Interested in learning a second language but don't know where to start? Learn about the concepts and skills required to learn languages successfully in this free course, How to learn a language.This course will introduce you to the skills and strategies you need for language learning. You will be encouraged to set realistic goals when learning a language, and you will be given advice on how to keep motivated to achieve these goals. You will practise speaking skills and vocabulary learning strategies.You will watch videos featuring other language learners to learn from their experience and the three course authors will share their top tips on how to successfully learn another language.Watch the following video in which one of the authors, Open University academic Fernando Rosell-Aguilar, introduces the course further.TranscriptEnrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey. Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our optional end-of-course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation.
Overview
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
