If you've been learning a language for some time do you happen to ask yourself
questions such as what level am I at? Am I actually making progress? When am I
gonna reach the next level? Am i improving my grammar, pronunciation or
fluency in that target language? Hi, my name is Luca from LucaLampariello.com, and
today we're going to talk about how to measure progress we're learning a
foreign language. There is really nothing wrong with asking yourself where you
stand and where you're going. I did that all the time. Back in the day, when I was
at school, when I was fifteen, I can remember as clear as day that I was
jotting down all my language goals and I was fantasizing about learning tons of
languages, and I was writing down the level at which I thought I was and where
I wanted to go. With time and experience, I've just realized that while setting up
goals is important, the most important and efficient way to tackle how to
measure foreign languages is actually to set up a system which will allow you to
learn in the long term and that is developing of the right habits.
How do I build the system? The people who follow my blog have noticed that I've
recently published some logbooks where I keep meticulously track of
my learning process. I think that having a logbook is a great idea: you can keep
track of your progress but how do you measure progress? Well, one thing that
I've recently added - and I think it's making a difference - is actually to add
some self-reflection exercises. After writing what I did and how long it took
me I normally spend two or three minutes - even 10 minutes when it's necessary
jotting down the things I did and asking myself whether the things I'm doing
are actually good for me and how I can refine them. In fact, the most important
goal is not only to keep track of my progress but actually to refine the
system through which I am actually learning, so I ask things such as "am I
using the right resource?" "Is this resource nice and good and
comprehensible and intelligible and interesting for me at this level? What
else can I add? How can I organize my time? And these bits and pieces of
information are actually adding up and they're helping me refine the system
better and better. Refining the system means to be able to learn in the long
term - language learning is always and always will be a marathon and if you
want to be successful, the most important thing you want to do is actually stick
to it over the long haul and with time I've developed a system which allows me
to learn not only one language but two or even three at the same time.
in language learning there are things you can more or less measure, for example the
amount of words that you know you can save them you can look back at them and
say okay this is more or less the list of words that I know but unfortunately
language learning is not just a corpus of knowledge, it's also a skill that you
develop, and it entails a number of subskills in and of itself and within
itself for example being able to speak being able to write being able to read
and so on and so forth, and unfortunately it is much more difficult to not only to
keep track of this but also to measure whether you're actually making progress
or not. In his popular book "Peak - secrets from the new science of expertise", the
author Anders Ericsson makes the case that experts in any field actually
operate within a consistent framework that they built and this framework is
based upon consistent mental representations that these experts
develop with time it's a really really interesting book and I recommend you
read it. So how do I operate within the language learning framework? What are my
mental representations? I divide language learning mainly in three areas: beginner
intermediate and advanced. Actually, I define my level according to the
resources that I use - the what and how I use them -
the how. Let me give you an example: if I'm at the very early stage of language
learning that is I'm a beginner I always use a book like ASSIMIL or Teach
yourself or another resource and I apply my bidirectional method to it so I
define the what I know the how and for me I am at this beginner stage. So after
I finish ASSIMIL, I do not ask myself whether I have reached an intermediate
level or not - for me it's actually automatic - and once I get into the
intermediate realm, intermediate ground whatever you want to call it, I just
changed the what - that is the resource or resources - and I also change the how.
A lot of people think that my bi-directional translation is a complete
method to learn a language but the reality is that mine is a combination of
methods which evolve with time. So, what do I do when I have reached an
intermediate level? Well, again, I changed the what and I change
the how - most often than not I find some resources on the internet, podcasts with
scripts and audio that I can keep working on but I do not use my
bi-directional translation anymore I do more intensive listening and reading and
jotting down vocabulary and also I start talking with some tutors online or with
some friends and in the advanced phase I do something different such as starting
watching movies or starting absorbing more authentic content. The key point
here is that you should not ask yourself whether you are beginner, intermediate or
advanced, I think that it's much more important to focus on building a
consistent system that works for you a kind of mental framework where you
constantly know where you are and if you do that for one language then you can
simply replicate it for any other language, it really helps you not only
figuring out where you are but also motivates you in the long run because
you know where you're going.
Learning a language is a little bit like climbing a mountain or setting upon a
very long journey it takes time it's an endless journey actually because we
never stop learning so instead of focusing whether you're constantly
making progress because if you're walking or you're climbing or you're
running you are getting to your destination, you are getting closer and closer
I think you should focus on the small victories that are along the journey. Let
me give you an example about what I do when I happen to have these "Eureka"
moments or celebrate victories. When it comes to reading I really get excited
when for example I stumble upon a Wikipedia article about something I
really like and I understand the gist of it well that's great! Or when I listen to
something podcasts or a movie and I start understanding bits and pieces of
this I clearly remember when that happened when I was watching a Swedish
movie I got so excited about that! Speaking - when I first have a
conversation on skype with someone and I can get my point across
or when a stumble upon someone I am in a given country and I happen to have a
conversation with someone that happened in Hungary in Budapest some three years
ago I started learning Hungarian for some time and then I started talking to
this granny who could actually understand me I was so excited about
that these are small victories, these are the things you want to focus on because
these small victories will push you through, exactly like they will push
climbers to move from one base camp to the other you reach this thing. So there
you have it, first: focus on the system instead of goals. Setting up goals is
fine, but I think that refining the system is so much better because at the
end of the day that's what is going to allow you to learn in the long term
Second: develop your own mental representations of where you stand and
where you're going. In my case its beginner, intermediate, advanced, and each
stage corresponds to a certain kind of material I use and how I use it
and third: celebrate small victories because small victories do count and add
up in the long run. As usual, this video comes with a very lengthy and thorough
article I've put together on my blog. If you liked the content of this video you
can click on the link in the description box and you will find a ton of other
material, resources links and whatnot. Thank you very much for listening to me
and I'll talk to you very very soon