What Are The Different Ways To Learn A Language (and What Is The Best Way)

Learning a language is not an easy task and it is made more complicated by the fact that everyone will learn in a slightly different way.

This can make it confusing to know what method to use when you are just starting out.

I will go through the most common methods that people have used to reach a high level in their language, and then I will tell you what method I think is best.

Learning Methods To Learn A Language

There are 3 main methods that you will see people using. You could argue that there are more, but if you actually take a step back and look at the method, you will see that it probably falls into one of these 3 categories, Input, Output or Classroom style learning.   

1. The Input Language Method

The input method is a very effective method, although it can seem like you are getting nowhere for a very long time.

This is the process of reading and listening to a lot of the language up front. Studying the grammar or trying to speak isn’t important at all initially. All that matters is trying to input enough language into your head so that your brain will start to get comfortable with it and you will slowly start to understand what is going on.

If you imagine yourself like a glass, you just fill yourself up with language until you start to overflow. Language then starts to pour out of you, in the form of speech.

It almost sounds too good to be true, and the fact that it can take a very long time to see any progress makes people think it doesn’t work.

However, there are two things to consider. It firstly makes sense to sense to assume you need to understand the language before you can actually speak it, so taking the time to understand the language first is logical.

Secondly, we see this happen with babies. This is the method they use. They sit and listen and just absorb everything for at least a year to 18 months. Then they start trying to speak once they can understand what is being said to them.

You will gain a broad understanding of the language through input, but this understanding can be quite shallow as while you can understand, you cannot actually form your own sentences for a very long time.

1.5 – Immersion Learning Method

You will often see the input method more commonly called “immersion”, however, you could argue that is almost its own method as it can often been seen as an extreme form of input.

Input to me is “try and read and listen to a lot” where as immersion is “stop playing around, start listening to your language 24 hours a day” and if you speak to anyone who is a fan of immersion you will see they do A LOT of input each day. It’s almost a full time job, but I feel the results speak for themselves.

The idea with immersion is that you are exposed to an extremely large amount of the language in a relatively short time. Your brain basically has no escape and is forced to start decoding the language and recognising the patterns. Those who put in 6 hours a day will see a much faster and better response than those who only put one hour in.  

(You can read more about – What Is Learning A Language By Immersion?)

How Is Immersion Done?

Most immersion is done at home, via the internet. You just have to sit and absorb as much content as possible and luckily the endless videos and reading material online make that possible. If you want to sit every day and watch 6 hours of Korean TV, it’s totally possible, so this method is very achievable so long as you can dedicate the time.   

Immersion can also happen by going to a country that speaks your target language, where you will just naturally be surrounded by the language all day long. You can also sign up to immersion courses, where go and stay for a few weeks and your entire time is spent in the target language.

(You can read more about – How To Immerse Yourself In A New Language – A Practical Guide)

2. The Output Language Method 

The output method has the total opposite approach to input and is where you try and use the language and start speaking from day one.

The idea is that you learn the language little by little, but as you build up your skills you are using what you already know as you go along.

The ability to remember something is based on how often you have been exposed to it and the output method gives you this exposure by making you use what you have just learned. If you learn a new word today, you have to start using it as much as possible.

Forcing yourself to recall words like this will really strengthen them in your mind and you will become very comfortable with them quickly.

As you learn more and have conversations you will start to notice that you can’t say certain things. These gaps are then the areas you focus on next and you just slowly build your language out like this.

You will see some really rapid improvement using this method, but it can be a bit of a false reality. You really only know what you know. You can sound like you are quite fluent with quite a small pool of words, but if someone says something new to you, you will quickly be stumped and not know how to respond.

The output method gives you a much smaller depth of knowledge compared to inputting, but what you do know will be extremely strong and you will be able to use it with no problems.

3. Classroom Study

This is the classic method of learning a language that you probably think about when you are starting out. If you learned a language at school this is of course how you where taught.

This method has a focus on trying to explain to you how the language works in a very analytic way, usually relating to things you can understand in your own language.

This is very much the world of grammar rules and verb tables and endless boring exercises like this. This kind of study can work and it does have its place, but at the same time it lacks actually using the language, which is why you usually leave school not actually being able to speak the language even though you have studied it for a few years.

Both the input and output method make you just use the language; there is no real emphasis on why certain things are a certain way, this can of course be confusing at times but the idea is that over time you will naturally make sense of it, where as the classroom method will just explain exactly what is going on.

A lot of people find the classroom method very boring and painful and I would agree. It can be a lot of hard work and the results are not always great as you know more about how the language works, rather than how to actually work with the language.  

What Is The Best Method For Learning A Language?

Asking what one is the best method is a hard question to answer. I actually think none of them are the best and you almost need a mix of all 3, but with an emphasis on immersion, I think this actually the best way to really see results.

I will go through what I think is the best thing to do, but really you need to play around with your own studies and see what you enjoy and what works for you.

Immersion Is The Best Method

For me immersion is the king of language learning. If I really could only pick one method I would go for this.

I will go through exactly what I do below, but I really believe that the most of my gains have been through just exposing myself to a lot of the language.

It’s a long and slow process, but just taking a step back and trying to enjoy the material for what it is, rather than focus on understanding or remembering things is much more enjoyable for me.

The major caveat with immersion is that it needs to be comprehensible, which can be difficult to achieve through immersion alone. Well, it’s not difficult, but it’s not as efficient as it could be, which is why I think immersion alone is not enough.    

Why Not Output?

The main reason I don’t think output is the best method is simply because you are too limited with your knowledge. I like the fact that you can really learn to speak, but I don’t like that you can’t really say much and if anyone says anything outside of your sphere of knowledge you will be very lost.

Also if you look at my general language goal, it’s just to understand the language so I can watch movies and other material. So for me, I have no real need to speak. It is something I want over the long term, but it’s not my priority.

However, if I moved to a different county I would probably need to start speaking right away and think the output method would be more suited for this, since I would want to master basic conversations to allow me to function in society.     

Why Not Classroom Study?

Classroom study is painfully boring. This alone is enough of a reason for me to say it’s not the best option.

I am learning a language as a hobby, which means I need to be enjoying it on some level and I feel doing traditional school style learning is not fun.

I also feel it teaches you more about the language, rather than how to use the language for yourself. I studied French at school for 5 years and couldn’t actually communicate at all, even though I got a pretty good grade.

I don’t think classroom study is totally redundant, it has its time and place, but I feel you should be doing this last, not first when you are learning a language.   

Using A Mix Of Everything To Learn A Language

For some reason we like to group all the different methods off and keep them all separate, but the reality is that they are not mutually exclusive. You could easily practice a mix of all 3 and take the benefits from all 3.

I think focusing on input is really important and it should be the bulk of what you do. You need exposure to the language, you need to read as and listen to as much as you can.

However, to get the best results from this you need to understand what is going on while you immerse, but if you don’t understand, then it’s hard to gain understanding from immersion alone …if that makes sense.

This is why I said before that immersion alone is not efficient enough as it can take you a seriously long time to make sense of things.

This is where the other methods come in. You should immerse in your target language and then if you don’t know understand something, look it up and find out what it means. This will give you instant comprehension. You can then save this information in a flash card and then revise it over the next few days, which is a form of output, you are trying to actively recall what something means.

You can also benefit from doing some basic classroom style learning. This can be as simple as just reading over how the grammar works, or looking up something that you keep noticing.

I think a lot of people get caught up in needing to know the basics really well. This can help, but I think it’s okay to just read over them and know certain concepts exist, even if you do really remember exactly.

As you immerse more and more you will notice things and you can go back to your textbook or grammar guide and you will find it now makes more sense. That vague concept you read about 6 months ago will suddenly be a lot clearer and your general understanding around this will now just be a lot strong.  

Conclusion

I think balancing the 3 methods in this way will be the most effective for you.

You are basically just immersing and using the other two methods to speed up your ability to understand the input.

We are adults, with brains that can comprehend a lot of things, so using some output and classroom style learning is very useful for us and will help us acquire the language through immersion a lot faster.

Doing this has worked for me and I really believe it can for you too, I would try and I think you will see the results with enough effort.