I was reflecting the other day on this question: What are the most powerful meta-skills you can acquire as a language learner to make efficient progress? This is what came to mind:
- Finding Resources The right resources can make any part of the language learning journey more interesting and productive. One powerful strategy is to simply google your request as a complete question and see what pops up.
- Knowing Your Level There are two levels that I think are useful: a] knowing your “learner’s level,” that is, a realistic judgement based on an external framework like the CEFR, HSK, TOPIK, etc., whether officially or self-assessed, and b] knowing your “native level,” that is, knowing that in terms of what you can understand, a C2 learner who has just crossed the threshold is roughly equal in passive understanding to a bright 11 to 13-year-old native speaker. An A1’s reading ability is roughly equal to that of a native 6-year-old. As a rough guide, we can say that each level corresponds to an age [e.g., A2=7, B1=8, etc.] Why is this important…? [I seem to recall u/Luguaedos and u/SuikaCider making several good comments/posts about this.]
- Knowing The Level Of Resources It is important because it allows you to properly assess the level of native resources. This is a mistake I see time and time again. If you know your “native level,” it’s much easier to see which native media are likely to be reasonable, and which native media are likely to be significant challenges, fully understandable with the use of a transcript, subtitles, or a LOT of dictionary look-ups only. Taking the examples above, it is easy to see why kids’ shows, despite their frequent recommendation, typically aren’t all that manageable, since the kids’ shows that are likely to appeal to an adult will typically be aimed at audiences 11 and up [minimum]. THAT’S ALREADY C2! Another example that will make sense: what’s the age at which native children can typically read Harry Potter for pleasure, without a dictionary? Age 9, or the 4th grade. That's very much in line with B2 learners. Plan your native media consumption accordingly [again, if you’re looking to understand it painlessly, roughly approaching how you would consume it in your first language, without subs/significant dictionary look-ups].
- Being Ruthless and Shameless About Applying What You’ve Learned Remember what you did as a child after learning a new word? That’s right: You inserted it into every conversation possible. Effective learners know that it takes a certain number of repetitions to learn a word/phrase/expression/grammar concept for good, so the time to start calling everyone "fastidious" is today!
- Setting Specific Goals And Tracking Their Progress Everyone will have a slightly different process, but it is important for efficient learning to have specific quotas to hit. Otherwise, language learning can balloon out into an unending task. Efficient learners know that X hours listened/week or Y pages/books read by Z date are measurable tasks that WILL make them better in the language. I like the way u/an_average_potato_1 tends to formulate this, and u/onthelambda made one of my favorite posts about this topic.
- Knowing Your Language’s Timeline All languages aren’t equal in difficulty. A language’s difficulty will depend on your first language[s], any other languages you know, etc. But in general, it’s useful to know that for an English speaker, for instance, Spanish should take a lot less time than Japanese.
- Knowing The Four Proficiencies Knowing a language isn’t about grammar or vocabulary [I mean, it is, but hear me out]: it’s about how well you can speak, read, listen to, and write it. I see a lot of first-time learners attempting to track their progress via grammar points [“I’d say I’m intermediate; I know the subjunctive.”] or streaks/trees from apps [ahem]. Instead, think about what activities you can do in the language using those four proficiencies, and you’ll have a better sense of where you are. [I’m not against streaks, for the record. I just don’t confuse a streak with language proficiency. Streaks are for motivation.] I have noticed that u/BlueDolphinFairy has good posts and comments on this.
- Customizing Resources This is vital. Few resources work “out of the box” the way that best fit your learning style. A powerful tactic is being proactive in changing resources to work for you. I will give a small example. Audiria.com has great “everyday scenes” recorded by native speakers. However, I find it a little boring listening to two people talk about stuff like going to the flower shop or making vegetable soup. So I combined the audio files with the instrumentals of songs that I like via Audacity, and now I have my own customized “learn Spanish to music” podcasts that I can turn on occasionally. It's a lot easier to learn about flower shops with Bad Bunny in the background. I have noticed that u/RyanSmallwood and u/justinmeister have made good observations about this.
- Using Native Feedback I think one big psychological hurdle is humbling yourself and realizing that, as much as we grumble, the native speaker will usually be right. Even when s/he is wrong about WHY something is wrong, s/he will usually be right that something is in fact wrong. This provides a simple tip for maximizing native feedback: Unless the person is a tutor/teacher, don’t ask whether what you’ve said/written is right or wrong. Instead, ask if it’s something the other person would say, and listen carefully to the answer. [Alternatives: Ask if what you’ve produced sounds natural or if it’s the most common way to say/write it.]
- Exploiting Your Strengths, or Anime + Reggaeton + KPop + Turkish dramas = Good Experienced language learners know: As long as you’re exposed to the language, you will learn. If it’s not vocabulary, it’s USAGE, which can often be just as important in the long run. Don’t be afraid to take an obsession and run with it. I have recently been pushing myself to expand my Spanish literacy, reading my fair share of “fancy novels” [lol]. But I also have a weakness for juvenile horror, preferably about vampires. So sue me. However, I have been flying through those schlocky books, burning through one within two days, and my writing has experienced a significant uptick because of it.
What do you all think? Any that I missed? What are your meta-skills? Happy learning, everyone.
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