Practical Ideas for Improving your Learning Archives

How to Recognise an Exceptional Language Teacher

Many language learners don’t understand that having a great language teacher is as important as going to a language class. What happens if the teacher is boring, or if what is taught does not interest you? Or worse still, what happens if because of the way the language is taught you leave believing you are […]

Can you learn a new language by watching movies?

It has been over 125 years since the birth of cinema, but the buzz and awe surrounding it has not faded one bit. From being an iconic creation for simple recreational purposes, movies have transcended into this multi-billion-dollar industry influencing the life of a common man in more ways than you could ever imagine. With […]

Importance of Feedback in Language Learning

Feedback in Language Learning A critical element to effective language learning, in fact to any learning, is feedback. Without feedback, we just could not learn. We would not know the results of our actions and hence would not know if any adjustment was needed. Feedback is what tells us whether we are on the path […]

The Surprising Power of Pronunciation

Anthony Larsen, a writer for SpanishHackers.com, guest blogs today on the power of pronunciation to help improve one’s language learning abilities. A few months after I started learning Spanish I took up a new job where I worked with mostly Spanish speaking Latinos who knew little English. I thought, “Great, this is an awesome opportunity […]

Improve Language Learning by Playing

Most people like to play, kids especially, even though there might be a few who might think it too frivilous! (Must be a very serious person! 🙂 ). However I am not sure what these people would make on Albert Einstein’s view on it – “Play is the highest form of research” Better understanding play […]

Welcome to The Dice Life: The Ultimate Productivity Hack

Morning. Latte, cappuccino, chai latte, frappucino – choices, choices and never enough time to think about what you really want. Best stick with the usual, one Americano, please (how exciting). Afternoon. Emails, projects, tasks, meetings and bosses! Which one to tackle first, who comes next and what has to wait? Decisions, decisions. Energy and time […]

How language learning can be like a game.

Learning language can be more like playing a game than most people think. Games are by their nature interesting and engaging so players tend to devote a lot of time to them and get a lot of pleasure from them. So if we could make it more like a game, there would be many advantages. […]

Making meaning the key

It is of course understood that in learning a language, the importance of meaning is paramount. This is taken for granted much of the time but on recently reading an article on a blog on how actors learn their lines, I was prompted to reflect on this topic from a different vantage point. I believe […]

What To Do To Ensure You Keep Progressing Your Language Learning

Many language learners set out and do achieve a certain level but somehow end up getting stuck at a level before their hopes have been realized. This can also be called plateauing or, if you plateau for LONG time, some language teachers talk about this as fossilizing! Now who would want to fossilize? 🙂 No […]

Watching Movies to Learn Language

There are really a lot of different ways to learn languages. Of the ones that work, and not all do so well, there are some common threads that can be extracted. I recently came across this comment made on a site that I wish to quote here in its entirety and see what we can […]

Language Learning Games

Have you ever wondered why video games are so additive (to some!). Wouldn’t it be great if we could get addicted to the game of language learning? That way we couldn’t wait to get back to it, we would be reluctant to leave it and our levels would keep getting higher and higher! Even if […]

Fun Language Learning Ideas

In many parts of the world we are entering a festive season. Whether it be Christmas, Hanukka, Kwanzaa, or just a time to lay down the tools and celebrate. So when you are going into a relaxing mode, or maybe a reflective mode, as some of us are prone to do at the New Year, what […]

Lessons From A Gifted Language Learner

In trying to better understand what it takes to become a great ( if you prefer, you can use better!) language learner, it can be instructive to look at gifted language learners and see what we can learn from their experiences in becoming “gifted”. This week we will look at Kató Lomb (1909- 2003), who […]

The Most Effective Language Classes

What are the best language classes and why? Many language learners go to language classes believing that is the best way to learn languages. Sometimes, of course, that may the only way, especially in cases where the language is not used where you live and you have limited access to resources. However, as has been […]

Habits in Language Learning

Habits are a powerful mechanism that can power our success or hinder it beyond measure. So it is imperative that we need to better understand in order to become better language learners. I don’t know if you have ever tried to change a physical habit like eating with a different hand or holding your fork or […]

Mistakes to Avoid to Successfully Learn a Foreign Language

I wrote a free Ebook some years back which detailed 7 mistakes you need to to avoid to successfully learn another language. For a while, I had the summary of the contents of that ebook here. Since then I have updated it and created a completely revised edition, with one mistake replaced with another, which […]

Good Conversation Skills ARE Important for Language Learning

Why Improve Conversation Skills?You may be wondering why this topic is important for someone who wishes to learn a second language. One of the biggest factors that hold learners back, especially in a second language learning environment, like learning to speak English in Australia, is the fact that many of them lack the necessary conversational skills […]

Mistakes Are Your Friend

One of the most coming reactions to mistakes is, “Ugh, that was silly” or “@#$%” or some such thing. Most of the time this comes from our training in school where mistakes are regarded as something really bad and to be avoided. In fact, if we made them too often people would start to call […]