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How to learn a language

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Interested in learning a second language but don't know where to start? Learn about the concepts and skills required to learn languages successfully in this free course, How to learn a language.

This course will introduce you to the skills and strategies you need for language learning. You will be encouraged to set realistic goals when learning a language, and you will be given advice on how to keep motivated to achieve these goals. You will practise speaking skills and vocabulary learning strategies.

You will watch videos featuring other language learners to learn from their experience and the three course authors will share their top tips on how to successfully learn another language.

Watch the following video in which one of the authors, Open University academic Fernando Rosell-Aguilar, introduces the course further.

Transcript

Enrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.

The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey . Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our optional end-of-course survey . Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.

This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.

Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation.

Earn this free Open University digital badge if you complete this course! The badge can be displayed, shared and downloaded as a marker of your achievement. The badge is awarded for completing the course and passing the quizzes.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

understand your motivation for learning languages
set realistic goals in language learning
memorise vocabulary
evaluate independent language learning resources for personal learning goals
create a virtual immersion environment.

Enter course

First Published: 16/05/2017

Updated: 27/03/2020

You can start this course right now without signing-up. Click on any of the course content sections below to start at any point in this course.
If you want to be able to track your progress, earn a free Statement of Participation, and access all course quizzes and activities, sign-up.

Course content

Introduction and guidance
- Current section:
  Introduction and guidance
  This free course, How to learn a language, is for anyone thinking of learning a language. Whether it is the first time you are venturing into language learning, or if you have already started, this course will show you how to keep motivated, set your own goals, and develop strategies to learn a language. You will understand what is needed to succeed, and get lots of advice on how to develop the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. You will also find out how to learn ...
  - What is a badged course?
  - How to get a badge
- Acknowledgements
Week1Week 1: Your motivation and goals
- Current section:
  Introduction
  This week of the course is written by Tita Beaven.Welcome to Week 1 of this free badged course, How to learn a language. This week you will think about your reasons and your goals for learning a language, and you’ll explore what the possible barriers to you accomplishing your goals might be, and what you can do about it. By the end of this week, you should be able to:visualise your ‘future language self’ and set SMART goalsthink about how realistic your aims are, map your journey and ...
- 1 Why learn a new language?
- 2 A marathon, not a sprint
- 3 What does success look like for you?
- 4 Your ‘future language self’
- 5 Reality check
- 6 What are the barriers?
- 7 Overcoming obstacles
- 8 Mapping your journey
- 9 Your goals
- 10 How long will it take?
- 11 This week’s quiz
- 12 Summary of Week 1
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week 1 practice quiz
Week2Week 2: What is language learning about?
- Current section:
  Introduction
  This week of the course is written by Olly Richards.Becoming a successful language learner is not simply about discovering the ‘how-to’ tips and tricks. Every language is a bit like a puzzle. Over time, you gradually increase your understanding of how a language works. Grammar that was once hard becomes second nature. Vocabulary that used to slip your mind becomes engrained.The process of becoming fluent in a language can take many years and success comes with time, providing you are able to...
- 1 Challenges you may face
- 2 ‘My goal is to speak fluently!’
- 3 Four areas to master
- 4 This week’s quiz
- 5 Summary of Week 2
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week 2 practice quiz
Week3Week 3: Finding and evaluating language learning resources
- Current section:
  Introduction
  This week of the course is written by Fernando Rosell-Aguilar.So far, you have looked at motivation, setting realistic goals, and hopefully also gained a better understanding of what it means to learn a language. This week I will show you ways to find useful resources to support your language learning and present a framework to evaluate the resources you find according to your own individual learning needs.By the end of this week, you should be able to:find resources for learning ...
- 1 Where do I start?
- 2 Resources for language learning: classification
- 3 Are language-learning resources free?
- 4 Choosing and evaluating language-learning resources
- 5 Evaluation activity
- 6 Too many resources?
- 7 This week’s quiz
- 8 Summary of Week 3
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week 3 practice quiz
Week4Week 4: Speaking
- Current section:
  Introduction
  This week of the course is written by Tita Beaven.So far in this course you have looked at motivation, at what it means to learn a language, and at how to evaluate resources for language learning. From now on, roll up your sleeves and prepare to get up close and personal with speaking, listening, learning vocabulary and reading and writing in your chosen language.By the end of this week, you should be able to:understand what is involved in speakingunderstand ways to practise speaking on your...
- 1 Speaking is not a discreet skill
- 2 So, what is involved in speaking?
- 3 How to practise on your own
- 4 Find a language exchange partner
- 5 Learning speaking directly or indirectly?
- 6 Take control
- 7 Ideas for beginners
- 8 Top tips
- 9 What happens if it doesn’t work?
- 10 This week’s quiz
- 11 Summary of Week 4
- Acknowledgements
- Week 4 compulsory badge quiz
Week5Week 5: Listening
- Current section:
  Introduction
  This week of the course is written by Olly Richards.Last week, you looked at the first of the four language skills, speaking. When asked why they are learning a language, most people say ‘because I want to speak it’. Although speaking is an important skill, for me listening is the key skill, and this week I will show you why, and guide you through core study skills to develop your listening.By the end of this week, you will be able to:understand what is involved in listeningfind out about ...
- 1 In what situations are listening skills required?
- 2 What’s involved in successful listening?
- 3 Setting expectations
- 4 Listening: the big picture
- 5 What kind of material should you use?
- 6 Listening study skills
- 7 Live listening skills
- 8 Resources: listening materials, and where to find them
- 9 This week’s quiz
- 10 Summary of Week 5
- Acknowledgements
- Week 5 practice quiz
Week6Week 6: Vocabulary
- Current section:
  Introduction
  This week of the course is written by Tita Beaven.Do you know how many words there are in English? And how many words there are in the language you want to learn? How many words do you need to know to speak a language? And what does it mean to know a word anyway?Why is learning vocabulary important, and does the size of your vocabulary really matter that much? According to research, vocabulary size is one of the greatest predictors of both first and second language reading comprehension, and...
- 1 How many words are there?
- 2 How many words do you need?
- 3 What does it mean to know a word?
- 4 Your memory – or how to cope with so many words
- 5 Common strategies that don’t work
- 6 Effortful encoding strategies
- 7 Retrieval strategies
- 8 This week’s quiz
- 9 Summary of Week 6
- References
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
- Week 6 practice quiz
Week7Week 7: Reading and writing
- Current section:
  Introduction
  This week of the course is written by Fernando Rosell-Aguilar.As well as speaking and listening, the two other skills in language learning are reading and writing.By the end of this week, you will be able to:understand how to develop your reading and writingunderstand the difference between skimming and scanningfind out ways to check your writing.
- 1 Thinking about reading and writing
- 2 Reading
- 3 Writing
- 4 ‘I know what I want to communicate but I can’t write that in the language I’m learning!’
- 5 How to check your writing
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary of Week 7
- Acknowledgements
- Week 7 practice quiz
Week8Week 8: Bringing it all together
- Current section:
  Introduction
  This week of the course is written by Olly Richards and Fernando Rosell-Aguilar. Olly has written Sections 1, 4 and 5, and Fernando Sections 2 and 3.In this final week you are going to learn how to bring everything we’ve covered in the course together by creating a virtual immersion environment for yourself. By the end of this week you will be able to:think about how to get support from othersfind out how to create a virtual immersion in your languagelearn how to establish an effective ...
- 1 Getting support from others
- 2 Creating your community
- 3 Creating a virtual immersion through your smartphone
- 4 Establishing an effective language learning routine
- 5 Staying motivated over the long-term
- 6 This week’s quiz
- 7 Summary of Week 8
- 8 End-of-course summary
- Tell us what you think
- Take the next step
- Acknowledgements
- Week 8 compulsory badge quiz

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Course reviews

Mekasha Kebede Gizaw 3 July 2025 8:35AM

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Your course itself, the way it is presented( the formats; the video, the PDF, the word, and more), the quizzes for each week, the badge quizzes, the progress tracker. I am so impressed by everything you have here, and I wish you knew the amount of happiness you have given me. My due and proper respect, appreciation and love to everyone of you who have contributed big or small to teach thousands of us out here without a thing in return. I look forward to seeing more language pedagogy courses in open learn free course category. A bag of gratitude once again.

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Thao Nguyen 3 February 2021 8:30AM
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This course is very interesting!

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