Introduction to
Walkabout Language Learning™
Walkabout Language Learning™ can help you learn a second tongue. If you are reading this page, you have already learned one language successfully. You can learn another one.
Here is one of our Peace Corps Volunteers who used Walkabout Language Learning™ to learn Pijin so she could chat with her Solomon Islander friends.
When you learned your native language, the first rule was imitation. The fundamental idea of turbo-boosting your language learning is to mimic the learning style of a child learning his native language. While this technique is most effective when you are immersed among native speakers in their home country, you can do it anywhere you find a group of speakers of your target language.
I once used Walkabout Language Learning™ to study Arabic--while living in Denver. I found a Syrian family that lived near-by. I worked with the girl in the family who was near my age and we had weekly Arabic lessons. I coupled these with practice sessions with the other members of the family. For example, we had a family meal together.
Manage Your Own Learning
This approach differs from more traditional language learning because you become a partner in your learning, you decide on your overall goals, and you guide your study today, tomorrow, and the next day. Becoming a partner in your learning is a huge challenge, but the payoff – in learning language and culture uniquely tailored to your needs – is worth it.
Walkabout Language Learning™ can be used at any point in your language quest – at the very beginning when you struggle to say a few basic sentences, or later on, during or after formal lessons. You can use it as a companion to formal instruction that helps you hone your skills to meet your special needs.
Use the Environment to Learn
Is it hard? Yes. Can you do it? Yes. A first step is to adopt the techniques of a child-learner, examining the world around you for opportunities to practice, to increase your skill.
Come for a short bus ride
to see how a child learns to speak.
What can you learn from a child? Do what children do when they are learning their mother tongue? Repeat new words and sentences again and again. Be willing to make lots of mistakes. Practice frequently with native speakers. Combine these with pointing, gesturing, and occasional tantrums … ok, you can skip the tantrums. Add a childlike attitude that includes humility, banishes self-consciousness, embraces a willingness to try over and over, and seeks to be like Mom, Dad, siblings – or other native speakers.
Think of yourself as a child in the new language. Tell your friends, “OK I’m new at this. Help me. Show me what to do.” If you have enlisted their support, you don’t have to feel like an idiot, even when you slip up on the easiest of tasks.
Walkabout Language Learning Strategies
We call this method Walkabout Language Learning™ because you are learning the language in a situation where you are surrounded by your target language; to learn effectively, you must walk about in the language environment and talk about what you know. You might even say it is the Walkabout Talkabout method. Using this method, you can direct your study to learn practical language that is useful immediately. You may already know some basics, you may have a good foundation, or you may know nothing more than “Hello.” No matter your level, with the Walkabout method, you build according to your needs. To do this, you follow three basic strategies. - Set language learning goals
- Recruit mentors - native speakers to help you learn what you need to know
- Practice your skills in the community.
Continued: Walkabout Language Learning Strategies 1 | 2 | 3 | next >
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