How to succeed in learning a foreign language.
Learning a foreign language has many advantages that help in different aspects of life economically, culturally and socially. However, it's not easy to learn a language correctly and successfully without listening to songs, watching movies, reading newspapers, and writing essays. Here, we are going to see how studying a foreign language at school is not enough to master it.
To be fluent in a language means to master listening, reading, writing and speaking skills. The school can not generally offer good conditions to master these skills for many reasons among which there are time constraints and lack of equipments. Good listening skills are acquired by listening to native speakers on radios, TVs, songs and movies. This helps not only in the acquisition of good pronunciation but it also teaches the way native speakers express themselves by using different intonation which affects the meaning of speeches. Gestures and facial expressions are also important factors in communication and it is crucial for the learners of a foreign language to watch movies and see how native speakers interact in their daily dialogues, using different gestures and facial expressions to express different ideas and moods. By doing this, the learner enriches his knowledge about the language and masters it more than those who totally depend on their teachers at school.
At school, students read texts and discuss them. However, teachers can not find time for students to read individually and it is almost impossible for them to correct all their students' mistakes. Hence, learners must read much outside their classes. Reading books is necessary but reading newspapers has a special importance. Newspapers teach updating vocabulary and attracting expressions. Besides their primary goal which is spreading news, newspapers help much in learning languages by promoting students' vocabulary and grammar structures. In newspapers, there are always important topics concerning recent and different topics in different brilliant styles. All of this has a great positive impact on students' acquisition of a language.
Writing is usually a hard task for foreign language learners, because they rarely practice writing essays in those short moments supplied for writing in schedules. Educators teach students rules and help them to learn how to plan and organise their ideas in a good form. They correct some of the homework; yet, learners never have opportunities to write much in schools. Undoubtedly, writing skills mirror the level of every student in mastering a language because it is the outcome of vocabulary, grammar and structure knowledge. If your writing in a certain language is weak then you are not competent and you can not communicate easily using that language.
Communication is very important in our daily activities. We learn a foreign language to communicate and understand others. Speaking correctly and fluently is necessary to evaluate our competence in a foreign language. Hence, to master a language we have to practice speaking and give it much importance.
Lastly, to succeed in mastering a foreign language, one needs to work hard outside school with the help of mass media.
Ismail ladib
Hello Ismail,
I read your first essay- The foreign language one- and i should say that it is a very good essay. You have covered most of the points and ur writing is also of top quality. So u shouldn't worry tooo much about this writing section if u r preparing for exams like IELTS/GRE/TOEFL etc ... i wish u the best of luck, i m running out of time and so i will try and read ur second essay later.
good luck n cheers my friend.
I moved that other essay to a new thread. Please start a new thread for every essay. Only one essay should be in each thread, but you can post multiple drafts of the same essay.
This one about learning language is great. I agree with Ajit. I think it seems that you are saying language learning is inseparable from learning about the culture. Also, it seems like you are implying that authentic cultural experiences are necessary for language learning. From your essay, I got the insight that you have not really learned a language until you have become deeply familiar with the culture.
I think you should have a more meaningful sentence at the end of the first paragraph. Instead of just stating something simple at the end of that first paragraph, say something profound. :-)
