Skip to content
Skip to main content

About this free course

Author

Become an OU student

Download this course

Share this free course

How to learn a language
How to learn a language

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

1 Where do I start?

Watch the following video in which two language learners talk about what they find hard about selecting and using resources.

Download this video clip.Video player: boc_lll_1_video_week3_voxpops.mp4
Copy this transcript to the clipboard
Print this transcript
Show transcript|Hide transcript
 
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

You may be taking a language course, and in that case your teacher may supply language learning materials or recommend that you buy a course book. Some people choose to do extra work on top their coursework and look for additional learning resources. Alternatively, you may be studying independently, or have stopped formal learning and are looking for resources to keep up with the language(s) you already have a good knowledge of. There are many resources available to support language learners: grammar books, books in the target language or bilingual books, graded readers, newspapers, films, TV channels, audio recordings, websites with all sorts of content, either aimed at language learners or at native speakers, and mobile apps, to name just a few. With such a wealth of material available yet often so little time to spend practising languages, it is sometimes hard to decide which material is the most appropriate for you.