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Archive for the ‘For Students’ Category

Academic Vocabulary

May 12th, 2010 Andee No comments

As many of you will know, the study at university in an English speaking country you’re likely to need the right TOEFL or IELTS score. And that’s a lot of work. Speaking to some of my international classmates though, I’ve come to realise something. Even though they have an excellent command of English and the right [...]

Accents: Native or Not

May 10th, 2010 Andee 2 comments

Our friend Ultimate Attainment is back again. He’s someone we’re talking about a lot in my seminars lately and unfortunately, certain people do believe the falsehoods about sounding like “native” being the ultimate. It’s also a fundamental aspect of my dissertation (specifically dealing with English in Korea).. but that’s another story.
When it comes to accentual [...]

How long for fluency?

May 7th, 2010 Andee No comments

Common question… variable answers.
It all depends on what the learner considers fluent, which language they are learning, the environment they are learning in, how motivated they are, how often they study, and so and so forth.
Let’s set the ground rules at 2 hours study per day. Not unrealistic if you consider the Borrowing Time post [...]

Size Matters: Vocabulary

May 5th, 2010 Andee No comments

How many words do you know?
Something that in reality, I consider to be, err, a stupid question. I don’t really care how many words I know, and it doesn’t really matter how many words I know. What matters is that I know the words that I need.
Anyway, watching your vocabulary grow is a motivational tool, [...]

Reflective Learning: Learning Log

May 4th, 2010 Andee No comments

A common question is “how long will it take me to learn X”? ..The answer is always “as long as it takes”.
Each and every learner is different depending on study time, efficiency of study, motivation, surrounding environment, prior learning of related languages, prior learning of any language, and a list of any other number of [...]

What is Fluency?

May 3rd, 2010 Andee 3 comments

Are you fluent?
It’s a pretty simple question. The answers are more than subjective.
To a non-language learner there seems to be the consensus that this question is a definitive yes or no. So not true. Everybody has their own interpretation of what fluency is and while there is a switch in all of us that [...]

Study Methods: Power of the Schedule

May 3rd, 2010 Andee No comments

Planning your time and using it effectively, this is how we learn a language successfully. It’s not exactly that complicated but it is something that a lot of people neglect. To use the exercise analogy, it’s better to do a little a lot than a lot a little.
Meaning… 15 mins a day for a total [...]

Study Materials: The Dictionary Debate

May 2nd, 2010 Andee No comments

Everyone owns one.. at least one. Or at the very least, has access to one. People that don’t even study languages own one. Dictionary play a pretty major role in the lives of people of all ages. They’re set a standard for us to follow… sometimes we disagree, and sometimes we all get along. So how [...]

Using L2 for L3

May 1st, 2010 Andee No comments

Just some thoughts on learning a foreign language through another learned language.
If English is your L1, many people only attempt to learn another language through English. And that’s fair enough, but it might not be the most practical if you have other tools at your disposal. Professor Arguelles strongly suggests people that dream of being [...]

Study Materials: LingQ

April 27th, 2010 Andee No comments

First in the series of looking at study materials is going to be LingQ.
LingQ is the brainchild of Steve Kaufmann (who you can find on my Blogroll over there —-> …and down a bit). Steve speaks a number of languages very well and the site is very much a mirror of his own preferred learning [...]