Fri, 16 Feb 2018 12:40:15 +0000Geralde Vincent-BancroftLanguage learning takes time and consistency. It is important to know if we are going in the right direction, and how far we are from our objective.
Why would you want to monitor your progress?
1- it helps when you reach a plateau
Sometimes when things get difficult, you might have the…
Language learning takes time and consistency. It is important to know if we are going in the right direction, and how far we are from our objective.
Why would you want to monitor your progress?
1- it helps when you reach a plateau
Sometimes when things get difficult, you might have the feeling that you’re not learning at all , or at best very little. In these cases measuring your progress regularly will show you that your perception is not accurate. It is like a breath of fresh air and it renews your motivation to carry on.
2- You realise how much you’ve invested
The time you’ve dedicated to your language learning becomes more apparent, and giving up at the stage you are, becomes a discarded option.
3- It allows you to evaluate your method.
You can modify your learning materials or the way you learn altogether if you register that there is no consistent progress after a while.
4- It will increase the chance of success
You measure, you see positive results, it keeps you motivated and you stay the course. The probability to reach fluency in your target language is highly enhanced.
How do you measure your progress?
There are various methods, none of them is precised, but if you combine them your results will be more accurate.
1- Track the time
You’re accountable for your study when tracking the time spent learning your new language and we’ve already mentioned the motivation boost tracking offers.
2- The use of spaced-repetition software
It measures your progress in learning vocabulary. It allows you to see the amount of words you know; but lately The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) has switched the focus from counting how many words you know about a language. The CEFR evaluates what you can actually do with the language.
I think that this shift of mindset is highly positive. What is the point of knowing five hundred new words if you’re unable to use them in real-time conversations.
The CEFR recommends for learners to monitor their use of the language in real-life situations as a parameter of progress.
3- Create “can-do” goals
“can-do” goals are based on real-life scenarios. Their objective is to help you decide to study what’ is relevant to your actual needs. For example instead of learning isolated words, you can learn how to make a phone call to book a hotel room.
Think of real life tasks that are hard for you to execute. Work out the missing vocabulary, expression and grammar structures unknown to you and learn them before you practice the exercise.
practice the scenarios as many time as required.
4- Start speaking as soon as possible.
In the early stages of your learning process, the speaking exercises will help you get a grip to real life conversations from the get go. Don’t be concerned that you won’t understand, you’ll see that you’ll do for three reasons:
a) people will adapt their speech to your level.
b) Most conversations are about every day things.
c) You will be able to ask them to repeat at any time.
Tracking your progress is a powerful tool in language learning for all the above. When done consistently, it prevents you from reaching the famous plateau most language learners hit at some point.
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How do you monitor your progress? Comment below!
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