Language Proficiency Won't Budge? Try these tips.

Have you ever run into a mental stop sign in your quest to acquire another language?  You want to make progress, you are putting in the study time every day, but you see no movement in your mental meter that registers if you are moving forward or walking on a treadmill.

It would be so easy just to chuck it all and look for an easier hobby.  I obviously speak from experience.  But before you give away those language books and delete the learning apps off your mobile devices, here are a few techniques that may help you fall in love again with your language of choice.

Technique No. 1  Think about why you decided to study another language in the first place.  The Irish speak of having "grá" (love) for a language. 

I fell in love with Portuguese in my 30's and still get a thrill when I hear it spoken.  On the other hand, I tried to study Romanian, and it felt like drudgery.  So if you don't feel affection for a certain language, maybe the romance is over.  With thousands of languages in the world, why stick with one that doesn't call to your soul?

Technique No. 2 Substitute the concept of mastery of grammar steps for an alternate approach. For example, do you really need to conquer all Spanish present tense verb conjugations (including irregular and several classes of stem-changing verbs) before you allow yourself to use a past tense verb?  Granted, the idea may sound appealing to those of us with a martyr complex.  But thinking of our language learning progress like an ever-widening circle, like that made by a heavy stone thrown into a pond, rather than an arduous climb up a long flight of stairs, may be useful.

Technique No. 3 When the going gets rough......return to an easier topic.  Often when I am faced with a new subject studying Celtic languages on Duolingo, my favorite online language learning program, I make so many errors that I lose  my "health."  This is rather serious.  I can't continue until certain conditions are met.  Instead of being left with an abject feeling of failure, I return to a language that I feel more confident with and complete an exercise that gives me a satisfying ping at the end as a reward. Where is it written that I have to suffer to learn other languages? 

Technique No. 4 Examine your language learning goals.  Are they too broad or too ambitious?  I am considering giving up trying to speak Irish because the letter/sound correspondence is driving me up the wall.  But I am still fascinated by the structure of the language and its long history.  Maybe language learning doesn't have to be everything or nothing.  Language learners do have choices.

I wish the journey to acquire another language were a straight road with comfortable footholds leading up to a peak where we were all perfect users of another language.  But it isn't.  So perhaps the old advice about the journey being more satisfying than the goal may be our consolation as we discipline ourselves to open up those language books and programs and keep going.

Yes! Technology helps with Irish pronunciation!

I finally decided I was stuck in my attempt to learn Irish.  I had been studying Irish on my favorite online language learning platform, Duolingo, for longer than I care to remember.  Irish vocabulary and grammar points were starting to make sense, but the pronunciation remained elusive.  A new book, Speak Irish Now, and a short course on Irish sounds on Udemy only convinced me that I could never hope to match Irish sounds to written words. 

Then I was flicking through my cell phone one day when FutureLearn popped up, offering a free three-week course in beginning Irish from Dublin City College. 

Hope springs eternal in the human heart.  I signed up immediately.

The course has a friendly, modern feel to the user and is easy to navigate.  At first the technology was a little daunting to me, not being a digital native (or adept at much in the digital world). 

For the first video I attempted to watch, the sound wouldn't play.  A cheerful and helpful response from support at FutureLearn pointed out a slider button that can be moved to turn sound on and off.  Ah, I could now hear those Irish speakers greeting each other.  Did they really have to speak so fast?  But the written transcript and ability to replay the video various times helped with comprehension.  

One of my favorite activities in the course is listening to a speaker pronounce Irish sentences and phrases in slow, comprehensible language while reading words written on the screen.  And the speaker will repeat untiringly so that I can match sounds to letters.  

Another feature that I enjoy is taking the brief online quizzes over a small amount of new material by listening to a sentence and selecting the word that fits in the sentence from multiple answers. 

Capture from FutureLearn.com

And if I make a mistake, I have a chance to review the material and correct my answer.  All very civilized!

One element that I have hesitated to employ, and which the course encourages, is connecting with other learners.  I can see the benefit of feeling like you are part of a learning community. Also having an opportunity to use Irish for real life communication is exciting.  But with my introverted personality, it may take me a while to warm up to that idea. 

Technology is used not only for listening exercises but also to present brief articles, cultural information, short grammar explanations, and suggestions for additional resources.  As much as I like books, sitting down at my laptop and doing a few Irish lessons is, I must admit, very entertaining.  I have learned the alphabet, vowel sounds, greetings, exchanging names, and leave taking.

I know language learning enthusiasm often wanes after the first flush of getting a peek at a new language. The next lesson is about lenition, a phonological process much used in Irish by which consonant sounds are modified.  

Here's hoping I feel as positive about Irish learning after Week Two!