Nagi An - A Tool Case for Language Learning: 40 Tools to Become a Top-Notch Language Learner

A TOOL CASE

for

Language Learning

Includes 40 tools to become a top-notch language learner

Nagi An

Table of Contents

PREFACE

P eople learn in different ways and for different reasons.

The thing is, you can approach language learning from many different perspectives. You may think that the best way to learn is through immersion, and seek an opportunity to live in a foreign country for a while. Maybe you are good at memorizing lists, and therefore tend to learn best by applying mnemonics techniques. Some learn via song, some prefer flashcards, and others learn by watching movies with subtitles. Other approaches include keeping a diary to reflect upon your performance and reading a lot of material in the target language.

Such techniques are specific steps we take in order to accelerate our learning. Until we know what other techniques or tools exist beyond what we already know or apply, we cant be sure that we are learning in the way that suits us best. Its essential to experiment with tools we havent tried before to determine the most effective ways for us to learn.

In this book, I present 40 such tools for learning languages. My aim is to show you why, how, and when certain tools work, and to give you a thorough understanding of the techniques you can employ as you are learning languages.

I invite you to try them all, experiment with them, and mix and match to create a personalized process for yourself.

You are different from other language learners. Thats why your learning path should be different, too.

Build a language learning path that is right for you.

Why should you read this book?

K udos for deciding to learn a new language in the first place. It is a long and complex journey. With this book, I aim to equip you with the tools and strategies that will support you throughout your journey.

This book is a synthesis of the practical information I gained as I was learning German, Spanish, English, and Japanese. It is packed with essential findings regarding effective learning from the fields of educational and cognitive psychology.

These studies give valuable insights into how we learn and how our memories work, as well as which strategies are effective for language learning. My goal is to increase your awareness of such learning strategies .

When you are aware of effective learning strategies and understand how they work, you learn better. This is because you are consciously involved in the learning process in order to achieve your goals. Many studies support this observation . Here are the most profound takeaways from these studies:

• The best language learners are aware that many effective learning strategies exist, and apply them often.
• They understand the advantages of the strategies they apply; thats why they experience their positive effects more strongly.
• The best performers know which strategy to use for a specific language task, while poor performers implement strategies at random.
• Learners apply strategies more often when they are more motivated, so they become proficient more quickly.

These points are not only valid for decontextualized tasks, like memorizing vocabulary lists and learning grammar concepts. They also apply to real-life activities like reading and listening. When you receive explicit instruction on listening and reading comprehension strategies, your overall understanding improves.

Throughout the book, you will find various strategies that you can employ both for learning language mechanics and for improving writing, reading, speaking, and listening skills.

Another important thread throughout this book is the importance of taking ownership of your learning.

No learning technique or strategy can work miracles, so you must have a deep understanding of your own learning needs and objectives. With this in mind, I end the description of each technique with a section called Over to you. In these sections, I suggest various ways to employ that technique, or ways that others combine well with it. You can use the ideas in these sections as starting points to personalize your learning process.

Only you know your exact situation. What are your needs? What are your objectives within a specific timeframein two months, six months, a years time? Please consider these questions as you read about the tools. Then, combine several tools in the way that is most beneficial for you.

The best learners take charge of their own learning. Period.

How this book is structured

This book is divided into two parts. Broadly speaking, the first part includes techniques that can be employed during the initial stages of language learning, while the second part is for more advanced learners.

The tools I review in Chapters 1, 2 and 3 work well for building vocabulary and learning grammar topics. In Chapters 4 and 5, we look at techniques for contextual learning, including ways to improve reading, listening, writing, and speaking.

In real life, there will, of course, be an overlap between these two. For example, the tools you learn in vocabulary building will also be beneficial for writing and speaking. Or, you will be able to use a technique for improving listening skills when learning new words.

An important component of language learning is memory. Chapter 1 includes a discussion of how our working memory functions, and how we can leverage it to learn grammar topics and vocabulary.

In Chapter 2, we dig deeper into mnemonic techniques and other tools that link our prior knowledge to new information we want to acquire.

Chapter 3 dives into different ways to practice and repeat.

Chapter 4 deals with tools to use in order to improve reading and listening skills.

Finally, in Chapter 5, we learn which tools we can use to improve speaking and writing skills.

PART 1

CHAPTER 1:

EMBRACE YOUR WORKING MEMORY

P reparing information in a compact way so that your mind can easily grasp it is a key step toward becoming a top-notch language learner.

Imagine that you are at a business conference, meeting new people. You want to remember their names so that you can introduce them to colleagues that will join you later. If you focus wholly on this task, you will succeed to some degree, and perhaps remember four to five names. But if the number of people you meet increases considerably, you will, at some point, give up.

We all experience these moments because our working memory, the system responsible for holding such information, has limited capacity .

Working memory plays an important role in mental activities like remembering names. To take another example, imagine that you are learning a vocabulary list of 40 words. If you try to memorize them all at once, you can become easily overwhelmed. Studies have found that our working memory can store between four to nine units of information at any given time .

The solution is to decrease the amount of information flowing into our memory by breaking it down into smaller chunks. So, for example, we can alter how we learn that list of 40 new vocabulary words by breaking it down into 10 sublists of four words each.

You can approach many language-related tasks in a similar fashion. Look for ways to reorganize information and divide the learning material into groups and subgroups. These small chunks add up quickly, which makes learning lots of information easier.

The benefits of categorizing and breaking down information in this way are twofold. First, it prevents information overload, which can lead you to give up on the task at hand. Second, because it prevents information overload, it helps you focus better as you learn.

We often dont recall new information because we havent learned it well enough to begin with. The solution? Take breaks. In addition to breaking down the material, break down your learning time into small chunks.