As we all know many high schools and some middle schools require a language to learn while you attend. Some students get passionate about it and want to master it at a high level. Some ways to learn a language faster now that we’re in quarantine by videos that explain in more detail verbs, numbers, subjects, and etc. There are people who also run websites are have units and levels to practice the language of your choice. Another way, as most students know is through apps like Drops, Duolingo, Memrise, Mango, and many more. These apps make you learn many vocabulary words at time of day making the person come back everyday. While that helps, pronunciation is a very important factor in learning a language. I look a year of a new language and it helped me understand it a bit better by doing worksheets and watching videos posted. A little bit from everything helps you have a better knowledge of the language and you put it to use one day in the real world. I believe that the best way to learn a new language is to purchase a few work books and go off from there. It’s almost like at school where teachers hand out packets, but along the way they explain the lesson. How do you think people should learn languages? How did you learn a language at school?
I don't agree with the statement that buying language books would improve a persons ability to learn a language. The best way to learn a language is through a person such as a language teacher or some form of teacher you can hear. The reason being that students studying a new language will have to familiarize themselves with someone who speak the language so they learn communication skills when speaking the language. Another problem with self education from using books instead of a real teacher or sites like duolingo is that there is no possible way you could know you got the pronunciation correct unless you constantly keep hearing it and repeating it as we both learned in French from Mrs. Fauben. The other issue with learning a new language is that the younger you are the easier it is to learn a language due to the fact that if yu familiarize yourself with a language sooner, you'll be able to master it sooner. They use this type of system in the phillipines if I'm not mistaken, where they teach children in kindergarten several languages such as Spanish, French, English, and the Filipino language(I forgot what it's called). This in turn helps the child learn several language at a young age allowing them to better communicate with other peoples from other cultures. But i do agree apps such as duolingo are somewhat effective when learning a language. When it comes to writing that's where more or less language books shine the best.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is better to learn from a person because, unlike a book, they can help you if you are confused and they can go at the pace that you go at. If something in a book confuses then you either have to find someone to help you or just figure it out yourself. Learning from a person will also help with things like dialect and unfamiliar words that you maybe haven't learned yet or wouldn't have learned in a single book. Admittedly it is difficult to find someone that can help teach you as teaching is difficult for most, but it is definitely worth it. Even learning vocally rather than reading is better. The main goal is, presumably, to be able to speak with others in that language, so pronunciation and being able to comprehend at the speed people normally speak at. Some people are able to teach themselves by watching people on YouTube just talking. I think learning from people is better than learning from a website or book.
ReplyDeleteAs a primarily english speaker I have read low-level Spanish books as well as complete many Spanish language worksheets within my time in Mayfair's Spanish 1 class. I really did not learn much from those worksheets or books. Though to be fair they did slightly help to reinforce certain ideas in the Spanish language for me - but I am certain that there could have been a better way to do so. I mostly learned Spanish from Spanish speakers within the class, especially my teacher. It was not a perfect class and I think that my teacher definitely could have taught a lot better, but I bring this up to explain that learning a language from another person is typically much better than reading from a book. A book can't correct you on how you pronounce words or constantly correct your grammar. YouTube videos were definitely the most helpful tool for me when learning Spanish, but they still suffer being unable to monitor your speech at all times like books. I think the best way to learn a new language by the time you are in high school is to surround yourself with people who only speak the language you want to learn, but of course schools can not do that. That would cost way too much. Instead the school system should teach multiple languages from kindergarten until high school so that the general public has an easier time learning a new language since they would not have a firm grasp on english or Spanish yet. This will get the public to know two languages, broadening the amount of people and ideas that the individual person and the country can speak to and interact with.
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