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Do you need a course for learning? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Takato Tetraglot Senior Member HungaryRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5049 days ago 249 posts - 276 votes  Speaks: Hungarian*, EnglishB2, GermanB2, Japanese | Message 1 of 23 18 December 2012 at 12:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I just wanted to know if you generally need a course when learning one of your beginner languages that has practically nothing to do with any language you can speak so far (id est out of language family). Edited by Takato on 18 December 2012 at 1:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 2 of 23 18 December 2012 at 2:28am | IP Logged | ||
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In my opinion, once people have learned their first second language, not only do they gain that second language but they are now also familiar with what works for them- what is most and least effective. A structured course may or may not be a part of your resources at this point.
Obviously, one could define any collection of materials designed to aid in learning a language a "course". Indeed, for some languages there may be no courses that exist at all. So, it depends on how you define the word "course". Is using a phrasebook, an audio book with text, a good grammar book, google images, google translate, songs and lyrics, radio and transcriptions in a corpus and/or a good dictionary a course? Not in the definition that means "off the shelf" and "ready to wear". This is not a "structured" course but I would call it a personal course- meaning route or method- that you have chosen to follow. So, to answer your question, my own opinion is, no, you don't have to have a structured course per se. A course can make things much easier and more convenient, this is true. It is much easier to work with something "ready to go out of the box" than to create your own way to learn a language for most people. I doubt if glossika used New Taiwanese Aboriginal Language with Ease to learn all the native languages of Taiwan he has learned, but he does know how to learn, what he needs to learn and how and where to gather the necessary material in order to learn how to speak a language. Apparently, neither did Sir Richard Burton need a course.
Source: HTLAL Thread: "Sir Rchard Francis Burton" 10 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sarah Reed Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4345 days ago 5 posts - 11 votes Speaks: French, EnglishB1 | Message 3 of 23 22 January 2013 at 3:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Each person is different, but it is usually much easier to have a course to guide you.
A language is something very complex and you cannot learn everything at once. A course will show you what is important to learn first and it will set up priorities to you, what is complicated to do by yourself, as you do not know the language. Some people succeed to learn completely by themselves, but this takes a huge discipline and experience on language learning. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| arturs Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 5272 days ago 278 posts - 408 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English | Message 4 of 23 23 January 2013 at 7:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I double with iguanamon, it depends what you consider a language course. I only consider books like Teach Yourself, Assimil, Colloquial and audio courses like Michel Thomas and Pimsleur as courses. Everything else (movies, phrasebooks, podcasts, grammar books even with exercises) aren't quite structured courses in my opinion.
So to the language learning - if the language is out of the language family, then definitely YES! I cannot imagine how I could go without a course for beginners for learning languages such as Arabic/Hebrew/Chinese etc. Even for Yiddish, which is a Germanic language, I still needed a course so that I can slowly practice my reading and writing, even though by listening I understand quite a lot of Yiddish, because I know German already. For other languages it is optional, but I think still some kind of course is necessary. For example, I always wanted to do something with Polish and it would be an easy language for me because I know Russian fluently, but I still got the Michel Thomas course so that I could understand the nature of the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6152 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 5 of 23 23 January 2013 at 9:55am | IP Logged | ||
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I tend to use a wide selection of courses, rather than a specific course, to learn a language. Where possible, I tend to use courses written entirely in the target language. This is possible as soon as you get to a rudimentary level in a language (A1\A2). What I specifically look for in a course are,
- Good listening tests. These should test you comprehension of dialogues, news casts, scenes, etc. - Good grammar tests. A good course will focus on specific problems that learners encounter. - Vocabulary tests. If the course is aligned to the CEFR the amount of vocabulary taught at each level is quite large. - Good reading tests. A good course will use extracts of authentic materials, and test your understanding. The main advantage of courses is they test your skills and proficiencies. It's very easy for a beginner, and even an intermediate learner, to think they know more than they do. They also help to refine your language skills and reduce errors. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 6 of 23 23 January 2013 at 1:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder if the OP's question isn't about formal courses that one takes in an institutional setting. All the excellent advice given so far really applies to teach-yourself materials.
Although many of us here take a very dim view of institutional courses, I personally recommend that beginners take such a course if one is available. Finding a good one is a bit of a crap shoot I admit, but the student can at least get an overview of the language and a structured learning environment. Otherwise people can easily get discouraged and end up just giving up. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 7 of 23 23 January 2013 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Source: HTLAL Thread: "Sir Rchard Francis Burton"[/QUOTE] We really have to thank @iguamon for this wonderful quote on the language learning methods of Sir Richard Burton. I think this quote says it all. Much of what we discuss endlessly here at HTLAL is set out here in what I would describe in Spanish as "meridiana claridad." In passing, I would point out, a bit tongue-in-cheek, that Sir Richard Burton wrote that 300 words will get you going. That's exactly what I've always said. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 8 of 23 23 January 2013 at 5:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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You're welcome, s_allard. For anyone who is interested, here is a link to the book from where the quote is taken:The Life of Sir Richard Burton by Thomas Wright. It is available for free and legal download from Project Gutenberg.org, in several formats.
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