How to form a habit of studying languages?
Having been a language teacher for many years, I used to hear students of all different ages claim that they do not have the capacity to learn languages. Meanwhile, many of them could name people they personally knew for whom languages came easily and naturally. These students believed that they needed to have some “special talent” for languages, without which mastery of any language would be difficult, perhaps even impossible. Were these students right? Do you really need some innate ability for languages in order to learn them?
There are a lot of studies that have been conducted about these questions and yet there is no single answer for them. Some people definitely have excellent phonetic abilities and great awareness of grammar patterns. As a result, they likely have an easier and shorter path when it comes to studying languages. People with exceptional languages skills are chosen to work for government interpreting and translation services. Does this mean that other people cannot become fluent in non-native languages? Absolutely not. Learning a language is no different from following a diet, going to the gym, saving money, keeping one’s house clean, or thousands of other activities that require the formation of a strong, consistent habit in order to achieve a desired result. Therefore, the question of if one can learn and how one can learn a foreign language becomes a question of how to form a habit and remain consistent, rather than a test of one’s innate language learning ability.
Each of us has individual goals and desires. We articulate these goals and sincerely believe that one day we will start working toward these goals, but sometimes, often even years later, we come to the realization that we have yet to even start. The main issue most people face is a discouraging mismatch between expectations and reality. Unfortunately, any goal requires hard work and sacrifice in order to achieve it. Another part of this dilemma is not knowing how to start and how to actively improve, so often we attempt a brute force approach, running aimlessly towards a goal until the point of mastery. Here, I came up with a list of steps to take in order to form a habit of learning a foreign language. I hope these steps will be useful.
Decide what language you want to learn and create deadlines for yourself. Be as realistic as possible, do not overdo it.
Decide when you want to start (pick a specific month and day) and how much time you have per week/day to devote to language learning. The time frame can vary from 15 minutes per day to two hours. More than two hours per day is not realistic and will likely interfere with other responsibilities you have. It is much more important to study on a consistent basis than to study for many hours on some days, and then do nothing for other days.
If your day is flexible, you do not have to assign specific time window for language learning. If your schedule is demanding, chose a specific time to study that language and stick to it. This can allow you to set a routine, which, once established, will be quite easy to maintain.
There will be many days, especially at the beginning, when you will find various excuses of why not do it or skip it. Try to fight this tendency. If you end up skipping it, treat the next day like it never happened, don’t allow yourself to dwell on your past mistakes, but rather try to learn from them going forward. A minor disruption to your routine does not need to lead to abandonment of the project/goal all together. Forgive yourself for such minor weaknesses and mistakes and continue according to the plan afterwards.
According to research, it takes about two months to form a habit. If you win the initial internal battle with yourself and continue your language studies for at least 60 days, it will become much easier, if not completely automatic. It will be a part of your every day routine.
All of these tips and recommendations do not mean that in two months you will be able to master a language and then be able to discontinue your studies. Becoming fluent in a language takes a lot of time, and while basic conversational fluency may come relatively quickly, true fluency can take several years. However, if you form the habit of studying your language on a consistent basis (every day or almost every day), it will become a part of your life and you will no longer have to force yourself.
Good luck in the wonderful journey of battling yourself in order to achieve your goals of language fluency!
Olga Sylvia, PhD