How to to improve your language learning

Learning a second language for most people does not come naturally.  You have to put in quite a lot of work but even with all the work in the world, if you are doing something the wrong way and persist in doing it that way, the results may well not be forthcoming.

On top of the general difficulties faced by learners of a second language the fact is that every language has its own particular characteristics and nuances that present difficulties for people who wish to learn it.

Throughout this webiste you will see many proven ideas as to how to improve your language learning. So after you have read this click on one of the search terms to the right of this post and you will see a number of articles on most areas.

One of the critical elements in learning to speak a language are your listening abilities.  This is not talked about often enough nor looked at carefully enough.  Once you improve your listening, your language learning will improve because then you will hear more. There are many aspects to listening: listening for meaning; listening for grammar; listening for intonation; listening for hidden meanings, etc etc.  One of the most important items in the list of listenings is listening to yourself as a learner. The following video is a good example which shows the power of what is possible when listening to yourself is emphasised.  It’s only a titbit but actually it’s a nugget that can offer many insights as to what you need to do to improve your language learning.  At a later stage I will write more intensively about just this.

Improving your pronunciation by learning to listen to yourself

In this second clip, I show how it is possible to apply the same principles in helping this learner improve her pronunciation at the phrase level.  Once a learner starts to improve their listening abilities then they can start to take control of their own improvement.  For the discerning viewer it is possible to see that this process has already begun.

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On these pages we will be bringing you some of these nuances and particular difficulties. Keep in mind that that, for example, Vietnamese learners of English face different particular challenges to people coming from say Italy.

So when you look at what we bring out here, keep in mind that even though you may not find it a particular difficulty, other people coming from a different language group may well find just that. But from each example if you look carefully you will see ways as to how to improve your language learning.