About the Stages of Language Learning and How to Take Advantage of Each

by Olivia Ryan

How cool it would be to learn a language in a day? Well, we’ll just have to make peace with the fact that we don’t have superpowers. Language learning is a process, and it takes time. Have you heard of Bloom’s taxonomy for categorizing educational goals?

According to this method, the learning goes through the following stages:

• Remembering
• Understanding
• Applying
• Analyzing
• Evaluating
• Creating

When you reach the stage of creating, you’re creating new meaning or structure from the concepts you’ve learned.

How can we relate this taxonomy to language learning?

How to Go through the Stages of Language Learning

1. Remember

In this stage, you memorize new words. You can do that in few ways:

• Read an interesting blog post, a magazine article, or a comic book. Repeat the words.
• Watch an episode of your favorite TV show. Of course, it should be synchronized in the language you want to learn. Listen to the way the actors pronounce the words and repeat after them. Memorize!
• Use post-it notes or flashcards. When you write down the words and you stick the note where you can see it, it will be easy for you to remember the word.

2. Understand

During this stage, you’ll comprehend the meaning of the words and grammar rules you remembered.

• Use the dictionary to translate the words into your native language. Make a parallel between the grammar rules you’re learning and the grammar of your own language.
• Use the new words and grammar concepts in example sentences. When you put them in context, you understand them.

3. Apply

Now, you’re ready to take the learning process further. You’ll apply the things you learned in practice.

• Try talking to someone in the language you’re learning. It’s easy to connect with native speakers over the Internet.
• Write something! Start with simple sentences, but don’t stop there. Read something and rewrite it with your own words.

4. Analyze

In this stage, you’ll be making distinctions between facts and inferences. During this stage, you’re understanding the topic, but you’re also producing your own conclusions.

• Read the new words and grammar concepts and try to come down to your own conclusions.

5. Evaluate

You’ll have to get used to criticism, since that’s what this stage is all about.

• Ask your teacher to evaluate the essays you wrote.
• Make friends with native speakers and talk to them. Ask them to correct you whenever you make a mistake.

6. Create

This is the highest level of comprehension.

• When your grammar and vocabulary are advanced enough, you can start writing short stories and essays. You can work with a professional writer from Aussiewritings.com, so you’ll get help when applying the concepts in written work.
• Join a forum in the language you’re learning and start expressing your opinions.

When you get to the point of producing creative work on the language you’re learning, you can say you’ve done well. The journey is long, but quite rewarding at the end!

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