When You Learn a Language, Remember to SMILE
Tips for Effective and Enjoyable Language Learning
Aug 6, 2009
Learning a new language requires a great deal of commitment and know-how. Even the best intentions can be misplaced if learners don't know how to get about and around the learning process.
One of the best technologies they can use is as simple as a smile. SMILE stands for strategies, methods, input, love, evaluation: if students combine all of these concepts together, they will fare through their language learning with ease and enjoyment.
Strategies for Language Learning
Starting with a road map and setting proper learning goals is the first step: how will they be achieved? It is necessary to spend some time devising possible routes and courses of action and review them often.
Do students want to learn a language to read the literature or to watch original movies? To travel to the country where the language is spoken? Or do they need it for a specific purpose? Answering all these questions is fundamental as they will increase focus and help select what works out more easily.
Together with planning and goal setting, working out a timetable is very important. Whoever is serious about language learning should set out for a minimum of fifteen minutes per day. If they are so busy, that they can't allow fifteen minutes in a row, they may go for three or more five-minute slots throughout the day. They will find that focusing on the language they are learning every day, rather than once a week, will help them retain information with ease.
Methods for Optimal Language Learning
Trying out a few methods, before committing to one, is a good start. Also taking a Multiple Intelligences online quiz is a great way to discover those modes of learning that are most natural to each individual. Does s/he have a predilection for music and lyrics? Or does s/he prefer reading written text? Is s/he very extrovert and loves chatting to people?
The ancient adage "Know Thyself" is a real must for every language learner who wants to put to good use their natural gifts in order to enjoy learning a foreign language. The best approach to language learning is holistic: that means trying to address all sensing faculties and engaging the imagination with entertaining and inspiring contents. Going for a dry grammar textbook and one tape, just to get along, won’t yield great results!
Trying out different things, meeting people who speak or study the language and getting together once in a while are excellent ideas. It is also good to get somebody to monitor one’s progress periodically, so that one’s commitment level soars. The web offers a wealth of free and inexpensive resources and tools for language learning. The possibilities are truly endless, even if one doesn't have regular access to the web.
Input in Language Learning
Some studies about second language learning, as described by Stephen D. Krashen in Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition [London: Prentice-Hall International Ltd., 1981], have shown that it is fundamental that the language input should be slightly difficult for the learner, but not overwhelming, so that s/he feels challenged and his/her interest is aroused. This means that one should be aware of the fact that to learn a language, it is better to proceed by using a gradual approach and balance between the obvious and the taste for the unknown.
Language learners may be interested in getting some expert help in choosing graduated language materials. It is necessary to bear in mind that there's a huge difference between language learning and language acquisition. The latter happens in the most natural of ways when one gets exposed to an environment where the language is spoken daily, and the input is not graduated in that circumstance. Language learning is more gradual and can be planned out consciously.
Love for Foreign Languages
Everybody should be deeply aware of their motives for learning a new language. Even if it was not their direct choice but their employer's, it is always wise not to let discouragement and boredom have the upper hand. Optimal language learners can find as many positive sides as possible to speaking a foreign language, and get to know the culture of the country where it is spoken. Nothing less than passion and love will do the trick!
If a person doesn't feel love for the language s/he wants to learn, then it will be helpful if s/he examined her/his personal attitudes and uncovered her/his hidden assumptions and fears. The secret lies in trusting oneself and the process, enjoying the experience and talking oneself into a positive attitude.
Love is the great key to effective language learning. A loving attitude can be cultivated and a true passion for foreign languages can be developed in time. If learners are open-minded enough to shed their prejudices, go with the flow and play a bit, they will have a taste of what it means learning a language by being fully present and involved.
Evaluation of One's Progress
Evaluating one’s strengths and weaknesses with regard to language learning, the achieved results as well as the outcomes of the learning experience is fundamental. Evaluation is not something that needs to be imposed on the learner from the outside. It can give many insights into the learning process and options and can also be fun. Having said that, it can be useful to get some help, in order to realize where one is in the learning scale. Anyway, this is something that should encourage the learner to go deeper and deeper and to devise new personalized strategies for optimal language learning.
Language learning can be like a lifelong love affair: getting to know the language and oneself in relation to it is a process that will set the student in for plenty of joyful surprises. It will be easy and fun if one remembers to SMILE: strategies, methods, input, love, evaluation are the ingredients that the self-aware language learner has to take into account for certain success.
For more tips about effective language learning read: Advice for Learning a Foreign Language.
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