MineZone Wiki

Notes from Secrets of Learning a Foreign Language by Graham Furrer

Sounds:

1. every language has its own way of making sounds
2. imitate, imitate, imitate
3. exaggerate the sounds
4. practice with a tape recorder

Word Pronunciation:

1. nothing natural about English spelling
2. may look, but not sound the same
3. be ready to pronounce familiar letters differently
4. don't leap at a guess about how a word is pronounced

Associating Words:

1. you can't understand the language until you learn to think in the language (start to think in the new lanaguage from the first day)
2. learn to associate an intially meaningless new sound with the idea or image of what it means (practice to where the new sound takes on meaning for you)
3. avoid translating (mentally putting into english what you read or hear)

Language Families And Mnemonics:

1. all languages belong to language families, look for similarities
2. lacking similarities, use creativity to make connections (later dropping the mnemonic)
3. in unrelated languages, use imagination and memory tricks
4. the more languages you learn, the better you get at spotting or inventing artificial connections
5. anything that helps you remember a word is fair game

Word Building

1. Every language creates complex words by combining basic root words
2. After you learn several hundred words you will start noticing familiar roots creaping back in new forms
3. The vast majority of new words will be based on roots you already know

Learning New Words

1. Homemade word cards and tapes are an excellent way of learning vocabulary
2. Use memory handles to fix the meaning of new vocabulary in your mind
3. Learn words first from the foreign language to English, then the reverse
4. Always say the foreign word outloud as you see it (Use your mouth, ears, and eyes)
5. Don't be passive, make up sentences with the new word (do the maximum, not the minimum)

Learning Sentences & Dialogs

1. You can start using a language right away by learning and using the dialogs in your book
2. Use a tape recorder to listen to the dialogs or sentences and repeat them until you can do so comfortably (one of the most valuable things you can do to learn a foreign language)
3. Memorizing whole sentences helps to teach you the patterns of a language and imprint them on your mind

Grammar

1. Grammar is the skeletal structure that links words together and give them full meaning
2. Correct grammar is to make clear what the relationship is among words
3. Each language makes its own sharp distinctions (be ready to make or drop distinctions as appropriate)
4. Just accept that different languages do things in different ways.

Grammar

1. Grammar is essential because it tells us precisely what the relationship is among words
2. Many languages express grammatical relationships among words by means of word endings (ie, something on the end of the word changes to indicate the subject or object of an action)
3. Use of the wrong ending (bad grammar) is simply confusing because it makes the relationship among the words unclear or gives an unintended meaning

Gender

1. Most European languages categorize ever noun into one of 2 (M or F) or 3 (M, F, or N) gender categories regardless of the meaning
2. The gender of the word often effects the grammatical endings of other related words
3. Always learn the gender of each word as you learn the word

Moving Ahead

1. Go back to earlier lessons and tapes and see how easier it is to repeat them now. It will remind you how far you have come.
2. Look at another text book on the same language. You will find some different beginner's material.
3. Buy some kids books or comic books in the language. Comics contain idiomatic phrases that can be useful.
4. Go to a language bookstore and buy a language dictionary and traveler's phrasebook.

Dipping Into Culture

1. Listen to broadcasts in the foreign language.
2. Visit a foreign grocery store. Don't expect to understand too much.
3. Go to a movie or watch tv in the language you are studying.
4. Try going to a foreign restaurant.
5. Buy a foreign newspaper.
6. Grab every opportunity to use your new language.

Solo Learning

1. Find native speaker.
2. Use graduated readers that build new vocabulary as they go (especially those from the Foreign Service Institute of the US State Department). Read outloud a lot.
3. You will need tapes.

See also: LearningNotes