Effective Learning Strategies From “Making it Stick”
In the quest to master new skills or languages, one challenge stands out: making information stick. Drawing inspiration from Peter C. Brown’s Make It Stick, we’ll take a look at some effective…
Breaking Through the Intermediate Plateau
Once youāve been learning a new language for a while, you may notice that the initial, rapid progress has slowed down. Welcome to the intermediate plateauāa phase in language learning that can…
Monolingual or Bilingual Dictionaries for Language Learners?
Which is better for language learners, monolingual or bilingual dictionaries? This question often comes up. A monolingual dictionary explains the meaning of a word in the language that you are learning. A bilingual dictionary provides a translation…
The Three Language Acquisition Stages
They say āyou are what you eatā. In the global information age, maybe it should be āyou are what you can sayā. Language, in its varied manifestations, is mankindās defining achievement, and it also defines us. Language can be social, political, technical, practical, entertaining, sensual, philosophical, and much more. At the banquet of life, each language is another course. The better you can use languages, your own and others, the more you can enjoy the feast. At least that has been my experience.
Language-Learning Basics, Again and Again
I want to talk about language learning, the basics that is. The basics in a language are important. It is important to speak correctly, it is important to focus on key patterns,…
Language Goals and Frustrations
I had lunch earlier this week with a college professor who is head of the Asian language department in a large university here in Vancouver. He told me that a majority of…
How to Avoid Language Attrition
Many people, even if theyāve only learned one foreign language, may only visit the country where the language is spoken once a year or once every few years, so it can be hard to maintain or improve those language skills. Not being able to maintain a language can lead to something many multilingual people fear: language attrition, or the weakening or loss of a language. In my case, I claim to have 16 languages, and so language attrition is a concern.
Can We Learn to Speak a Foreign Language Like a Native Speaker?
I can speak 17 or so languages to varying degrees of fluency. Some I speak really well, like French, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish. Even in languages that I speak less well, like Swedish, German, or Russian, my accent is not too bad, people tell me.
Language Acquisition: Do Children Learn Faster Than Adults?
I think that children learn faster than adults. There is ample evidence of this, for example amongst immigrants to Canada. Rare is the immigrant family where the children donāt speak English, or…
Effective Language Learning: Listening and Reading
I want to cover the issue of input-based learning that I have spoken about in two past YouTube videos in Chinese and Japanese. It goes by different names but basically amounts to spending most of your time on listening, reading, working on your vocabulary and becoming familiar with the language rather than on output-activities or grammar-focused activities.
