Achieving consistency when learning a language

What do we mean by consistency?

It’s one thing to start, it’s another to finish, but to keep going? Now that’s achievement.

In between work, family and personal commitments it can be difficult to schedule time for study, but consistency is important for language learning.

Regular practice of the target language is necessary in order for us to progress towards our learning goals. And that is what consistency is, maintaining regular practice in order for us to achieve our goals.

Why is consistency important?

Without consistency we go from one practice session to another without retaining any information. If we can manage to establish consistency in our learning practices, we can work towards achieving our language learning goals.

How to achieve consistency?

Let’s bear in mind that sometimes less is more, so if it’s a choice between studying 4 hours once every month and 5 minutes every other day, choose the latter.

How you choose to do it is up to you, but the suggestion is that breaking up your sessions into small manageable chunks and maintaining consistency, rather than ‘cram’ studying will be far more effective, as well as feeling more practically achievable.

So what are our Key Takeaways?

1. Consistency is a key factor in successfully learning a language.

2. Consistency in language learning is not about ensuring that you fit hour long study sessions into your schedule.

3. Consistency is most easily maintained when we break down our materials into easy and manageable segments of time.