So, you’ve been grinding on your preferred language learning app, listening and reading sentences, and memorizing vocabulary. You feel that you’re making some progress, but you also feel like you’re hitting some plateaus in terms of your ability to produce the language yourself.
Speaking and writing are often harder than reading and listening, and you want to really sharpen your skills so that you can communicate more effectively. So, in this blog post, let me take you through the some strategies and tips on how to fine tune your language skills using the advanced modules in language apps.
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Why Advanced Language Lessons Are Important For Fluent Communication?
The digital flashcard and fill-in-the-blank format quizzing and other exercises that most language learning apps present you with, are great in terms of what they can do for you and your language learning. I don’t want to downplay that. A research on language learning app market shows that the gamification elements used in language apps, such as point systems and flashcards, have improved learning outcomes, making lessons more engaging and accessible.
Thus, with very little effort – only with time commitment and sufficient interest – you can improve your vocabulary every day in a language you’re learning.
Beyond that, with a little concentrated effort on those same exact exercises, language learning apps can help you begin to internalize sentence patterns and help you to acclimate yourself with what holding conversations in the target language is really like. This is all crucial for meeting your language learning goals and having them pay off in the real world!
But there are also limitations to this approach when pursued on it’s on. And many teams creating language apps themselves recognize this and have accounted for it with their product. Of course, if you have the time and resources, having a class or tutor in the language, and reading through a formal grammar or coursebook, can help you advance much more quickly with a lot more confidence. Both app creators and language teachers agree that their users or students who combine these mediums see a lot of benefit to their progress.
But if you have to choose just one, between a live class that will be more costly and less flexible with your time, and an app that will be cheaper and fits into your schedule however you need it to, almost anywhere, it’s no wonder so many students prefer the app approach. Especially for beginner students who still are building up their confidence in what might be a difficult and unfamiliar language might prefer the privacy and extended time frame afforded by an app-centric approach.
Practicing Advanced Modules In Language Apps
Recognizing that so many language learners are more reliant on apps as the center of their language learning experience (for reasons of money, time, or just intimidation by other mediums), many creators of language learning apps, who themselves often have considerable experience in learning or teaching languages, have incorporated modules designed to fine-tune your skills and make your independent language learning experience more effective.
Many of the tools you need from a classroom setting can be found in advanced language learning modules, from break downs of grammatical structure to lists of topic specific and advanced vocabulary, from strategies to progress to cultural and media advice geared toward the language learner.
It is crucial that these modules don’t simply be restricted to the same gamified format that makes app use so easy to do continuously. They must also switch between the medium of vocabulary-centric drills and video or text modules corresponding to different needs the language learner has. Both are important, but you’ll start to notice soon into your experience with a new language that you’ve been studying and practicing mostly through an app that this can cause you, like so many other students, to hit frustrating plateaus in terms of grammar, even while your vocabulary continues to advance.
It’s important to continuously learn and practice vocabulary however you can, and as I said, apps are one of the best ways to do that, but if you want to develop a rigorous grasp of the grammar of the language, which is crucial for being able to not just recognize words and loosely parse sentences, but understand nuanced communication and produce sentences yourself in conversation settings, then you need to simultaneously take some time which is more clearly focused and studious for your grammar.
How To Utilize Advanced Grammar And Vocabulary Features
You can learn some grammar by osmosis the same way you can with vocabulary, thanks to context and repetition. But when you inevitably feel yourself hitting a plateau, it’s important to not give up. Instead, shift gears a bit. Grammar modules must not just show, but also explain grammatical sentences and their grammatical contrasts. They need to introduce and develop paradigms in your mental grammar of a new language, in addition to providing lists of words you can use.
Ling from Simya is one app that I can recommend for its robust curriculum and holistic approach. Ling is made by a team of passionate language learners and teachers. Like you, they’ve all dealt with the frustration of trying to translate a new language with a very different grammar into a practical skill. And they’ve been developing Ling in accordance with the lessons they’ve learned in doing so for languages that are often considered harder, are less often taught, and often have a lower student success rate as a result.
The Ling team want to solve the problem of how you can not just learn a few greetings, but really learn a language through your phone as much as possible, whatever language that might be. As a result, Ling boasts a wide selection of languages, more than almost any other app, and for each one, dozens of units divided into multiple lessons covering crucial vocabulary for everyday topics, so you’re sure to have the input you need whether you’re learning Khmer or Bulgarian.
So, what sort of modules does Ling offer to help fine-tune your grammatical skills?
Advanced Lessons In Language Apps: Ling’s Selection Of Modules
In addition to in-app lists of vocabulary you’ve already learned, the Ling blog includes a lot of helpful modules for many of the languages on offer. These are helpfully sorted in the “Discover more” section by language.
- You can read through these modules at any point in your lesson experience. They include but also build off of vocabulary you’ll find in the Ling lessons, being written by the same team of passionate language learners and teachers behind the Ling app.
- The grammar notes feature covers grammatical topics in an accessible way independent of the lessons, which can help you approximate the experience of a language class while maintaining the independence and economy of just working from your app.
- Some of the topics might include key basic verbs for the language you’re learning, summary of the pronoun system, cultural vocabulary such as holiday greetings or terminology used for discussing media, and much more. Whether you’re confused about how gender works in German or what measure words are in Chinese, whether you need help with formality in Hindi or the past tense in Spanish, Ling has content ready for you to study, today.
- Beyond the app, there are weekly articles being published on the Ling blog about vocabulary learning, on grammar concepts and other language-related topics. The in-app lessons are also complemented by video content specific to languages you could be learning on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
- Ling’s video content includes fun short videos to introduce useful vocabulary for one language, or comparing similar vocabulary across languages. They also boast longer form explanatory videos about language and culture produced by members of the Ling team – content you won’t find from other language learning platforms and often for languages you can’t find in other language learning apps.
Material from these modules as well as new material is being progressively incorporated into the Ling app itself, which is being updated regularly. No other team is doing as much to steadily improve the availability of vocabulary and grammatical information for so many languages. The in-app module information is chosen to be specific to your place within the curriculum on the app, as you go, approximating a more classroom lesson-like experience.
Incorporating Advanced Lessons Into Language Learning
I personally have been using Ling for South Asian languages I haven’t been able to find on competitors apps and have been impressed as I’ve seen my ability to communicate go from zero to low level conversation in a short period of time, thanks not only to the wealth of vocabulary and real-world-applicable conversational examples in the app lessons, but also do to the further reading and viewing I can do across the Ling platform.
Additionally, the Ling team are building a community of learners that is public facing. Beyond responsiveness to inquiries through the app or e-mail, you can also avail yourself of Ling’s Discord community to ask questions or share insights or resources with other Ling users, who like the team come from diverse countries and are excited about learning hard languages that are often less taught in classrooms around the world.
Whether you try Ling today (available on App Store and Google Play Store), or go with another app, it’s important to avail yourself of resources the app creators have set out in parallel with the gamified curriculum. This can make the difference between knowing a few words and really learning a language off of your phone.
Make the leap today – combine your regular app practice with input from text modules and multimedia content from the developer to ensure you don’t just inch forward, but have the tools you need to advance quickly and communicate with confidence in a new language!
