Your ideal learning situation may be unique and different from everyone else’s on the planet, so the beauty of independent language study, whether you are also taking a language class or not, is that you get to create your own environment and choose your own strategies.
My ideal learning situation would be different from most. I would prefer to learn by being around language all the time as well as taking classes.
Cognitivist learning can include things like solving language puzzles, analyzing scripted dialogues, or using clever memory strategies since these activities encourage our brains to search for relationships in the material.
Cognitive learning is like actively choosing to learn because you are interested.
Lastly, communicative approaches are the most popular among language teachers today, largely because of their focus on usability rather than perfection.
I agree that a communication focused class seems to be better than just writing things down, it makes you think critically.
In fact, all of these can contribute to language learning in different ways. Many people believe that learning a language is a long, tedious process. Well, it’s true that it IS a long and sometimes tedious process, but you, the learner, can decide whether to make it also really fun and to make the effort worth it.
This makes a lot of sense to me, It will seem a lot shorter if you end up enjoying it. I love Mexican culture and Spanish language and I feel left out every time my friends talk in Spanish so I very much enjoy learning it.
In other words, you might ask what are the “secrets” of polyglots. The simple answer to this question is that they are not wizards or inherently gifted with a language DNA. They are like all of us who equally find language learning overwhelming and are willing to take this challenge
Someone who is a polyglot has the same motivation for learning one language as they do for all the languages they want to learn. I am not a polyglot and don't want to be one there's really only two languages I want to learn and that is Russian and Spanish. I don't have the same motivation for French and even for Russian as I do fro Spanish I really like Spanish.
Remember that language is a social activity; while it is fine to start with some ‘should-dos’ (some basics ‘rules’ of the language), it is equally important to discover some ‘could-dos’ (creative possibilities for using the language)
I feel like basic learning of a language should use the should dos but once it gets more advanced its important to learn slang and blend in more with native speakers.
Imagine you are traveling to a different country in a month and you are motivated to learn some basic expressions in order to communicate with people. This upcoming trip will likely motivate you to make more consistent efforts to learn the language than if you were not traveling.
It will be a lot easier to learn a new language if it's a language you are quite interested in for sure. I am very interested in Spanish and I would want to learn it whereas Russian I think is cool but it isn't cool enough for me
it is not essential to all communication. When you are learning a language, you can still communicate, no matter your current level.
I agree, in my own first hand experience I have been able to get around Mexico fine just by using basic phrases and small conversations. I would definitely want to be able to speak very fluently but the communication was there