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How to Be a More Successful Language Learner
How to Be a More Successful Language Learner incorporates the latest thinking about learner strategies and language learning. Language learners and teachers alike discover the psychological, linguistic, and practical aspects of the successful acquisition of a new language.
109 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 24, 2013
Kind of the epitome of over promise / under deliver. I eagerly tore through this book waiting for the pronouncements of rapid learning techniques to materialize. Although there are some basic, underlying explanations that were interesting and useful, I never got the payoff I expected. I feel like it's two-thirds of a draft that got published early.
Far better with the Farber book about language learning.
Far better with the Farber book about language learning.
May 11, 2024
Section "Before you begin":
- Chapter one talks about the intellectual and psychological predispositions for learning languages. For the latter, this includes aspects like having an emotional attachment to the language you are learning(where motivation comes from), being extroverted and having tolerance for ambiguity. Some people learn through rules and some through embracing the risk (trial and error). It's good to bear in mind these personal differences, so we could try to adapt our style according to the learning objectives we have.
- Chapter two and three talk about the language learning process and objective setting. The author highlights language learning is a long and time-consuming process, and it takes a lot of experimentation. It also affect us emotionally as we will make mistakes and appear silly, this is especially true for the adult learners. The common objectives behind language learning are: professional, educational, social and personal. Depending on the objective, you may want to reach different skill levels, for different aspects of the language (reading, listening, writing, speaking)
- In the chapter four planning your language study, the author introduces a difference between formal (classroom) and informal learning (natural conversations) setting. Depending on your learning style/objective, you may start with either of them, or both combined. There are some general tips, such as knowing your learning style, finding out how much time you can devote to language study, looking for a tutor.
- Chapter five: the communication process. This is my favorite one. The author introduces three activities of communication: expressing intention, interpreting message, and negotiations meaning. I quite like how author talks about negotiating meaning. What's meant here is that sometimes we might not be entirely sure of the intention from the speaker. In that case, we can rephrase it or ask a question back, to negotiate what's the actual meaning behind it. As a speaker, we could also pay attention to the audience's response and rephrase to ensure the message gets crossed. There are the referential and social aspects of communication. The former one is basically word to word translation. I like the examples the author gives about the social aspect, e.g. how language is changed when expressing respect/social status/belonging to a certain group. The key idea here is that the same meaning can be expressed differently depending on the social context. So one should pay attention to these two during the language learning process. In addition, there is a list of nonverbal communications: smiling, eye contact, head shaking, conversional overlap, turn taking, etc.
- In the language learning resource chapter, different tips are provided, e.g. depending on the goal of the learning (listening vs vocabulary), you may need different materials (videos without subtitles vs with subtitles).
My overall takeaway, is that as adult learners, we sometimes learn a language in order to communicate, and maybe the best way to achieve this is no longer through standard rule learning as we were taught back in school. We may need to take more risks and learn first the most essential aspects of a language in order to communicate effectively. This includes the social aspect as well.
- Chapter one talks about the intellectual and psychological predispositions for learning languages. For the latter, this includes aspects like having an emotional attachment to the language you are learning(where motivation comes from), being extroverted and having tolerance for ambiguity. Some people learn through rules and some through embracing the risk (trial and error). It's good to bear in mind these personal differences, so we could try to adapt our style according to the learning objectives we have.
- Chapter two and three talk about the language learning process and objective setting. The author highlights language learning is a long and time-consuming process, and it takes a lot of experimentation. It also affect us emotionally as we will make mistakes and appear silly, this is especially true for the adult learners. The common objectives behind language learning are: professional, educational, social and personal. Depending on the objective, you may want to reach different skill levels, for different aspects of the language (reading, listening, writing, speaking)
- In the chapter four planning your language study, the author introduces a difference between formal (classroom) and informal learning (natural conversations) setting. Depending on your learning style/objective, you may start with either of them, or both combined. There are some general tips, such as knowing your learning style, finding out how much time you can devote to language study, looking for a tutor.
- Chapter five: the communication process. This is my favorite one. The author introduces three activities of communication: expressing intention, interpreting message, and negotiations meaning. I quite like how author talks about negotiating meaning. What's meant here is that sometimes we might not be entirely sure of the intention from the speaker. In that case, we can rephrase it or ask a question back, to negotiate what's the actual meaning behind it. As a speaker, we could also pay attention to the audience's response and rephrase to ensure the message gets crossed. There are the referential and social aspects of communication. The former one is basically word to word translation. I like the examples the author gives about the social aspect, e.g. how language is changed when expressing respect/social status/belonging to a certain group. The key idea here is that the same meaning can be expressed differently depending on the social context. So one should pay attention to these two during the language learning process. In addition, there is a list of nonverbal communications: smiling, eye contact, head shaking, conversional overlap, turn taking, etc.
- In the language learning resource chapter, different tips are provided, e.g. depending on the goal of the learning (listening vs vocabulary), you may need different materials (videos without subtitles vs with subtitles).
My overall takeaway, is that as adult learners, we sometimes learn a language in order to communicate, and maybe the best way to achieve this is no longer through standard rule learning as we were taught back in school. We may need to take more risks and learn first the most essential aspects of a language in order to communicate effectively. This includes the social aspect as well.
January 13, 2015
the strategies are a good start, however, a n updated version would be more helpful. since many linguistics studies have incurred changes I'm language learning.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews