Archive

Posts Tagged ‘language skills’

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 [...]

Confidence: Gaining and Maintaining

March 22nd, 2010 Andee 1 comment

Speaking a language that isn’t your own requires a lot of confidence. Taking that first plunge into the proverbial deep end of conversation with a native of the language is something that can’t really be rushed in my opinion. Yes, there are arguments that output is critical to building this communicative confidence, but where do [...]

Writing Practice Online

September 18th, 2009 Andee No comments

Age old advice has been to keep a diary or journal as a way to improve your writing and general language skills. The problem with this advice has often been the inability to find someone to offer you corrections. Meaning that you’re quite often reinforcing errors.

That’s kind of a problem!

How to solve this mild [...]

Study Methods: Improving Speaking

September 17th, 2009 Andee 3 comments

When you think about it, the vast majority of people learn a language to speak it. It’s pretty obvious that that’s a big motivator. But a question that is commonly asked (”how can I improve my speaking?”) gets the all-too-often reply of “to improve your speaking you have to speak”. Sounds crazy right?

It’s not as [...]

Language Proficiency Scales

September 14th, 2009 Andee No comments

There are numerous scales for assessing language proficiency, with three of the most widely known being the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), the American Council for Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR).

Typically, formal testing takes place to ascertain your true level, but nothing is stopping you from [...]