Faster Foreign Language Learning

I recently came across and interesting article at Antimoon’s learn English online site discussing problems with the Communicative Approach to language learning. This approach encourages you to communicate very early in your learning, often from the first lesson.
Now, I do understand what the author is saying—you should get input and lots of it [...]

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One of the biggest problems that hold many people back from being able to learn a language fast is lack of organization.
Sure, some people may say it’s because they don’t have time to study, but what that usually means is that they haven’t organized their learning plan well enough to take advantage of the [...]

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No matter how much you love the language you’re learning, if you’re learning at reasonably brisk pace, burnout is always a risk. Fortunately, language learning burnout is relatively easy to get over.
Put Away the Books
Foreign language learning burnout often happens when you’re concentrating on book learning. When you’re spending most of your study time [...]

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Because foreign language learning is a long-term project, setting specific, achievable goals is critical if you want to stay on track and make continual progress at a good rate. You first time planning your own course of study, though, it hard to know where to start. Here are some tactics to help you set good [...]

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If you can read this, you absolutely do have what it takes to learn another language. Learning a foreign language as an adult does not take “above average” intelligence or any particular “aptitude” for languages.
Unfortunately, though, a lot of would-be multilinguals get thrown off track by stumbling blocks that have nothing to do with their [...]

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As you probably already realize, the question “How fast can I learn a language?” has no single answer. It depends on what you mean by “learn,” how motivated you are, the amount of time you have for practice, the study material and practice partners available to you, your target language, and of course, you’re language [...]

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When you’re just starting to learn a foreign language, the thought of trying to build the kind of vocabulary you need for real fluency can be overwhelming. It’s hard to know where to start. The good news is that when you’re learning for first few hundred words, there’s nothing wrong with starting slowing.
Be Picky
Linguist [...]

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Grammar is important, but until you have a decent-sized vocabulary, it’s all but useless. After all, grammar only works when you have words to apply it to. That means when you’re just starting to learn a foreign language, vocabulary building is the thing to focus on. Of course, those first few hundred words are also [...]

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Lots of people—even those who love learning foreign languages—claim they hate studying grammar. They associate grammar study with tedious gap-fill exercises, boring rote memorization and the frustration of getting it “wrong” again and again.
While you will, at some point need focused work on grammar, there’s no reason grammar drills should take up the bulk [...]

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If you’re interested in foreign language learning, at some point you’ve probably wondered how to learn a foreign language faster. We all know high school classes and even some professional language courses can drag on for several years and still leave just barely able to communicate in your chosen language.
And yet, with the right [...]

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