In the last few decades, the number of language schools and purported language learning methods has proliferated apace with globalization, just as their asking prices have sky-rocketed along with those of such basic needs as general education and health care.
But any person with a sincere passion for learning a language, and the willingness to do a little hard work studying and reviewing, can achieve significant results at a fraction of the cost and time by sticking to the basics. By "significant results," I mean gaining a comprehensive overview of all the essential aspects of the language, enabling the student to at least recognize almost all situations, and acquiring a fully functional set of tools to be able to read most texts, understand at least the context of most conversations, and express oneself flexibly in complete sentences.
The basic tool for achieving such significant results is good, old-fashioned grammar, and the means of acquiring this tool is a good, old-fashioned, no-nonsense bilingual grammar book (e.g. Spanish grammar for English speakers), which, in many cases, can retail for less than ten dollars. It should be thin, but dense with useful information. Depending on your pre-existing knowledge of grammar, the amount of time available for study, your ability to learn, any previous experience in learning a language and, of course, the degree of passion you bring to bear, the process of achieving significant results can take up to as little as six weeks or up to two years.
In many cases, then, actually the first step is to know well the essentials of grammar of your own native language. There was a time when elementary or primary school was also called grammar school, and for good reason. Hopefully, you came from an elementary school that did not neglect the proper teaching of grammar. In any case, you may need to review the essentials. For this, you can purchase an English grammar book, such as Warriner's English Grammar and Composition, also retailing for around $10.00 in paperback - or less, if you are willing to purchase it used (luckily I still have my hardback version since my grammar school days).
Let's explore the essentials here, step-by-step.
Learn The Grammar
- The first order of business in this first step is the parts of speech: articles, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions and exclamations.
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Author: Stephen Balestra