Guidelines for language learners

ü  Be proactive

ü  Take advantage of everything that happens for language acquisition

ü  Use selective attention to help your accuracy

ü  Combine formal and informal learning

ü  Put yourself in situations where you have to use the language you are learning

ü  Establish that you want to speak the language you are learning

ü  Be creative in finding ways to practice the language

ü  Expand the areas of language you can operate in

ü  Use a variety of strategies to help yourself learn

ü  Take opportunities to use the language

ü  Set yourself achievable goals

ü  Find ways to generate comprehensible input

ü  Help yourself understand

ü  Use analysis to help you understand how the language works

ü  Get exposure to different kinds of discourses

ü  Use media resources

ü  Look for reading material of the appropriate difficulty

ü  Use cognates, but use them carefully

ü  Don't always try to understand every word you hear

ü  Help yourself remember

ü  Apply what you have learned as soon as possible

ü  Make up games that work like drills

ü  Memorize things when you have to

ü  Associate words with images to help you understand and remember them

ü  Reinforce learning with actions

ü  Encourage yourself

ü  Find ways to relax and get away from the language for short breaks

ü  Believe that you can learn a second language

ü  Find ways to express your personality

ü  Accept the fact that you sound like a child, even though you are an adult

ü  Remind yourself of your motivation

ü  Find nonthreatening people to talk with

ü  Look for situations you can participate in without pressure to speak a lot

ü  Do not let your desire to be correct keep you from talking

ü  Set yourself up for small successes

ü  Learn to take risks wisely

ü  Expect to make mistakes, and learn from them

ü  Be patient with yourself and persevere

ü  Learn to laugh at your mistakes

ü  Watch people's reactions to what you say

ü  Find ways to explore your interests using the language

ü  Consciously remind yourself of what you like about the culture, the people, the language

ü  Remind yourself of what you are good at

ü  Interact with people

ü  Establish reciprocal relationships

ü  Adapt to the culture to make relationships and learn the language

ü  Participate as fully as possible in the culture

ü  Listen to other learners talk with native speakers

ü  Listen to people talking to each other in their language

ü  Talk with children and listen to parents talking to their children

ü  Make a culture-friend who will tell you when you act or speak inappropriately

ü  Try to find a pen pal

ü  Look for people who have time to talk with you

ü  Find good language role models

ü  Listen to people of different regions and social status

ü  Make friends with some monolingual speakers

ü  Find people who speak clearly

ü  Show your interest in the language and culture

ü  Learn appropriate varieties of the language

ü  Ask for help and you will learn as well as make friends

ü  Find ways to communicate

ü  Use all your resources to communicate

ü  Coin words to help you communicate, but be careful

ü  Rehearse what you want to say ahead of time

ü  If you do not know a word, circumlocute

ü  Learn responses to keep the conversation going

ü  Use memorized phrases at the beginning to get people to talk to you

ü  Check out the meaning of words, before you add them to your active vocabulary

ü  Give and get feedback to check comprehension