Foreign Language

Tips for Self-Study

You are your own teacher, you are in charge of your learning – Your learning depends on your own attitude, participation, self-discipline, and study habits
Your tutor is not a teacher – Your tutor is not a trained language instructor. Think of him/her as a resource person, but not a regular language teacher
You need to study materials on your own at home – Even if no homework is assigned, you must be taking time to study by a. reviewing grammar points and vocabulary in your book b. listening to your audiotapes c. reading texts appropriate for your level of language proficiency
Do not spend much time of your tutorial session asking questions about grammar. When you come across grammatical questions, use your book first to try and answer the question. It is not a productive use of your time to spend your tutorial discussing grammar, and your tutor is not a trained language instructor. You should be studying grammar at home using your books and spending time in your tutorial practicing the language.
Language is spoken – To learn a language means to learn to speak it. Sometimes saying the words will come before writing them. You do not need to know how to spell something in order to say it, so do not be nervous if you are expected to say something you are not able to write.
Make language practice part of your daily routine.
Tolerate ambiguity – When your tutor is speaking to you in the target language or when you are reading, you do NOT need to understand every single word.
Mistakes are part of the language process – It is OK to make some mistakes while you speak. Take some risks, and do not let fear of making an error keep you from speaking the language.
Use the language as much as possible. If your tutor says something confusing in the target language, do not immediately ask clarification in English. The first phrases you should learn to use in the target language include:
“ Can you repeat that?” “What does X mean?”” Can you say that more slowly?”

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