#langsblr

Below I outline steps when I study a new lesson in a course book. Many (at least for chinese) are in the format of - 1. new words, 2. text, 3. grammar notes + exercises, 4. comprehension exercises, 5. speaking/writing task

I thus roughly follow that structure when I study the book.

1. preview new words + add to pleco (or other dictionary that has flashcard system built in)

2. write notes on the book next to vocab if necessary

3. read the text a first time only underlining words I don’t know but don’t look them up

4. go back in and look up the words + add to pleco

5. attempt the comprehension exercises (sometimes I will do this before looking up the unknown vocab for good practice but depends on the difficulty of the text)

6. look up answers and review what was wrong

7. read grammar notes + do the accompanying exercises. sometimes I add a ‘grammar structure’ or phrase or useful example sentence into pleco using the add a custom vocabulary function (e.g. below)

9. read back through the text a last time before moving on

10. outside of the specific blocks of time sitting down with the textbook, when I have a spare few minutes, waiting for the bus etc. I will play on pleco doing drills of the vocabulary added to it that week - see my previous posts on how I study, or check out ‘hackingchinese’ who has an amazing post of finding time with a ‘rock and sand and water’ model.

11. there will of course be times you don’t understand things in the textbook. I suggest you note these down, on onenote as you go along and use your teacher/exchange partner to help explain things you don’t understand.

12. another tip is to listen to the text audios if available - when you are doing other activities such as walking, cooking to squeeze precious study time in.

Do you have any tips you could share on how to learn effectively?