Learning to learn a language
These books, written by accomplished language learners, offer advice on language learning techniques and methods as well as resource suggestions. Many of the authors are polyglots, or even hyperpolyglots (speaking more than six languages), and so draw upon their personal experiences. Though we don't believe anyone will become completely fluent in a few months as some titles' marketing might suggest, these books have a huge amount to offer. Many of the ideas are tried and tested, while others are quite novel. Interestingly, although the authors are all accomplished language learners, they do not claim to have any particular gift for languages, rather relying on a mix of effective learning methods and motivation/hard work.
Most of the books have sections divided to cover different skills, this might be useful if you have identified a particular gap in your learning you want to remedy this with a new learning technique.
Some of the available books include:
- Fluent in 3 months by Benny Lewis
- How to become fluent in any language in a few months by Nate Nicholson
- Fluent forever by Gabriel Wyner
- How to speak any language fluently by Alex Rawlings
- How to learn another language by Victoria University of Wellington’s very own Sara Cotterall
- Polyglot – how I learn languages by Kató Lomb is a free eBook you can download onto your digital device
Sometimes when learning a language we end up repeating the same techniques. Trying a brand new one can be a great way to increase our motivation. Obviously we are all different and so have our own preferences, but we suspect that there will be something new and useful for everyone in each of these books.
If you would like to browse these resources have a look in the Language Learning Centre’s Self-access Library. If you can’t find what you are looking for, please come and ask an LLC staff member. We are here to help!
Article by Benjamin Swale