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Finding a Language Coach | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| dleewo Groupie United States Joined 5631 days ago 95 posts - 131 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin | Message 9 of 16 29 August 2012 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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I actually like the idea of a language coach and wish there were such a thing.
Many of the folks here are old hats at learning languages and if they were to take up a new language, they already have a pretty good idea of what works and doesn't work for them. For people like me that are trying to learn their first language, it is tough to know what to do. As is often pointed out, everyone is different and learns differently and while the advice often given is to simply "try different methods", that just seems so inefficient. I'm not expecting the time taken to learn a language to be short or for it to be easy, but I would like it to be as efficient as possible. I would think a good coach should be able to work with me to help figure out how I learn best and then come up with a course of action for me to learn the language. As mentioned above, I don't necessarily need a teacher that I would work with multiple times a weeks for an extended period. I would think the coach would be someone you may work with a few times early on and then perhaps once every couple weeks to check on progress, revise plans, etc. Look at the role a coach plays in sports. I run for exercise and everything I know about running I got from reading books, etc, but pretty soon I'm going to want to take my running to the next level and for that, I plan to get a running coach. I'm not talking about someone that I will run with every day, but rather, someone that will help tell me what runs to do and monitor my progress and adjust my running plan. Sure, I can probably get faster and better on my own....eventually, but a coach will help me get better in a more efficient manner. Derek 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 strickvl Bilingual Tetraglot Pro Member Jordan alexstrick.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4511 days ago 27 posts - 41 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Levantine) Studies: Persian, Pashto, Dari Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 16 29 August 2012 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for explaining what I meant better than I was able to do so myself.
And you're right on timings. It wouldn't be necessary to check in too often, just enough to be able to offer those broader course corrections. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6410 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 11 of 16 29 August 2012 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Anyone who doesn't advice you to try out various methods believes too much in what he/she preaches. You do need to experiment before finding the best way for you to study - even experienced learners do that as they adjust to the fact that they're becoming experienced. Of course it's good to apply analytical thinking first, ie eliminate several methods just by thinking of them and deciding you're not going to try them right now. But you should narrow it down to a few possibilities, not just one. You need a plan B and plan C in case your plan A turns out inefficient.
And it's much easier to suggest a plan B when there's already a plan A. Just tell us something specific already!!! :o) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5345 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 16 29 August 2012 at 3:39pm | IP Logged | ||
This is so true: It's almost like a given technique has only so much to teach you, and when you've "used it up", you need to try something different. This was most obvious to me between A2 and B2. I actually suspect that many "intermediate plateaus" are often caused by some combination of stale techniques and insufficient intensity. I really like the idea of a "language coach". Sometimes you need an outside perspective, or moral support, or somebody to tell you it's way past time to fix a particular phoneme. A good tutor can provide some of this, especially if they're a polyglot themselves. (I think my French tutor spoke 4 or 5 languages and was working on some more.) The big barrier, I think, is that "learning a foreign language" is a quintessential New Year's resolution—everybody wants to do it, but somehow spending 30 minutes per day on Assimil for 5 or 6 months is way too big a price to pay. So it would be hard for a language coach to find enough serious clients to make a living. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4672 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 13 of 16 29 August 2012 at 4:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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You find coach, tutor, language classes... whatever, unuseful, but believe me - I've learned B1 (sometimes even B2) Bulgarian with a little effort by language classes during my studies. It doesn't work that good with very distant languages (well, at least for me), but you can believe me - nice classes/private teacher make(s) your language learning much easier. I don't know why you're so sceptic about that. Edited by prz_ on 29 August 2012 at 4:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6410 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 14 of 16 29 August 2012 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | ||
A tutor can sure help with all of this, especially with the evaluation of your level. Before that, you may want to do some self-evaluation: CEFR checklist. For French, you can also download dialang and do the tests - at the end you'll get some fairly basic advice, of the same kind that most tutors could give you. Specific goals aren't necessarily a good thing, as you shouldn't get obsessed with completing this or that course, doing such and such repetitions etc. I recommend picking important things from the checklist as goals and always keeping in mind what you want to achieve with what you're doing. Edited by Serpent on 29 August 2012 at 5:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6410 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 16 30 August 2012 at 2:31pm | IP Logged | ||
And those who believe they don't need teachers are likely to believe they don't need 'coaches'. Now that I think of it, language coaching probably happens a lot without this name and quite informally. If someone can't find anyone who teaches the language they want to study, they'll probably turn to an English (French, German, Spanish) teacher, asking if they know someone who teaches that language, and if they don't, asking them about independent learning. They'll get some general advice like "do something every day" and some recs on choosing a coursebook ("don't get those that promise fluency in 10 days", plus maybe some specific names of courses available in various languages, like Teach Yourself or Langenscheidt). If they're in touch with the person, they might later be asked, "well, how is your _______?", but nobody will be harsh to them if they meekly admit it's too hard to study without a teacher and they've abandoned it. If they haven't, they can get some more advice and an extra bit of motivation. That's how it happens in real life. Have you got in touch with that French coach yet? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5243 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 16 of 16 30 August 2012 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Although I have nothing against language coaches, however vague that definition is, I think it's quite evident that a coach is not necessary to learn a language. In my opinion, the best option is usually to take a formal class if that is an option. Self-study is great; I won't knock that around here, of course, but we all know that about 99% of people give up very quickly.
What I think is very useful, even essential, is some kind of individualized attention with lots of corrective feedback. For speaking it is absolutely wonderful to have someone that will correct you and help you express yourself naturally on a one-to-one basis. And this becomes more important as your overall proficiency increases. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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