4 Effective Language Learning Strategies You Can't Miss
Pratheeksha Mani
December 6, 2024
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7 min read
Imagine teaching a new language to a group of learners who are disengaged and have no clue what is being taught or presented to them. Relatable?
Let’s admit — it’s hard to teach a language and it's harder to help learners apply it practically. A recent survey reveals that 80% of the educators are concerned about learner engagement. Also, 50% of the learners say that they are not engaged in what they are learning most of the time.
There are a number of language teaching approaches that can be effectively applied when it comes to language learning but the most important one to keep in mind is “putting yourself in the shoes of the learner.”
Wondering how? Let’s delve in deeper to understand some of the practical strategies that you can effectively apply for successful language teaching. Read on!
Connecting with learners, understanding what they truly need, and planning out the right teaching approach can be a real challenge for educators today. That said, here are some practical and tested language teaching strategies that can help educators make both teaching and learning engaging and fun.
This approach involves role-plays, group activities, and project-based tasks. In this setup, the educator transitions from being a traditional teacher to a facilitator, guiding and observing students as they engage.
Student-student interaction is the key to the Communicative Language Teaching approach where each student’s learning success is dependent on the group’s input during the learning sessions. This is an effective way of engaging the whole class and not just the minority of active students who typically participate in a regular class.
Let’s consider an instance where you want the learners to converse in the target language. You could pair them up and ask each duo to discover three unique traits about their partner through conversation.
Key takeaway: Communication is one of the most crucial aspects when it comes to learning. Activities such as the ones mentioned above motivate students to communicate in the target language to obtain information, helping them build confidence and trust in their language learning skills.
Handy tips:
This approach involves focusing on communication through task completion. The aim of educators here is to engage the learners with a task they are truly interested in. The learners here need to carry out the task only using the target language and its taught elements.
The Task-Based Language Teaching approach consists of three stages, the pre-task activity, the task and the post-task or review.
In the pre-task activity, you introduce the task to the students, trying to motivate them and make them look forward to it. During the task stage, you allow students to shine by working in small groups, giving everyone a chance to engage, even those who may be less motivated. After completing the task, learners share their work with their peers and receive constructive feedback.
Let’s take an instance in which you want the learners to prepare a presentation on an environmental issue that interests them. You ask each one of them to prepare and deliver the same in 25 minutes. In this case, the learner has to read / listen to source material, conduct internet research, as well as write and deliver the presentation in the target language.
Key takeaway: As the tasks mirror real-life situations, learners enhance their communication skills, build confidence, and become more motivated when they listen to their peers conversing in the target language. They also gain a deeper understanding of the language while forming stronger connections with other learners.
Handy tips:
This approach emphasizes interaction, collaboration and mutual learning. Learners work in small groups to reach a common learning goal with the guidance of an educator.
The Cooperative Language Learning approach encourages interaction through group work, which supports language learning. It fights against the idea that strong and weak students should be educated separately. In cooperative group work, students help each other instead of competing against one another, promoting a more positive experience for language acquisition.
Let’s say, you want learners to memorize a list of words in the target language. You pair them up to assist each other. They work together to practice the vocabulary words and then take turns quizzing one another.
Key takeaway: The goal of cooperative learning is to create opportunities for learners to collaborate, enabling them to develop knowledge and interpersonal skills, including communication, conflict resolution, leadership, and decision-making, while fostering a strong commitment to shared group objectives.
Handy tips:
Language labs help learners understand a language by practicing listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This teaching approach helps learners learn at their own pace, and be flexible enough to not always require an educator.
Typically, when using language laboratories, the teaching focus shifts from using textbooks and learning grammar rules to using audio-visual teaching aids. The educator has a computer or a laptop with appropriate software for conducting language classes and assigning language learning activities for learners. If the teaching takes place in a physical classroom, then the teacher and students usually wear language learning headsets that block outside sounds and disturbances. The language lab software also provides the learners with a media player for listening to audio materials and recording their speech and pronunciation for self evaluation.
Let’s take an instance, you want learners to master the correct pronunciation of specific words in their target language. You provide them with audio recordings of the words, have them listen carefully, repeat the words aloud, and record their own pronunciation for practice.
Key takeaway: The purpose of a language lab is to involve learners to actively participate in language learning exercises and get more practice time than would otherwise be possible in a traditional classroom environment. The main benefit of a language lab is that it increases the time each student can spend actively speaking and practicing during the learning session.
Handy tips:
According to Harvard, the key to engaging learners and maximizing their learning potential lies in tapping into their intrinsic motivation. In other words, it is important to ignite their curiosity and eagerness to learn.
But then, is that all? Well, not really!
Scaffolding is like a safety net — a temporary support system that allows learners to continue using their native language to a certain extent while acquiring the target language. The end goal is to gradually help students become independent readers, writers, and speakers of the target language. Allowing the use of their first language at the beginning helps learners make sense of new concepts, rather than leaving them silent when they don't understand or know an answer. Scaffolding provides learners with the necessary support, context, and tools to successfully learn a new language.
Say, you want learners to understand how specific words function within sentences in the target language. To facilitate this, you provide sentence frames—partially completed sentences with blank spaces for learners to fill in, requiring them to insert the correct words, details, or meaning.
Key takeaway: Scaffolding helps language learners to increase their proficiency and develop skills as self-regulated learners. They gradually take over more language tasks and eventually do it without an educator’s support.
Handy tips:
Scaffolding is particularly important for language learners as it enables them to move from dependent to independent learning. Learners are supported to move onto more difficult language assignments as their skills develop. All the while, support continues to be scaffolded by the expert educator. However this interactional scaffolding approach does pose a significant challenge for educators. As a language teacher, not only do you need to specifically plan the activities but also create and manage class schedules efficiently. This balancing act can get quite tiring.
That’s where Classcard comes handy. With Classcard’s feature-packed and easy-to-use language school management system, you can easily create class schedules, track attendance and payments all while seamlessly managing your teaching responsibilities and conducting multiple language activities. The learners can view available classes, select their preferred sessions, and complete registration forms from the online system. This reduces administrative overhead while providing a user-friendly experience for learners.
As Bertrand Russell reminds us, the heart of teaching lies in how we guide learners and the care we bring to the process, not just the material we cover. For language educators, this means creating a space where students feel safe to make mistakes, try new things, and express themselves. Simple acts like celebrating small wins, listening patiently, and tailoring activities to spark curiosity can transform the learning experience. It’s all about helping learners see language not just as a subject to study, but as a tool to connect and express themselves. Happy teaching there!