Naiman et al. (1995) carried out research to discover what makes people good language learners. They identified the following strategies:
- Find a learning style that suits you
- Involve yourself in the language learning process
- Develop an awareness of language both as system and communication
- Pay constant attention to expanding your language knowledge
- Develop the second language as a separate system
- Take into account the demands that L2 learning imposes
Rubin (1975) suggested that good L2 learners are
- willing and accurate guessers
- have a strong drive to communicate
- are often uninhibited
- are willing to make mistakes
- focus on form by looking for patterns and analyzing
- take advantage of all practice opportunities
- monitor their speech as well as that of others
- pay attention to meaning.
If you would like to find out more about language learning, why not try this quiz designed by Rebecca Oxford for English language learners.
http://ell.phil.tu-chemnitz.de/cing/frontend/questionnaires/oxford_quest.php
- Take things step by step
- Revisit often.
- Practice makes perfect
- Adopt a positive, ‘can do’ approach
- Its fine to make mistakes
- Communicate and participate
- Find and talk to native speakers in your college
- Visit the country if you can
Have also a look at the OVFL website: One Voice for Languages has many up-to-date links www.onevoiceforlanguages.com Download for brochure for OVFL