HOW TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

To study any foreign language each language learner should remember the learning strategies and implement them to facilitate their foreign language learning skills and improve their overall language learning progress. By doing this, the foreign language learners can achieve the desired results provided they use learning strategies in a correct way.

Good or very good language learners develop their own set of strategies.

What is a language learning strategy?

A strategy is mostly 'invisible' mental process that a learner might need to analyze what s/he sees and hears.

A learning strategy is built by each language learner on the basis of his/her background identification, strong and weak points estimation that s/he has when learning a language.

As students become more adept at identifying and applying learning strategies for themselves, they become better self-teachers or independent/strategic learners (students who use learning strategies within their learning schema, ask clarifying questions, listen, check and monitor their work and behaviour, and definitely set personal goals).

As a result, we can say that a learning strategy is a tool, plan, method or set of steps used for accomplishment a particular task, such as: taking a test, understanding the text, writing a story etc.

There are numerous leaning strategies or procedures that a learner uses to perform academic tasks.

Often, more than one learning strategy should be used to achieve excellent results, depending on the learner and his/her learning schema.

In fact, researches indicate that successful learners use numerous strategies.

A strategic learner knows the value of using strategies (personal style) through experience, and is eager to learn from the others that might prove to be beneficial and form his/her learning schema.

A learning Schema - sets or mixes of strategies that the individual learner uses automatically to perform, produce, communicate or learn. It can take years to develop a personal learning schema.

Language learning strategies are especially helpful for students with poor language skills. To help such students embed language learning strategies in their learning schema their teacher should provide them with more scaffolding, individualized and intensive strategies instruction.

That is why, we cannot deny the fact that each language learner should become strategic in some way to become successful in language learning and help him/her:
- to trust his/her mind
- to know that there is more than one way to learn a language
- to acknowledge his/her mistakes and try to fix them
- evaluate obtained language skills
- to make his/her memory enhanced
- to increase his/her learning progress
- to increase his/her self-esteem
- to become more responsible
- to improve accuracy
- to learn how to 'try'
- to increase on-time task
- to become a more 'engaged' student

Learning Strategies Types

Foreign language students are encouraged to learn and use a broad range of language learning strategies that can be tapped throughout the learning process.

To become an efficient language learner one should know what strategies to use, when to use them and for what purposes.

An attempt to identify the most essential language learning strategies is an impossible task; it depends on the needs of the learner and the requirements the curriculum sets.

However, we may mention some of the learning strategies that a successful learner uses:
- Computation and Problem Solving: Verbalization, Visualization, Chunking, Making Associations, Use of Cues*;
- Memory: Visualization, Verbalization, Mnemonics**, Chunking, Making Associations, Writing;
- Productivity: Verbalization, Self-Monitoring, Visualization, Use of Cues;
- Reading Accuracy and Fluency: Finger Pointing or Tracking, Sounding Out Unknown Words, Self-Questioning for Accuracy, Chunking, Using Contextual Clues;
- Reading Comprehension: Visualization, Questioning, Rereading, Predicting;
- Writing: Planning, Revising, Questioning, Use of Cues, Verbalization, Visualization, Checking and Monitoring.

*Cues - visual or verbal prompts to either remind a student what has already been learned or provide an opportunity to learn something new.
**Mnemonic – a device for remembering, aiding or meant to aid one's memory.