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Is this the most neglected language learning technique?

I’ve found that working in 12-week spurts is very productive.

In fact, I plan for 10 weeks and keep 2 weeks up my sleeve in case something unexpected happens, like a new project or someone getting sick.

I do the same for my French training.

And I use those 2 extra weeks to go back over what I’ve learnt.

If I’ve been learning vocabulary for cooking, then one day I might do a 5-minute mindmap of useful words and expressions. On another day, I’ll speedwrite for 10 minutes about a recipe and the delicious meal I made.

Or I pick a short article, keep the original, and in a second version eliminate all the prepositions: at, for, in, to, etc. After a couple of days, I go through the copy and put the prepositions back in, then compare with the original to see how I’ve done.

Are you using the power tool revision, too?

Otherwise, you may be wasting your time learning new stuff. Because if you don’t go over it again, it probably won’t stick.

So remember to take time to revise what you’ve learnt.

BTW in British English ‘revise’ means to look over something you’ve studied, while North American English uses ‘review’.

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© Christina Wielgolawski