01Aug
Reading a grammar book is like reading a manual
Reading a grammar book is like reading a manual. Grammar explanations are very hard to understand and absorb until we have enough experience with the language. As a person commented on a video I did a few years ago called “Krashen and Grammar“: “This is consistent with James Paul Gee’s statement that textbooks are “manuals”, […]
Read more Reading a grammar book is like reading a manual09Jul
How many words you can learn a day?
What is the average number of words you can learn a day? This is the title of an interesting thread at our LingQ Forum. I also did a video on this subject that keeps on coming up. There are many different points of view. I thought this comment from an English teacher was quite interesting. “During […]
Read more How many words you can learn a day?21May
Online Learning: ALMOST a Perfect System
I am a fan of online learning for languages. Without the Internet I could not have advanced so quickly in Romanian and Czech, for example. But online learning can have its problems. For three or four days last week, LingQ was so slow that it became difficult to use. We had not done anything different […]
Read more Online Learning: ALMOST a Perfect System03May
Romanian: learning a new language easier?
I have been learning Romanian for past three weeks. I can understand newscasts and interviews. I can even speak, although with regular pauses. Never have I progressed so quickly in a language. Of course, Romanian is related to French, Italian, and Spanish, which I already know. But then Portuguese and Italian were not this easy, […]
Read more Romanian: learning a new language easier?12Oct
Learning words, word frequency, graded readers and more.
To me the major task in language learning is the acquisition of vocabulary. If this is done through massive listening and reading, it will naturally bring with it a constantly improving familiarity with the language, making it easier and easier to...
Read more Learning words, word frequency, graded readers and more.29Apr
Language and culture
Language and culture are at the core of education, or should be. With all the debate about language learning methods, the definition of "linguist", input versus output versus grammar, the role of the Internet etc. it is sometimes useful to take st...
Read more Language and culture