Worldly Workout 5 Core Components of a Foolproof Language Study Plan

Worldly Workout 5 Core Components of a Foolproof Language Study Plan Worldly Workout: 5 Core Components of a Foolproof Language Study Plan Deciding to learn a new language is great!Just making this decision is an important first step.But its a little like deciding to lose 20 pounds.Its easy to start dieting and going to the gym tomorrow, as soon as this party is over or next week.In the same way, as soon as you get caught up with various distractions at work or home, its tempting to put off language study.Life pretty much always gets in the way.Have you recently decided to learn a new language, or recommitted to improving your language skills?If so, you should know that learning a language, like any other major goal or commitment, requires long-term, consistent follow-through.Thats why the key to real language learning success often lies in a rock-solid study plan.Want to know how to create that plan?Read on. Why You Need a Language Study PlanConsistencyYou know you need to put in some time reading in your target languageâ€"or doing grammar exercises or meeting with a language partnerâ€"but then a friend calls and inv ites you out for a drink. Do you have enough self-control to say no?If you have a set time when you do your language study, its easier to explain to your friendâ€"and yourselfâ€"that you have to stick to the plan and study. If, however, you just study when you have time, pretty soon you end up never having time and always opting to have a drink with friends instead of memorizing vocabulary.So You Can Align Your Activities with Your GoalsWe all learn languages for different reasonsâ€"some need to communicate with their in-laws, others want to advance at work and still others want to read literature in its original language. There is no right or wrong reason to learn a foreign language. But its important to make sure that how you study fits your goals: The person who wants to talk to his or her in-laws in a foreign language should study differently than the person who wants to read literature.Having a study plan allows you to think through your goals and how each one of your study act ivities will help you move closer to each specific goal.So Youll Spend Time Studying, Not Deciding What to StudyEvery time you sit down to study, you have options. Languages are complex monsters, and learning one requires mastering a huge set of skills.  So every time you sit down to study, there are a range of activities you could do and skills you could work on.If you only have a limited amount of time (like most people), you dont want to spend any more time than necessary deciding whether to listen to a radio interview or doing a reading comprehension exercise or writing something to be corrected on Lang-8.  If you have a good plan, youll know not only when youre going to study, but exactly what youre going to study at each time.So when the time comes, you dont have to even think about what to doâ€"you just dive right in.Worldly Workout: 5 Core Components of a Foolproof Language Study Plan1. Its Realistic Considering Your Other CommitmentsHave you ever met someone who says they a re going to study four hours per day, in spite of having a full-time job and three kids? Maybe they can pull it offbut its more likely that they will burn out after a few weeks and then stop studying entirely.Plan Around Your Job, Family, etc.We all have things going on in our lives, and its important to realistically assess all of our other commitments before starting a project like language learning. Heres how you can go about doing so:On a sheet of paper, make a grid showing Monday through Sunday, with each day broken down into hour-long intervals.Fill in the grid with your activities on a typical week. Include everything and be specific: If you spend an hour commuting, that should be labeled commuting, not work. If you typically go out with friends on a particular night of the week, include that.  If you watch a TV show, include that.Identify any times you dont usually have any activitiesâ€"those are your first targets for scheduling language study!Secondly, identify activities that you might be willing to give up in order to make more time for language study (especially if you didnt have any downtime in your schedule!).Lastly, find any activities in your schedule that could be overlapped with language study. Commuting is the perfect exampleâ€"its a great time to listen to language materials (but obviously not a good time to work on writing or reading if youre the one driving).Put your proposed language study times into your calendar!You can also use time management apps like Rescue Time or Focus Booster to help you locate the downtime in your scheduleâ€"and make the most of it!Dont Be Overly Ambitious!As youre working on creating a schedule that will work around your other commitments, resist the temptation to fill every waking hour with language study. That will just burn you out. A good language study plan is sustainable. So dont plan on giving up your favorite TV show or staying up two hours later every night.2. It Incorporates Diverse Learning Activit iesIncorporate Both Independent Study and InstructionYour language study plan should include time aloneâ€"time that youre listening to podcasts, learning and practicing grammar and memorizing vocabulary.But you also need to work with native speakers and get some kind of instruction, whether its from a class, from a private teacher or a language exchange partner.You can kill two birds with one stone on italki. Its a smart platform for finding free language exchange partners (native speakers of your target language, who also want to learn your native language). You can also hire professional language tutors on the platform, and youll be able to identify the ideal tutor for you based on your schedule, budget and language goals. Either way, the options here can be a huge boon for your language progress.A good language study plan needs both independent study and instructed timeâ€"and it has to be scheduled.Practice Different Language SkillsFluency in a foreign language requires mastery o f reading, writing, speaking and listening, and the best language study plans make time for all of those skills.Truly masterful study plans align the type of skill to practice with your energy level and other activities. For example, if you commute to work and can listen to a podcast in your target language every day during this time. Alternatively, if writing is the most difficult skill for you to master, schedule your writing practice at a time when you can be 100 percent focused and when you tend to be alert and energetic.3. Its Targeted Towards Your GoalsPractice the Language Skills Important to Your GoalsEveryone has different goals, and you need to make sure your language study plan reflects yours, not someone elses. So if your language goal is to read original-language literature, your study plan should be heavy on reading practice. If you need to use the language at work, it should focus on business vocabulary.Make Goal-specific BenchmarksBenchmarks in general are essential to a good language study plan, but you also need benchmarks that are specific to your aims. Scoring high marks on a test that measures reading ability isnt that useful if you really want to improve your speaking ability. Here are some sample benchmarks that might be relevant to specific goals:Have a conversation in your target language with a native speaker.Read a complete book in your target language. (You could even be so specific as to specify which book to read.)Watch a movie without subtitles in your target language.4. It Includes Periodic, Measurable EvaluationYoull need some way to determine if your plan is workingâ€"and those evaluation mechanisms should in fact be part of your study plan. There are two main ways to evaluate how youre doing:Take Language Proficiency TestsMany languages have standardized language proficiency exams that people use to prove to employers or others that they can speak the language. Some of the more well-known exams are the HSK for Chinese, the DE LF/DALF for French and the DELE for Spanish.Incorporate taking these exams into your general study plan. They will provide an outside, objective evaluation of your progress, and give you an idea of which language skills you are comparatively weaker in. Knowing that a test is coming up can also be a powerful motivator to put in a little extra study time!Get Individual Evaluation from TutorsFinding a language tutor in your area is easy with WyzAnt, where you can immediately search and filter tutors by rates, availability, distance from you and more. You can look at a tutors profile and get an extensive idea of their experience and their schedule before even contacting them!If youd prefer to look exclusively at your  online tutoring options, you can skip over to Verbling and browse hundreds upon hundreds of language tutors from all around the world. Verbling even offers their own video technology, so you can have your lessons right on their site.Your language tutors canâ€"and shouldâ€" also provide you with feedback about your progress. Its appropriate to ask for a progress report every month or every two months, so that you can make sure youre on the right track.5. Its ConsistentThe whole point of a study plan is to be as consistent as possible. Heres how to make sure your plan fosters consistency.Schedule Each ActivityEvery language learning activity should have a time and a place. You dont want to say, Ill do one hour of listening practice this week. Instead, it should be, Every Tuesday and Thursday I do half an hour  of listening practice while I ride the train to work between 8:30 and 9 in the morning.Youre more likely to follow through week after week if you have the exact time and place nailed down in advance!Avoid InterruptionsYour language time must be sacredâ€"no text messages distracting you, no roommates offering you dinner and no kids begging for attention. Having scheduled activities helps manage interruptions enormously, because you can communicate to the people around you that youre not available.With the right language study plan, you can make continued progress towards fluency in your target language.Learning a language often requires slow but steady progress, and having a solid plan will help you keep on track for the long haul.Happy studying! And One More ThingAre you looking for study materials that provide enough structure to create your own lesson plans? Then youre going to love learning with FluentU!FluentU makes it possible to learn languages  from music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks.  Its all stuff that native speakers  actually watch.  With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that natives  speak them. FluentU has a wide variety of videos like movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you can see here:FluentU App Browse Screen.FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is w ithin reach with interactive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.Interactive transcript for Carlos Baute song.You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentUs Quiz Mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU has quizzes for every videoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.Start using FluentU on the website  with your computer or tablet  or, better yet,  download the FluentU app from  the  iTunes  or  Google Play  store.