Avoid These 3 Mistakes to Become Fluent
Why People Struggle to Learn a Language Many English learners struggle with fluency despite years of study. With more resources available for learning English than any other language, why do so many…
Improve Your Comprehension with These 5 Tips
If you’re learning a language, which skill is more important: speaking or comprehension? For me, the answer is obvious. Comprehension is the foundation of language learning. You can effectively communicate despite the…
How to Learn a Language for Travel: The Dos and Don’ts
Picture this: You’re in a bustling café in Istanbul, ordering a cup of Turkish tea. The waiter asks you a question, but instead of panicking or reaching for Google Translate, you actually…
Learn a Language the Natural Way
Many language learners and teachers cling to the idea that rules are the foundation of language learning. Memorize the rules, understand the structure, and fluency will follow—right? Wrong. The truth is, our…
Comprehensible Input and Compelling Input (CI)
What is meant by comprehensible input in language learning? Stephen Krashen uses this term, as well as the term compelling input, to refer to the kind of language exposure we need in order to learn a language. The term CI, in language learning, can apply to both. What do they mean?
Why I Don’t Use Comprehension Questions to Learn a Language
Comprehension questions are a staple of traditional language learning. You read a passage, listen to some audio, and then you answer questions to prove that you’ve understood. Sounds logical, right? Well, I…
The Importance of Reading
Of course, we want to speak, we eventually want to speak a lot. Our goal is to speak. We want to speak well, but the emphasis should be on listening and reading because it’s something we can do whenever we want, on our own and it really does help our brain become familiar with the language.
Language Learning Mindset: Take Your Time
Everywhere you look, people are selling the dream of instant progress in a new language. There are plenty of videos out there claiming that fluency can be achieved in three to six…
Breaking Through the Intermediate Plateau
Once you’ve been learning a new language for a while, you may notice that the initial, rapid progress has slowed down. Welcome to the intermediate plateau—a phase in language learning that can…
How to Expand Your Vocabulary Without Memorization
Accumulating words is the fundamental task in language learning, in other words it is very important to acquire new words. Many learners are under the impression that this is done through memorization. This is not, however, the most effective way to grow your vocabulary. I’ve never been able to learn new words by deliberately trying to memorize them. The more effective way to learn new words is simply through exposure to the language.
