TEACHING, LEARNING AND IMPROVING LANGUAGE SKILLS (continued from the preceding blog).

By Elaine-Kirn Rubin and Arthur Rubin

Below are more ways to teach, learn, or improve language competence:

Interact with others who have the same or complementary educational goals. If you can afford it, by all means hire a tutor or mentor; if not, find ways to learn from other learners.  Join—or drop in and out of—real-world and/or virtual meet-ups, as well as chat sites that engage speakers, teachers, and/or learners of your targeted language. In addition, forming relationships with participants who live/work nearby or in locations you travel to can be mutually conducive to learning more about a language or language ed. Relax, focus, and enjoy the relevant processes and their benefits.

Listen to the experts on how best to learn or teach a language. Below are some of the recommendations most frequently offered on the most valued and valuable language-education websites:

• Don’t make excuses for yourself (e.g., perceived limitations such as  age, lack of time, embarrassment). Adopt a positive attitude about language learning and draw on it for the benefit of yourself and other learners.   

• Do all you can to immerse yourself in the language that you are trying to master.

• Try to learn pronunciation, sentence structure and vocabulary not only through formal study, but from what you see and hear around you.  Be sure to check the accuracy of what you have learned with those proficient in the language you are studying.

• Don’t rely on teachers to force you to learn. Instead, take responsibility for your own language growth by choosing content of interest to yourself and others. Again, relax and enjoy yourself; try to get the optimal benefit from your own innate motivation or passion and use it to connect with, and help others.