Saturday, February 14, 2009

Learn A Foreign Language

By James Dean

Some basics: Foreign language courses are quite different from other courses so you must never drag your feet about it. Any postponement is deemed as a failure in a foreign language course where you need to devote a minimum of 15 minutes a day for a minimum of 3 hours a week. While you need not put in more than 45 minutes learning the language in one session, try to accommodate all the extra time you have in your hands.

Partition your study into many small sessions. Attend classes regularly, if you want to pass the course and you are serious about the language. You could review your previous learning like the vocabulary - this would stand in good stead. Here are some pointers given below which can make the job of learning a foreign language a walk in the park.

Perusing through printed matter: Try to comprehend what is written rather than worrying too much over unknown words. Make it a routine to browse through the chapters of the textbook everyday.

Move on to talking: Everyone makes mistakes so listen to what others are saying and start to talk. You can start practicing the foreign language by talking to your self, talking to others who are in the same class or even with your pet dog or cat.

Putting pen to paper: Practice your skills on putting down your thoughts on paper till it becomes effortless.

Take a dictation of a small portion of the language from a friend and then check it for correctness.

Miscellany: Study the foreign language with a positive frame of mind, have pre-set objectives and goals. Ensure that you have set objectives and are clear about the paths which would take you there. If you need help get it and do not be afraid to ask questions or ask for help for fear of sounding stupid, or being embarrassed. Ask as many questions as you want and always seek help if you stumble as there are nothing to feel shy about. Get audio tapes of the language and listen to them or make you own tapes and listened to yourself in order to perfect your pronunciation. One of the most successful ways to have correct pronunciation is to learn through repeated listening of audio tapes of others or those made by you using the language. Make colored flash cards which help you to grow vocabulary where different colors are used to convey genders and words like nouns, verbs and adjectives, etc. Practice in study groups and become good friends with some of your classmates because they can help you out.

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