How to learn a language: Online Course from OpenLearn

Learn about the concepts and skills required to learn languages successfully. This free course, How to learn a language, introduces the skills and strategies for language learning, setting ...

Syllabus

- Introduction and guidance
- Introduction and guidance
- What is a badged course?
- How to get a badge
- Acknowledgements
- Week1Week 1: Your motivation and goals
- Introduction
- 1 Why learn a new language?
- 2 A marathon, not a sprint
- 3 What does success look like for you?
- 4 Your ‘future language self’
- 5 Reality check
- 6 What are the barriers?
- 7 Overcoming obstacles
- 8 Mapping your journey
- 9 Your goals
- 10 How long will it take?
- 11 This week’s quiz
- 12 Summary of Week 1
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week2Week 2: What is language learning about?
- Introduction
- 1 Challenges you may face
- 2 ‘My goal is to speak fluently!’
- 3 Four areas to master
- 3.1 Linguistic
- 3.2 Cultural
- 3.3 Methodological
- 3.4 Self
- 4 This week’s quiz
- 5 Summary of Week 2
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week3Week 3: Finding and evaluating language learning resources
- Introduction
- 1 Where do I start?
- 2 Resources for language learning: classification
- 2.1 Resources: language-learning tools
- 2.2 Resources: designed for native speakers
- 2.3 Resources: dictionaries and translators
- 3 Are language-learning resources free?
- 4 Choosing and evaluating language-learning resources
- 5 Evaluation activity
- 6 Too many resources?
- 7 This week’s quiz
- 8 Summary of Week 3
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week4Week 4: Speaking
- Introduction
- 1 Speaking is not a discreet skill
- 2 So, what is involved in speaking?
- 3 How to practise on your own
- 4 Find a language exchange partner
- 5 Learning speaking directly or indirectly?
- 6 Take control
- 7 Ideas for beginners
- 8 Top tips
- 9 What happens if it doesn’t work?
- 10 This week’s quiz
- 11 Summary of Week 4
- Acknowledgements
- Week5Week 5: Listening
- Introduction
- 1 In what situations are listening skills required?
- 2 What’s involved in successful listening?
- 3 Setting expectations
- 4 Listening: the big picture
- 5 What kind of material should you use?
- 6 Listening study skills
- 7 Live listening skills
- 8 Resources: listening materials, and where to find them
- 9 This week’s quiz
- 10 Summary of Week 5
- Acknowledgements
- Week6Week 6: Vocabulary
- Introduction
- 1 How many words are there?
- 2 How many words do you need?
- 3 What does it mean to know a word?
- 3.1 Receptive and productive vocabulary
- 3.2 Depth of knowledge
- 3.3 Vocabulary learning strategies
- 4 Your memory – or how to cope with so many words
- 5 Common strategies that don’t work
- 6 Effortful encoding strategies
- 6.1 Chunking
- 6.2 Mnemonics
- 6.3 Memory palaces
- 6.4 Self-referencing
- 6.5 Spacing
- 7 Retrieval strategies
- 8 This week’s quiz
- 9 Summary of Week 6
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
- Week7Week 7: Reading and writing
- Introduction
- 1 Thinking about reading and writing
- 2 Reading
- 2.1 I want to read texts in my target language: where should I start?
- 2.2 ‘Seeing a long text puts me off’
- 2.3 ‘It takes ages to look up every word in a text’
- 3 Writing
- 4 ‘I know what I want to communicate but I can’t write that in the language I’m learning!’
- 5 How to check your writing
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary of Week 7
- Acknowledgements
- Week8Week 8: Bringing it all together
- Introduction
- 1 Getting support from others
- 2 Creating your community
- 2.1 Online communities
- 2.2 Blogs and podcasts
- 2.3 In-person meetups
- 2.4 Language conferences
- 3 Creating a virtual immersion through your smartphone
- 3.1 Apps designed for language learning
- 3.2 Apps designed primarily for native speakers which language learners can find useful
- 3.3 Dictionary and translation apps
- 4 Establishing an effective language learning routine
- 5 Staying motivated over the long-term
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary of Week 8
- 8 End-of-course summary
- Tell us what you think
- Take the next step
- Acknowledgements

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