Whatever method you use, there’s no denying that learning a language requires continuous effort over time. Regardless of whether you are taking the intensive route, or going slow and steady, the more frequently you are exposing yourself to the target language, the quicker your skills and confidence will develop.
But what can you do to make it easier to find the time, especially when there are many other demands on you, like a full-time job, raising a family and maintaining a basic level of self care?
I turned to the personal development classic Atomic Habits by James Clear for wisdom to help me be more successful at building language learning habits, and here’s what I learnt.
Why are habits important when learning a language?
Clear starts out with the principle that you achieve an outcome by adopting an identity and creating that identity through habits. Each habit becomes a suggestion to yourself: maybe this is who I am?
“Every action you take is a vote for the kind of person you wish to become.”
For example, if you want to be able to speak French, think of yourself as a “French speaker” from the start and every time you speak in that language, it reinforces that identity.
To understand better how to make this identity a reality, ask yourself, “who is the type of person who could learn a new language?”. For me this is:
- Someone who makes time to study every day and is happy to revise what they’ve learnt so they don’t forget it
- Someone who is brave about using a new language even though they are not perfect
- Someone who has a strong motivation to learn the language
Clear also explains that habits, whether good or bad, are there to solve problems. Scrolling through social media, for example, is a natural response to feeling bored, stressed or in need of a dopamine fix.
Understanding this, and recognising these triggers can open up the possibility of claiming some time back which we can apply to our language goals.
How can we make it easier to form better language learning habits?
There are four main rules which will help us to form habits:
- Cue – Make it obvious
- Craving – Make it attractive
- Response – Make it easy
- Reward – Make it rewarding/satisfying
Habits that are aligned with these rules are more likely to stick.
Cue: How to make a language habit obvious
A language habit that is obvious is very specific.
If you are specific and what you are going to do, when and where you are more likely to follow through.
This could be:
- I will add 20 LingQs a day at the kitchen table between putting my son down and clearing the kitchen, or
- I will practice grammar drills when I am waiting at the bus stop for the bus.
By linking your habit to another activity that you already do, you are less likely to forget to do it. This could be putting it before or after another activity, or at the same time, for example, listening to a podcast in another language while clearing the kitchen.
A habit that is obvious is also very visible. Think about the visual cues you can set up to remind you to study, such as leaving a set of flashcards on your desk to look at in the first 5 minutes of your lunch break, or moving all of your language learning apps to an organised folder on the first screen of your phone’s home screen.
Craving – How to make a language habit more attractive
The second rule ties to the fact that desire is the engine that drives behaviour, and that dopamine is released when you anticipate pleasure or a reward, not just when you experience it.
One tactic you can apply, to take advantage of this, is temptation bundling, a.k.a. pairing an action you want to do with an action that you need to do.
Some examples to put this into practice are:
- Having a cup of tea (or other nice drink) while studying
- Watching shows in another language in a genre you enjoy – Netflix is wonderful for this
- Using a platform like LingQ that allows you to import authentic materials on topics you are interested in
- If you want to learn how to do something, watch a video of how to do this in your target language (e.g. an origami tutorial in Japanese, a DIY tutorial in French) or try getting recipe books/magazines in other languages. Most library services offer digital subscriptions to apps like PressReader now, which makes it easy to find craft and cooking magazines in other languages
- Set a condition (a language learning task) that you have to do before a treat, like a bath or a nice snack.
The other major factor that can shape your habits is the role of family, friends and other communities.
To develop a new behaviour, join a culture where your desired behaviour is the normal behaviour. This could mean:
- Including your friends or partner when watching shows in another language.
- Taking part in language learning challenges like LingQ 90 days challenges or Lingoda sprints.
- Joining language learning memberships, especially ones where you have something additional in common with the other members, such as living in the same city. I did this through an Edinburgh-based Japanese language club that then became a virtual group.
Two ways that we’ve mixed community with language learning in our daughter’s life is by choosing childcare for our daughter in another language (German) and by sending her to a sports class in Spanish.
Response: How to make a language habit easy
We reinforce habits by making “good habits” as easy as possible and “bad habits” as difficult as possible.
This can mean choosing language learning tools that are easy to use, like apps where you can look up new words and save the meanings within the app.
It can also mean removing any practical obstacle to the habit by making a “micro commitment”. Instead of saying you will study for 30 minutes, just commit to studying for two minutes a day. You’ll bypass feelings of resistance, and once you are set up and going, two minutes will in all likelihood turn into 20 minutes.
You can use larger commitment devices to make it more difficult to break habits. This could include:
- Setting up a lesson with a teacher on an online platform like italki
- Signing up to an exam
- Arranging a language exchange, or to watch a foreign movie with a friend.
Reward – How to make a language habit rewarding
The last ingredient in the secret sauce is satisfaction. If you make a habit rewarding you are more likely to return to it again and again.
If you are motivated by glory, you could join a language learning challenge for the satisfaction of moving up the leaderboard. If pure glory is not enough, promise yourself a treat if or when you get to the top.
If you are more of a people person then you can invest some extra time in finding a teacher that you really click with. Italki offers you the chance to try a few teachers at a very low trial price.
Lastly, it’s important to stop your session before it feels like too much. If you feel drained at the end of the session, that’s the feeling you will remember the next time you are due to do it again. So it’s really worth ending on a high note.
Playing to your strengths, in language learning
Many of us are taught to focus on our weakest areas, for example, spending more time on listening if that’s where we struggle most.
Clear’s advice for building successful habits is more along the lines of “play to your strengths”. He encourages you to spend time finding “the right habits” by asking yourself”
“What feels like fun for me, but is work to others”
“What makes me lose track of time?”
“Where do I get greater returns than the average person?”
“What comes naturally to me?”
“Work hard on the things that come easy.”
Of course, there are situations where you can’t completely ignore certain areas, such as when you are studying for an exam that covers reading, writing, listening and speaking. However I found that I’ve held on to that mentality of wanting to be equally proficient in all areas long after going to school, when I’ve been learning languages for pleasure only for decades.
Focussing on “the things that come easy” doesn’t mean keeping the content too easy. Clear recommends finding the optimal zone of difficulty to keep you interested. If you are having trouble sticking to a language learning habit, ask yourself whether it’s because you’re not in the optimal zone of difficulty.
Lastly, keep looking back and reviewing your progress. You could set yourself monthly and/or annual goals, and tracking your streaks, either manually or in an app, is also motivating.
Making it happen
By applying these ideas and making use of the wealth of resources that exist online nowadays there is no reason why language learning can’t be a daily habit for everyone, no matter how busy you are.
This is especially true if you are learning for pleasure and don’t have exams to prepare for. Keep it fun, but make sure it’s challenging enough to keep it interesting. Focus on what you enjoy and just aim to do a little a day.
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