[Start 3/15/2020]
1. Decide the language.
2. Set some goals. This will change and be adjusted as you learn.
3. Obtain reference material and make these tools available.
4. Use different learning strategies and review progress.
Although numbered here, the ideas build into each other and jump from one and back to others. With more time, more changes and ideas develop!
1. Decide the language.
I asked myself some questions to help gauge my motivations. Motivation is important.
What language do you want to learn?
Why do you want to learn the language?
More so, why do you want to communicate using another language?
To better communicate with family, friends, for and on the job or career, a visit to a new location, other reasons?
How long do you expect to make such communication, or is this a hobby for just something to do?
How long do you want to study the language?
How much time can you put or want to invest toward learning the language?
Example:
German
To speak with family members.
I want to better communicate with my family members that speak German.
To speak with family members.
I can stay in communication with my family all my life. It can be an interesting hobby/new skill as well.
I will study as long as it takes I suppose.
I have time now to apply an hour everyday, more or less on other days, and maybe I can stick to this schedule every day.
These questions and answers give me an outline of what I want to do (my objectives or goals), why I want to do them (reason for motivation), and when I will do them (realistically thinking and beginning planning for the commitment to learn).
2. Set some goals
Learning a language is not easy. But nothing worth doing is easy, and the benefits to learning a language go beyond that of the language. You also learn about your own language, and a lot more about yourself.
By setting some goals, objectives can be set, a reference for the start is made, and the ability to self evaluate progress can be developed. For language, possible goals can be number of words, difficulty of reading material, ability to talk and ask for the basics, ability to have a conversation, to being "fluent" in the language as well as native speakers. I'm can't cover all the ideas, but will show my approach.
Number of words. See reference 5 for an idea and reference of the information. Many languages have over 100,000 words. Fluency noted to be between 15,000 and 20,000 words. Newspaper reading brings the count down to a little under 10,000 words. To understanding television, about 3,000 words. The article gives an idea that knowing about 800-1000 words may be the minimum needed to caveman speak through a language with some amount of success. Even less if you just want to say common greetings or to be polite, but not actually communicate anything much more complex.
A good start for me was to look up the 1,000 most common words of the language. Internet searches would give a list of 1,000 words, but it usually took the common English 1,000 words and just translated them to another language, not actually evaluating the most common for the other language. This was good enough for me. Goal Created: From this I obtained and selected 847 words to start as a base of some knowledge. So I worked to study these works and have some fun seeing how much I could memorize, that I would be able to recall later. More goals developed the more time I put into the study of learning the language.
3. Obtain reference materials and make those tools available.
Reference material is valuable to learn a language. Specifically for words, having more than one dictionary is good as not all dictionaries are the same. For German, I wanted an English-German dictionary. If the definition shows additional information such as gender, singular vs plural, sample sentences, etc. then that was even better. Thus why I mention the need for more than one dictionary. Some dictionaries have at the end of the book lists of words suggested for vocabulary building, chosen for some reason, perhaps from the most commonly used by the language. Grammar textbooks were created to help teach how words are used in the language. As different books have different approaches, having multiple of these textbooks as well has its benefits. A translator of some sorts is a great tool. The internet has enter/paste text input translators that will convert to the other language quickly. Although these translators have varied degrees of accuracy, the speed and ease to obtain partial accurate meanings is useful. Pen and paper has its uses and benefits, as well as using a computer. Computer is my choice.
4. Use different learning strategies and review progress.
People learn differently and have different resources available, particularly motivation, time spent toward a language. So use what you are good at or what works best for you. Also it is best to try to have fun and enjoyment while you are learning as this will help motivation.
Strategy 1: German to English Flashcards I started with the idea to memorize 847 words. I used flash card style, being shown the word of the other language then recite the English word. For me this was a good start. After about 25 hours of such flash card reviewing across a little under 50 days, I feel good that if I had to review all 847, I would get over 80% of them right, if not up to 90%.
What makes that last paragraph powerful is that I can see progress. I can see the time I invested and the accomplishments I made.
To test myself, I looked up a random article, took a sample part of the article, and pasted the text into a typing program. I then took the word count. This sample was 110 words. I then "read" or scanned the words to see how many I recognized and knew, or thought I knew. I counted about 15. That is about 13% of the article I had some idea what it was about. I then pasted the text in the translator. This allowed me to confirm I knew some of the text. Of course, after reading the translated version, I must say I had an idea of the topic of the sample, but I did not comprehend what the sample was saying, again I note only 13% understanding. Even if you never studied the language, if you look at 100 words in an online article, you are bound to understand a few of the words as English is so prevalent to global times. Words, often of inventions, such as email, automobile, telephone, or television. If you know 2 words that are English in the usage, that gets you up to 2% from the start. Also the level of difficulty of the material you are reading puts such as test into perspective. But such a review from a pure memorize 847 words does reveal progress and some success for my time. I know I can do better, but I am pleased.
Such a test points out my success, for motivation, and my weaknesses to shift my course of study. This targets reading, and perhaps I can recall one or two words I can say during a conversation. Do I know enough make use of the language, I say no. I need to do more, use other strategies. Although such a review of my progress is good motivation, it also indicates areas where I lack use of the language. I can play a game of memory with these words, or a word search within an article and say I know what that word means, but that is the limit. I can't pronoun them, understand them if people spoke most of them, speak many of them myself, and if I have to write them down they would be misspelled. For my flash cards, the next strategy is to see the English word, then see if I can remember the German word Strategy 2: English To German Flashcards. So using the flash cards both ways is helpful, a concept I wasn't doing. This to me was harder, but also improved my memorization of the words. Another method is to see the English word, then write out the German word, Strategy 3: English to German Writing. By writing the words out, I improved my memorization of the words, and also improved remembering how to spell the words, which helps if I were to write the words down. To help spell the word, it helps to say the word out. Now I am starting the concept of writing with the language. My flashcard program has the ability to add sounds or voice, so that the flash card will read the word, and could do so with some degree of accuracy on how it should be pronounced in German, Strategy 4: Listen to the Word. Again this had multiple benefits such as improving my verbal speech of the language by pronouncing words correctly, it helped my spelling as hearing the word helps to spell the word, and it improves my memorization of the word as I am using it in another way. Here I hoped to show that using different exercises or strategies helps to improve knowledge of the language by building onto and improving my previous knowledge.
Next I introduce the benefits of the grammar textbooks. Designed to teach the language, they often start with the basics as you learned in your native language, the alphabet. Different language have different letters as with these examples for German: ß, ä, ö, ü. The grammar textbook also explains how to make sentences, the use of different words such as verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc., and other rules of the language. Rules on making singular nouns to plural, or gender specific nouns usage, or verb conjugation, and others help aid in understanding the words through their different uses, but also increases the vocabulary. When such rules are learned, the pattern figured out, such patterns can be applied to better understand words and their meanings, and even help to aid an understanding of unknown words and the means of lines of text. Strategy 5: Learn Rules of Grammar. Rules of grammar covers many strategies as each rule can be used to create an exercise to practice the language. Grammar knowledge is vital to communication, words are not enough.
By performing different strategies through different exercises, the knowledge of the language is improved, and more of that knowledge is retained. Combinations of strategies and use of the tools available build onto each other, strengthening the knowledge of the language. With so many different strategies available, you can focus on what provides the most success or what is the most fun for you. If you incorporate a way to track your progress and see results of your study, you can then adjust to make the most of your time and resources for maximum learning. This doesn't happen on day, and the goals and strategies used change and adapt to improve efficiency for what works best for you. So it is good to work to adapt your learning of the language as the study is what you make it, tailored for you.
The language must be tested, tried to be put into use. This helps adapt your study methods, see progress, and adjust goals. It also tests your boundaries and pushes your limits showing your weaknesses and strengths. My start was memorizing words. Yet it has not grown from just reading a few words, to reading articles, writing, speaking, listening to, and trying to use the rules of grammar to communicate messages using the words. Making use of the language as much as you can, every day is powerful to learning. Being immersed into an area where the native population speaks the language forces you to make such use of the language daily and is probably the best way to learn a language (See reference 2). But if you don't have that, then you have to stick to other methods.
I don't just want to know a few words now. I now have new goals such as being able to read articles and raise my understanding higher than 13%. Rather that just reciting a word here and their, I wanted to be able to actually make sentences, then make conversations of the language. I hope that once I understand more of the written word, followed by my ability to speak some, I then hope to be able to understand what others of are saying to me in the language. Again, this all builds onto itself and shows different aspects of communicating in another language.
Success
Success is what you make of it. Learning a single word is successful, and learning 10,000 words is successful. There is no completion, only continuance to learn more. Goals are set to strive for a direction, sometimes never to be reached, are always extended to the next level, yet one can still be very successful. The goals and strategies will always change, it is more of growth than an ending. For me learning is a way to self improve and be productive to myself. I can be the person that has watched a lot of TV. Or I can be a person that has watched a lot of TV and can speak some German. Which sounds better?
Thank you for reading. Have a nice day!
Comment if you would like.
References:
1.Wikipedia contributors, "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages&oldid=944974535. Accessed 15 March 2020.
-Presents the idea of the ability of proficiency to use a language with ideas on the amount of time it takes. Experiences from Europe and their many languages.
2.MORA, JOAN
C., and MARGALIDA VALLS-FERRER. “Oral Fluency, Accuracy, and Complexity
in Formal Instruction and Study Abroad Learning Contexts.” TESOL Quarterly, vol. 46, no. 4, 2012, pp. 610–641. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43267882. Accessed 15 Mar. 2020.
-Study abroad, living in the place of the language, is powerful to boost oral fluency of a language.
3.Kim,
Young-Suk Grace. “Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading
Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency,
Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension.” Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 4, 2015, pp. 459–481., www.jstor.org/stable/43999135. Accessed 15 Mar. 2020.
-Provided some concepts: Reading vs comprehension x words vs text vs listening, and can even be applied to speaking. Vocabulary and grammar described as independent.
4.Pikulski, John J., and David J. Chard. “Fluency: Bridge between Decoding and Reading Comprehension.” The Reading Teacher, vol. 58, no. 6, 2005, pp. 510–519. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20205516. Accessed 15 Mar. 2020.
-Helps to define what is fluency of a language. The focus was on reading: giving the idea of word recognition to understanding the meaning of the text, in a quick, accurate, to read out load the words, and understanding when not reading out loud. But for my thoughts, could apply similar to verbal communication in understanding words and putting them together in context to understand the meaning, and the ability to communicate to others a meaning they can understand.
5. Sagar-Fenton, Beth, and Lizzy McNeill. "How many words do you need to speak a language?," BBC News, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44569277. Accessed 15 March 2020.
-Gives an idea of how many words you need to know, with caveats.
