| |
-
Focus on acquiring the basic building blocks (sounds, grammatical structures, vocabulary) of the language.
Work with a language associate and use the following techniques:
- Elicit and learn some Survival Phrases and Power Tools to help you meet people and get acquainted with them.
- Consider a "silent period" in which you concentrate mostly on comprehension rather than on production.
- If the language you are learning is related to a language you already know, use cognates and similarities in language structure to understand what you hear.
-
Spend time with people; watch, interact and form relationships to enhance your long-term effectiveness in the community.
- Encourage others to correct your mistakes in using the language so they can help you test your hypotheses about the language.
- Use a checklist of language functions to help you decide what you want to learn first. Expose yourself to a variety of grammatical structures by consulting a grammar checklist.
- Use your observational skills to identify common communication situations you can expect to experience.
- Notice nonverbal aspects of communication.
- Make notes about what you observe to analyze later.
|
