading material (also exceedingly boring). Work on your vocabulary with a fun learning app. Make a study of Latin and Greek roots (this is something many American high school students do to score higher on college entrance exams).

Take breaks and don’t put your life “on hold.” TOEFL burnout is real. An endless round of study, study, study will suck the joy out of living. Eat well. Exercise. Get the sleep you need. Pay attention to your loved ones. Take trips and vacations. Enjoy the moment. Practice mindfulness. Engage in the religious beliefs and practices that are important to you.

I have known students who have said, “After I pass the TOEFL, I’ll spend more time with my kids.” Or, “I’ve put on weight, I’ve been studying so much. After I pass, I’ll go on a diet.” Or, “I can’t enjoy anything because I’m always worried about TOEFL.”

Well, that’s just sad. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be. You owe it to yourself and to your loved ones to enjoy the life you’re living right now. For everyone’s sake, think about ways that you can overcome your TOEFLitis and free yourself to take pleasure in everything that the world has to offer.

Claudia’s TOEFL Prep Tips

Claudia is a Brazilian student who scored super-well on the TOEFL (113 overall) the first time she took it. Despite a busy job and family life (she’s a wife and mother of three sons), Claudia managed to consistently work on her English with spectacular results. So how did she do it? Here’s a Q & A with Claudia.

What was your overall approach to preparing for TOEFL?

When students are preparing for the TOEFL, it is important that they immerse themselves as much as possible in the English language. Listen to American audiobooks, podcasts, and YouTube channels, watch American movies and TV shows, and even have their GPS talk to them in English (I learned a lot about directions in English with the Google Maps app). Also, they should try to speak with a native speaker at least half an hour every day.

Any more specifics for listening?

I am hooked on audiobooks. I believe this is the easiest and most effective way to learn new words, improve pronunciation, and get familiar with the rhythm of the language. I like to run, and I used to run listening to audiobooks in English instead of music. I listened to all the books by the young adult writer, Stephanie Meyers (Twilight, Dusk, Dawn, The Chemist, etc.), because her stories are captivating, and the English is easy to understand. I also listened to the last audiobook by Hillary Clinton, What Happened, because it is read by her and her rhythm and intonation are perfect.

How about podcasts and channels?

I would recommend subscribing to many English podcasts (I love All Ears English!) and YouTube channels such as Gabby Wallace – Go Natural English, Rachel’s English, SmallAdvantages, Amigo Gringo, and Ask Jackie. The last three ones are aimed at Brazilian learners.

Hilary’s Note:

Because preference in podcasts and channels is such an individual thing, here are some other recommendations from English learning websites. Keep experimenting until you find the perfect ones for you, and then try to listen consistently.

11 English Podcasts Every English Learner Should Listen To

12 Native English Podcasts for Learning English

Top Five Podcasts to Help You Learn English

10 Awesome Channels to Learn English on YouTube

7 Great YouTube Channels for English Learners

11 Of The Best YouTube Channels For Learning English

And, if you’re an advanced learner, consider Great Courses Plus, which Claudia discovered thanks to this blog 🙂

And what about TV and movies?

It is very helpful to watch American TV shows. First, I watched them without subtitles to try to understand as much as possible. Later, I watched them again, but this time with subtitles to make sure that I understood every single line. I used to write every new word or expression that I didn’t know in a notepad. My favorite TV show is The Good Place, while I think just about any American movie is useful.

Anything you’d recommend for translating?

My favorite online dictionary is Linguee

How about speaking practice?

For speaking practice, I like the app called Cambly. The teachers are not as prepared as the ones on italki, but I had the chance to talk every day with Americans for a very low price. Although you get what you pay for, I believe that it is very important to speak English with a native speaker every day when you are preparing for the test. On the other hand, the most prepared teachers for the TOEFL are on italki. So, students should invest some money in having classes with these teachers as well.

Hilary’s Note:

Italki is a Chinese-based company; Verbling, an American-based company, also employs more selectively hired professional teachers. Choose your teachers carefully if you are preparing for TOEFL Speaking. Although teachers may say that they’re trained to teach TOEFL and most can do a reasonably good job preparing you up to a certain point, to attain a really high score, you may need to find a teacher with more direct knowledge of the test and how it’s scored.

So let’s move on to reading. What helped with that?

I think students should read lots of academic texts. I like to read newspapers and magazines, but for the TOEFL test, I don’t think it is worth wasting time with them, because the style and the vocabulary are very different.

You scored 28 in Writing. How did you study for that section?

For the writing part, students should try to write as many essays as they can. However, before writing, they must be familiar with the essay structure and the topics used in the TOEFL, because the essay subjects tend to concentrate on certain areas, such as children, university life, hobbies. A good source of ideas is the following book:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W8ndIzhOUIsfO6OOlEXOHhDl9jxzYdNd/view?usp=sharing

The essays in that book are not masterpieces, but they are realistic essays done by students just like us. These works are helpful to teach us how to keep an essay simple but effective. In addition, there are so many essays in that book that after reading 10 or 15 of them, you wind up creating your own method of writing a simple essay.

Hilary’s Note:

I agree with Claudia that the best way to practice is to write essays. The book she recommends contains some good essays, but I would not exactly recommend them as models to imitate. Please read my article about the TOEFL independent essay for more of my advice about the writing section.

Any other advice you can give?

One last piece of advice is not really for students, but for parents who want their children to master a foreign language. Although it is important to study English in their own counties, it is essential to expose them to an English environment at an early age.  My personal history provides a compelling example of this. When I was fifteen years old, I went to the U.S. as an exchange student for three months. Although it was a short period,  it made a huge difference to my English skills. I believe that, at a young age, our brain can better learn the rhythm of a foreign language, just like learning how to ride a bike.

Twenty-five years later, I went back to the U.S. with my husband and our three sons. My husband had a student visa, and our children were able to go to school for three months in San Diego. This short period was amazing for my boys’ English (at 13, 11 and 9 years old), but it wasn’t so effective for my husband’s English. I am saying this not to discourage anyone from learning English as an adult, but to encourage parents to send their teenagers to study and live abroad even for a short period of time.

You mentioned living in the U.S. as an adult. Did you work on your English there?

Yes! There is also one more thing that should help your students who already live in the U.S. Why don’t they volunteer to work at the local church or library? When I was in San Diego, I volunteered at the local church. It gave me the opportunity to speak with many different people in a welcoming, friendly environment. They even taught me how to answer the phone and how to give directions.

Setting your goals … staying on track

Making progress in learning another language isn’t easy. Achieving fluency takes time, effort, and many months of persistence and practice. So how do you set your goals and then stay on track?

Recently, I read a very helpful article by Christine Carter about how to actually achieve those goals you set for yourself. Needless to say, simply repeating, “I wish I were better at English,” isn’t very helpful. The author of the article discussed this process in the context of how to incorporate more exercise into her busy life, but I’d like to take the same advice, tweak it a bit, and recast it in terms of mastering English.

First, state the big, overall goal. Ms. Carter suggests thinking about what you’d like to accomplish at the end of three months, but since language learning takes longer, you might want to set your goal six months or a year ahead. Let’s say you have to take TOEFL in nine months in order to apply to an American university. What’s the minimum score you need? And what’s a reasonable and doable score to aim for? If you are a beginner and need an overall score of 100, this may not be possible unless you have lots of time to devote to language learning. Set a goal that’s realistic, not impossibly hard … otherwise, you set yourself up for failure.

Next, break this big, overall goal down into smaller, long-term goals. So let’s say you need a 100 in TOEFL. Since there are four parts to the iBT, it’s relatively easy to break this goal down. You’ll set a goal of 25 points each in Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing. You have nine months to gain proficiency in each of those areas.

Decide whether you need to further refine those goals, by determining what steps or strategies are involved in accomplishing them. Here I’m adding a step to Ms. Carter’s plan, because language learning is a bit more complicated than exercising. Let’s take the 25-points-in-TOEFL-Reading goal. In my opinion, accomplishing this goal would require two main strategies … vocabulary acquisition and extensive reading. On the other hand, to achieve a 25 in Speaking, you might need to focus on both pronunciation/intonation issues and engaging in regular English conversation. If you’re not sure what strategies would help you to reach your various goals, an ESL professional would certainly be able to help.

Break each long-term goal down again, into short-term goals that take one to three weeks to accomplish. Let’s say your overall long-term goal in vocabulary acquisition is to master half of the words (the first five sub-lists) on the Academic Word List. With a total of 300 word families in nine months, 15 word families every two weeks would be a reasonable short-term goal. When doing this step, make sure that your short-term goals are easily doable. If they’re not, or if you see that the combination of all your short-term goals is unrealistic, you need to go back and rethink your overall goal. Is this goal too ambitious? Or should you give yourself more time to accomplish it? Either way, you’ll need to readjust.

Now, break your goals down into very specific, ridiculously easy baby steps. This suggestion reminds me of another book I recently read, Mini Habits by Stephen Guise. The mini-habit is a very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day; it’s “too small to fail” and thus you’re much more likely to make it a regular habit. If your short-term goals are realistic, it should be easy to identify specific, easy mini-goals. For example, 10 minutes of vocabulary study a day should be sufficient to master those 15 word families in two weeks. And an effective, easy-to-use app like Quizlet should help you maximize your efficiency.

Set up your environment to make things easier. Here, Ms. Carter points out that you should make structural, environmental changes to facilitate accomplishing your goals … in other words, don’t rely simply on motivation and willpower. Remove temptations and distractions from your study area. Turn off your mobile when you’re working on your vocabulary words. Keep your study materials accessible and organized. Make sure you don’t waste time hunting for your grammar book when you’re working on a writing task.

Involve other people, even if you are an introvert. Other people can help us remain accountable and motivated. This is probably one of the strongest reasons to involve a teacher or tutor in your learning, but there are other ways to include outsiders. Perhaps you could find a study partner to review your vocabulary words. Or harness social media to find other people who are working on their English.

Identify why your goal is important to you. This step may seem self-explanatory and obviously it’s something you thought about in the very beginning of the process. But this step involves pinpointing the “why” of your goal, on the way accomplishing your goal will make you feel, which is more likely to motivate you in the long run. So, for example, you rationally want to achieve a 25 on TOEFL Speaking because you need that score to get into a university program. But how will improving your speaking ability affect you emotionally? Envision how you will feel when you are able to converse with someone in English confidently and calmly. Ultimately, those feelings can be much more motivating.

Make it a part of your identity. If your goal involves language learning, you should identify yourself as a person with knowledge of English. Collect evidence that supports this identity. I can carry on a 20-minute conversation with a native English speaker (even if I feel a little nervous). I can read an article in English (even if I don’t understand every word). I can understand at least some of the conversation in an American movie (even if they speak too quickly).

Make the behavior more enticing. Linking rewards with your goals increases the likelihood that you’ll want to keep working on them, but figuring out how to do this with language learning requires a little creativity. If you’re working with a teacher, find one who’s positive and encouraging and makes learning fun. When you’re studying alone, build in a little reward at the end of each session … maybe a piece of chocolate or a good cup of tea.

Make the behavior more habitual. In English, we say that humans are “creatures of habit.” We tend to prefer routines, doing things at the same time and in the same way; we often operate “on autopilot.” All things being equal, you’re more likely to do something if it’s a habit. So consider scheduling your vocabulary sessions at a certain time of day. Link one routine with another; maybe you could listen to an English podcast when you take your daily bus ride. Harness the power of routines to help you achieve your goals.

I hope these ideas will help you succeed in your own personal goals. Happy learning!

Why language learning is like swimming

Walking is a natural human skill. Unless they have some sort of disability, all humans will learn to walk … and talk. Talking in our first language, our mother tongue, is also a natural human skill.

Swimming is not natural. Most human beings, if they don’t know how to swim, will drown. It usually takes hard work to learn to swim. And it usually takes hard work to learn to speak a second language.

Most of the time, we need help to learn to swim. And we need help to learn a second language. Teachers and classes are great … but we can also benefit from online resources and books.

Like swimming, you have to practice your second language over a period of time to get better. You won’t learn how to do either overnight. You have to be patient with yourself.

Sometimes we have to overcome fears to learn to swim, and to speak in another language. When we overcome these fears, we make faster progress. But we need to be gentle with ourselves, and avoid getting angry or frustrated.

Once we learn to swim, and once we learn a second language, our work isn’t over.

Every time you go in the water, you have to make an effort. “Treading water” will keep you afloat, but in one place. With a second language, this is the same as practicing a little bit every day. You’ll stay afloat, but you won’t go anywhere.

To make progress, in the water or with a second language, you need to work. Consistently and diligently. Without effort, without pushing yourself, you’ll stay in one place with your language.

How do you do this? Incorporate language learning into everyday activities. Set goals for yourself. Schedule lessons with a teacher. Keep yourself accountable.

When it comes to language learning, it’s just like swimming. You can stop working on your second language, and you’ll sink. You can practice a little bit, and stay afloat but in the same place. Or you can make an effort, a substantial effort, and move forward. What is your choice?

Hilary Miller @ 2016
Translate »