Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Succeeding With A Foreign Language Course

By Harry Trueman

Some basics: Foreign language courses are quite different from other courses so you must never drag your feet about it. You can consider yourself a failure if you delay matters with regard to a foreign language course where it is compulsory for every student to plug in a minimum of 3 hours weekly and 15 minutes on a daily basis. Use additional time whenever possible although you should never spend more than 45 minutes studying the language in one session.

Partition your study into many small sessions. It is imperative that you attend classes regularly, if you are sincere about your intentions of learning the language and pass the course. Evaluate your past learning regularly for your own benefit, for example check out the vocabulary. Here are some ideas to make the learning of different sections of a foreign language course simpler.

Comprehending the printed materials: Concentrate on reading for comprehension without looking up every unfamiliar word. Read a little bit of the language every day, especially the chapters in the textbook.

Start to communicate: Do not feel embarrassed if you make mistakes, simply hear what others are talking about and start to speak. Start to talk in the foreign language with your class mates, with yourself as well as with your pets.

Noting it down: Know how to express yourself in writing everyday till it comes a part of you.

Take a dictation of a small portion of the language from a friend and then check it for correctness.

Some Miscellaneous Helps: View the foreign language learning positively and set achievable goals. Ensure that you have set objectives and are clear about the paths which would take you there. If you need help get it and do not be afraid to ask questions or ask for help for fear of sounding stupid, or being embarrassed. Ask questions, get help and never feel awkward to ask for assistance. Get audio tapes of the language and listen to them or make you own tapes and listened to yourself in order to perfect your pronunciation. Get some audio tape made using the language or you could also record something and then listen to them as this would make your pronunciation perfect. An interesting way to develop vocabulary is to make flash cards where different colors depict different genders and words like nouns, verbs and adjectives. If you study in groups you can also access help from your classmates.

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