Everyone who is thinking of learning a foreign language asks a question, if it is possible to learn the language on his own. Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of self-studying a foreign language.
Advantages:
- Convenient learning pace. Since you are both a teacher and a student in one person, you have the opportunity to independently develop a schedule and pace of learning. Taking into account the free time and time that you can allocate for learning your target language, make yourself an individual plan.
- Financial savings. The financial costs of training will be minimal. A large number of materials can be obtained free of charge on the Internet. Many online services for learning languages offer free use, but you can pay for paid content if you want. And if you are more accustomed to studying from books, then you need to carry out the costs of buying textbooks, dictionaries, phrasebooks, etc.
- The world wide web provides the key to almost any material, so you will have plenty to choose from.
- Your choice of language learning method is only your decision. Maybe you love books, and will enthusiastically read English classics or modern authors? Or maybe you are a fan of computer games? Movies? Songs? Podcasts? There are no restrictions! You have the opportunity to determine the way of learning the language yourself. Another great resource here is to use a language learning app like Encore!!!
- Lack of criticism. For those who, from school age, cannot stand criticism from the outside, independent learning will be the ideal solution. Only you and your target language and nobody and nothing else.
Despite all the advantages of this approach, self-study has very significant disadvantages.
- Self-discipline. If you don’t have the quality of self-discipline, then independent study is not for you. Not everyone has the willpower that will motivate you to study the language regularly. It must be remembered that it is necessary to exercise systematically, and temporary races for several hours three times a month will not give any result. However, some teachers are using online classroom apps to make distance learning convenient and effective. You can consider this option if self-discipline is your main disadvantage of studying by yourself.
- Out of control. In case of errors, no one will point you to them, and at first there will be a lot of them: in reading, in pronunciation, in writing, in grammar. Lack of outside control can play a very bad joke. As a result you will not have enough knowledge to feel free among native speakers.
- A huge amount of materials. Yes, this item was a plus, but it is also a significant minus. It is very difficult to navigate a large number of materials: to find high-quality material, organize work with this material, distribute the load on certain types of material, etc. Due to the large number of possible options, information chaos may arise.
- Lack of training program. It is very difficult to organize the learning process competently and independently without pedagogical education. In order not to waste time and energy, it is better to provide this to a certified specialist who will create a training program corresponding to your level.
- Low competition. Motivation is always needed. But without the spirit of healthy competition in the person of a teacher or classmates, it slowly fades away.
- Lack of communication practice. If you have no one to practice your skills with, then the learned vocabulary will remain in a passive vocabulary, and speech will be full of grammatical and phonetic errors. Learning a language is useless without speaking practice.