The three keys of an effective method
Structure means you have an appropriate balance of vocabulary, grammar, and the four skills and learn the components of these in a good order.
Spread your time out among the different aspects of your language. Learning a bit of vocabulary will aid your learning of grammar and vice versa. Remember to build the skills to necessary to read, write, listen, or speak, depending on what your goal is. More advice on learning the four skills will be given later here.
Though there is a some variation, there is a natural order to the knowledge you acquire in language learning. This brings us to the next principle:
Principle: Build a base and work up
Languages are best learned by starting from simple concepts and words and building towards more complicated ones as you improve, focusing on the components that help you improve the most. Without a base level of understanding, it will be harder to understand more advanced concepts or comprehend content that uses them.
Focus on learning the simplest thing you need to improve to get you towards your goal. You will find you progress much faster.
Drill key skills
A drill is an exercise that isolates a single aspect of your language so that you can develop it separately from the others. Your method should incorporate extra drills where you have weaknesses, often caused by your course neglecting certain aspects of your language.
The key drill I recommend is using flashcards. Later, as you improve, I recommend you move to drilling with content.
Practise your language
Practising your language integrates everything you have learned together. Examples include speaking with people, writing texts, or reading stories. It is mostly absent from the beginner stages, but will gradually take a larger role as you progress. Without practice, all of the knowledge and skills you build through your study will not translate into real-world language ability.
How you progress
Your method can be split into two phases: the starting phase and the input phase. There is no concrete point where you exit one phase and begin the next. These phases blend as you gradually build the knowledge you need to use more natural content.
The starting phase is where you focus on building the skills necessary to begin using input to learn your language. In this phase, your level is too low to understand much content, so you first need to drill basic grammar and vocabulary to create a base for yourself. There is nothing stopping you using content here; you’d simply have to spend most of your time with a dictionary and grammar resource, which is not particularly efficient or fun.
At this stage your goals are relatively simple:
Learn your first ~800 words
Learn the basic grammar
Learn the basics of the four skills; focus heavily on the writing system if it is different
The input phase comes next. This is the rest of your study. Once you have the basics down, you can take advantage of that base to begin learning with content.
At this stage your goals are more directed by your reasons for learning the language. Here are the ones common to all learners:
Continue to build your grammar ability
Keep learning lots more words—an intermediate learner knows over 2,000, but aim to know about 3,000 and don’t stop there
Build your ability with the skills you need to meet your goals, focus on integrating them into your grammar and vocabulary knowledge
Transition into using content intended for native speakers
Building your method
The key is that you continue to build your language ability by following the three keys: ensure your learning has structure, you are drilling key skills, and are practising your language. This will let you succeed with any method.
Starting phase
Key activities:
Progress through your beginner course to learn vocabulary and grammar
Drill vocabulary (or grammar) using flashcards
Learn the skills you need for your goal through your beginner course or a supplementary resource if necessary
Once you are at the end of the starting phase, begin reading and/or listening as much as you can using beginner input
Input phase
Because the input phase is so long, and the number of possible activities so large, I can’t provide you with specific activities or goals, but general ones suitable for an intermediate learner. Exactly what goals you choose and what you learn will be dictated by your goals and interests.
Key activities:
Continue to study with your course
Use any supplemental resources to help you learn skills not well covered by your beginner course
Read, watch, or listen to whatever content you enjoy
Keep using flashcards every day if you find them helpful
Practice your language with a personal tutor, get feedback on your weaknesses
Begin speaking with native speakers
Do the activities in the Key Activities chapter
Begin using content intended for native speakers
Other options for activities
There are lots other ways to structure your method while following the three key requirements. For example:
You could forego courses in favour of reading lots, looking up concepts as necessary
You could drill by using a vocabulary list or writing sentences instead of flashcards2
Your source of input could be mostly practising speaking with a friend or tutor
You could focus heavily on learning mostly through traditional classes
These are all valid choices for the right learner.
Principle: Work towards your goals
One of the best things you can do for your progress is to focus on your goals and the skills you need to get there. Unfortunately, the individual skills improved by studying do not easily translate into your target situation. This means you need to improve through direct practice, spending time directly practising the thing you want to become good at.3 For example, if you want to converse face-to-face, you need to spend a large amount of time practising speaking and listening, ideally in communication with others. Keep this in mind as you build your method.
Using other learners’ methods
I recommend you find some ideas for your method while you search for resources. There are plenty of places on the internet where people have detailed their own method. You can often find these with a simple Google search along the lines of “How to learn Japanese”. Take the useful bits of other people’s methods you find. Remember: the specifics of any method aren’t the key, so don’t stress about following someone’s method exactly.
Using others’ methods is useful for two reasons. First, they will often give good resource recommendations and advice on integrating them into your method, which I can’t give you here. Second, you will often find good advice on your specific language, such as common beginner pitfalls or useful areas to focus your attention.
Beware: Common learner advice often fails to account for learner goals, and some exercises may be poorly optimised for your goals. For example, if you learn Chinese, you may be recommended to learn the Hanzi (characters) by writing them out repeatedly. This is very effective at enabling you to write and use a few Hanzi very well. It is also very time-consuming. However, if you goal is to speak or read lots of content, this could be a misuse of your time. That same amount of time could be spent learning to recognise even more Hanzi or practising pronunciation. Remember the principle Build a base and work up? If, later on, you want to master writing, you will find the task much easier with a strong base from your reading.
Principle: Push yourself
During your study, you will inevitably find certain resources or content eventually become easy for you. The key to a good method is that you move on as soon as you begin to feel to comfortable with a resource. There will always be something more challenging for you to try. By continually challenging yourself, you will be constantly pushed to improve.
Splitting your time
There’s no single guideline for how to split your time. At the beginner stages, it is common for learners to spend fully half or more of their time with their preferred beginner course, with the other half spent drilling and practising in equal measure. Later on, time with the course tends to reduce and practice tends to become more frequent. Do what works for you. The key is that you progress and improve.
You will need to adjust how you spend your time based on the nature of the course you are using. For example, if your course uses little content and focuses on exercises, you have a greater need to supplement your learning with content.
Your most important time is that which you spend with content—it is crucial to progressing in your language. Many learners spend up to 75% of their time practising with input. Apart from at the very beginning, avoid reducing your time below one third. Progress through input can be hard to notice in the short-term, but is invaluable long-term.
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