How to Learn Language More
Efficiently
Advice From Your American Older
Brother: a Multilingual World Traveler,
Veteran Court Interpreter, and
Professional Language Teacher
Daniel Steve Villarreal
Ph.D., 11A5SLA
Your American Older Brother
Daniel Steve Villarreal, Ph.D.
• Ph.D., Foreign Language Education, University of Texas
at Austin
• Licensed Court Interpreter # 315 (Spanish/English),
Texas
• US Army veteran, 11A5SLA
• Instructor, El Salvador Project, Ranger Department, Fort
Benning, GA
• Liaison officer with Honduran military in La Ceiba
• BA in Modern Languages, The Citadel
• Part-time Mandarin student, Mandarin Training Center
and International Chinese Language Program, Taipei,
Taiwan
Tricks of the trade for learning
language
Based on my personal experience and
professional training; use what works
best for you and “store” the rest for
later!
Actionable steps!
• I’ll present about 5 of them at a time
• Discuss with a friend: which have you
already tried &/or what do you plan to try?
• Which will you take action on and how will
you do it?
• Then the next 5
• OK, so here they are!
Have moral courage
• Mifanbaobao? (I
made this word up
when trying to order
my first Asian
riceburger!)
• Don’t be afraid to
speak or to try
• Errors are part of
learning!
• BE A RISK-TAKER!
Hit the hua4 often!
• Get out there and use
the language
• Native speakers are
realia
• Find an activity
(church, hobby, etc.)
that’s done in the
other language
Q: How do you eat an elephant? A:
One bite at a time!
• Which is the section
you need to eat first?
• For me, it’s Mandarin
vocabulary
• For you: grammar,
vocabulary, verb
conjugations?
Prioritize--Eat One Section of the
Elephant at a Time
• Use The Swiss Cheese
Method
• “Eat” your most important
piece of cheese:
grammar, vocabulary, etc.
• When one hole gets big
enough, start on another
hole
• Eventually, there will be
no more cheese!
"Sir, use ALL your resources!"
• A quotation from a great
US Army Sergeant!
• I made great use of
Pimsleur:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik
i/Pimsleur_language_lear
ning_system
• Pimsleur for Mandarinspeakers who want to
learn English:
http://www.pimsleurlanguage.com/Merchant2
/merchant.mvc
A huge list of possible resources!
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http://effortlessenglishclub.com/
http://www.icrt.com.tw/en/ivy_newTOEIC.php
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/06/sat_prep_course.html
http://www.princetonreview.com.tw/
http://www.princetonreview.com/default.aspx?uidbadge=%07
www.ets.org/
http://translate.miis.edu/prospective/top_10.html advice to
interpreting students from the Monterey Institute of International
Studies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Educational_psychology How
learning takes place;
http://www.manythings.org/wbg/ Games for ESL students;
http://www.southampton.liunet.edu/academic/pau/course/webword.h
tm High-frequency TOEFL words
http://www.english-test.net/toefl/
http://www.englishdaily626.com/tfvocab.php
http://www.grammar-monster.com/index.html
Your turn!
Which step will you implement?
How will you do it?
Study how language learning and
language teaching work.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Educ
ational_psychology
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acq
uisition
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_la
nguage_learning
• http://www.mindtools.com/memory.html
Imitate successful people: don’t
reinvent the wheel
• Can your fluent friend
recommend a book,
teacher, school?
Make your learning active, rather
than passive
• Mister Lazy: just sits
there in class and wants
the instructor to pour the
language into his cranium
• Mister Diligent: takes
notes, asks questions,
tries things
• Nothing stops Mister
Diligent!
• Which are you?
2,500 repetitions = automaticity!
• A response for those
who want a Magic Pill
• More is better
• Use the language as
often as possible:
read, speak, listen,
etc.
Multimodality: use all of your
senses!
• Writing Chinese
characters: I see,
write the strokes,
repeat the word
• Connect vision,
speaking, feeling,
listening
• Connect different
parts of the brain
Your turn!
Which step will you implement?
How will you do it?
Don’t be scared of the big words!
• A+B+C=D
• Divide the parts of the
word, then add them
back up
• Syllables
• Prefixes
• Suffixes
• Multiple words in one
word
Etymology
• What’s the history of the
word?
• Did you bolo on the rifle
range (“bolo” = US Army
slang = you failed; you
are more dangerous to
the enemy with a bolo
machete than with the
Army’s rifle!)?
• http://www.etymonline.co
m/index.php
• See the dictionary entry
Vocabulary flash cards
•
•
•
•
•
Make them
Buy them
Online
iPod versions
You can study while
you’re in line, on the
bus, etc.
• Build or select them
according to METT-T
METT-T?
• “Mission—Enemy—
Terrain, weather,
Troops and Time
available.”
• Mission: what are you
trying to do? What are
your goals?
• Enemy: time conflicts?
• Time available?
Monitor yourself and self-correct
• Relax; have fun with
this
• Are you bringing
patterns from your
first language into
your second language:
“I have an
appointment with my
friend…”
Think long term, not short term!
• What are your longterm purposes?
• Good enough to
survive on a trip
overseas = OK!
• Scholarly work?
• Business?
• Again, consider
METT-T
Your turn!
Which step will you implement?
How will you do it?
Find a great study partner or study
group!
• Example--Language
exchange ad: 7th
floor of Mandarin
Training Center,
Taipei, Taiwan,
building bulletin board
• Great for test prep
• 2 heads > 1 head
Don't be a "this way" learner, be a
"many ways" learner!
•
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Pimsleur
Rosetta Stone
Flash cards
Reading
TV
Movies
Classes
Most important: get
started now!
Find an activity you like that's done
in the other language.
• Spanish-speaking
churches gave me
advanced language
skills
• Movies
• Hobbies
Do you have any English-speaking
friends or colleagues?
• They don’t
necessarily have to
be from Englishspeaking countries!
Exercise your initiative to find ways
to speak the language.
• Create your own Englishspeaking foreign country
wherever you live
• I created a Spanishspeaking country in the
US for about a year:
UNAM Spanish classes,
Hispanic church, Spanish
movies, Spanishspeaking work
Your turn!
Which step will you implement?
How will you do it?
You probably have LOTS of
English, etc. in your head;
• Now make it come
out of your pen and
mouth.
• Force yourself to use
what you learned in
your studying.
• Again: be a risk-taker!
Don’t wait for the teacher to teach
you.
• No teacher, book,
course, can achieve
your goals
• Exercise initiative
• Preread the lessons
• Use the stuff outside
of class
Translations of books in both
languages
• Vicarious learning:
you can experience a
LOT via reading!
• Dynamic equivalence:
“hello” = “you good”
• Read!
• Read!
• Read!
• Read!
Create mini-lessons for yourself to
use during spare time.
• Use those 24 hours
wisely!
• Flash cards
• Reading
• DVD movies
• Recordings
• METT-T
• Swiss Cheese
Method
Find or create foreign languagespeaking environments.
• US has Chinatown
• Taipei has Tian Mu
• Foreign-based clubs,
churches, schools,
activities
Your turn!
Which step will you implement?
How will you do it?
How do I say this in the other
language?
• Do this continually
• Learn tons of
vocabulary
• Learn native speech
and writing
Go take more language courses!
• All are good
• They all connect
• Action beats inaction
Connect your foreign language to your other
subjects, academic courses, and to your
work!
• Encounter situations
or vocabulary
• Research it in the
other context
Consider studying Spanish to help
your English and your career!
• For you Englishlearning Mandarinspeakers
• Spanish = Latin
connections to
English
• English + Mandarin +
Spanish =
communicate with a
LOT of people!
Look for patterns across languages
• Some languages
share grammar
(Chinese languages)
• Some share
vocabulary (European
languages)
Never give up!
• A lesson from the United
States Army Rangers and
from the world of dance!
• One step in front of the
other, whether roadmarching or learning to
dance!
• Keep showing up
• Eventually, you’ll get
there
Your turn!
Which step will you implement?
How will you do it?
That’s all, folks!
• Thanks for reading
this!
• There is an
inexpensive booklet
version of this
information; see the
link on the website
www.americanolderbr
other.com
• You just got this for
free! 
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