Choosing a Language to Learn...

So you're thinking of learning a new language? Perhaps you've always dreamt of travel and now the kids are grown up and living away from home you have an extra hour or so a day on your hands. Perhaps you're having to choose your GCSE, A-level, IGCSE or IB subjects and you really loved you primary school french lessons but aren't that interested in France. Perhaps it's time to go to University and you still have no idea what you want to do with yourself so languages seem like a good option...

Whatever your motivation, situation and circumstance, Languages ARE for you. In my opinion, everyone in the world should be at least bilingual (the majority of the world are, according to some sources!) However, choosing the right language to study is important. If, like me, you dream of backpacking across latin America in the near future, then German probably won't prove all that helpful. Likewise, if you dream of being a diplomat for the European Union, then Punjabi probably isn't the language for you. Its important to ascertain WHY you want to learn a language (See my post about motivation http://1ofmanyvoices.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-learn-new-langauge.html) in order to choose WHICH language you should learn. I myself had to research and evaluate the usefulness many languages thoroughly before opting for the ones I am currently studying. I've asked around and looked online as well as drawn on my own previous knowledge to compile a mini evaluation-type profile for a handful of languages offered and studied here in UK. However, this post has not been formally researched beyond the sources cited at the bottom and naturally, opinion and motivation will differ from person to person.

LANGUAGE: English
FAMILY: Germanic/ Indo-European
SPOKEN WHERE: UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Southern and West Africa, India, West Indies and generally most places on earth
APPEAL: Increasingly hailed as the Global Lingua Franca, the major language of Business, Tourism, Trade and Politics etc. It is the most studied second language in the world.
WHAT'S BEING SAID?: Linguists project that in the future the entire globe will speak a hybrid of Mandarin, Spanish and English. The language itself is quite easy to learn in some respects such as the lack of gendered nouns and such. It proves difficult however as it is highly irregular in terms of grammar and spelling (having its roots in both Latin and Germanic based languages).
USEFUL FOR: Worldwide travel and jobs everywhere. English is seen as a HUGE advantage and the Teaching English as a Foreign Language industry (TEFL) is booming.

LANGUAGE: French
FAMILY: Romance/Italic/Indo-European
SPOKEN WHERE: France, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, Andorra, San Marino, Canada, Parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, Central, West and North Africa, the Indian Ocean, South India, Pockets of the Middle East.
APPEAL: French has a reputation for sensuality and glamour. It is the language of the fashion elite, timeless literature and romance, opera and Art. It’s also the most taught second language in primary and secondary schools throughout the world. It has been the main actor in the politics of the European Union, only recently superseded by English and German.
WHAT'S BEING SAID?: Here in the UK French is the foremost second language taught in schools. French is probably the most difficult Romance language to learn, with its heavily prescriptive grammar, and even heavier collection of irregularities, almost unique vowel sounds. French has also had the habit of being taught in quite a heavy, stodgy and prescriptive way (through repetition of verb conjugations and learning this off by heart). However, French is a very beautiful language, spoken differently in every corner of the world and therefore very handy for travel.
USEFUL FOR: Global Travel. Working in the EU or UN. Working in Translation or Teaching across the globe. Working in Fashion or Cooking industry (amongst many others), Appreciating Fashion, Art, Literature, theatre, Food etc…

LANGUAGE: German
FAMILY: Indo-European/Germanic
SPOKEN WHERE: Europe mainly, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Denmark, Poland, Belgium, Namibia and various pockets around the world.
APPEAL: It is the most common second language in Europe, and, like French and English, is essential to European Politics and Business. German culture also has a history in invention and innovation, and I’ve heard many people studying German admit to a greater appreciation for the German’s contributions to the world through their learning of the language. German’s also LOVE to travel, so German would be a must for any tourism-related job, especially in Europe.
WHAT'S BEING SAID?: It is in some ways very similar to English making pronunciation and comprehension a little easier. Its also very grammatically prescriptive, and therefore appealing to all lovers of all things linguistic.
USEFUL FOR: Travel and business in the EU and Europe, Tourism, Appreciating European Technological innovations and literature

LANGUAGE: Spanish
FAMILY: Iberian/Indo-European/Italic/Romance
SPOKEN WHERE: Spain, pockets of Europe, pockets of North Africa, Across the Americas; The US, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, El Salvador, the Philippines
APPEAL: Spoken across the Americas, many are drawn to Spanish as a portal to the vast and sensational history of this side of the world. It has been described as the language of Salsa, Tequila, Blood and Fire, Tapas, Revolution, and Passion. Hispanic culture is increasingly popular and has infiltrated almost every area of Anglo-western society. It also has strategic appeal in the US as the second most spoken language after English. It is one of the 6 official language of the UN, and the second most spoken first language worldwide. It is a very passionate, very romantic and very fervent language.
WHAT'S BEING SAID?: Spanish is a VERY good language for people with dyslexia, as it is written completely phonetically. It is quite easy to learn in terms of reading and understanding, as it has very few irregulars as compared with German and French. The Spanish language does vary across the atlantic and across the Americas but most variants are easily understood given one has a basic grasp on the language.
USEFUL FOR: Working for the UN, living and working in the United States or Central and South America, travelling across Europe, appreciating literature, art, history and culture, dance and cuisine.

LANGUAGE: Italian
FAMILY: Indo-European/Italic/Romance
SPOKEN WHERE: Italy, Switzerland, The Vatican, other pockets of Europe, Libya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia
APPEAL: a rival for French in terms of Romantic Romance languages, Italian is associated with romance, passion, great food and elegance; along with fast cars and heavy-handed flirting ;). It is also a beautiful, lilting language, essential to the world of Fashion, Art and Fine Cuisine. The language, like its country of origin, is steeped in history and culture, and speaking some Italian adds a certain something extra when visiting Italy.
WHAT'S BEING SAID?: In spite of general opinion, I haven’t met a single person studying both Spanish and Italian who says they are similar. Like any Romance language Italian can be deciphered with some knowledge of French or Spanish, but it is also a challenging language in its own right. Intonation seems to prove quite difficult for learners of this language. On the other hand, Italian culture (the fashion, the food, the art) has permeated that of much of the English-Speaking world so creating a context for the language is quite easy.
USEFUL FOR: Art, Culture, Fashion, Cookery, European History studies and careers, Travel across Europe particularly the Mediterranean, appreciating history, the arts, culture and of course, good food!

LANGUAGE: Portuguese
FAMILY: Iberian/Indo-European/Italic/Romance
SPOKEN WHERE: Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Goa, Cape Verde, East Timor, Macau, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sao-Tome and Principe
APPEAL: Unlike its Spanish sister language Portuguese phonetics are a lot more varied and complicated, giving the language a very distinctive sound. Most of the people I know studying Portuguese are doing so in the hope of living and working in Brazil one day. The world seems to harbour an insatiable appetite for all things Brazilian: Football, samba, Brazilian Cinema, Gisele Bundchen etc. Portuguese is also currently the 7the most widely spoken language in the world, and serves to this day as a remnant of one of the most powerful and the longest reigning of all the European Empires. It is also an extremely passionate and affectionate language, and very fun to pronounce.
WHAT'S BEING SAID?: As any romance language, having some experience of French, Spanish or Italian generally helps when learning Portuguese, although the most helpful would have to be Spanish. Continental European Portuguese is somewhat harder to decipher than Brazilian Portuguese, which has in some places adopted some characteristics from Castellano (rolled 'R's; syntax etc). The Subjunctive/Conjunctive is quite complicated in comparison to other Romance languages, but vocabulary and syntax are fairly easy to grasp. With all things Brazilian being increasingly fashionable there are always many authentic materials to choose from such as Brazilian films, music, football culture and politics.
USEFUL FOR: Working in Europe, Africa or Latin America (Brazil has one of the fastest growing economies). Teaching English as a foreign Language. Working in Fashion, Cinema or Sport. Appreciating popular culture, art, literature and music. Learning Samba and various other forms of Latin American dance.

LANGUAGE: Arabic
FAMILY: Semitic/Afro-Asiatic
SPOKEN WHERE: The Middle East and North Africa; Algeria, Comoros, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritiania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Western Sahara and pockets of Indonesia and South East Asia
APPEAL: The language of one of the wealthiest portions of the globe: the middle east. Arabic is the language of Islam, as is learned as such in its classical form by Muslim children across the world. It is an extraordinarily romantic and poetic language, very rich in vocabulary, and Arabic speakers to tend on the whole to be rather wordy in other languages. Arabic script is very beautiful, as is the importance of the language to all those that speak it. It is also between the 3rd and 6th most widely spoken language on the planet, depending on your sources.
WHAT'S BEING SAID?: The difficulty with learning Arabic outside of an Arabic-speaking context is that you will learn the classical form of the language, which is rarely if ever spoken in real life situations. Arabic is generally spoken in various dialects from region to region and country to country, some of which are unintelligible across the border! This naturally makes learning Arabic slightly tricky, as you may find yourself limited to certain dialect that is only spoken in a small pocket of the Arabic speaking world. Learning to read and write Arabic script is, however, invaluable, and not difficult for those who have some knowledge of languages such as Hebrew, for example, and so are already accustomed to reading from right to left. Once native speakers of Latin-based languages get accustomed to the differences between their mother tongues and Arabic, I have been told that the language structure itself is not complicated and shares many common features with romance languages such as the ascribing of genders.
USEFUL FOR: Economics, Business, Finance, Tourism and Trade across the Middle East and North Africa (as well as worldwide). Working for the UN. Practising Islam or living in an Islamic country. Appreciating Art, Culture, Literature, Dance and Cuisine

LANGUAGE: Mandarin (Chinese)
FAMILY: Sino-Tibetan
SPOKEN WHERE: China and pockets worldwide
APPEAL:The most widely spoken language by native-speakers worldwide, due entirely to the fact that China is the most populous country in the world and increasingly a contender for the title of global Super Power. The ability to speak Mandarin-Chinese is a valuable asset to anyone looking for career in finance, business and/or economics and it is fast becoming one of the most widely learned second languages in the world. China is also one of the older countries in the world, and had one of the most powerful empires of all time. Mandarin is invaluable for travelling across and learning about this great nation steeped in history and achievement.
WHAT'S BEING SAID?: For speakers of Latin-based languages learning a whole new script can be daunting, but it is not impossible. It will, however, take time and probably a significant period of immersion to build up any semblance of fluency. Chinese characters represent words rather than letters, which makes for a lot to remember! Chinese script is, however, extremely beautiful and poetic, which makes it a language that can also be learned for pleasure.
USEFUL FOR: High demand for Translators and Interpreters. Working for the UN. Trade, finance, business, economics, world politics, tourism, travel, education, technology. Travel and living in China or Taiwan. Appreciating arts, culture and history of China and Taiwan.

LANGUAGE: Japanese
FAMILY: Japonic
SPOKEN WHERE: Japan, and pockets worldwide
APPEAL: Japanese is one of the most useful tourist languages in the world- the stereotype of the Japanese tourist is a cliché for a reason! Japan also has a booming economy and increasing demand for cultural exports: sushi, bonsai plants, origami, karaoke and manga cartoons to name but a few. Japan has also been greatly influence by china and many other of the older Asian civilisations, and therefore the language is a great stepping stone into other Asian languages. Japan is also one of the most widely used languages on the internet and in the world of business. The Japanese are also amongst the healthiest people on the planet, and the japanese lifestyle is imitated across the western world today.
WHAT'S BEING SAID?: Japanese is not very complicated for a Latin-language speaker to learn. It has few tenses, very simple grammar and very few irregulars. Japanese script is very distinct, and very beautiful, looking more like artwork than writing most of the time! Many characters denote sounds rather than words, so there are less characters to be learned than in Mandarin, for example.
USEFUL FOR: Working in any part of Asia. Trade, travel, tourism, business, technology, fashion, education, politics. Appreciating popular culture, arts, fashion and food.

LANGUAGE: Hindi
FAMILY: Indo-Iranian/Indo-Aryan
SPOKEN WHERE: India, Indian Ocean, Fiji and pockets worldwide
APPEAL: The language that emerged over 1000 years ago from Sanskrit, Hindi is the the most widely spoken language on the planet, and the Indian diaspora has reached every corner of the globe. The Hindi spoken today has been strongly influenced by English, Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Portuguese. It has been described as the language of "poetry and philosophy", and is unquestionably the language of Bollywood and Indian cuisine worldwide (for the most part). India is one of the oldest countries in the world and is a land steeped in history and culture. Every year hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to this country in search of spiritual solace or cultural experience. It is just one of the hundreds of languages actually spoken in India, but it is one of the most popular.
WHAT'S BEING SAID?: Hindi is a very easy language to learn, with very few irregularities and strong ties to other languages mentioned above. It is also a very logical language. English speakers also have the advantage that very often English words are inserted into Hindi speech when the speaker cannot find the appropriate word in Hindi.
USEFUL FOR: Working for the UN, Oxfam or any other NGO or international organisation. Trade, travel, tourism, law, finance, education, medicine, science. Appreciating Asian history and Indian culture, dance, food, literature and art. Practising Buddhism or Hinduism or just an interest in Yoga-type spiritual activities.

LANGUAGE: Russian
FAMILY: Indo-European, Slavic
SPOKEN WHERE: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Crimea, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Lativia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine and many other pockets of Europe, the northern Middle East and Asia.
APPEAL: Russian is usually considered the lingua franca of eastern Europe, uniting many countries that used to be part of the USSR. Russia has also given the world a great number of its greatest creative minds: Griboyedov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Yesenin, Akhmatova and many more. Russia is also increasingly integrating into the world economy, and so its language is of significance to anyone interests in world economics, business, finance and international trade and politics.
WHAT'S BEING SAID?: Although it uses the Cyrillic script, the Russian alphabet only had 33 characters so is not so disparate from Latin-based languages in terms of its word structure. Russian is one of the easier languages to learn, as its structure is logical with very few irregulars.
USEFUL FOR: Working in the UN. Interpreting and Translating. Trade, Economics, Law, Finance, Business. Appreciating Literature, Music and Dance.

Studying a Language: Writing

Writing in a foreign language is, in my opinion, a step up harder than reading. It presents the language learner with the challenge of producing the language themselves, pulling together everything they know about gender, conjugations, vocabulary, and tone in one piece of written work. However, writing tasks do still allow the learner the comfort of not having to produce the language spontaneously, as they would have to when speaking. Here are some ideas to practice writing and actually produce written work in the target language.

1. The spring board into writing is reading. Familiarising yourself with how the target language is written will allow you to, in turn, write it competently. (See my post about Reading Skills http://1ofmanyvoices.blogspot.com/2009/12/studying-language-reading.html)
2. WRITE WRITE WRITE. Text your friends in the language (preferably those who are also studying it or this may lead to some confusion!). Find yourself a tandem partner or penpal and exchange weekly emails. Keep a diary or journal in the target language. If you fancy yourslef the creative sort, attempt some poetry, short stories or even plays. Give yourself a topic a week and write however many words about it: your opinion, what's happening, describing it etc. Don't worry too much about correctness, you will find that the more you write the more aware you become of your own mistakes and you will find yourself improving in a very natural, almost subconcious way!
3. For written tasks, make mindmaps or lists of
4. all the key words you would need to use. For instance, if you are to write 300 words about the environment in your area, list or spidergram all the related words in the key language such as 'environment; pollution; recycling; toxic' etc. Find other pieces of writing on the subject and see if they have any interesting turns-of-phrase related to the topic, and try to incorporate them into your writing WITHOUT PLAGIARISING. (stealing someone's work and giving them no credit for it!). Make a list of these expressions and along with your key words tick them off as you write to make sure you've used them all.
5. Try different sorts of writing activities to practice different grammatical structures. Write about your childhood or a past event to practice the past tense. Write about your plans for the future to practice the future tense. Write about your dreams for world peace and a stop to climate change to practice the subjunctive. Write a description to practice your use of adjectives.
6. Use Synonyms. As your language progresses so should you range of vocabulary. I chose a set of key words that often come up in essays (such as 'problem' 'advantage' 'disadvantage' 'opinion' 'create' 'announce' 'said') and found 5 synonyms for each one, and made lists I can refer to whenever I have a piece of writing to do. Not repeating the same word a million times in a piece of work really improves the quality of the writing.
7. Make use of language setting on computers and use spellcheckers. Another good trick to check for spelling mistakes is reading your piece of work from the last word to the first (backwards, basically). This way the words really stick out on their own as you're not reading for understanding.

This post is particularly about the SKILL of writing in another language. I hope they are helpful, and I will be posting a general writing post about academic writing in general...enjoy!

Studying a Language: Speaking

Speaking. At times daunting even in your native language, it can be all the more challenging and at times terrifying in a foreign language, especially during the beginners stages. This post provides some ideas of how to practice speaking in the foreign language, in order to improve fluency, accuracy, pronunciation and, above all, confidence.

1. It may go without saying, but practice speaking the language as much as possible. Even if you vocabulary is limited to asking for someone's name and telling them how old you are, do so at every opportunity you get! Practice not only makes perfect, but builds confidence in speaking as well.
2. Expose yourself to as much spoken (and written) language as possible. Make note of key expressions, words that usually go together and pay attention to intonation and pronunciation. Listen to music, watch interviews or TV or films, arrange to meet up with a native speaker to have a conversation and pay attention to the locals speech if/when on holiday.
3. Speaking practise does not only mean practising spontaneous speech. Any speaking will do. Whilst in the earlier stages of language learning, you can practice speaking by simply reading aloud so try getting hold of some poetry, short stories, easy texts or even dialogues from movies or plays.
4. Further to that last point, if you can get hold of an excerpt of a play or a dialogue (or even write your own and get it checked by a native speaker!), practising acting it out with classmates or friends will really help. You can practise pronunciation as well as gestures and intonation which also form part of speaking a language (think of all the non-word sounds in french 'fouf' 'ben' 'euh' 'pfff' or the Mexican 'esteee'!)
5. Try set up a tandem partnership (ideally one that's both written and spoken) either with someone you meet face to face or even online using Skype or other video chat programs. As you may feel self-concious trying to speak the your tandem partner's native language, remember that they probably feel equally self-concious speaking English (or whatever your mother tongue may be), which may make the exchanges easier on both of you.
6. Try look out of groups of words around likely topics. Most IGCSE, GCSE, A-level, IB etc. classes already provide functional vocabulary, for example words such as Holiday, Beach, Relax, Travel, Airport, Tourist, that can all be used when talking about Tourism. Make use of vocabulary lists and learn to pronounce the words or expressions correctly.
7. Think up some key sentences about topics you usually like to talk about and practice holding short conversation with a classmate or friend who's also learning the language. Imagine you are in the country that speaks the language and you are trying to get to know someone so think of what you would ask them and what you would say about yourself if you were speaking your native language, and find ways to say it in the target language. If your feeling ambitious, you can ask a native or more advanced speaker to listen to your conversation, and provide feedback on pronunciation or perhaps give you some easier or more idiomatic ways of saying things.
8. To acquaint yourself with cadence, intonation and pronunciation, learn some songs in the target language. Listen to a song through with its lyrics and then learn to sing it. This is especially handy if your language has sound that you are unfamiliar or unused to making (such as the rolled R in Spanish and Italian, the sharp or rounded U sounds in French or the gutteral H in Arabic). Practise singing the song (to yourself, or someone who likes your singing voice!) and you'll be surprised at your progress in fluency...
9. Its worth investing some time in learning to read phonetic script, as this can help you at times when there are no native speakers handy and you have to look up an unfamiliar word in the dictionary. However, please don't lose any sleep if you find you are unable to understand phonetic script, many people (including myself) can't and manage to get by just fine!
10. Record yourself speaking or singing or reading out loud and play it back making note of areas to improve such as pronunciation or any hesitations...
11. When you manage to build up some fluency in the spoken language, pay attention to your non-word utterances. In English, for example, we often infer the word 'like' when we are between thoughts or trying to find the right word. We also use the sound 'umm' or 'uh' when thinking. Try think of these equivalents in your target language and use them when speaking. They are often in line with the vowel sound of the language, for instance the Spanish 'e' or 'y' is often used as an 'umm' whereas many eastern European languages use an 'mmm' sound. Details like this will really give you the edge in sounding more like a native speaker, and also help you to disassociate one language from the other, leading you to actually think in the target language when you are speaking it, rather than just translating from your mother tongue in your head before you talk.
12. It may be the first sign of madness, but I would advocate talking to yourself! Have debates with yourself, or discuss essay ideas or plan your day outline in the target language. If you feel self-concious, or there are people around you may disturb (on more than one level!) try do so when you are in the shower, or doing the dishes or hoovering, where the noise can drown out your voice so you don't feel self-concious.
13. Speak the language when abroad. It may seem daunting and you may feel ridiculous but most people will appreciate that you are making the sort of effort that the stereotypical tourist wouldn't. Be warned, however, that you may encounter people who think so highly of their language that they would want it spoken by only native speakers rather than have it mangled by tourist. In cases like that, try speak to someone else, or do what I do and insist on speaking to them in the language until they cooperate or leave! (not always advised but often a good laugh!)

Try invest as much time in practising the language, however self-concious you may feel, as it is the only way to build confidence. Remember that at the end of the day most people's goal in studying languages is to be able to say they "speak" the language...and there is invariably only one way to achieve that- by actually speaking it!

Studying a Language: Reading

Reading skills are ESSENTIAL when learning a language. It is also, in my opinion, the least daunting of the four skill areas to master. When you read, you (usually) have the time to try and decipher unfamiliar words, to recognise the spelling of something which you may have difficulty understanding when pronounced in the language. Whilst recently in a French GCSE classroom I asked some students practising for their oral exam "Qu'est-ce que tu vas faire demain?" and was met with an array of blank expressions. However, when I wrote down the question in front of them, they recognised the words that they had not understood and were able to answer. Reading allows the language learner the luxury of taking their time, returning to unsure or unfamiliar words and phrases, speculating on meaning from spelling or similarity to other languages. Here are some ideas to make the most of your reading tasks and practise reading skills in your own time.

1. Firstly, READ READ READ. As much as possible. find Newspapers, books, online articles, textbooks, poems, song lyrics, appliance manuals, emails ANYTHING. For this skill, really, Practice does make perfect.
2. Read a text through several times. First ascertain the general meaning, maybe using Skim reading (letting your eyes skim over each sentence only picking out key words) not worrying too much about words you don't know. In exam conditions, you have limited time to spend on reading, so focus on reading for gist (using Skim reading) rather than understanding every single word of the text. Focus building up Speed and Understanding, and then attention to detail.
3. If you feel that you are struggling to understand, use the trick of highlighting or underlining everything you DO understand, and you will see that invariably there will only be a handful of words or phrases that you don't.
4. When dealing with unfamiliar vocabulary or expressions, before heading straight for the dictionary or teacher, try guess what they mean. Use clues from the surrounding words, i.e. if the sentence is speaking about what you do on holiday, the unfamiliar word is unlikely to have something to do with the Middle Eastern Peace Process or Molecular Biophysics (if there is such a subject...). Try to work out whether the word looks or sounds like any word you know in any other language, e.g Spanish embajador = English Ambassador. You would be surprised how many words in Latin and Germanic based languages are similar in this way. Note down your guesses for each word and then check it with a native speaker or a dictionary. For an extra push ;) give yourself points or rewards for each one you get right!
5. If a sentence is long and you are losing the gist of what is meant then break it down. Insert full stops and make it into small sentences, that way, you won't lose your train of thought.
6. Use colour, post-its, drawings etc as much as possible. One student devised her own marking system where she underlined certain types of words, circled key terms, highlighted unfamiliar grammar etc. Others colour code i.e blue for new vocabulary, orange for terms they may want to use later, green for everything I understand.
7. There is a dysfunction of the eyes in some people, often in dyslexics (like myself) where black text on white backgrounds is difficult to see. This is called Visual Stress Syndrome(see this website for more info http://www.visual-stress.com/what.htm). I struggle with this, and for this reason always try to use blue pens, many colours and coloured paper. It really makes a world of difference! Research also shows that people with Visual Stress benefit from using Coloured Overlays over text when reading, which can be bought from most reputable stationary stores.
8. As your language skills become more advanced in all areas, try reading increasingly challenging and diverse texts. At University level you should be comfortable reading journalistic articles, academic writing, narrative, poetry etc. Read and make note of what makes these different styles so distinct; is it the choice of words, the grammatical constructions, the themes being dealt with, the use of literary devices etc? Cultivating a critical awareness of different types of text will greatly benefit your reading AND your writing skills in the target language .
9. Read aloud. Once you have an understanding of the text (or even if you don't), read aloud to yourself or someone else and focus on your accent, pronunciation and intonation. Strictly speaking, this is of more benefit to you Speaking skills but it will definately help built confidence and hopefully, your reading speed.

For more ideas, consult your teachers and/or fellow learners about how they learned to read in the target language. Ask them for advice and resources if need be. The internet, once again is a wealth of written resources, as is travel if you should be so lucky!

Acknowledgements to Dr Patricia Romero de Mills (2008), Emese Racz (2009) and the University of Southampton Centre for Language Study.

Studying a Language: Listening

Listening, although sometimes considered quite a passive skill, can often be very challenging given that spoken language can often seem completely disparate to its written form. Perhaps the listening skill area would be better described as 'oral understanding', and in light of this here are some steps designed to improve your understanding of the spoken language:

1. First of all I would advise being aware of variations within the language or you could end up completely confused. A European Spanish accent is worlds apart from that of a Cuban, to say nothing of the differences between French from France and French from Canada; and some variations of Arabic aren't even mutually intelligible across neighbouring countries! You may not be able to decipher every accent straight away, but it does help to tune you ear to variations of the language to increase the range of your understanding.
2. When you come across new words or saying in a text book or other written form, try find a native speaker or someone with a good accent to say it for you, so that you can learn to recognise it.
3. Connected to that last point, be sure to practise speaking as much as possible, even if its just reading aloud or singing along to a song in the target language. In order to reproduce the sounds of the words effectively, you need to train yourself to hear the words properly so speaking the language can be in itself, an assessment of your listening skills. See my post on developing your speaking skills: http://1ofmanyvoices.blogspot.com/2009/12/studying-language-speaking.html
4. Some text books come with audio CDs to supplement learning. These are especially handy as they often include a native speaker reading out passages from the text book that you can follow. Download the audio content onto you Ipod or Mp3 (should you be lucky enough to own one!) and carry it with you to listen to as you go about your day.
5. When listening to the target language, try add a visual element. Listen to News Reports is a lot easier when you can see the footage of what they are talking about. When listening to music, try watch the music video (most are available on Youtube) as this may indicate what the song is about and 'tell the story' so-to-speak.
6. Couple your listening with written forms of the language. Try watching foreign language films with subtitles in the target language rather than in your mother tongue. Pay attention to hand gestures, body language and other indicators of mood or meaning.
7. Listen for understanding. Try listening to a News Report and picking out 5 or 6 key words from which you could deduce the general meaning of the report, such as country names or transparent words (Words that are the same in all languages). Similarly, try watch a scene from a movie or sitcom in the target language without subtitles, and try infer what's going on from keywords as well as the actions of the characters (facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice etc). Remember, between 70 and 90% of all communication is nonverbal- meaning, you can infer a great deal of what you don't understand!
8. Listen to a song several times with the lyrics in front of you. This is a method I swear by as it helps you get accustomed to changes in tone, rhythm and cadence as well as improving pronunciation and helping you learn idiomatic phrases (or common expressions to the lay-person.

As much as you can try to schedule in actual focused listening practise using some of the ideas outlined here, and any others of your own invention. Listening skills can often be overshadowed by the need to develop writing and speaking skills, so remember that language is learned holistically, rather than compartmentally (a word I may have just invented but I'm sure you understand!)