This article is for those who want to freely speak a foreign language. It doesn't matter if you start from scratch or already learn a language over the years, but you still have difficulties with the perception of fluent speech by ear or stress, if you need to talk to a native speaker, here you will find a step-by-step strategy for learning spoken language.
Note: The materials of the article are based on the research of E.D. Averina, D.B. Nikulicheva, E.V. Gunnemark and P.Neishna, passed through the prism of my perception and experience of studying 3 foreign languages.
Step-by-step strategy
1. Start with sounds.
Any living language is above all sounds. If you are not familiar with the sounds of the language being studied - you do not hear them! The brain replaces them with the closest analogues that can be found in the Russian language. And often combines several unfamiliar sounds into one familiar. As a result, a huge number of words that actually sound differently become indistinguishable to you by ear. This inevitably leads to difficulties in understanding a foreign language. But even worse is that without mastering the sounds, you cannot say a word in such a way that it will be understood by native speakers without tension.
Fortunately, everything has already been invented, and there is IPA - the international phonetic alphabet . You just have to find out what sounds from IPA are in the language you are studying and get acquainted with how they are pronounced. Video tutorials on sounds are easily searched on Youtube. For example, for English: Sounds American
2. Find out the pronunciation and articulation
You have already become familiar with the sounds of the new language. Now we must accept the fact that he has a fundamentally different articulation system. Find video tutorials on articulation and pronunciation features of the language you are learning.
For example, English is stress-timed language (stressed vowels are accentuated, and unstressed ones are reduced so as to maintain equal time intervals between shock ones). In Spanish, unstressed vowels, on the contrary, are pronounced as clearly as possible, since from them depends largely on what is said. In German, there are a lot of aspirated sounds, and in Chinese, each syllable is characterized by a particular tone.
Also very important is the concept of placement - a place where vowels resonate ( video for English )
Do not regret time for the first 2 stages. Having mastered the sounds, taking into account the peculiarities of pronunciation and articulation, you will save yourself years that you do not have to spend on retraining.
Note: when speaking in a foreign language, you should not experience discomfort such as “breaking the tongue”. If something like this is felt, then there are errors in the articulation.
3. Learn the rules of reading
Now you can go to the letters. Read the rules of reading. It is important that they relate letters to the sounds of IPA, and not to the letters of the Russian alphabet!
There is no sense in cramming the rules. almost all languages have a huge number of exceptions. Nevertheless, in general terms, knowing them will not hurt, so I recommend simply writing them out in some document. And reread it once a week, each time removing from the document those rules that you already remember.
Note: Never write down the sound of foreign words in Russian letters. This creates a powerful binding of the visual image of the word to the sound in the native language. And in order to master the sound of a foreign language, it is necessary to accept the fundamental difference of its phonetic system from the system of the native language.
4. Learn the right words
First of all, master the minix of the language being studied. It includes from 400 to 500 most used words. This amount is enough to understand 90% of everyday speech. If for a language of interest to you, a ready-made collection is not Google, then you can take a list of words from the supplement to the book "The Art of Learning Languages" by E. Gunnemark. Minilex is good because it is a practically universal compilation, and it is enough to translate it into the language you are interested in.
Separate emphasis should be placed on the study of pronouns and interrogative words. So how exactly they, even with a minimum vocabulary, allow you to start a dialogue.
After you have mastered the minilex, think about which words you most often use in your everyday life (in addition to nouns, write out verbs and adverbs as well). It completely depends on your field of activity, interests and hobbies. Therefore, there will already be an individual set of words for each person.
Note: at the initial level do not learn synonyms, because the less options you have to say the same thing, the easier it is to bring it to automatism.
Methods of memorizing new words.The interval repetition system works well for memorizing words. There are many services that implement it, for example, Anki , Memrise , Quizlet , etc. It is desirable that there was an opportunity to create your cards.
Make sure that the card has the voice of the word with the correct pronunciation (you can take with Forvo ) and transcription in IPA. This is very important because from the moment of the first voicing of a word, his recall and speed of translation into an active vocabulary directly depends. But the translation of the word into Russian is better not to indicate on the card, limit yourself to a picture that you associate with this word, or a phrase on the following methods:
- Substitution method
For some words, you can find popular expressions, proverbs or sayings in which they occur. Substitute the word in the target language in this phrase and you will remember it very quickly. For example, "The word is not sparrow [ˈspærəʊ], you will not fly out." - Association method
Think about what you associate the sound of the word, you can use already familiar words on the rebus principle. Think of your association to a situation in which the meaning of the word will appear. For example, "he ran into a puddle puddle [ˈpʌdl]", "socket = sock + it" - Verbal network method
For each new word, you build a kind of map: place the word itself in the center, more general concepts above it, concepts of the same level on each side (words that can be in the same enumeration with the studied one), typical phrases with this word below, and also more specific concepts, if any.
Such a mindmap is better remembered than a single word, and is much easier to translate into an active vocabulary.
The first 2 methods can be used from the very beginning, including creating cards for them. And the third is better suited for the 8th step, at the stage of consuming a large amount of content in the target language.
5. Bring basic language constructions to automatism.
Spoken language is largely composed of cliches and pattern phrases. To master them you do not need to dive into learning grammar tables, rather the opposite. There are methods of Michel Thomas and Paul Pimsler , who introduce the basic pattern phrases in a natural way "in such a situation, say so, but in this one - like this." To get the maximum effect from these methods, you should visualize each situation, trying to present it in as much detail as possible and to combine it with your life experience.
In addition to the above methods, there is also a miniframe Gunnemark, which includes about 100 popular speech stamps. They are also worth remembering, integrating into your own experience. These phrases are so common that it is easy for you to remember the cases from their lives that are suitable for them. Expand this list with phrases that you personally personally often like to use. However, for each typical situation, leave only one expression, so as not to be confused. And remember that mastering complete phrases takes precedence over learning individual words or rules.
Pronunciation and PhrasesPronunciation of phrases is very important, because it reflects not only the pronunciation of words, but also the rhythmic-intonation pattern, which often encodes the meaning of the phrase. So try to find a ready voice acting. In the courses of Thomas and Pimsler, of course, there is already a voice acting, and for their phrases they will have to search.
For English there is a wonderful service Youglish , with the help of which it is easy to find scenes from movies and TV shows, in which the studied phrase sounds. Look at the whole scene and say the actor's remark as close as possible to the original, as if living in his role.
For other languages, you can search for the necessary phrases on Leo , Forvo or in the lyrics. If nothing is found, save up phrases and order their voice acting to a native speaker, or use IPA text translation services, such as EasyPronunciation .
Note: When practicing the pronunciation of a phrase, try increasing the tempo, but keeping the rhythmic intonation pattern, pronounce it as quickly as possible, like a patter. When it turned out to be done, while retaining the comfort of pronunciation, go back to your normal pace and repeat the phrase a couple more times.
6. Forget about cramming grammar. Learn media perception
Language is a reflection of the culture and worldview of its carriers. It is cultural differences that create translation difficulties and bewilderment about some grammatical constructions. To make it easier to master a foreign language, you must initially proceed from the fact that it reflects a different world perception, so you should try to try on the values of a new language consciousness for you and present yourself as its carrier.
To better get used to the new role, be sure to study the contrasting description of the language being studied in comparison with Russian, for example: "Comparison of communicative behavior for Russian, English and German" , "Features of communication between Spanish and English cultures . "
Study all the materials that you will find for a foreign language you are interested in on how thinking is reflected in grammar. If there are few of such materials, then just take a self-instruction manual on the grammar of the desired language and read it all diagonally, noting any interesting points. Turn into a detective for a couple of days, who happily notices the various features of the expression of thoughts through grammatical forms. Summarize and memorize them in the form of amusing associations, for example, you can notice that English loves gossip, so it uses separate grammatical forms for them. After all, about whom and what do people gossip about? About other very specific people (he, she) and organizations (it) that do something (Vs), either have already done (has + V3) or are going to do (is going to V), well, also about all sorts of events ( it). But what has already been done for a long time, or it does not matter already, or whether it will be written on water, it is somehow uninteresting to gossip.
Starting from this stage, learn new words only in context! Lingvist , Reverso and Leo to help you. Better still, remember not the words, but the typical collocations with this word (collocations). They can be taken from the explanatory dictionaries or just think about what phrases you come to mind when you hear this word. If you come up with examples in Russian, then translate them not literally, but with the help of Reverso.
7. Simulate the pronunciation of carriers
Every polyglot knows: how accurately you imitate the pronunciation of a native speaker, how well you understand it. Pronunciation and listening comprehension are two sides of the same coin. © D.B. Nikulicheva
The main methods of training for imitation carriers:
a) Choose the texts you are interested in and order their voice acting from the carrier
Let him write in two versions: slowly and in daily pace. It is necessary to ask him to pause, while reading the text under the recording, in those places where it is intonationally logical. During the pause, the carrier will have to pronounce the same part of the phrase to himself, so you will get audio, where the length of the pauses corresponds to the length of the spoken fragment. On such audio files it is convenient to practice in a regular player. First you need to listen to the sound of the speakers' speech, and then (during those very pauses) try to imitate them as close as possible to the original. Try to pay special attention to the rhythm-intonation pattern of each phrase.
b) Automated active listening on special services
For example, Speekify has a convenient training system according to the method described in the previous paragraph. For this, the service has prepared audio recordings, which are divided into short fragments by pauses. For English and Spanish there are 5 levels for increasing the complexity of audio tracks from simple to really hardcore.
In addition to the training mode in this service, you can record your version of phrases and get an output of the degree of similarity and, most importantly, the combined record. It is very convenient to listen to your phrase immediately after the phrase of the carrier, the ear begins to discern even minor flaws.
The service is a good choice of languages for the basic level. But courses for advanced levels are, unfortunately, only in English and Spanish.
c) Songs in the target language
The songs that you like are very good training material. And so you pull along to sing. It remains only to find the text and listen to the song line by line. Try to listen to the fragment of the song first several times, trying to recognize as many words as possible, and then look in the text and listen to the same fragment again. Thus, the text you will remember better than if you just read it, and the bonus you remember exactly how it sounds in the song. After such a study of the song, you can easily sing along when you hear it the next time.
Whatever method you choose, do not forget that it is important to work out each audio recording many times. As the famous British phoneticist J. O'Conner said, “It is much more useful to listen to the same passage six times than six different passages once”. If in Speekify for this, lessons are provided for repetition, then in the first version you yourself should not forget to return to the tracks already passed. Well, repeated listening to your favorite songs is not a problem at all.
New words and phrases are most easily recruited from books of interest to you, favorite movies, songs that you enjoy listening and singing, meaningful replicas in live communication. That's when we really want to learn and remember a new word or a new meaning. Therefore, a set of vocabulary, you can start with those works that you already know almost by heart. After that, you can go to unfamiliar content.
But how to choose it? According to the study "How many input words?" Paul Nation, correct input should contain no more than 2% of unfamiliar words. Based on this criterion, you can select materials for reading and viewing that are suitable for your level. It can be both adapted books and short stories by modern authors. In the case of video, it is enough to analyze the subtitles or watch randomly selected 5 minutes, counting unfamiliar words, they should be no more than 8. The calculation method is also suitable for selecting Youtube channels and radio stations that you can listen to for the best educational effect.
What to do if you are interested in more complex content than your level allows?Read parallel texts on the method of Ilya Frank. Or read based on a literary translation (the method of Elena Averina), i.e. find not only the original work, but also its translation into Russian. And read in this format:
- Read a couple of paragraphs (pages) in the original, trying to understand at least something, even the smallest nuggets of meaning.
- Read the corresponding Russian translation without matching individual words and sentences.
- If at the first step there was little that is clear, then re-read the same fragment once again in the original.
- Repeat from step 1
It is important to choose rather large works (from 200 pages) with which you are not familiar, and from the beginning to read the original, so that you are really interested in what's next (that is, the genre should also be of interest to you). It is also important not to slide into a conscious translation, allow the brain to independently do comparisons in the background. To do this, at the 2nd step, visualize what the narrative is about to remember at the level of thoughts and images, not words. The trick is that after about the 100th page you almost no longer need the 2nd and 3rd step, even if at first you almost did not understand anything.
In a similar pattern, you can watch TV shows.
In any case, at this stage, the enrichment of vocabulary goes mainly on the machine, you no longer have to create a card for each word or invent mnemonics. You repeatedly meet with the same words, at first understanding them from the context, and then memorize them without conscious effort. Well, for greater efficiency, you can additionally use the method of verbal networks from p.4.
9. Keep an audio or video diary
At first, make up text stories about yourself, how the day went, what plans for a weekend / vacation, as well as fictional stories about any of your fantasies. The main thing is to add as many details as possible. Look for the most appropriate grammatical forms. Check the resulting text on Lang-8 or order a paid check from the media if you do not want to publish your stories.
After the text is verified, read it under the recording on audio or video, and then listen to this recording, analyzing whether this is similar to the speech of the speaker of the language being studied. If the result does not please you with sound, then pay more attention to the 7th item.
Since daily stories overlap in many ways, you will eventually remember most of the wording that you use in them, and will be able to record such audio without preparation.
10. Switch internal dialogue to the target language.
Perhaps your subconscious still has phrases that you do not know how to say in the target language. Follow your internal dialogue and find out what these phrases are. Then translate them through Reverso and learn as described in the 5th paragraph.
11. Communicate with native speakers (who do not know Russian)
Carriers can be searched on Italki and similar services. However, the important point is that you have no real goal to practice a foreign language with native speakers. The goal is to communicate on interests, consider this when searching for carriers. Working contacts or friendship is what really interests you. Communication exclusively for the sake of language practice is boring and quickly annoying.
Of course, it is also wonderful to communicate with native speakers of an interesting language who live in your city. But do not flatter yourself that freely communicating with them, you will be able to communicate with carriers who do not know Russian. Read more about this in the video "Your English
Important aspects
In conclusion, I want to talk about several points that are orthogonal to learning languages, but very important for mastering any skill:
- Motivation
Before you start learning a foreign language, think about what you will do with it and how your life will change. Paint it as detailed and colorful as possible.
Write what you do by imagining that you already know the language. It is this inclusion of a foreign language in your daily life that will be your global goal. But in order not to lose the fuse, break it into small, positively formulated SMART goals . In principle, each of the points of the above strategy can be wrapped in such a goal or in a few. - Withdrawing limiting beliefs
If you have the conviction that learning languages is difficult, or that you do not have the ability to do this, or that it is too late at your age to begin, and so on, then you should know all this - nonsense!
The study of negative attitudes is the topic of a separate article, if not a book, so here I’ll just advise you to search for materials on this topic yourself. Removing these settings is important because they greatly hinder your progress. - Interest
In fact, any recommendations are not binding. Although the above tips and improve the efficiency of learning a foreign language, everything will be useless if you are not interested to follow some of them. It is not so important whether you will learn words on Quizlet , Lingvist or writing out in a notebook, will you get acquainted with the grammar in general or step by step, practice Speekify or take individual lessons with a carrier, learn the language independently or on courses, the most important thing - do what you are interested in doing. After all, the development of a language, no matter how effective the method is, is not a sprint, but a marathon. And there is nothing worse than losing a keen interest in the language being studied. - Knowing of limits
It is important to determine the optimal time for you personally so that no overwork occurs. You can start with 20 minutes, and follow your feelings, if you feel that "floated" - reduce the time classes. If after 20 minutes you still feel a high concentration and excitement, you can add 5 minutes each. - Regularity
Due to the maintenance of interest and sense of proportion, keep regular contact with the target language. It is better to practice daily for 20-30 minutes than 7 hours once a week.
Even if you have a very tight schedule, you can use the wasted time when you are in a traffic jam, waiting in line and the like.