Category Archives: Learning Methods

How to use an Assimil course

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Josh

I’m quite fond of Assimil courses, and I use them for French, Spanish, Russian and Dutch. But in one area, they’re very often lacking: instructions. In many of the courses, the instructions amount to: “during the passive wave, just listen … Continue reading →

Posted in All Entries, Language Courses, Learning Methods | Tagged | 10 Comments

7 myths about vocabulary acquisition

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Josh

At the HTLAL forums, someone linked to an interesting PDF dealing with myths about vocabulary acquisition. The myths: Knowing a relatively small number of words takes you far. Word lists are of limited value. Words learned in semantic sets are … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning Methods, Vocabulary | 1 Comment

How much listening do you do?

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Josh

I’m curious as to how much listening others do, specifically, listening to material that you have no transcript for. For a while, I was listening to all sorts of stuff; I used Global Maverick’s guide to organizing foreign language listening … Continue reading →

Posted in All Entries, Language Learning, Learning Methods | Tagged , | 13 Comments