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Strategies for Learning a Foreign Language

A language is a good example of where the whole is more than the sum of the parts. It is not just the words themselves which carry meaning, but the way they are put together and they way they relate to each other. We have already seen how even more meaning can be added with facial expression, gesture and other body language. Add tone of voice. And then there is context, the circumstances in which you are using a word. Some languages have words which have different meanings in different situations, and you only know which one is being used usually because it is the only one which makes sense.

Making a lot of use of a Simple Sentence

Let's take something very simple which you may have even learnt in a very early lesson.

The cat sat on the mat.

Look at how you can change one word at a time to make six other simple sentences.

A cat sat on the mat.
A dog sat on the mat.
A dog slept on the mat.
A dog slept under the mat.
A dog slept under a mat.
A dog slept under a table .

Now imagine that for each word you had six alternatives. These may be presented as a drop-down list on a computer program, or a box diagram in your text book. Or you could make up your own. You might have something like this.

Now how many sentences can you create? If you use every combination? Some of the combinations may be a little odd, but most of them work very well, and the structure will be accurate.

Adapting What you Hear

Often, though, you haven't got time to sit down and work out a table. You want to bring some structure into your speech. You want to speak as accurately as possible. This is where you need to listen for patterns.

It may be a simple matter of not knowing vocabulary. Imagine being in a cake shop. You see something which looks delicious but is not labelled. You point to it and say you would like one of them.

'A cream horn ?' says the assistant pointing at the same cake.

'Yes, a cream horn ' you confirm.

Questions and Answers

Much of speech consists of question and answer. There are two types of questions - ones which need a 'yes' or 'no' answer, and others which need a piece of missing information supplying. In both cases, you use the structure of the question to help you with the structure of the answer. Or, if speaking, you can just give the answer. In an e-mail, you would probably use the reply button, so the original part of the message would still be there. You would give a semi structured reply. If writing, you need to give the whole structure. Study the following questions and answers.

• Yes/no question. Did Charles see Mary last Wednesday?
• Speech answer. Yes, he did.
• E-mail answer. He did see her last Wednesday.
• Letter answer. Yes, Charles did see Mary last Wednesday.
• Missing information question. Where were Charles and Mary?
• Speech answer. At the hospital.
• E-mail answer. They were at the hospital.
• Letter answer. Charles and Mary were at the hospital.