For people who love languages, or would but were discouraged.
- Believe in yourself and have the right attitude
- Put in an hour a day
- Use a system that works... like LingQ
Free22Mar
Why you should make mistakes
Pako writes in his comment here that we should avoid making mistakes in our English learning. He also encourages English learners to spend more effort on input rather than on output, and on that point I do agree. The more you prepare yourself with...
Read more Why you should make mistakes21Mar
The bottom line
In this blog I have touched on a variety of questions that relate to language learning. I have talked about learning techniques. I have talked about the importance of choosing content of interest to learn from, about the importance of repetitive l...
Read more The bottom line13Mar
On learning many languages
The following is an exchange on The Linguist Forum. a question from your book Posted: Mar 12, 2005 12:22 PM Reply Hi,My name is Zhen-ting. I bought your book about six months ago and found your language-learning journey fascinating! I read your bo...
Read more On learning many languages12Mar
Why I am against teaching grammar
I am hoping to get some feedback on these views. I often hear learners say that they want to know why a certain structure or sentence is wrong. They are disappointed when a native speaker cannot tell them "why". There are all kinds of teachers who...
Read more Why I am against teaching grammar05Mar
Written and spoken contexts
In trying to copy from the Writing correction area of The Linguist web site I ran into problems with HTML text. The result looks a little messy. I am sorry. However, this text is interesting in that it deals with the issue of grammar based learnin...
Read more Written and spoken contexts03Mar
Trigger words
I want to try out this idea of trigger words as a key to learning a language. To learn a language, like English for example, you have to master the phrases. You have to be able to use phrases correctly. You have to use phrases almost instinctively...
Read more Trigger words27Feb
Testing
What is the best kind of language testing? For English learners. If the person being tested is going into an English language school or English language program I think it is unnecessary to test the learner. I believe that language programs should...
Read more Testing26Feb
What is coming next?
Over the next few posts I will talk a little bit about testing. How effective are the existing language tests for English? How do we know what our skill level is in another language? How can other people best judge our skill level? Is our own subj...
Read more What is coming next?24Feb
Obsessive compulsive disorder and language learning
In Jeffrey Schwartz's book The Mind and the Brain, he points out just how constantly adaptable the human brain is. Research has shown that this adaptability or plasticity continues throughout our lives. The brain is constantly retraining and rearr...
Read more Obsessive compulsive disorder and language learning22Feb
Improving Pronunciation
The following from our Linguist Forum may be of interest. One of our learners, Assad, sent an MP3 file of him reading a text. This enabled our tutors to pick out areas to work on and provide the following recommendation on improving pronunciation....
Read more Improving Pronunciation