List of Language Learning Techniques

Hey guys :slight_smile:

I´m a German LingQ tutor living in Canada. I´ll start my first “real” teaching job in February and, surprisingly, I can basically teach whatever I want.

It´s probably a good idea to teach them about different language learning approaches/techniques/you-name-it. That´s why I decided to create a list of methods I know. I´m doing this to figure out what I´ll talk about. I won´t use the list to figure out how I will teach my class.

My question ---- Can you think of techniques that are --significantly-- different from the ones I listed below?

  1. LingQ (Focus on reading and listening. Grammar optional. Speak once you feel “ready”)
    1.2 Birkenbihl method (word-for-word translation, input before output)
  2. Grammar-translation (fill in the blanks, vocab lists, grammar explanations)
    2.2. Translating back-and-forth
  3. Speak from Day 1 (Focus on learning phrases and speaking)
  4. TPR (The teacher teaches through body language, context and commands, basically.)
  5. Bible technique (Reading/listening to material, that you´re familiar with. Makes it easier to figure out the meaning.)
  6. Immersion (creating a language bubble around you)
  7. Shadowing (repeating what you´re hearing as soon as your hear it…I guess?)
  8. Spaced Repetition + SRS (reviewing difficult information more often than easy information. Often a supplement to other methods)
    8.2 Goldlist method (systematical review of vocab. Uses spaced repetition and handwriting. Discard words once you find them easy.)
  9. Learning through music (learning and singing songs, listening to music, websites like lyricstraining.com)

Cheers, Paul

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You listed TPR; are you familiar with TPRS? Here is one of many sites: http://www.blaineraytprs.com/

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Uhm, no. I´ll check it out tomorrow. Thanks for the link :slight_smile:

Wow - so you’re in Canada now?

Is this temporary or long term? Are you anywhere near to Steve?

I’d combine reading assignments (lingq-based is possible) with talks about the readings (speak from day one). I’d explain grammar, etc. as doubts arise.

I´ll probably go somewhere else in a year or so.

Nah, I moved to the east coast. Vancouver is as far away as Berlin^^

Yeah - that’s where I would go too (French speaking territory! :-D)

But I’ve heard it gets verdammt cold there in the winter!

It´s only minus 6 degress where I live xD

Translating from the target language to your native language and then translating back into the target language (Luca Lampariello’s technique).

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Yeah, Luca´s pretty cool. I included it as a form of grammr translation.

In my opinion all (or at least most) of the different approaches outlined here are equally valid - if we take into account that individuals have different learning styles. What is right for person A might not be right for person B.

However one area where I reckon we can generalise is this: whatever learners do, they MUST put in the time!! Language learning requires - one way or another - some serious and continual exposure to content in the language. An hour every day seems to me a probable minimum period of time if people want to make progress within a reasonable timeframe. (And the more the better! More exposure to interesting and meaningful content = better faster results, IMO.)

Yeah, time is the main reason why I want to talk about different techniques in class. The course format is 1h/week over the course of 10 weeks. Learning a language takes a bit longer than 10 hours…

In that case, your work seems more to set up a daily working routine for the days when there’s no class. That makes me advise you the( reading-assignments + talk about them in class) approach even more than before.

You might need to consider the students level: are they complete beginners? and their own goals, needs and interests. Just my 2 cents.

Gold List Method :slight_smile:

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I guess a mixture of different techniques is helpful. First, everyone learns in a different way. Second, it depends on what you want to improve.

For example after understanding how verb conjugation in French works, it helped me simply typing or handwriting some French texts to improve my spelling.

Shadowing helped me improving my pronunciation.

Learning by heart some basic sentence as example for sentence structure helped me building my own sentences.

In my opinion the main point is to motivate the students and to make it interesting for them.

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  1. Birkenbihl Method: http://tinyurl.com/birkenbihl-method

Well, that´s why I want to tell them about different techniques/methods in the first place.

Well, that´s why I want to tell them about different techniques/methods in the first place.

Ah yeah. I used her “decoding technique” before I discovered LingQ.

I´ll check it out. Thanks for your help :slight_smile: