On the other hand to increase your knowledge of more difficult words, especial y words needed for academic and professional purposes, or for tests like TOEFL, TOEIC or IELTS, there is nothing better than doing a lot of reading in your areas of interest. If the subjects are familiar or of interest to you, it wil be easier.
It is best to read new and somewhat difficult content on a computer to take advantage of online dictionaries and other new learning technology. Whatever you do, there is no substitute for learning in context through lots of reading and listening.
If you can find audio for these texts you wil find it even easier to read more difficult texts and to remember the new words and phrases.
As I am reviewing one of my old Korean books I am reminded of al the things that textbook authors do to make it hard to learn languages.
Most textbooks introduce vocabulary in categories. The names of the colours, or the parts of the body etc. wil be introduced together. Words that mean similar things or opposites wil be introduced together. So the vocabulary list for each lesson includes no t only what I need to understand the text in a given chapter but a lot of as yet unnecessary words that the author thinks wil help the learner.
In fact this does not help. Research has shown that it is more difficult to learn new items in such categories or associations. We end up confused. The brain does not remember them.
We learn best when we can get a clump of information, or a few new words or phrases together with a lot of familiar material or content. If we know al about flowers and are reading about flowers then a few colors or names of flowers can be absorbed as part of reading and hearing about interesting content.
A long list of the names of flowers or colors, on the other hand, is very difficult to learn.
Most facts or concepts that are taught in a way that is separate from real and interesting language content are not easy to remember. That goes for grammar explanations as wel .
There are courses on academic writing and on business writing. For people who already write correctly and wel , these might be helpful. For people who lack sufficient control over the words and phrases of the English language, these courses are misleading.
There is only one kind of English prose; clear, concise and wel constructed prose. If you control the words and phrases of the language it is easy to learn how to start with a 'theme sentence' in every paragraph and the other little conventions of writing that are taught in these special writing courses. Without the vocabulary you do not have the resources to express yourself effectively.
Once you have brought your vocabulary up to the required level, read everything you can find on specialized writing. Start looking on the web where it is available free of charge. Or just buy a book on the subject.
Among the many fads in the world of English language teaching is the idea that English is no longer the language of its native speakers. The native speaker does not matter. English belongs to the world. You should be just as happy to learn Indian English, or Spanish English as American English.
I have real trouble with that one. Being able to speak to the native speaker, or listen to or read authentic native language content, is what attracts me to learning any language. If I am putting effort into learning Russian, it is to be able to speak to Russians, to visit St. Petersburg or Moscow, and have a beer or a vodka with a local. I want to speak an Indian language with an Indian, and Spanish with a Spaniard or Peruvian. Is it so different for learners of English?
Another concept that I do not agree with is the idea that a person need only learn a smal number of words in a language. Or the idea that you can memorize a few key phrases to look after most situations you will meet in the new language. It isn't that simple.
My goal in language learning is fluency. I want to read the newspaper and books. I want to talk to people, not as an idiot, but as an educated person. The most frequent 1000 or so words typical y account for 70-80% of most content. But most of the key meaning is often in the missing 20-30%. Since these less frequent words appear so infrequently, they are difficult to learn, unlike the high frequency words that appear often and are easily learned.
With a strategy of concentrated reading and listening to authentic content, coupled with an intelligent vocabulary learning system, any learner can reach educated fluency.
In golf most teachers emphasize using the large muscles of the back, hips and thighs, rather than the small muscles in the wrists and hands. The large muscles are more stable, easier to control and give stability to the golf swing. The wrists and hands can come later. In many cases they take care of themselves if the big muscles work properly.
Language is similar. To me the big muscles of language learning are the important words and phrases - the key words that describe people, things, and actions. The small muscles are the details of articles, prepositions, verb or noun endings etc. Unless you have the big pieces in place, the little pieces do not matter. You can communicate well with a big vocabulary of words and phrases without knowing much about the smaller details.
Many textbooks, however, focus on the small details. My Russian text starts right in with talking about the genitive and dative case and when they are used. The book introduces different tenses and other rules. I just ignore them. If I can learn the words for the key people, things, and actions, that is all I need for now. If I learn the nouns and verbs as parts of phrases that I start to recognize, the little pieces will slowly fall into place. If I read and listen a lot my language will become more and more natural.
But I need to continue listening, reading, observing the language and reviewing words and phrases. I must not just think I have reached my level of competence in the language and then stagnate in the language as so many people do. If I keep listening and reading and learning I can continue to ignore the rules, drill s and questions and still improve, all the while enjoying my studies, without any pressure to be perfect.
Correct usage does matter, but I doubt that a lot of explanations will help achieve correct usage. Alice Walker says in her email 'who real y cared between the difference of 'du' and 'de'
and 'de la' ?Surely the question is not whether it matters whether you say 'de,' 'du,' or 'de la' in French. It definitely matters.
The question is how to most easily learn to get it right. Explaining the principles wil not help a lot if it is not possible to remember the gender of nouns. It is only with massive input via listening and reading that the learner's natural accuracy in the use of gender improves. It also helps to have mistakes corrected as long as it is understood that mistakes are normal and the corrections are used to help the learner become more observant of the language in her listening and reading.
I once bought a book of Beijing slang when I was studying Chinese. I have occasional y bought books with slang expressions or even other specialized dictionaries. They al gather dust on my shelves until I throw them out.
