Questions tagged [learning-methods]
For questions about methods, techniques, and/or practices that assist in learning another language
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Any apps for "progressive" language learning like Toucan?
What I mean by "progressive" language learning:
The student starts by learning a small amount of vocabulary and grammar.
When practicing the foreign language, the student replaces the ...
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What are some effective options for an American with no nearby Korean-speakers to learn Hangul?
After studying the evolution of language at a very superficial depth I've decided that I want to be able to communicate using Hangul at something like the conversational level. There seem to be no ...
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Why don't Chinese people who are eager to practice English simply practice with each other?
If you've ever been a "foreigner" in China (especially in major cities), you may have encountered the intensity in which some Chinese people try to practice English with you. I certainly ...
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How to memorize Indonesian words easily?
I don't know whether it's just me, but I think that many Indonesian words look very similar. Are their any ways to memorize them (i.e tips and strategies) or tools to help me?
Thanks!
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Which 'direction' to use for memorizing new words?
When trying to memorize new words, a person might have a list like:
boy - ولد
girl - بنت
Here we can assume English is native and Arabic is foreign.
My question is, which 'direction' should I memorize ...
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How can I squeeze language practice into small chunks of time?
Since my time is very limited, the most success I have had with learning
languages has been with the Babbel app; its focus on
small lessons (around 5-7 minutes) works well for me. However, there will
...
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Read new language with child
I wish to read English with my children. They are preschool age and have no English. I began by substituting the bedtime story with an English story but they got frustrated by the fact that they didn’...
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How to choose texts to use for "learning by reading"?
How to choose texts to use for "learning by reading"?
The style that one aims for?
However, how is one supposed to know whether the stuff that one reads is "good"?
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Is there any research on "natural" language learning methods?
All the language learning material I see seems to follow the school example of just throwing information at you. Sure it works but I have seen something that works better. What I mean by better is ...
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How to master English prepositions?
I have been trying to learn English prepositions so many times but so far I have failed. It is the only thing that gives me so much pain. I have watched so many movies or videos and also read many ...
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In what order should English grammar be revised?
I am currently 3rd in my college and I am planning to prepare for competitive exams. I plan to revise my English grammar as I sometimes find sentences wrong, mainly because of grammatical mistakes.
As ...
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How to improve my usage of vocabulary
I have been having troubles recently, related to vocabulary.
While writing essays or whatever writings in English, I recognized that my sentences were mostly consisted of 'simple' words. Such as '...
asdf
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How to learn sciences in a foreign language?
If someone wants to learn science subjects in a foreign language what should they do if there is not much material available comparing the two languages?Especially if one is yet to enter a university ...
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How can I know that I am making progress?
I learn English everyday. I keep on reading, writing, speaking and listening. How can I know that I am making progress? Is there any quantitative standard?
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Learning a language without studying grammar
I'm more or less capable of explaining my thoughts in English and I've recently started learning Spanish. Of course, there's a bunch of various articles/videos/posts on how to do it.
But one thing I ...
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Is it faster to learn new languages at the same time or one after the other?
For adults who are learning new languages, does the research indicate that it is better to focus on one at a time, or to study a bit of each more frequently?
What learning schedule maximises ...
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Learning schedule with multiple languages
I am wondering how to schedule learning my languages to get the best results and to give each of the languages enough time.
Currently I am learning English(C1), German(B2),Turkish(A2) and Spanish(A2).
...
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How do I learn to read and write a language I can already speak fluently?
Born and brought up in the city of Kolkata, I've been surrounded by people who speak Bengali almost all my life. We speak a different language at home and my schooling has been in a different language,...
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Why do so may native Korean speakers speak English flawlessly? (Without the hint of an accent)?
For a while a local TV station broadcast the English language version of the Korean Arirang network on a subchannel. What struck me was the number of Koreans who speak English with no discernible ...
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How to learn phonemic vowel length?
I recently started learning Mongolian and I'm having trouble with phonemic vowel length. I have great difficulty distinguishing long and short vowels both in listening and speaking. I find it ...
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When learning a second language, should one choose a program focusing on grammar and structure or one that focuses on conversation?
I have a friend who wants to learn English and is debating between two different programs. One is more focused on conversations while the other is more focused on grammar, reading, and writing. Any ...
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What is the best manual (non-program) research-backed SRS spacing?
I am learning Japanese Kanji via Remembering the Kanji, but this question could apply to any vocab or grammar flashcard sets.
I know that programs such an Anki have an algorithm that decides the best ...
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Spanish verb tenses cheat sheet?
This is rather embarrassing, but I lived in Spain for five years from the age 9 to 14, and I also went through their education system, but I still do not know when to use which of los tiempos verbales....
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What do Chinese students do with the lists of new characters in 语文 textbooks?
In my grade-3 语文 textbooks, we find lists of new characters which appear in the accompanying essay, such as the following:
I'm curious as to what what Chinese students actually do with this. I ...
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Constructivism Learning Theory for English language teaching
Constructivism is a theory of learning to help the learners to construct something based on their own understanding. it implies that learners are encouraged to construct their own knowledge instead of ...
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When the Foreign Services Institute says "X class hours" are required, how many hours of self-study are assumed?
From the Foreign Language Training website, we find e.g.:
The following language learning timelines reflect 70 years of experience in teaching languages to U.S. diplomats, and illustrate the time ...
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Learning to speak without thinking about grammar
I recently started learning (modern) Greek. As this is the first time I've tried to learn a second language, I have a question about learning to speak more naturally. Because Greek has such a ...
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How can one acquire a language just by listening without the visuals?
I have watched Stephen Krashen's talk on language acquisition.
And I learnt that according to decades of research and experience, the best way to pick up a new language is to acquire - just like ...
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Struggling with learning, especially without outputting
I'm trying to learn Japanese, and I know quite a bit already (I used rtk to learn the meaning/ stroke order or about 2200 kanji, know over 1700 vocab, listen and watch a lot of videos constantly ...
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Language learning seems tough and a long process
English is not my mother tongue, but in my country it was compulsory for all the schools to teach their students English right from KinderGarten. I remember we used to have a picture book of English ...
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I have been reading a lot recently but how to improve my writing skills?
I am a working professional and English is my second language. I realised that my vocabulary is very weak so I started reading. I don't have enough patience to complete a novel so I started reading ...
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Problems teaching the 'gn' and 'gh' to an English learner
I'm teaching a French girl English (I'm not a qualified teacher, I'm more of a language assistant, I'm an English native, I'm at university at the moment).
She is having trouble with pronouncing words ...
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Should I learn Japanese pitch accent right from the start?
I just started learning Japanese regularly, and I was wondering if it's worth it to work on pitch accent while learning grammar and vocab or forget it for now and start working on it when I can speak ...
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Is there any such paper that shows passive listening helps language learning?
I have been searching on Google Scholar to find a paper presenting research results on whether passive listening helps learning a language, but I could not find any. Is there any such work that shows ...
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Best teaching method for student with minor Aphasia
What would be the best way to teach a student a secondary language if they have minor aphasia? The aphasia isn't bad enough that they are losing their first language, but it's making standard learning ...
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Are there study methods aimed in particular at Chinese measure words?
Chinese has many measure words(*); in the HSK vocabulary, there are at least:
个 本 次 件 把 只 位 条 张 辆 包 双 层 刻 场 份 遍 台 座 节 趟 篇 棵 所 根 首 片 套 支 群 颗 顿 圈 项 顶 匹 团 幅 批 册 届 朵 壶 卷 艘 栋 枚 幢 束 粒 番 枝 株
(There are ...
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Are there books written specifically for bilingual or polyglots (i.e. not for learning the language but for proficient speakers)?
I started an experiment a while back of writing a story with someone who speaks a different native language to me (but we are both able to speak English). I thought the idea of stories where if you ...
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Studying with reversed flashcards
I've been using my language vocab deck in one direction, by viewing the foreign word and translating it into my language and thinking of the physical thing. I'm wondering if studying the cards using ...
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Going from 9.5/10 to 10/10 in grammatical correctness in spoken English
I speak French natively, with a level of spoken English I would rate at around 9 or 9.5 out of 10, in terms of grammatical accuracy. (My written English is at least as good.)
Problems I sometimes ...
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Approaches to conversational practice
I am a intermediate-advanced student in Spanish, B2 ish.
I found some really amazing C1-C2 grammar books and I am using that in class with a teacher to study and review topics in order and it's great....
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Can you point me to any good resources for learning Sognamål Norwegian?
One of my favorite bands, Windir, are from Sogndal in Norway. For that reason, most of their songs are written in their native dialect, Sognamål. I have heard many Norwegians from other regions say ...
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Is it possible to become fluent in pre-12th century English?
I would really like to learn to speak Old English, but it seems that spelling and pronunciation weren't exactly standardized in the early medieval times. In fact, I'm not sure we know much about Old ...
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Improving vocabulary reading foreign language literature on ebook readers, how to export selected vocabulary into a spaced repetition app?
For improving my vocabulary I read favourite novels and short stories, preferredly in the original (target) language. When my level isn't quite up to it, I read a translation (be that English or ...
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How to remember a big list of grammar rules?
So the language I'm learning has a lot of endings. A lot. The suffixes for verbs and persons change based off of the word ending, the pronoun used, the object even, it's complicated.
What it boils ...
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The "fully grammatical" approach towards learning Indo-European languages
I have stumbled upon this video on Youtube (sorry - it is in Russian).
Here's a short summary:
The spokesperson introduces the following scheme of learning an Indo-European language:
"Learn by ...
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Learning Hindi as a speaker without first learning the writing system
My girlfriend is Indian and Hindi-speaking and I would like to learn some Hindi so to be able to talk with her using basic sentences and improve through speaking.
I have been trying using Duolingo (...
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After stumbling upon a word in Chinese, how can I determine if it's worth studying?
Nowadays I'm reading opinion pieces and news articles in Chinese. I'm at a late-HSK5 level. I stumble upon many new words, too many to study them all, so I need prioritize some words and postpone ...
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French pronunciation
I'm looking for a guide to master my French pronunciation.
Ideally, pictures with proper tongue positioning inside the mouth.
For now, after 10 years of living in a French-speaking country, I ...
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How can I repurpose the time spent reading random stuff on the Internet to improve my Chinese?
This is my situation most days:
I'm too tired to study Chinese...
...but it's too early to go to bed...
...I know, I'll read random stuff on the Internet.
I feel like I could should be utilizing ...
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Modern grammar theories for serial language learning
When learning multiple foreign languages, would it be worthwhile investing time into mastering modern grammar theories (generative grammars, construction grammars, etc.) or are those too theoretical ...
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