Learning a language can be difficult at the best of times, let alone trying to learn one on teams. In today's post I want to talk about my top tips for studying a language from home. For reference, I am not a language learning expert, I can only speak from my own experiences of learning Italian as part of my degree. I have never studied a language before (not even at GCSE) so I am well and truly out of my depth here, but I'm trying to overcome this and get through this year.
Find a learning style that works for you
I know this may seem like a very generic statement, however this is so crucial to your success. The way your lecturer teaches may not be the way that works best for you. Having an open dialogue with academic staff means that you can come to a suitable conclusion on how you can achieve the best grade.
Find a balance between vocabulary and grammar exercises
This is one of my main pieces of advice, it's all well and good learning grammar tips and tricks but without a foundation of good vocabulary you'll never be able to put the grammar into practice. Identify topic areas and make vocabulary pages to match these themes. Personally I like to handwrite these notes but I know some of my other friends like to use softwares like Quizlet.
Record yourself speaking dialogues
This can be the perfect revision method to review your oral skills. I often write short dialogues (between 100-150) words on topics that we've been going through in class then record myself saying it. Not only can this be a great self-reflection task, but it's also a great way you can show your lecturer you're keeping up to date with the workload from home.
Allow time for your other modules
If you're like me and you have many other modules, learning a language can be extremely time consuming and way begin to take the focus away from other subject areas. For me, this is most certainly something that I worry about but like I've said in all my previous posts, keeping a daily to-do list and a weekly schedule can help me to organise my time and not dedicate it all onto Italian.
Helpful Resources for Italian Students:
Learn Italian Daily - I found this the perfect supplementary source to go alongside my textbooks, they lay everything out in a clear and understandable way with a combination of English and Italian translations.
Textbooks:
Luciana Ziglio, Giovanna Rizzo, Nuovo Espresso 1. Libro dello studente e esercizi (Alma edizioni, 2014 - now also with an online version)
- Luciana Ziglio, Nuovo espresso 1. Esercizi supplementari (Alma edizioni, 2015)
- Marco Mezzadri, GP. Grammatica pratica della lingua italiana A1-C1 (Loescher, 2016)
Stay Safe xx
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