• Home
  • Login
  • Registration
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS
ESLarticle.com
Tweet
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Blog
  • Members
  • Add Article

Top Categories

Teaching 509
Other 210
Classroom Management 138
Career Development 135
Learning Methodology 121
Study Skills 90
E-Learning/CALL 87
English Language Learning (ELL) 78
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) 77
Teaching Methodology 76
English Language Teaching (ELT) 73
English as a Second Language (ESL) 64
Teach in Shanghai
Home / Articles / English as a Foreign Language (EFL) / View Article

Publishing

  • Articles
  • Add Article
  • Articles Archive
  • Latest Articles
  • Popular Articles

Latest Articles

Jan 5, 2019

Metacognition in Reading Competency

As related to the reading process, metacognition can be defined as contemplation concerning one's own thinking processes or knowledge of one's own...

Jan 5, 2019

Mass Media Literacy Reflections for Language Instructions

"You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself." Galileo Galilei Mass media forms thrive today. As development...

Nov 30, 2018

Ideas for the First Class with New Learners

~~The first class with new learners can be an anxious one for all concerned – teacher as well as learners. Below are some tips to make that first...

Nov 19, 2018

10 Amazing Hacks for English Learners

10 Amazing Hacks for English Learners It is estimated that there are over a billion English speakers in the world, including native speakers,...

Nov 15, 2018

Building Reading and Writing Knowledge with Very Young Children at Hom

Education Today, December 2013 Building Reading and Writing Knowledge with Very Young Children at Home  Timothy G. Weih University of Northern...

Popular Articles

1143035 Views

5 Creative Ways to Decorate Your Classroom Bulletin Board This Winter

Back to school, fall leaves, Thanksgiving and Christmas all easily lend themselves to great decorating themes, but what to do when those are over...

381772 Views

Three Unique Ideas To Make Your Bulletin Board More Useful

Bulletin boards have long been existent in campuses. They have proven to be such versatile and useful aids in both the learning and teaching...

140672 Views

History of the Chalkboard

Walk into just about any classroom and you will find one: A dark green board on the wall, lined with pieces of chalk and felt erasers. Chalkboards,...

65168 Views

Report Card Comments

For a small minority, writing report cards isn't a big deal. But most teachers generally dread report card writing time. Completing the comment...

49173 Views

Second Language Acquisition: Swain's Output Vs Krashen's Input

1. Introduction: Input versus Output. A general overview In order to assess how compatible Krashen's and Swain's views are, it is essential to...


Tips for Acquiring a Foreign Language

by Chris Chardon

Mar 29, 2009 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) 7161 Views

_notregistered/art_1000_29ecb995a4~.jpg
If you are thinking about - or are already - studying a foreign language, here are two vital tips that you should know in order to get the most out of your study time.


 

First, a little background. It takes an average of 7,000 hours to acquire fluency in a language when you're starting from zero. Of course, it depends on what your native language is, and which language you're trying to acquire. Going from Spanish into Italian (or vice-versa) isn't much of a stretch, and native Spanish speakers can do it in about six months. But if you're going from, say, English into a linguistically unrelated language like Japanese, it's going to take a lot more time.

If you figure that you've got about sixteen waking hours per day, do the math you'll see that moving to Japan and completely immersing yourself in the language will mean that you hit the 7,000 hour mark in about fourteen or fifteen months. Remember, that's using the language every waking minute. Conversely, if you take a one-hour language class once a day, you're looking at about twenty years. And if your language class is an hour once a week, well... basically you can forget it. You're not going to live that long.

So the first rule is: make sure that you do something in your target language each and every day. The more time you can spend in the language, the better, and the more consistent you can be in terms of daily activity, the better. In other words, fifteen minutes each day is better than two hours on Sundays, simply because you're using the language every day. There is a continuity effect. And if possible, try to study in a different manner each day. Take your class on Monday, for example, then on Tuesday keep a diary in the target language. (Don't worry if you can't write everything that you want to yet, just write something original.) On Wednesday, meet a conversation partner for some language exchange. On Thursday, rent a movie in the target language and watch it for a while. On Friday, review a recording of the class (you are recording your classes, aren't you?). Meet your conversation partner again on Saturday and then on Sunday listen to some podcasts and practice repeating the words and phrases. (For that matter, load your iPod up with music from the target culture and listen to it all the time.)

In other words, mix things up and try to get as much time-in-language as possible. Again, consistency throughout the week will be better than picking one day and trying to cram for several hours. You want to become familiar with the language, and get used to using it on a daily basis, not look at it as a subject that you want to pass tests in. (Even if you do want to pass tests, the more consistent method will give you superior results.)

The second tip is this: Whenever possible, study from materials that interest you personally.

Textbooks are fine, but let's face it: most of them are boring to the point of felony. They are a more or less necessary evil for those first painful steps into another language, but soon (and probably sooner than you think) you can and should get away from them in favor of using native materials that involve your own personal interests. In my own case, studying Japanese, I ventured very early on into books about linguistics and fitness magazines, since linguistics and fitness are two personal passions. Although the materials were extremely difficult for my level, because I wanted to know what the Japanese were thinking on these two topics, I persevered until I could read both fields with a high degree of fluency. By wrestling with native-level input, I was able to acquire complex sentence patterns and technical vocabulary in those fields very quickly... and it was enjoyable doing so!

The key here is to harness your own innate motivation and make it work for you. It's hard enough to get yourself to study something that you're not really interested in in your own language; add to that the difficulties inherent in a foreign language and it's practically impossible. There are studies that show failure rates as high as 99% when students are learning from "dry" materials that they are not personally interested in, so why make things difficult and set yourself up for failure? Take the easier and more productive way of studying from materials that will hold your attention and make you want to learn.

So, to sum up: Doing something with the language every day, using materials that you are really interested in, will significantly increase your likelihood of success in acquiring another language . Your journey will still take some time and effort, but at least the trip will be shorter and more enjoyable!

Article source: http://eslarticle.com/pub/english-as-a-foreign-language-efl/1000-tips-for-acquiring-a-foreign-language.html

  • General Information
  • Pictures
Author Info

Author Name: Chris Chardon

About Author: Chris Chardon began studying Japanese in 1989 and moved to Japan in 1992. He started Able Language Services (http://www.able4language.com/) in 1999 after having worked for a major Japanese multi-national for several years as a translator/interpreter. Flue

General

Pictures:

Most Recent Articles

  • Nov 30, 2018 Ideas for the First Class with New Learners by Chris Chardon
  • Nov 19, 2018 10 Amazing Hacks for English Learners by Chris Chardon
  • Feb 1, 2017 Teaching EFL to Young Learners: a Massive Career Opportunity by Chris Chardon
  • Oct 12, 2016 Reflections on Standard English in EFL classrooms by Chris Chardon
  • Aug 7, 2016 Vietnamese Students' Problems With English by Chris Chardon

Actions

  • Print Page

Articles Archive

  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021

Random Articles

Career Development

The Games for Girls Being Introduced With Innovative Ideas and Variety

Computer games have become a common ground for many kids and children, in an environment where people are not finding enough space as well as...

Learning Methodology

Thoughts Are Reality

Is thought not energy? Thought is the energy source that allows man to create his world. Naturally, with thought (E), persistence (T) and focus...

Study Skills

Short Term Memory and The Ways to Improve It

Short term memory loss is a mental health illness wherein a person is unable to recall something that happened a few seconds or minutes ago. This...

Other

What You Need to Know as a New College Professor

As a new professor, there are lots of things that you need to understand and expect concerning your new work environment, as well as what they will...

TOEFL/TOEIC/IELTS

How A Private English Teacher Helps To Prepare You for Your IELTS Test

  The learning of the English language helps to provide individuals with many unique opportunities, which will allow them to expand work...

About ESL Article

ESL Article is a private ESL/TEFL site designed and maintained by educators and educational administrators. It was launched in August 2008 with the aim of bringing ESL/TEFL students, parents, teachers and schools information and articles about the teaching profession and learning community.

Icon Group Member

ESL Article is a member of Icon Group Thailand (IGT), a group of ESL TEFL TESOL websites providing educational resources and information to teachers, schools and students around the world. The group was founded in 2003 and now includes 15+ websites covering educational information services, teaching resources and e-learning.

What is ESL?

English as a second language (ESL) is the use or study of English by speakers of different native languages. It is also known as English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), English as an additional language (EAL), and English as a foreign language (EFL).

  • Home
  • Registration
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Help
  • Partner
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
​

© 2022 ESLarticle.com.
Member of Icon Group Thailand - Educating the Future:
TESall All TESOL  Total ESL  ESL Job Feed
TEFL World  TEFL Jobs Overseas  Teach Overseas
Asia TEFL  ESL Powerpoint  Teacher Training