5 Strategies for Learning Languages Productively at Home
You don’t have to travel or relocate. You simply have to be strategic.
As a foreign language teacher, I always look for new and innovative ways to help my students achieve their language goals. Not seeing progress after weeks or even months of study can be seriously debilitating. It drains your motivation and sometimes even makes you want to quit. Fortunately, as a teacher and a student myself, I would say that there has never been a better time to learn a foreign language than now.
First, let’s clear up some myths…
Most new students believe that to learn a foreign language they have to live abroad. That is a fair idea, because living in a foreign country could help to immerse yourself in the language of your choice. Nonetheless… Why do some people that live abroad never learn the local language? The answer is simple. To get good at a foreign language you have to live it. If you stay in your small secluded community without engaging with the language outside your class time or textbook, you will not advance fast, nor far. Therefore, I would recommend everyone who is serious about learning a language to surround themselves with it by creating an immersive virtual environment.
Create a virtual environment for your language goals
Let’s be honest. We stay online way more than we would like to admit to ourselves. Why not spend that time interacting with the language of our choice? By using the Internet wisely, you can advance in all of the 4 main skills that are required to become fluent in a foreign language. Those are: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Some of the websites and methods that I use to work on these skills are:
1. Babbel
Disclaimer: I am not sponsored by any of the platforms that I will mention, but I always recommend Babbel instead of Duolingo for very beginner students. It provided a good base for those who want to develop a beginner’s vocabulary as well as to learn some basic grammar. After you have a month or so using Babbel, I suggest that to move on to the second platform, which is…
2. LingQ
LingQ is a platform which provides you with an opportunity to simultaneously read and listen to the content of your choice. It has an inbuilt translator and vocabulary bank which helps you to learn and save new words. It is fantastic for reading and listening comprehension, although the use of grammar is not explicitly explained. Still, the option to read and listen to a passage in a foreign language helps to expand one’s passive vocabulary, which will be important in the next step of making it active.
3. Italki
For now, the apps that I have mentioned were aimed at comprehension versus communication. To develop your speaking muscles I would recommend using Italki. It’s a great platform where you can find either:
A professional teacher: a person that will teach you the spoken and technical aspects of a given language using their professional methodology, or
A community tutors: a person who will speak with you in their native tongue in order to help you communicate more freely.
I’m a bit biased with regard to Italki because I use it both as a student and as a Lithuanian teacher.
4. Podcasts
If you find a good podcast that is aimed toward learning a language, I am certain that you will advance quickly.
‘Why?’ you might ask.
Well, it is because you will spend more time with the language, flooding your brain with important information such as pronunciation, tone, pace, vocabulary, grammar constructions, colloquialisms, and so on. Unfortunately, studying a foreign language twice or three times a week for an hour with a teacher will not grant you great results. You have to constantly brainwash yourself with information and podcasts are a great way to do that.
5. Follow foreigners on social media
Given the fact that you already use social media (and if you don’t, I’d suggest using it for language learning purposes) why not start following people who speak your target language? Seek out foreigners who have the same interests as you do and engage with their content. Maybe they are influencers, celebrities, politicians, or artists. Whoever they are find them on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, WeChat, or other social platforms that you use. This will help you to spend more time with the foreign language learning new things without even feeling that you are ‘studying’ it.
In conclusion
I believe that learning a language should be a fun, exciting, and responsible process. Students have to take the learning process into their own hands and immerse themselves in the desired language as much as they can. The above-mentioned strategies can help you do that. Don’t forget, to learn a language you have to live it. This means that speaking with a teacher a few times per week will not suffice. Instead, try creating a digital environment that will help you to engage with the selected language outside your classroom. If you do so, you will be surprised at how much faster you’ll advance.
Thanks for reading!
If you want to learn Lithuanian or English in private, you can book a lesson here or contact me via email at: pauliusrjuodis@gmail.com
