The importance of social media websites to foreign language students is something which we can’t neglect to think about these days. While in the past a textbook and a teacher were your greatest learning tools you can now use site like Facebook and Twitter to improve your knowledge of the tongue you are learning while you have fun online.
Make Friends You Can Speak to Online
Probably the best way to learn any language more effectively is to speak to as many people as possible. The problem is that if you are shy or not very comfortable with the language yet you might find this too daunting to do. Many people miss out on the chance to practice because they are too shy to do it or because they are worried about their accent or lack of a wide vocabulary. Doing it online is a much more relaxed approach and social media sites offer a fine way of doing so. All it can take is one foreign language speaking friend on Facebook to open up a whole new world of potential friends for you.
Read Updates
Even if you can’t pluck up the courage to converse in your second language you can still use the internet to improve your reading skills. A simple approach to doing this is to follow a few Spanish speaking celebrities on Twitter and check out their updates on a regular basis. This might lead you to feeling confident enough to issue your own tweets in the language you are studying but you don’t need to feel under too much pressure to rush into this until you are ready.
Watch YouTube Videos
The previous points should help with your writing and reading but what about your listening skills? These are just as important and it is something which it can be extremely difficult to hone. If you get nervous when you speak to someone in a foreign tongue then your mind might freeze up when they speak. The great thing about watching some YouTube videos is that you can listen to the bits you don’t understand over and over again without any pressure. What I love about taking English classes in New York is that it is easy to find people to talk to. However, even if this isn’t the case for you it is simple enough to go on the internet and look for some videos which can help you learn new words.
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Becky says
Okay, I've never though social media sites have such potential and can help learn a second language as well!! I'm just being using Facebook and Twitter to communicate with friends but I'll follow your mentioned ways to learn a second language properly. Thanks.
Jacqui says
Youtube one of the bests foreign language learning social media places from my consideration. I've seen couple of videos where step by step instruction is being providing through how to learn second language nicely. So I'm sticking with Youtube for sometime now to learn second language thoroughly. Thanks.