Self-study Tips
Compiled for you by the SAC team
Whichever category you fall into, here at the SAC we have prepared a list of tips that will help you with self-study whether you are taking your first steps in learning a language or using it competently already.
And don’t forget! The SAC team is here to help you with any enquiries you might have, and to direct you to the wealth of material available for you to make use of, be it on site or online from the comfort of your home.
Let’s begin!
Before you embark on your self-study journey, there are a few steps that you might find useful in organising your study materials, aims, and methods.
Step 1
Identify the main reasons why you are learning the language.
This might seem trivial but if you focus on these reasons, it will help you to narrow down the material you want to cover and make learning much more manageable. In addition, it will help you with setting realistic deadlines to yourself and allow you to create a robust schedule.
Step 2
Be confident (but also honest) about the level you are really at.
There is no reason why you should be shy about your language skills. If, for example, you really believe you are an intermediate level learner then it will be of little use revisiting material aimed at beginners just because you think you are not good enough, or you are not feeling confident enough yet. In the same way, there is little to be gained by practising on advanced level material if you have yet to master the basics correctly, just because you want to advance quickly or you think you will somehow manage. You are likely to get frustrated more easily and more likely to give up as a result.
Step 3
Create a manageable, diverse, and flexible schedule to meet your goals.
Once you have identified the reason(s) you have for learning a language -as specified in Step 1- you have a set goal. In order to reach that goal, you will have to create your own schedule based on the time you have available, your lifestyle as well as your learning speed and techniques that work for you. No one knows these critical factors better than you.
Your plan
Your plan, needs to be manageable, meaning you should divide your learning into smaller, manageable chunks.
For example, if you are learning a language because you want to travel to a country where it is spoken, break down your plan into the most essential communication needs you might have while staying there: food, accommodation, basic greetings, and so forth.
To keep you actively involved and interested in the learning process, keep your learning diverse by changing it frequently! Practise listening one day, writing another, reading the following day, and so on. The combination and diversity of all the components will help you in truly memorising new skills and using them correctly. This way you will find learning both a pleasant experience and make attaining the new skill easier.
Finally, keep your plan flexible! Be sure to make provisions for changes in your plan when things move outside your control. These could be something like having a cold and not being able to work on your material with the same intensity for a while; or maybe noticing after some time that you are progressing much faster than you had anticipated. Thus, you can adjust your schedule accordingly.
Your plan
Top Ten Tips for Language Self-study
Enjoy the learning process
It goes without saying that we learn better when we are having fun. This not only means that our memory works best when it makes connections with things that interest us but also that we will more than likely come back to something we enjoy time and time again rather than something we find boring. For this purpose why not use:
- Subtitled/ Dubbed films (the SAC has an excellent collection of these)
- Music (perhaps you could search for lyrics online, translate the words you don’t know, memorise parts of songs you like in the target language)
- Books, comics, magazines and poetry (use any one you like or a combination of them to start noticing the different usages of language. It would be for example very different in a comic and a poem. You can find all of the above in a variety of levels as well – not all comics are easy, not all poems are hard to understand)
Identify items around you and name them
Particularly useful if you cannot travel to the place the language is spoken or you don’t know a lot of people you can practise with, this is an efficient way to get used to the speed of the spoken language used every day. Why not try also to describe something that has happened to you to an imaginary person. This will help immensely with getting yourself used to the (sometimes tricky) indirect speech patterns and phrases!
- Walk around the city
- Take a walk in the countryside
- Go into a room in the house (bedrooms and kitchen are particularly useful in this game) and name all the furniture and items found there
Create a sketch in your mind with real-life dialogues
Particularly useful if you cannot travel to the place the language is spoken or you don’t know a lot of people you can practise with, this is an efficient way to get used to the speed of the spoken language used every day. Why not try also to describe something that has happened to you to an imaginary person. This will help immensely with getting yourself used to the (sometimes tricky) indirect speech patterns and phrases!
Watch YouTube videos and lectures online
The former are great for noticing everyday, realistic language used at a normal conversational speed, the latter are perfect for exemplifying formal, specialised language. Do not underestimate this tip! Although it might seem like a passive exercise at first, this type of self-study is highly praised by linguists. Often referred to as a ‘silent period’ (because you are not required to speak), it resembles the way babies learn to speak.
Internet forums and groups
Whether it is a forum about your favourite hobby, music band or food, joining an online group/forum with users of the target language is a great way to not only practise your vocabulary, but also potentially a really great way of meeting and socialising with native speakers.
Join a society
Meet like-minded people who share your passion and immerse yourself in the culture of the country/countries the language is spoken in. Societies often arrange discussion groups, theme parties and field trips - all great ways to better understand another culture.
Use apps specifically geared towards language learning and/or practising
A quick browse of available language learning applications will generate hundreds of results and will surely impress you. Moreover, the applications that exist cover everything from learning vocabulary and employing grammar, to helping you practise your pronunciation. Download the ones you feel you need the most to your phone or tablet and you can access them on the move or whenever you get a spare moment during the day.
If you can, travel to where the language is spoken
Although, understandably, this is often a difficult and expensive exercise, it is also undeniably one of the most useful things you can do to aid your learning. The scenario will force you make use of what you already know (something that works particularly well, for example, with those who feel shy using the language in a classroom environment). Furthermore you will have the opportunity to use the language in real-life situations and to converse with people of different ages. Best of all, you will likely be buoyed by the encouragement you will receive from locals who on the whole appreciate efforts made to learn their language!
Testing
Use tests as a way to check what you have understood and are comfortable with – particularly with difficult grammatical concepts. There are many online tests available for this purpose and you can search for tests on specific areas of vocabulary, grammar, syntax, listening and understanding, and so on.
Be persistent!
Whether you are worried you may not have enough time available during the day, feel you have left it too late to begin studying, or are frustrated at your inability to pronounce a letter or a word correctly despite several attempts, just keep at it! Make sure you use the time you have efficiently by following the above mentioned tips. Remember that although it might be easier to master a language when younger it is by no means impossible to do so later in life, especially if you know other languages as well and can build on pre-existing patterns established in your brain. And finally just keep practising – that elusive pronunciation pattern will soon be a problem of the past.
