How to Study a Foreign Language

Language or any foreign language is a difficult task in itself. It is like building a tower out of blocks from scratch.

The more you learn about the language, the difficult it gets to comprehend the minute nuances of the language.

There is so many ways to tried and tested list of suggestions which might help you in conquering the difficult task of learning any language in the world.

To simplify, the major parts of learning any language are the same. We need to follow the same methodology and tactics for any language that you are planning to learn.

• LISTENING AND PRONUNCIATION
• SPEAKING
• READING
• VOCABULARY
• WRITING

LISTENING AND PRONUNCIATION

Every language in the world can be learnt by listening to the sound of the words that it uses. So you should always focus on the pronunciation of each and every important word that the language has and try to learn the way in which the language is usually spoken.

You need to practice a lot to understand the pronunciation of the words and for that you need to watch or observe people speaking the language properly and focus on their lip and tongue movements.

The pronunciation can also be improved by listening to the music having the words of the same language or watching movies. Try to practice and replicate how the words are spoken in the videos and make it a habit to do this every alternate day. The final aim should be to produce a similar sound of the words that the people in the video or music do.

Record your voice while you pronounce the words and rectify if there are any mistakes that you are making while practicing. You can also ask other people to listen to you and ask him to judge whether you are reproducing the same sounds or not.

Try to understand the meaning behind every word that you learn and pronounce.

SPEAKING

While speaking the language always focus on the accuracy and not the speed.

 Always make it a habit to read aloud while practicing. You can ask your friends to speak in the asme language they are also willing to learn the new language along with you. This way you will find a group of people who can exclusively speak the same language and can rectify each others mistakes.

Learn the grammar of the language because knowing the sound and meaning of the words is a different thing and using them in a sentence is another.

Learn to make small and meaningful sentences out of the words that you had learned.

READING

Focus on the grammar of the language because it is the backbone of the language. Always make it a habit to keep a dictionary with you while you are reading something in the language that you are learning.

Always try to learn new words and try to judge the meaning of them by intuition. This is how we can develop a confidence in ourselves and can accurately predict the meaning of the unknown words. Its not a tried and tested method but many people say that it can be effectively applied while learning any new language.

Always make a habit of writing notes while you are reading any unknown paragraph and later try to find the meaning of the words in your dictionary.

While reading a paragraph, try to first understand the sequence of the words and the meaning behind them. The read it second time and try to translate the meaning of the entire paragraph. Finally re-read it and digest the meaning of the words and the entire sentences in whole and come to a common conclusion about the meaning of the entire paragraph.This is how you develop a thinking habit in the same language.

VOCABULARY

Learning to use a dictionary is the best way to develop a vocabulary in any language. Make it a habit to understand the meaning behind the words and then try to memorise them as and when possible.

To aid in the above process, make it a habit of creating flash cards and frequently using them as and when you get time.

Make it  habit to read atleast 100 flash cards in a day.

When you see various things around you, try to say the name of them in the same language that you are willing to learn. Let you brain understand it completely so that it can recall the same words at the required time.

Whatever you learn, make notes in a diary and go through them every week.

WRITING

1. Start building small sentences using the words that you had leant. Make sure you are able to understand the meaning of the complete sentence.

2. Pay attention to word order and forms

3. Make it a habit to write using proper grammar rules