Frédérique talks about learning English and especially the stresses of speaking English in a professional context.

She recognises that being a perfectionist can actually hamper language learning and subsequent language production.

She also talks about her achievements and successes in learning and using English in her job.

Add your comments on the site at www.eflpodblog.com

Learning English - Maude.

How long do you think it takes to learn a language?

Are there any tips or strategies that can help language learners?

Listen to Maude talking about her experiences of learning a language.

English is said to be one of the easiest languages to learn, but is it that easy to learn?

There are some tips and strategies that can be shared to help learn a language and most of them are just common sense.

The best language learners tend to have some things in common :

They are dedicated to learning, they do things that are fun, they have a good memory and a good ear.

Having a good ear is vital for language learning - if you can't hear the sounds in a language then there is little chance that you you will understand what is being said.

The ear can be trained, as we are not all born with a musical ear.

Learning English can be fun - believe me, in fact any language can be fun to learn, but it takes a great deal of effort, time and dedication.

It is important, when learning English, for example, that efforts are made on a regular basis - that often means some form of contact with the language on a daily basis.

It doesn't really matter about the amount of time that is spent learning English, sometimes little bite-sized chunks are more beneficial than long sessions, but at some time longer sessions of contact will become vital, although this can be counter-productive for beginners.

Oh, and one more thing - don't forget the fun factor when learning, especially when learning English as without this, it can become an uphill struggle.

Set aside some time but always remember - always have fun and enjoy your learning!

Listen to Valérie talk about how she learnt English (and indeed is still doing) - there may be a few tips that can be picked up and actioned by other learners.

7 Tips to improve listening

Why are listening skills important, both for everyday life and for language learning?

Well, if you don't listen, then you will never learn, as simple as that.

Listeners, and especially good listeners are the best learners, as the Dalai Lama said, "When you speak you are repeating what you already know, but when you listen it gives us an opportunity to learn."

So here are the 7 Tips to improve listening that we discuss in the podcast :

Listen to silence, focus on yourself and what is around you. Interestingly the word, 'Silent' includes all of the letter in the word 'Listen.'

Listen to backgground sounds, those sounds that we usually try to ignore or block out.

Focus and get relaxed, open your ears (although this is not really something we can do) as you need to be able to hear before you can listen effectively and finally understand what you are listening to.

Listen form differing perspectives and change the perspective by taking different standpoints - agree, disagree, criticise, empathise etc.

Listen to emotion in the listening - happiness, excitedness, sadness, seriousness, anger etc.

For language learners, try to skip over and ignore what you don't understand and listen globally and not in detail.

Enjoy listening, don't see it as a chore, do it often and vary the way you listen.

Spelling place names in English

Spelling place names in English can be difficult, especially if the sounds of the letters are similar to the letters of the alphabet in your own language as this can lead to confusion.

Spelling place names in English is not difficult, but it takes a lot of practice for you to become proficient, especially if you are trying to understand spelling over the phone, for example.

Most people read words more accurately than they spell them. The younger the learners are, the truer this is.

Spelling, however, is a very different matter.

Once learners have learnt more than one way of spelling particular sounds, choosing the right letter or letters depends on their either having made a conscious effort to learn the words or having absorbed them less consciously through their reading.

The problem is generally that learners have not had enough time to learn or absorb the accurate spelling of all the words that they may want to write.

This illustrates the need to fully use the fours skills in language learning ; Listening, Speaking, Reading and writing - it is a little like making a cocktail, too much of one ingredient and not enough of another and the cocktail can taste either delicious or horrible.

In language learning, learners need to use all four skills in a balanced way - reading and writing will ultimately help spelling, but practice is needed to become fully familiar with the sounds of words and letters in order to become skillful in spelling words, which will improve with practice.

Have a go at spelling some of the longest words in the English language.

Why do learners have difficulties listening in English?

Why do learners have difficulties listening in English ? This is a real problem for learners of English or any foreign language and there are no real shortcuts, but there are many tips, based on common sense that you can try out, which we will see in the next podcast.

The reality is that if the ear doesn't work, then everything becomes difficult in language learning, although there is a clear difference between listening (which is a somewhat active process) and hearing, which is a passive process.

However, if you cannot hear the range of sounds that make up a language, then it will be almost impossible to have a chance of developing listening skills. The mystery is, why is there so little focus on developing hearing skills, whilst a lot of effort is put into listening skills. 

Your brain is also acting like a filter when it hears English sounds, constructions, rythmns or certain syllables. It is filtering out those sounds as foreign which is causing it to completely ignore some of the more important English sounds. 

There are typically 120–150 words spoken per minute in normal audio or conversation and that is a lot of information for your brain to process in very short time. You might feel like you are only hearing a few words that you know really well and you are left guessing what the audio means based on a few words, or worse, you may block and filter them out completely. 

You may be reading this and thinking this process is really hard work and it might sound like it takes a lot of time. And, yes, you are absolutely right and you are definitely going to go deeper with your listening but you will see results in the end as a reward for your efforts.

Just remember that learning is not a spectator sport! Here are some Language Learning tips 

What English sounds like to speakers of other languages And some learning hacks

What difficulties do you have listening in English?

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In Tandem Language Learning both partners can meet in person (face-to-face Tandem) or learn by e-mail, chat, Skype, phone or other media (eTandem, also called Distance Tandem), placing emphasis on cultural integration as part of the language-learning process.

Learning is supported in different ways, for instance, via worksheets, textbooks or simply informal conversation.

This is something that we are considering integrating on this site to help learners learn independently from other learners.

The best tandem partnerships work when each tandem shares their native language 50/50 with another partner.

For example a French speaker (who wants to learn English) will speak for 15 minutes in French with an English speaker (who wants to learn French) then the English speaker will take turns to speak English for 15 minutes - a great and fun way to work together.

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