Suggestions for students - Get Silly!

What suggestions and advice do you give your students about how to learn languages? Here is part of a list I gave to my 9/10 elective class. I posted the full list on my blog, technoLOTE

• Repeated and regular listening to the dialogues you are studying – you can focus on a sentence or two until you understand it completely and then move on to another one in the dialogue. You don’t have to do all at once.
• Read, listen, read, listen, read, listen, try speaking, read, listen, read listen, try writing.
• Make sure you understand the construction of the sentence as well as what it means, although you don’t have to understand all the complicated grammar terms. Look for patterns.
• Flashcards – useful for testing yourself on words and/or characters
• Try pronouncing individual words out loud. You can ‘over-do’ the pronunciation to emphasise the tones to help you remember them.
• Get Silly – try making up silly mnemonics for words and characters. Put them into ridiculous sentences, make up rhymes or songs, anything that will help you remember what they mean. This is especially useful for those words that you always forget how to say, or write.
• Record yourself record yourself record yourself. Excellent feedback!!! Record your pronunciation of single words or whole sentences. Record yourself talking about words – you could do your own recorded explanation of your vocabulary list.