Question:
Peter T. Daniels commented, on a thread regarding difficulties in
language self study ("know a language but can't speak it - What next?"),
that Barry Farber's "How To Learn Any Language" was "wrong from beginning to
end." He didn't extrapolate. It was said that there are no general
language learning methods (isn't this one of the facets of applied
linguistics?). So, for lack of explanation in the aforementioned thread, I
pose a question: how does one learn a language by oneself? Truly, of
course, it wouldn't be /entirely/ by oneself but I'm referring to the
self-study of language.
Christian
P.S. - Daniels mentioned that Farber is deceased -- is there anyone who
heard anything about this?
Answer:
I think something to keep in mind is that you really can't learn a
language by yourself. Unless you've recently spent time in a country
where the language is spoken daily, you'll never get any real sense
for usage. Even "native speakers" who have lived in America for a
long time lose their sense for the language in very distinct ways.
(Not to mention those of us who have been lucky enough to live abroad
and after returning find ourselves becoming less and less articulate
as time passes.)
On the other hand, there are a lot of useful things you can do on
your own. My method for self-instruction is to acquire as rapidly as
possible knowledge of the grammar and basic vocabulary ("and", "but",
"speak", "friend", and so on). Then I get my hands on newspapers,
children's books, etc., and I read. I try to eliminate any reliance
on a textbook as quickly as possible so I can get to really using the
language for practical things. Once you're at that level, you can
start looking at other textbooks -- they'll build up the foundation
you've established, reinforce things you've forgotten already, and
hopefully fill in whatever gaps your first textbook had.
This is just my personal experience, but I've found it works pretty
well. This is made easier if you already know a language in the same
family as the language being studied (I've used this method mostly
with other Slavic languages).
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