Is it really possible to learn a second language in 6 months. In my case it would be the third. Anyhow,

today I will be talking about how much faster you can learn the basics and perhaps more of your target language if you follow some simple steps. However, before I start I wanted to ask you something: Do you think immersion alone will help you learn a language? Stephen Krashen debunked that supposition by claiming that learners mostly need to belong to an academic setting before they immerse themselves into the target language. You see, there is something called comprehensible input. When students receive information a little more difficult than what they know, especially by qualified educators, they start improving.  Anyway, this time I ran into Chris Londsdale´s talk about second language acquisition. According to him,  there are four principles you must consider when learning a language.

- Relevance: Chris explain this by giving as an example the signs you receive before you have to do something important. Such as when you are in the forest and discover signs of danger before you are about to be attacked by a bear. Ergo you have to focus on language content that is relevant to you. For instance, Chris had a friend who had been studying Chinese for nine months and yet did not know how to type in this language. Nonetheless, one day she got an assignment to get a job. She had two translate a manual into Chinese in 48 hours. Due to the fact that this was relevant to her, not only did she learn to type in Chinese in 2 days, but also she got the job. Being goaded on by an specific task you must do raises your interest in learning the target language faster.

- Attention: If you want to speed up learning you must use your new language as a tool to communicate from day one. Your will is what has to actuate yourself into wanting to understand more and more. For instance, if you go to a foreign country and do not know a single word of the local language, you will be in trouble. Notwithstanding, if you try to understand as much as you can by looking at people´s body language, gestures, etc, you will improve you understanding of the target language little by little.

- Meaning: When you first understand the message, you will unconsciously acquire the language. Even if you do not have background of the target language, you can understand a little if you do an effort. Be that as it may, it would be a lot better to have some background from an academic setting as a previously mentioned. That way you can communicate properly in a second language when you visit the country in which tat language is spoken. There has to be a combination between taking classes and immersing yourself in the language. Either of them alone would not entirely help you. For example, a person who has been studying English for years and has just focused on their course´s content, will have a lot of trouble interacting with native speakers when visiting  the US.

- Memory: Language learning is not only about accumulating lots of knowledge. You must use it in order for it to be remembered. There is something called physiological training. The speaker makes an analogy of the following: He says that if your whole body hurts after you have done a new sport, then you have done it right. The same thin happens when you get used to speak, write, etc. in a second language. You have to make the 43 muscles you have in your face work, and coordinate them to produce the sounds of the target language. By mimicking how a native speaker talks you can improve faster.

 There is an extra one...

- Psycho-physiological state: Stephen Krashen talked about the ¨Affective filter¨. When it is low, you are relaxed and concentrated. Therefore, you can learn better. However, if the filter is high, the story changes. You mostly will feel frustrated,etc. What is more, trying to understand every single word you hear from a conversation in your new language will hold you back.  That is why you should only try to understand the gist at a basic level.

Lastly, I would say that you may want to consider this principles. The people who endorse them are experts with several years of experience and research. For further information, I will post the video too.