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Reducing Self-Study Method Abandonment | ||
Tags: Burn-out | Self-Study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4518 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 9 of 139 27 August 2013 at 12:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I abandon courses when I can do something better with my time, like talk or write to
actual people. Hence why I still haven't finished the active wave of le Roumain. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4639 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 10 of 139 27 August 2013 at 12:17am | IP Logged | ||
I mainly agree, but "need" implies utilitarian reasons for learning, whereas I think just a genuine cultural or linguistic interest can also provide the incentive, but the interest has to be strong enough. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nonneb Pentaglot Groupie SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4562 days ago 80 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Ancient Greek, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, Hungarian, French | Message 11 of 139 27 August 2013 at 12:39am | IP Logged | ||
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I quite like the small books that cover one specific topic. Cornelsen has a few of these, English for Telephoning being a great example. It teaches a vocab and structures relevant to one slice of the English language and is good for (surprise!) learning to handle English phone calls. It's important to note that these smaller books don't have any linear order between them. Some are targeted towards specific levels, but there's no reason to do English for Shipping before English for Telephoning, for example. (Note: Not all, in fact, most of those Cornelsen books aren't particularly good and are less than suitable for self-study. It's the size/focus that I like more than the books themselves).
Taking language in pieces like that is good because 1) You finish the book and feel that feeling of accomplishment more quickly. 2) The results of studying are often (but not always) easier to see when focusing on one task compared to, say, a full B1 course book. 3) Less content means smaller books and lower prices. 4) a. Learners can use textbooks directed at what they are interested in/need to learn this month, as compared to focusing on more distant goals. b. Learners who only need to learn the language for a specific task, in the tourism industry, perhaps, don't need to go through a bunch of material they won't need and don't care about. So yes, I think for most learners, smaller books with less breadth and more immediate goals are the way to go. I myself don't usually have problems finishing course books, but sometimes I wish I could pick up a short Spanish courses on topics I have no experience in and can't learn from movies but are too advanced or specific for most textbooks. I think I'd prefer books like that starting a language fresh, too, but I'm not aware of a language for which enough small topical books exist to get me there (they seem to be overwhelmingly written for English learners now, but correct me if I'm overlooking some.) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 12 of 139 27 August 2013 at 1:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah and when it's not a torture, they still show you flawed L2 instead of a model you should imitate!
I mostly don't use textbooks because the texts are so boring, or the good ones (about the history or famous places) are too difficult to read. I've thought of making my own exercises, but I never got around to it, mostly because I've been focusing on extensive reading (for the Super Challenge). As for me and the Assimil challenge... I think I would've done better if Cavesa had shared her illegal link for the Swedish one :P (where is the tag for "illegal file sharing" anyway :P) I have tried Norwegian, but it was a fullscreen app/CD that didn't follow the original method and told me to do the exercises during the passive wave. IDK, not sure what my plans are in this regard. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 13 of 139 27 August 2013 at 1:19am | IP Logged | ||
The last course I completed was EuroLang2012. I'm a football fan and I went to Poland shortly before Euro-2012 so it was perfect for me. Reminds me that I also have a good "German for doctors" book that starts from scratch, with easy sentences like "A healthy person is able to run, jump, do sports." There's a medical focus from the beginning, unlike most other books which require some prior knowledge, typically a semester or two. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4820 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 14 of 139 27 August 2013 at 2:21am | IP Logged | ||
Exactly. Spot the mistake exercises should be banned :-D And I think the multiple choice ones should be reduced. They are easy to grade in tests but they don't require much of a real knowledge or skill. And the strange exercises in Themen Aktuel that, unlike the rest of the course which is awesome and practical, expect me to sort words into a table based on whether they are subject, verb and so on. I have no trouble with the word order (or at least so far) but if I had, this would only worsen things. And don't you dare to blame me! It's true that perhaps some of us should exchange emails so that we wouldn't be tempted to break the forum rules. But you are surely as good googler as I am. And as uncle Google has been listening to some bad people lately (and aunt Wiki doesn't know much about such things), cousin Yahoo sometimes brings more results :-) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 15 of 139 27 August 2013 at 2:59am | IP Logged | ||
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But you promised to share/upload it and never did, and I had trouble PM'ing you I think :( I've googled it of course but alas, torrential rain didn't go upon me.
So yeah accessibility is a factor. Although knowing that you paid for a book can be both motivating and demotivating... Edited by Serpent on 27 August 2013 at 3:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4820 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 16 of 139 27 August 2013 at 3:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Sorry! I thought it was the instance when administrators or some mods expressed more about how the rules should be obeyed even in pms (after all, the prism reads it all). I should definitely become a more organized person. After more than two decades, it would be a good achievement not to forget what I promised again. Sorry!
1 person has voted this message useful |
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