IWTYAL 022: How can I help my friend with her English?

Isabelle asks: “My Chinese friend is learning English. How can I help her best?”

In this episode:

• How to help someone learn another language

Three exercises you can use to figure out how to help someone learn your language:

1. Have a discussion, just as you normally would. Don't interrupt, keep the conversation flowing. During this time, make lots of notes about their language. What mistakes are they making? What doesn't sound natural? When you've filled up a couple of pages with notes, look for patterns. What things keep cropping up again and again. Here's your starting point for helping them improve.
2. Record the conversation. Listen back to it together, and give your friend control over the start/stop button! Ask them to ask you questions about what they have said. This helps them raise awareness of their own language use.
3. Ask your friend what they most need to use the language for: making notes in lectures, reading books, giving talks etc. Once you've got this clear, simply do that activity together and help them improve.

Resources mentioned:

• 10 Essential Tech Resources for Smart Language Learners – my free guide to the best technology for language learners
• Isabelle's question from episode 18: When do you consider yourself fluent in another language?
• 19 quick changes you can make today that will make you a better language teacher

Today's featured resource:

• Polyglot Workshops in London – We'll be running some exciting language learning workshops in London (UK) in July.

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Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.