How to Learn Language More Efficiently

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How to Learn Language More Efficiently

• Advice From Your American Older Brother a
  Multilingual World Traveler, Veteran Court
  Interpreter, and Professional Language Teacher

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Daniel Steve VillarrealPh.D., 11A5SLA

• Your American Older Brother

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Daniel Steve Villarreal, Ph.D.

• Ph.D., Foreign Language Education, University of
  Texas at Austin
• Licensed Court Interpreter 315
  (Spanish/English), Texas
• US Army veteran, 11A5SLA
• Instructor, El Salvador Project, Ranger
  Department, Fort Benning, GA
• Liaison officer with Honduran military in La
  Ceiba
• BA in Modern Languages, The Citadel
• Part-time Mandarin student, Mandarin Training
  Center and International Chinese Language
  Program, Taipei, Taiwan

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Tricks of the trade for learning language

• Based on my personal experience and professional
  training use what works best for you and store
  the rest for later!

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Actionable steps!

• Ill present about 5 of them at a time
• Discuss with a friend which have you already
  tried /or what do you plan to try?
• Which will you take action on and how will you do
  it?
• Then the next 5
• OK, so here they are!

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Have moral courage

• Mifanbaobao? (I made this word up when trying to
  order my first Asian riceburger!)
• Dont be afraid to speak or to try
• Errors are part of learning!
• BE A RISK-TAKER!

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Hit the hua4 often!

• Get out there and use the language
• Native speakers are realia
• Find an activity (church, hobby, etc.) thats
  done in the other language

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Q How do you eat an elephant? A One bite at a
time!

• Which is the section you need to eat first?
• For me, its Mandarin vocabulary
• For you grammar, vocabulary, verb conjugations?

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Prioritize--Eat One Section of the Elephant at a
Time

• Use The Swiss Cheese Method
• Eat your most important piece of cheese
  grammar, vocabulary, etc.
• When one hole gets big enough, start on another
  hole
• Eventually, there will be no more cheese!

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"Sir, use ALL your resources!"

• A quotation from a great US Army Sergeant!
• I made great use of Pimsleur http//en.wikipedia.
  org/wiki/Pimsleur_language_learning_system
• Pimsleur for Mandarin-speakers who want to learn
  English http//www.pimsleur-language.com/Merchant
  2/merchant.mvc

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A huge list of possible resources!

• http//effortlessenglishclub.com/
• http//www.icrt.com.tw/en/ivy_newTOEIC.php
• http//blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/06/sat_prep_co
  urse.html
• http//www.princetonreview.com.tw/
• http//www.princetonreview.com/default.aspx?uidbad
  ge07
• www.ets.org/
• http//translate.miis.edu/prospective/top_10.html
  advice to interpreting students from the Monterey
  Institute of International Studies
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CategoryEducational_
  psychology How learning takes place
• http//www.manythings.org/wbg/ Games for ESL
  students
• http//www.southampton.liunet.edu/academic/pau/cou
  rse/webword.htm High-frequency TOEFL words
• http//www.english-test.net/toefl/
• http//www.englishdaily626.com/tfvocab.php
• http//www.grammar-monster.com/index.html

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Your turn!

• Which step will you implement? How will you do it?

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Study how language learning and language teaching
work.

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CategoryEducational_
  psychology
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition
  
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_language_
  learning
• http//www.mindtools.com/memory.html

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Imitate successful people dont reinvent the
wheel

• Can your fluent friend recommend a book, teacher,
  school?

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Make your learning active, rather than passive

• Mister Lazy just sits there in class and wants
  the instructor to pour the language into his
  cranium
• Mister Diligent takes notes, asks questions,
  tries things
• Nothing stops Mister Diligent!
• Which are you?

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2,500 repetitions automaticity!

• A response for those who want a Magic Pill
• More is better
• Use the language as often as possible read,
  speak, listen, etc.

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Multimodality use all of your senses!

• Writing Chinese characters I see, write the
  strokes, repeat the word
• Connect vision, speaking, feeling, listening
• Connect different parts of the brain

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Your turn!

• Which step will you implement? How will you do it?

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Dont be scared of the big words!

• A B C D
• Divide the parts of the word, then add them back
  up
• Syllables
• Prefixes
• Suffixes
• Multiple words in one word

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Etymology

• Whats the history of the word?
• Did you bolo on the rifle range (bolo US Army
  slang you failed you are more dangerous to the
  enemy with a bolo machete than with the Armys
  rifle!)?
• http//www.etymonline.com/index.php
• See the dictionary entry

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Vocabulary flash cards

• Make them
• Buy them
• Online
• iPod versions
• You can study while youre in line, on the bus,
  etc.
• Build or select them according to METT-T

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METT-T?

• MissionEnemyTerrain, weather, Troops and Time
  available.
• Mission what are you trying to do? What are your
  goals?
• Enemy time conflicts?
• Time available?

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Monitor yourself and self-correct

• Relax have fun with this
• Are you bringing patterns from your first
  language into your second language I have an
  appointment with my friend

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Think long term, not short term!

• What are your long-term purposes?
• Good enough to survive on a trip overseas OK!
• Scholarly work?
• Business?
• Again, consider METT-T

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Your turn!

• Which step will you implement? How will you do it?

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Find a great study partner or study group!

• Example--Language exchange ad 7th floor of
  Mandarin Training Center, Taipei, Taiwan,
  building bulletin board
• Great for test prep
• 2 heads gt 1 head

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Don't be a "this way" learner, be a "many ways"
learner!

• Pimsleur
• Rosetta Stone
• Flash cards
• Reading
• TV
• Movies
• Classes
• Most important get started now!

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Find an activity you like that's done in the
other language.

• Spanish-speaking churches gave me advanced
  language skills
• Movies
• Hobbies

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Do you have any English-speaking friends or
colleagues?

• They dont necessarily have to be from
  English-speaking countries!

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Exercise your initiative to find ways to speak
the language.

• Create your own English-speaking foreign country
  wherever you live
• I created a Spanish-speaking country in the US
  for about a year UNAM Spanish classes, Hispanic
  church, Spanish movies, Spanish-speaking work

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Your turn!

• Which step will you implement? How will you do it?

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You probably have LOTS of English, etc. in your
head

• Now make it come out of your pen and mouth.
• Force yourself to use what you learned in your
  studying.
• Again be a risk-taker!

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Dont wait for the teacher to teach you.

• No teacher, book, course, can achieve your goals
• Exercise initiative
• Preread the lessons
• Use the stuff outside of class

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Translations of books in both languages

• Vicarious learning you can experience a LOT via
  reading!
• Dynamic equivalence hello you good
• Read!
• Read!
• Read!
• Read!

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Create mini-lessons for yourself to use during
spare time.

• Use those 24 hours wisely!
• Flash cards
• Reading
• DVD movies
• Recordings
• METT-T
• Swiss Cheese Method

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Find or create foreign language-speaking
environments.

• US has Chinatown
• Taipei has Tian Mu
• Foreign-based clubs, churches, schools, activities

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Your turn!

• Which step will you implement? How will you do it?

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How do I say this in the other language?

• Do this continually
• Learn tons of vocabulary
• Learn native speech and writing

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Go take more language courses!

• All are good
• They all connect
• Action beats inaction

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Connect your foreign language to your other
subjects, academic courses, and to your work!

• Encounter situations or vocabulary
• Research it in the other context

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Consider studying Spanish to help your English
and your career!

• For you English-learning Mandarin-speakers
• Spanish Latin connections to English
• English Mandarin Spanish communicate with a
  LOT of people!

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Look for patterns across languages

• Some languages share grammar (Chinese languages)
• Some share vocabulary (European languages)

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Never give up!

• A lesson from the United States Army Rangers and
  from the world of dance!
• One step in front of the other, whether
  road-marching or learning to dance!
• Keep showing up
• Eventually, youll get there

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Your turn!

• Which step will you implement? How will you do it?

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Thats all, folks!

• Thanks for reading this!
• There is an inexpensive booklet version of this
  information see the link on the website
  www.americanolderbrother.com
• You just got this for free! ?

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