First off is completely eliminating translation. It’s hard for language teachers to do, as when you’re teaching a language, you want to make sure that the students are fully aware of what is being taught. My philosophy is only if the subject is too complex to teach using immersion (which is rare), you should always be using one of those methods. Now, I’m saying to teach using immersion, but just how’s that? Keep reading.

The best (and best) way is to either introduce material that the kids can easily relate to is through media. For example, when I was learning Spanish, my teacher would always show us these Dora the Explorer in Spanish videos. While they were ridiculously silly, you learn a lot from them! After the video, I learned at least 10 new vocb words and quite a few phrases. Also, given it’s a show aimed towards kids, they don’t talk at the speed of a fluent either. In doing so, students are able to achieve a higher degree of listening fluency in the language. High schools typically focus primarily on writing when it should be more spaced out.

Videos aren’t the only way. There are several newspapers out there that are designed for younger children and people learning languages which can be found online. Print out an article from it and have students answer comprehension questions regarding the material.

Of course, there are times when you need to introduce specific material, such as vocabulary terms. In that case, you should either guide students in preparing immersion friendly flash cards (picture on one side, word/phrase on other) or use a method of immersive teaching. What’s immersive teaching?

If I’m introducing school supplies for example to students, I could give them a worksheet with the word written on it and a box below to draw the item, or a page to cut out the pictures of the items and glue them to the appropriate slots. So they can identify them, I would pull the items out of a bag I would bring to class. Upon pulling out an item, I would say the name of the item, then proceed to ask students if they have it.

Providing more immersion, in the classroom, use only that foreign language at higher levels (after the second year) 90% of the time. If you can teach a lesson in that language and most people will be able to pick it up, go for it! Also, after saying something in the language, don’t translate it! What’s the point?

Surround the classroom with posters. All posters should be in language(s) that are being taught and of useful stuff! Something that says DEUTSCH really big on it really isn’t helping anything, but if there’s a poster with WAS MACHST DU, followed by a various list of activities, students can learn.

Using the tips provided, you can create very well-rounded teaching environment to offer students the maximum possible exposure to the language they are learning. Using immersion, it’s much harder for students to forget material. Additionally, if the students are exposed to spoked material, it will help them if they decide to study abroad later on. Keep in mind that the students need to fully benefit from the class, and by using immersion, learning’s faster and sticks.

So what will you need to get going? Prior experience in the language helps a lot, so if you took a couple  of courses before, that’s very good. Doing so gives you some experience pronouncing words and you’ll already have a feel for the language.

Secondly, I’d recommend that you acquire two items: a textbook and Rosetta Stone. If you check out local universities and bookstores, you can typically find language textbooks that are near or at you level. These are very helpful to have as they can explain certain aspects of the language that would otherwise be left out by most language learning software. Make sure that you buy a textbook that fits your current level. For example, if you’re just starting, you probably are going to want a basic level.

In addition to textbooks, information about language learning is becoming more and more popular on the internet. For example, About.com offers a nearly full featured German learning section at german.about.com. For less common languages like Arabic however, a textbook will probably prove to be a little more useful as such information isn’t as common.

Rosetta Stone is brought up as it is my top favorite language learning software. It naturally teaches the language and requires no studying, all you have to do is use the program! Unfortunately though, Rosetta Stone doesn’t teach rules of the language too thoroughly, so if you’re not going to buy a textbook, a different software application is highly recommended.

Finally, make sure you are pronouncing your words correctly! I studied my first year of French on my own and coming into the class, my French was absolutely horrible. I could say some phrases that I learned in Rosetta Stone perfectly fine, but if you gave me a verb that wasn’t in Rosetta Stone, I would be able to identify it, but not say it correctly. If you are unsure as to how a word is pronounced, look it up. There are countless dictionaries online to help you out.

Any questions or need help figuring something out? Post a comment on this article and I’ll see what I can do to help you out.

Most people that use flashcards to learn a new language will typically only use them to study one section, then throw them to the side afterward as they figure they will never need to touch them again. In the meantime, as you move onto more complex and unrelated topics, you lose your new vocabulary that you just worked so hard on! Frustrating, right?

As someone that loves learning languages, I often found this horrible thing happening to me far too often. In German, I’ve lost all of my advanced animal vocabulary and forgot most of my separable prefix verbs. I thought, how is this possible? I knew all of these just last month and used the genius method of flashcards to learn each, yet I’ve lost both skills.

After further research, it turns out I’m not alone. Thousands of students that study using flashcards and other methods can easily forget their stuff because they ignore it after test day. But yet, I’ve discovered a new methods which it can be so easily retained to form a more advanced vocb. How’s that? Keep reading…

To start out, you need to find what words you want to put on these flash cards. Don’t waste space in your collection for words that you KNOW you will remember, like der Hund for example. More complex words that you know you will need to study or won’t be using as commonly should be turned into flashcards.

As for constructing the flashcard, I highly recommend using tiny index cards. On the lined side, write the phrase or word you are trying to remember in the foreign language and on the front place either a picture or a translation. For example, on the lined side of a flashcard, I could have “chanter” then on the black side the phrase “to sing” or a picture of a person singing. While the last option takes more time, it’s better to learn via immersion than translating, but that’s for a different post.

As you may expect, your vocabulary will not be confined to only a handful of flashcards. It will be likely to expand to a collection that exceeds over 1,000. Quite obviously, that’s a little more than you can retain in a single study session, which is where organization comes into play. If you keep them in a stack and maybe study 50-75 or so at a time (remember, you already know these words, you’re reviewing here) daily, you can get through your stack in a matter of weeks and rotate through it, keeping your vocabulary at a high level for just reviewing.

It doesn’t just stop there. While there are some phonetic languages (languages where every letter of every word is said, making it easy to “sound it out”), a good number aren’t. As a result, when reviewing the words, you can write them down and ensure that you are still able to spell that word appropriately.

After hitting 1,000, your collection shouldn’t stop there. Read more in your language  and find more words that you don’t know. There’s no reason to remain ignorant, learn them and add them to your collection!

See? Flashcard learning can be more than a one week deal, using them can really help build a strong long term vocabulary, a must have in language fluency.

Before I begin saying what I’m going to with the site, I’m going to say what I am and want to do. I’m personally a student right now and one who’s in love with languages. Personally, I find languages very interesting to learn and as they come rather easy to me. I take several and have a decent level of proficiency in German, French, and Spanish. I’m also studying and wish to eventually major in Arabic, allowing me to pursue career goal of becoming an Arabic linguist.

Anyway, learning a language for most people seems to be a daunting task, and in result is too often overlooked. That’s far from the truth, and anyone that thinks that is either absolutely horrified with languages or is learning languages inappropriately. What’s the “appropriate way” you ask? Well, that’s why this site exists!

There’s not just one way to learn a language. There are hundreds of different methods that can be combined in thousands of different forms to give you an amazing result. Given the insanely large number of combinations, nearly anyone is able to learn a foreign language!

All of this will be elaborated on in different sections of the site that I will soon begin to construct, but for now, this is what this site will be. In the upcoming months, the site will feature hundreds of different amazing methods to learn and enjoy languages, thus simplifying the learning process.

Anyway, watch this space!