As children, we pick up a new languages effortlessly, while adults tend to struggle with retention. Studies indicate that while adults might initially remember more words than children during the learning phase, they also tend to forget them over time. In contrast, children often absorb words subconsciously and are less prone to forgetting.
Yet, in today’s globalized world, professionals can’t afford to overlook language proficiency, especially when it comes to mastering industry- and job-specific language.
In this blog post, we explore the different ways of learning and maintaining languages, taking a closer look at what active learning exactly means and examining its benefits in language acquisition.
1. What are the methods of learning languages?
What is the best method for improving and maintaining your language skills?
There are different approaches to learning a language, but one method is by far the best: active learning.
- Traditional methods include classroom (group) lessons, listening to audio recordings, reading textbooks or using language apps.
Although these methods can certainly be useful for laying the foundations, they can often lead to passive learning, where you absorb the information only superficially and do not really remember to apply it later. - Active learning offers a solution to this problem by emphasising engagement, personalisation and interaction.
The knowledge you acquire focuses on relevant content that you can immediately start applying in practice. That way, you will also remember the knowledge much better.
2. What is active learning?
Active learning is a powerful and effective approach where you actively participate in the learning process.
Instead of listening to instructions (from a teacher, book, app), you are encouraged to actively work with the language, in real contexts:
- role-plays;
- rehearsing specific conversations with a colleague;
- writing texts;
- following up on colleagues' telephone conversations with customers;
- studying colleagues' e-mails, etc.
Active learning encourages you to practise using the language you need and learn to apply it actively and spontaneously.
By doing so, you not only develop the language skills you need, but also the self-confidence to actually use the language in your professional life.
3. What are the advantages of active learning in language learning?
Active learning provides many advantages that are just right for language learning:
- It increases your motivation and involvement in the learning process because it allows you to practise the language in a relevant and practical environment.
Moreover, your learning process focuses on the specific needs you experience in your job: as a sales professional, this might be learning to negotiate in English, as an HR professional it might be difficult or personal conversations with employees. - Active learning also stimulates the development of communication skills, allowing you to work and cooperate better with international colleagues and clients.
- In addition, it boosts your self-confidence as you can practise your language skills in a safe and supportive environment.
- Moreover, active learning also helps maintain language skills in the long run, as you constantly use the language and keep challenging yourself to make progress.
Active learning therefore is not only a powerful method for learning a new language and acquiring language skills, but also offers benefits in terms of motivation, communication and self-confidence.
Convinced? Then check out our language learning platform Squidll, offering the perfect solution to actively improving your language skills.
4. How does language training at Squidll work?
Squidll offers active language support in a very flexible way. Squidll is:
- tailor-made: online one-on-one sessions.
- flexible: you can book your own sessions when you need them, 24/7.
- relevant: you can select a language coach who matches your needs best (based on your specific domain or topic).
With Squidll, you can easily book online sessions with a language coach whenever you need support. These sessions are tailored to your job-specific needs, giving you help exactly when you need it.
This way, your language learning is fully integrated into your work routine and you can immediately put the acquired knowledge into practice.
Interested in using Squidll for your team or company?
Squidll offers a personalised, flexible and cost-effective language solution for your employees.
Our experienced language coaches provide customised language training that meets the specific needs of each employee.
Check out our business solutions for your employees, contact us or book a demo and together we will see which language solution is the best fit for your organisation or team.
