Learning How To Learn A Language - The Three Pillars Of Language Acquisition
My school never taught me how to learn a language. As a result, I struggled for years trying to learn a number of foreign languages. To help me finally have some success in my language learning, I had to teach myself about the techniques used by successful language learners. I learned that in order to really become fluent, language learners have to develop three very distinct langugage centers their brains.
Speak It To Learn It
In order to learn to speak a langauge, you have to speak the language. This is the first ingredient of success. This is the primary skill to develop and also the most neglected aspect of learning a language. In order to competently speak a second language, you have to speak it, often. It is as simple and as profound as that. The main purpose of learning a language is to communicate. However, if you spend all of your time memorizing vocabulary and burying your nose in grammar books, you will never get beyond a simple conversation in the language.
Practice Listening
The second major area of language learning is learning to hear the language. In order to have a conversation, you have to be able to understand the person who is speaking to you. To be successful, you have to open your ears to the sounds of the language. For best results, you need to immerse yourself in the sounds of the language. Spend as much time as possible listening to podcasts, conversations around you, the radio, radio, etc., all in your target language. At first everything will be unintelligible. However, over time you will slowly start to recognize certain patterns and rhythms. In time, you will begin to recognize individual words. At a certain point in time, you will begin to start to understand meaning. But all of this takes time. You have to expose your ears to to the sounds of the language.
Reading Practice
The final area of how to learn a language is to learn through reading. It is common for people ignore this step, but it a very powerful method of learning a language. As with listening, reading is another way to immerse yourself in your target language. The key is to read popular magazines and newspapers in the language. Using this method, you expose your mind to the language as it is actually used. You will also develop a sense of correctness about the language. You will know when things just look right
To maximize your success with your language, a good starting point is to study how to learn a language. The most successful language learners devote time to each of the three main disciplines of language learning: speaking, listening, and reading.
