Create a routine
Make time on a regular basis for your language learning. Little and often is best – ten minutes every day tend to be more effective than a marathon session once a week. Butdon’t limit yourself to ten minutes! Create a routine for yourself. Try spending some time on the web every lunchtime doing at least one of the language activities. Play your language cassettes/CDs on the way to and from work or when you’re jogging or cooking. Make a point of looking up and using at least one new word every day.
Set short-term goals
Be realistic and don’t expect miracles. Language learning takes time and commitment -don’t expect to be fluent overnight and don’t be hard on yourself when you can’t remember everything you’ve learnt. Set yourself some short-term goals – the thought of a visit in a few months’ time to a place where the language you’re learning is spoken is a real incentive to learn.
Keep a check on your progress
Keep a check on your progress. If ever you feel you’re not learning fast enough, you may be underestimating how much progress you’re actually making. Go back every so often to something you did early on to prove to yourself how much you’ve learnt.
Don’t worry about mistakes
Don’t worry too much about mistakes. It’s a normal part of the learning process, and you’lllearn much more quickly by having a go at speaking than by saying nothing until you’re word perfect. Generally, people are only too pleased to hear you trying to speak their language and make allowances if you don’t get it exactly right.
Make learning a part of your life
Make your learning an active part of your life. Recent research in adult learning shows that you’re likely to remember 20% of what you read and 30% of what you hear … and a staggering 90% of what you see, hear, say and do. So, practise by doing things like saying phone numbers out loud, making shopping and other lists, memorising orders in a bar or restaurant.
Repeat activities
Don’t feel you must always forge ahead with new material. Repeating activities is an excellent way of building familiarity with the language. So if you’re tired and your mind is wandering, instead of giving your language learning a miss do some activities you’ve done before and which won’t require as much concentration.If you find your concentration wavering, remind yourself of why you wanted to learn in the first place. This helps to keep you focused.
Karolina Ryszkiewicz – easy english
source http://www.bbc.co.uk