Do you know why most students back off or leave a language unfinished? There might be a lot of reasons, like lack of time, no motivation, increased difficulty, procrastination, and low confidence, which makes us generalize that we don't have a bone for learning languages. But this truth can't be hidden any further. All of us are born capable of learning different languages; it's just that you have not yet discovered the best way to learn a language yet! Are you shocked? Learning a language can be much easier, more fun, and more engaging if you are equipped with the right strategy. All the above learning hurdles, like zero motivation, difficulty, and no time, can be easily tackled and resolved after you read our guide and religiously follow the best way to learn a language.
5 Proven Language Learning Tips To Improve Your Fluency
Even though learning a language is time-consuming, some proven learning tips will help you avoid repeating the same process and give you extra time to crunch in some practice and We have a compilation of tips, best practices, and methods of learning a language that you can use to be a master linguist!
1. Have your language learning goal in mind
The foundation of every skill or project starts with setting an intention or goal; language is no exception. Before you delve into how to learn a new language, ask yourself why you want to start learning it in the first place. Is it because you want to move to a different country? Are you attracted to the language, cuisine, and culture? or Do you want to upskill your skill repository? There can be uncountable reasons why you want to start learning a language. Being aware of them will be your driving force for motivation and help you push a little further in helping you learn the language effectively. Motivation isn't necessarily tied to big goals; your goal can be as small as watching movies without subtitles or understanding basic conversations.
2. Speak everyday
True fluency in any language is achieved when you effortlessly start speaking and understanding the language. There are a lot of useful and well-proven techniques that you can use to improve and brush up on your speaking skills.
Shadowing
If you want to polish your "accent" or are looking for chances to blend in with native speakers, shadowing may help you from your next "Pardon me". To practice shadowing, you would need to tune into a movie, series, podcast, or YouTube video in your target language and try to imitate or mimic the speaker in the same way. By modelling their speech, you can perfect your pronunciation and intonations or adapt to their speaking styles.
Join a language group
The best way to learn a language is to find like-minded people willing to practise their language skills with you. Be on the look for online forums, language learning apps, or your language classroom to build a sense of community building with learning. This is the best way to learn a language because you learn how to interact, communicate, exchange new information, and get mindful of your mistakes.
Talk to yourself
You don't need a speaking partner to practise speaking; you can do it alone! Try speaking in front of a mirror about your daily life, an incident, or something you enjoy doing. When practising speaking, pay attention to how you enunciate your words and phrases to improve your pronunciation.
3. Be friends with Native Speakers.
We know that even speaking to a native speaker might make you anxious or have shivers down your spine but engaging, talking, and practising with a fluent speaker is the best way to learn a language. No grammar textbook or language learning website/ app can ever beat the authenticity of a native speaker. There are innumerable advantages to having native-speaker friends in your target language. And you can get help from language apps to see the benefits for yourself.
Adapt fluency
You can get a lot of insights on speaking the language more natively rather than sounding like a walking textbook. You can update your vocabulary list with the latest slang and colloquial expressions, which are hard to find in textbooks, as most textbooks only teach formal forms of communication.
Learn about culture
Language and culture are very well connected, and native speakers are at the forefront in both aspects. They are more culturally aware of their customs and traditions, which benefit you in understanding many things.
Increase your confidence levels
By talking to one native speaker, you get comfortable conversing or starting a conversation with other people fluent in your target language. In short, it boosts your speaking confidence levels.
4. Learn Language Through Media
Learning a language isn't about sticking your head in textbooks or solving worksheets; it is about having fun and engaging. Traditional techniques of book learning are no longer the only best way to learn a language in today's learning age; the "media" boom has grown to new ways of learning a language. You can incorporate some of the following approaches to help you accelerate your way to fluency.
Movies
Your favourite pastime can be turned into a valuable learning tool. Movies are undoubtedly the best way to learn a language. Many language students use subtitles or dubbed versions to help them learn new vocabulary, sentence structures and adapt to native speaking patterns. This, in turn, makes learning easier and faster.
Songs
Tune into your favourite songs in your target language to help you speed up your learning process. Songs have long been used to introduce little children through rhymes and tunes to teach them language. This is because songs are mnemonic and are easy to recall. This same concept can be used when adults learn a language; they can listen to songs, understand some words and sentences, and recognize similar grammatical nuances.
Language Learning Apps
If you are a beginner or amateur at a particular language, installing language learning apps can be the best way to learn a language. Language learning apps are very beneficial in terms of learning at your own pace at any moment. Most of them are designed to focus on different techniques that help in memorization, retention and engaged learning. Based on the language you want to learn, an array of language-learning apps are available on your device. If you are confused about which one to choose, you can check out our blog, 5 Best language learning apps, and discover fun ways of learning a language.
5. Listen
This is the far most underrated advice regarding the best way to learn a language. As straightforward as it seems, this tip can go a long way if you want to learn the essentials of communication and language. In the initial days of learning a language, listening might seem foreign to your ears. You might feel like you hardly recognize any words, or the speaking speed is very fast to comprehend, but the more you put your ears on a habit of listening to songs, movies, or loud reading in your target language, the easier it will be to speak and understand.
Keep your motivation at an all tie high by checking out 8 motivational quotes to inspire students.
We hope the above tips will help you make your language-learning process less frustrating and gruesome. You can also check out our blog, five reasons to study a foreign language at university, to understand why you should always prioritize learning a foreign language.