This page is to help anybody who feels confused about what they should be doing while studying. Likely they have already moved past the beginner phase. This is not intended as a replacement for a proper routine, and this page does not dwell on the details of common beginner activities. If you need more support, you should use the guide to learning a language on this website.
The Core activities
This section is to note the main activities learners do.
Course Study
There are two reasons we generally need courses:
- They structure your learning
- They teach you grammar
To do this, simply do the activities prescribed by your course. Ensure you are well-reseted and focused.
Flashcard study
At this early stage, think about using your flashcards for two outcomes:
- Building a large vocabulary so you can understand content
- Learning some key phrases so you can communicate
These will correspond to the two flashcard sub-activities below. How much of each you do will depend on what you enjoy and your goals.
Build a passive vocabulary
For this activity, find a shared deck online that has a lot of example words or sentences (I recommend sentences) in order of frequency. Use the target language side first, meaning you will see the word or sentence in the language you are learning, and need to understand what it means in English (or your native language) before you press good.
Learn key phrases
Similar to the above, find a deck online with words or sentences (I recommend sentences), but focus on the kinds of phrases you need, such as travel phrases or basic phrases. Use these with the English (or your native language) side first, and make sure you know how to say it correctly in the language you are learning before you press good.
Mass input
The mass input activity is simple: use the input while simply trying to understand as much as you can. As we saw in the resource section, input takes many forms: YouTube, TikTok, books, podcasts, etc. Whatever you use, make sure it is comprehensible and interesting to you. Try not to pause or look things up until you’ve finished, and only do so if it feels necessary. This will give you the exposure you need to start building an intuition for how the language works.
Conversation practice
Find a native speaker and start a language exchange, an activity in which you each spend time speaking each other’s language. Use the guide or the Resources section for help finding conversation partners.
Intermediate activities
Intermediate activities are split into four types. Use this to think about what skills you are improving. If you need help choosing activities, use the chapter Choosing an Activity from the guide.
- Meaning-focused input (listening and reading)
- Meaning-focused output (speaking and writing)
- Language-focused learning (drills)
- Fluency development (practising what you already know)
Meaning-focused input
Large amounts of natural language are required to learn a language, so the learner should be seeking out and engaging with large amounts of input. The goal is simply to expose yourself to as much of the language as possible and generally understand what is happening. It will be helpful to become comfortable with an incomplete understanding of what you read or hear.
Extensive reading
Extensive reading is a type of exercise in which you read widely and a lot.
Reading is one of the best ways to improve your ability with the language, even if your objective is to speak,1 as it lets you regularly encounter and practise new vocabulary and grammar. Vocabulary size is strongly correlated with time spent reading, so it’s a great way to boost your vocabulary.
There is nothing objectively wrong with listening instead, however written content has everything easily accessible to be referenced, returned to, and looked up. It is also better in terms of sheer quantity of content available to learners, meaning there are more things that interest you available in the written form. Reading and listening are simply different ways of accessing the core components (vocabulary and grammar), which remain largely unchanged between the two content types. Feel free to listen to audiobooks or podcasts if you prefer.
Content you use will need to already be mostly understandable to you. For the purposes of this activity, I recommend a minimum of 98% of words should already be familiar to you.
Here are some of the things learners typically read:
- Blogs
- Comic books
- Forums and online communities
- Novels
- Graded readers
- Short stories
- Humour pages on social media
The most common way learners tend to get lots of language exposure is by finding a book they enjoy reading. Graded readers, which are tailored to your level, are ideal. Learners often find books for teens or even pre-teens that they enjoy enough to read.
If the book is a translation of one you have already read in your native language, that will help you read a more difficult book without losing track of what is happening. Here are some books that are commonly re-read by learners:
- The Harry Potter series
- The Goosebumps books
- The Little Prince
In addition, there are books written specifically for learners at various levels. You can find them on Amazon.
Narrow reading
Narrow reading simply means reading, but remaining within a specific topic or subject area.
This has the effect of reducing the number of different words you encounter, giving you more opportunities for repetition and helping you learn them. It can also help you target the kind of vocabulary you learn, which is useful if you have a goal that involves that topic.
You can engage in narrow reading by following the same topic in the news or seeking out texts and/or resources specifically concerning a topic of interest. If you are using social media, you can seek out accounts that are focused on that topic. If you are struggling with understanding, it can be helpful to remain within a specialist area of knowledge you already know about. You can also change the topic you are reading on after some time, which will help you build a diverse vocabulary.
Reading while listening
Read a text and listen to a recording at the same time. This lets the reading support your listening, helping you get used to the sounds of the language and improving your comprehension.
Listening to audio
This works like extensive and narrow reading, but by listening to podcasts or radio. This can be harder, since listening is a more difficult skill to master, so make sure you are choosing audio resources that are a bit easier than something you would read.
Meaning-focused output
Without output, nothing you learn through your input will be much use. Meaning-focused output activities help solidify what you have learned.
Memorise sentences and dialogues
This activity can be done with flashcards or by writing them down. The goal is to learn some sentences that will contain highly useful forms and words in the conversations you will be having. Think about the kinds of topics and situations you are likely to need to speak on soon and choose sentences and dialogues that help. Practise speaking these aloud and get feedback on your pronunciation. Since you are trying to use the phrases yourself, practise by first reading the sentence in your native language and try to produce it in your target language.
Prepared talks
Develop a short talk on a common, everyday subject. Focus on things you would typically talk about with people, such as your hobbies, place of origin, experience, reasons for learning, etc. Have it checked by a native speaker before memorising and practising it.
If you want something a little easier, try imagining the kind of conversation you are expecting to have. Take some time to consider common follow-up questions someone might ask and prepare some responses. If you like, you can then practice speaking this aloud. With enough repetition of this practised conversation or talk, you should have a far easier time speaking off-the-cuff about that topic.
Read and write
Choose a topic that you are already knowledgeable on. Read about it in your native language and your target language. Then try writing a short article yourself about the topic using the information you have just read. To mix it up, you don’t have to read, but can instead watch or listen and write.
Language-focused activities
This is when you utilise a resource to attempt focused improvement at a specific component or skill, such as a grammar concept, vocabulary, natural phrases, or aural comprehension. Resources used for language-focused learning are often more difficult than those you would use for meaning-focused learning.
Intensive reading
The purpose of this exercise is to use content to focus on a key aspect of your language and develop it with the help of the broader context. To do this, get a piece of content that you already understand 90–98% of. This will ideally have a written component, such as a text, video with subtitles, or podcast with a transcript. You will then read or listen to your content multiple times. Each time you will read more carefully and try to gain new insight.
The reason you read the content multiple times is that understanding the entirety of text, audio, or video content at once is usually too difficult. It’s impossible to remember the meaning of all new words and forms as well as comprehend the meaning of entire sentences and how they flow together to make a broader point on your first read through. The best approach is to chunk it up into manageable activities so that nothing is too difficult.
Here are the key phases:
- Skim read for broader context—lets you derive meaning from context more easily
- Brief read—read quickly without looking anything up, try to guess the meaning of key words
- Deeper read—read again, focusing on those parts that are still unclear to you
- Lookup—search for the meaning of key words and forms that are preventing you from understanding fully
- Repeat reading—as many times as necessary to understand the text
Alternate between lookup and repeat reading as much as you need. Some learners repeat the same content up to ten times.
At some point you may narrow down to a component of the language you would like to focus on improving. You can also follow-up by using the resource for a range of activities. Here are some ideas:
- Practise listening to an audio recording
- Drill some key vocabulary with flashcards
- Produce a written summary of the resource
- Read the text aloud
- Send the written summary to a native to be corrected
- Discuss it with a tutor
If by the end you can comfortably understand the content, congratulations! You are now measurably better at your target language.
Writing practice
Write something and send it to a native to be corrected. Carefully review the corrected text and try to understand the source of your errors. You can then use this new understanding to pick follow-up activities. Optionally, write a follow-up text integrating what you have learned.
This activity helps you notice your errors and improve at whatever weaknesses are visible in the text you write.
Writing new forms and words down
Spend some time writing new words and forms you encounter. Many people find the act of writing to be helpful for memorisation. Take the time to read them carefully and reference them. I recommend you write them in a way that forces you to engage your memory. For example, you may wish to divide the page in half, with your native language on one side and target language on the other. By covering one side, you can achieve an effect similar to using flashcards.
Delayed copying
Using a rather small text (approx. 200 words), read it first to understand it. Use resource you need to ensure you fully understand it. Then, go back to the beginning of the text. Look at the first four or five words, trying to remember them and writing them on a piece of paper without referring back to the text. Gradually work your way through the text in this way. You can gradually increase the number of words. This activity helps you hold longer and longer phrases in your head.
Translating between languages
Using a dual-language text you would consider easy, try to translate the native language side into your target language without referencing the target language text. Once you’ve done that, compare the translation you made to the actual target language text. Take the time to think about where the words and forms you chose differ noticeably from the text.
If the text is a bit harder, you can also try to translate the other way, reading the side in your target language and attempting to translate it to your native language.
Transcription
Take a short recording of spoken text and try to make a written version. Pause and repeat parts of the audio as often as is necessary to ensure you heard what is said and can transcribe it. This can be quite time consuming, so ensure your text is short. The best resources already have a transcription. If it exists, use that to check your work.
This improves your listening skills and provides feedback on word and phrase recognition.
Spelling practice
This activity is for languages with a writing or spelling system that is very different from your native language. Since the focus is on spelling, ensure this activity aligns with your goals. If your goal does not involve writing, then this will likely not be of great benefit. Note that extensive reading and any writing activities will also naturally help you learn spelling.
Write key words or phrases you are having difficulty spelling on one side of a page. Cover this side and try write the word from memory. Uncover the other side and check your work.
Fluency-focused activities
These are exercises aimed at helping you improve the speed and ease at which you can use language you already know, focusing on the four skills. If you use content, you will generally use it for some specific component and focus only on that. Fluency-focused activities are mostly done to improve pronunciation.
Shadowing
Get a recording with a transcript. Podcasts, TV shows, and YouTube videos are ideal. Listen to the speech while reading the transcript. The goal of this activity is to mimic the speech of the speakers as closely as possible. Start by simply pausing and repeating, and move on to speaking over them. This activity helps you improve your intonation, pronunciation, and fluidity of speech.
Listening for sounds
Listen to a recording, but ignore the meaning and instead focus on trying to hear the sounds and boundaries between words. This is useful at the earlier stages for building your initial listening comprehension.
Repeated writing
Do a piece of writing, have it checked and corrected, read it carefully, then put it away and try to write the corrected version out from memory. Once that is done, check what you wrote against the corrected version. Repeat this activity two or three times until you feel comfortable. This can help you prepare for written tests and build familiarity with words and forms.
Repeated speaking
Find a recording with a transcript. Make a recording of yourself speaking a the transcript aloud. Play it back, listen and compare to the native speaker in the recording. Take note of where your pronunciation doesn’t match. Don’t focus just on sounds, but pay attention to your intonation and how words flow together. Once that is done, try making the same recording again, remembering what you have learned.
Repeated reading
Get a text and read it at least three times. Each time you read it, try to read faster without losing comprehension. You can do this reading aloud or silently. It will help to use a timer to measure how much your speed is increasing. Aim for around 150 words per minute when speaking, and 250 words per minute when reading.
10-minute writing
Choose an easy topic to write about that you are interested in. Time yourself and write for exactly 10 minutes, writing as much as you can in that time. Focus on writing more and don’t worry about mistakes.