Personal pronouns are words such as I, me, your and it, words which are used to refer to a specific person or actor without having to mention them explicitly. Pronominal forms are a key element of all languages and must be learned early in one’s linguistic journey in order to communicate effectively. This article discusses …
Achieving fluency in a language is a goal of every serious language learner. However, achieving fluency is a daunting proposition. You may, for example, have heard friends or colleagues effortlessly switch between languages. You feel that there is no way that you can emulate them. As far as you are concerned, they have a special …
The Myth of Fluency: What Does It Mean to Be Fluent in a Language?Read More »
Those of us with children will have noticed how quickly they make progress in language acquisition. Within the short space of time, a child can go from babbling to forming coherent sentences. This is all the more amazing since they do this through simple exposure to the language, without any formal instruction. Any adult learner hoping …
Language Learning in Adulthood – Advantages and DisadvantagesRead More »
We all know second language speakers who speak as if native speakers. They speak eloquently, they use idiomatic constructions and their pronunciation is comparable to someone who has spoken the language from early childhood. On the other hand, there are learners who exhibit competence in one or more of these fields, but lack expertise in …
Researchers have long studied the processes of child language acquisition and have applied these theories to second language acquisition. In the 1970s and 1980s, linguist Stephen Krashen proposed a series of hypotheses about language acquisition. He argues that the comprehensible input to which learners are exposed is of primary importance. How does a child learn …
Comprehensible Input – How Clozemaster Mirrors Natural AcquisitionRead More »
The English language, with its modest origins on a rainy island in the North Atlantic, has always punched above its weight. The English language was the British Empire’s most successful export. Its adoption as the first language in the United States played a major role in rise to prominence. With the advent of the internet, …
Learning a language is a task which never completely ends. Whether you’re a fresh-faced newbie or a grizzled veteran, there is always new vocabulary to learn and grammatical structures to refine. The article examines the best way to learn a language, how best to focus your learning at the various stages of your linguistic development …
Best Way to Learn a Language: A Complete Guide from Beginner to FluentRead More »