Learning French like a child

In order to see true progress when learning French, one must practice it every day. It has to become part of our innate thought process, because in order to achieve true fluency, one mustn't need to translate his/her thought into French. It should simply be in French.

That is why the traditional way of learning a word by reading it on a piece of paper with its English translation next to it, and then writing it a few hundreds of times isn't very efficient. Because although the word will eventually be learnt, it will be isolated and harder to be put into practice.

It may be better to relate the process of learning a language to that of a small child learning how to speak. It learns the different sounds and words by repeating them and witnessing the connection people give to the word in relationship with other things.

It is by this process of repetition, that the child learns the meaning of this word and after having repeated it incorporates it in its own vocabulary.

That is why I vary teaching techniques, and try to create a learning environment that is as close as possible to that of a child learning to speak. Connecting words with images and situations, and by repetition.