Ways To Learn A Foreign Language: Advantages And Disadvantages

Ways to learn a foreign language: advantages and disadvantages

Nowadays, everyone has a great variety of possibilities and different ways to learn a foreign language. The main point is trying to accommodate which one is best. Imagine yourself in this situation: one morning you wake up and decide to study a new language. But, first of all, you have some important issues to think before you start your long way. The most important thing at this point is asking some questions to yourself and try to find the best answer to your doubts. You should consider questions like: “what kind of learning style would you like to adapt to your development?”, “Are you a talkative person or a shy person?”, “Do you want to learn a new language just for communication or for some specific goal?”, “Do you like to follow a schedule or would you rather have some freedom when you are in a learning process?”.

When the topic is schedule, the learner has to analyze some advantages and disadvantages of regular courses. If the beginner is an organized person, regular courses will not be a problem, because the learner generally will feel satisfied with the way that subjects are presented; time will not be a “curse”, rules will be easy to follow and the improvement will appear promptly. On the other hand, if the learner does not enjoy following rules, this kind of course has disadvantages in terms of time and daily activities; student´s unmotivated in terms of poor material, and, sometimes, a huge number of students in the same room. In contrast, if the student is an autonomous person, following a schedule, using books, studying alone or making use of online tools will have advantages. Some of them include: time flexibility, the learner can study at home and choose the material that better accommodates his or her own necessities, autonomy, the opportunity to listen to the right pronunciation as much as necessary. In contrast, this kind of learning process has informal language, doubts about quality of the tools the Internet offers, lower learning development without a teacher to guide the situation, slang uses and lack of punctuation.

Another important aspect is giving good attention to what kind of skills will be developed during the learning process. Generally, regular courses tend to aggregate the four abilities in their educational contents. It is extremely necessary for the learner to acquire the ability of listening, speaking, writing and reading at the same time, because there is an important exchange between them and one ability completes the other. In regular courses, interaction facilitates substantially the development of the four abilities, because if a student has difficulties in conversation, the other student can help, giving support during this task. However, disadvantages are also present in regular courses, as lower development in some skills due to the huge number of students in the same room. For those who are timid, it can cause introversion and consequently lack of learning. Unlike regular courses, studying alone, and making use of online tools can help students if the goal is just developing the ability of reading for pleasure or speaking with others just for interaction, for instance. This learning process, most of the time, is enjoyable and can maintain the student´s motivation for a longer period. On the other hand, some disadvantages emerge, as difficulties in expressing ideas and themes in a different context, restricted vocabulary, unawareness of Standard English, and so on.

Trying to acquire a foreign language is not a simple task; it requires a huge number of aspects, including student learning style. There is evidence that every student has a different style of learning. Some of them have more facility

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