YOUR KEYS TO SUCCESS IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE COURSE
as developed by Professor Marc Prévost

What can you do to ensure you are successful in your foreign language class?

1.   GO TO CLASS EVERY DAY.

• Don’t miss unless you are really sick. If you’re tired, drag yourself out of bed.
• Arriving late to class is better than not going at all, but don’t let it become a habit.
• Don’t expect to learn everything in class. You will need to practice regularly outside of class.

2.   GO OVER THE DAY’S LESSON BEFORE COMING TO CLASS.

• The material is always easier to understand and class time will be spent practicing something you understand, rather than trying to figure out what is going on.
• If something is unclear as you go over it at home, you will know what questions to ask in class.

3.   PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE – IN AND OUT OF CLASS.

• Use class time wisely. Participate actively to get all the practice you can.
• Set aside time to study outside of class virtually every day. Plan your study time and write it into your schedule. Go to a quiet place, don’t study when you’re hungry or tired, and have the materials you need (pencil, paper, CDs, handouts, books, etc.). Keep a log of your study time. This will help you learn to study more efficiently.
• Written, oral, and listening practice are essential to learning a foreign language. Alternate speaking, listening, reading, and writing activities. By changing tasks frequently, you’ll be able to study longer without losing your concentration.
• Do the homework and listen to the audio CDs regularly. Short of hiring a tutor to speak to you on a daily basis and test you on your writing skills, or studying in the country itself, there is no better way to learn than with the regular use of your CDs and workbook exercises. Listen to the audio CDs that accompany your text more than just once. (Three times is a good rule of thumb.)

4.   KEEP UP!

• Do some of the work each day. In learning a new language, you need to give your brain the time to process the material so that it enters your long-term memory rather than your short-term memory. This is not the type of course where you can “cram” before an exam.
• Think of learning a foreign language as the building of a skyscraper. The upper floors lie on the foundation you build for yourself. If you have gaps in that foundation, you will encounter major problems as you hit the upper floors.
• If you fall behind, catch up as soon as possible. Set aside extra time to go back and practice what you didn’t learn while still keeping up with the new material. 
• Go to the tutoring lab. (RGC 212, NRG 4119) http://www.austincc.edu/tutor/

5.   LEARN THE BASIC PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING RULES EARLY ON.

• All languages follow their own set of rules. While it is normal to compare the language you study to English, you should not rely on English to help you pronounce or spell. The workbook written and CD assignments will help you with this.
• The pronunciation & spelling rules are not that difficult to learn. Like everything else, they will require time, effort, and practice to be mastered.

6.  WORK ON YOUR PRONUNCIATION.

• The majority of problems with listening comprehension come from problems with pronunciation. The better you can pronounce a word, the more likely it is that you will recognize the same word when you hear it. 
• Perfect pronunciation is not essential, but a good pronunciation will help you understand spoken the new language better, and will help boost your own confidence when speaking.
• Anyone can have a fairly good pronunciation. There is no such thing as a permanent bad accent. Better pronunciation can be obtained through more practice and by paying attention to how vowels and nasals sound are pronounced. See your professor or a tutor if you need more help with this.

7.   LEARN VERB FORMS WHEN THEY ARE TAUGHT.

• Verbs are the key part of a sentence, they let you know what is being done, what was done, what is going to be done, and who is doing it. Sit down that very day and memorize the form; it will only take a few minutes of effort, and will be well worth it in the long run.

• Irregular verbs are always the most common, so learn them well!

8. USE A VARIETY OF TECHNIQUES TO LEARN VOCABULARY.

• When the new vocabulary is taught, learn the meaning, the spelling, and the pronunciation of the words. Memorizing the new words is essential. Without knowing the words, you can’t say anything!
• Tie concrete images to vocabulary words so they will go into your long-term memory. For example, if you’re learning the rooms of the house, go around your house or apartment and say out loud “Voilà la cuisine, le salon, la chambre, la salle à manger...” as you enter each of the rooms. Cut out images from magazines or supermarket flyers when learning food vocabulary. Be creative!
• Use flash-cards – they work! They’re time-consuming to make, but save a lot of time in the long run. You can use them while you’re stuck in traffic, when you’re riding on the bus, in between classes, on a slow day at work, while waiting in line anywhere, in between TV commercials... Get the idea?
• Use colors. List your vocabulary words in two (or three) columns using different colored inks. For example, write masculine nouns in blue ink on a left  hand page, and feminine nouns in red ink on a right hand page. On the day of the test, your mind will remember if the word was blue or red, left or right.
• Use physical activity and music to help you retain information. Say the words you need to learn to yourself as you’re walking. Sing the verb conjugations to a favorite tune.
• Involve different parts of your brain. Use your colors, music, motion, opposites, contrasting and comparing. Practice saying things, and hearing them. The more parts of your brain you involve, the longer you will retain the information and the better you will learn!

9. WORK ON SPELLING.

• If you are a poor speller in your native language, you may have greater difficulty spelling in a foreign language. This is not an insurmountable obstacle. Plan to have to work harder than other students to achieve success. Practice writing words several times, especially those you find harder to spell.
• Do the workbook assignments carefully. Don’t rush through them.
• Use the CDs. They will help you match the letters you see with their sounds.

10.  DON’T LET TERMINOLOGY GET IN YOUR WAY.

• Don’t hesitate to ask your teacher to define terms you don’t understand. Foreign language teachers use words such as noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, subject, direct object not to be obscure, butbecause it’s the easiest, most precise way to refer to these parts of a sentence. These terms will become familiar to you. You may even find that you understand English grammar better as you study French.

11.    DON’T FEEL INTIMIDATED.

• Most professors are very approachable. Remember, your professor was once a student just like you. Feel free to ask your professor questions in class, on the phone, or visit him or her during office hours. Answering questions and explaining material is the role of your professor; that is what he has trained to do. Remember though, your professor is human, and he or she may not have an immediate answer to all of your questions, so be tolerant!
• Don’t feel like you’re the only one who doesn’t understand. You never are, but sometimes the other students are too shy to ask.  If the question never gets asked, it can’t be answered, and students continue to be left in the dark. Let the sunshine in!  Illuminate your fellow classmates! Ask the question that puzzles you!

12.    BE PRO-ACTIVE! 

•  If you find you are having trouble in the course, do something about it, and be willing to put in the effort and hard work required to improve your grade. Talk to your teacher about how you’re studying and ask for suggestions on what you can do differently to improve your grade.

• Remember that, with the proper amount of studying and practice, it is within EVERY college student’s capacity to obtain a passing grade in foreign language course.
• Don’t fool yourself into thinking that the student with the A just has a knack for foreign languages. In a college foreign language class, every student who receives an A works hard for it… and remember that an A is within YOUR reach too.

13.    THOROUGHLY PREPARE FOR EVERY EXAM.

• Take time to read the grammar explanations very carefully, and concentrate especially on the examples given. Review the grammar summary at the end of the chapter in the textbook.
• Go over any quizzes that were given in class over that chapter’s material, and review any material you missed on the quiz.
• Go over the end of chapter vocabulary list, and make sure you understand and can spell the words listed.
• Complete all the written and listening practice workbook exercises before the exam.
• Don’t neglect the cultural information. Exams usually include cultural questions.
• Come to class well rested the day of an exam, and be on time. Don’t rush through the exam, but don’t go so slowly that you are rushed at the end.

14.    ANALYZE YOUR EXAMS AFTER THEY ARE GRADED.

• Exams can tell you a lot about what you need to spend more time studying. Did you miss a lot of verb forms? Was it the vocabulary that you were weakest in? Was there a section you did not understand as well as you thought you did? Did you misspell a lot of words?
• Study what you missed. The best way to avoid making the same mistake again is by taking notes of the errors you made on an exam, and then going back to study that material.

15. FIND WAYS OF STAYING MOTIVATED ALL SEMESTER LONG.

• Find someone in the class to study with. Make a friend, exchange phone numbers with at least three students.
• Give your brain positive messages. Remember, your brain listens to you… even when no one else does! Believe in yourself and your ability! Give yourself positive messages such as:  “I’m going to learn this stuff”, “Hey, I’m beginning to like this!” ,“This part is tough, but I can do it”.
• Many students begin the course very motivated, but don’t do the required homework or get the outside practice, which is required for success. When their grades start falling, or if their grades are not as high as they expected, they lose enthusiasm and study less. The vicious cycle begins. Their grades fall further, and their frustration increases proportionally. On the other hand, success will breed enthusiasm. The surest way to ensure your own success in the course is to do all the required outside practice, to learn and understand grammar concepts when they are presented, to make a concerted effort to learn the vocabulary when it is taught.

16.       KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE GOAL.

• Most college degree programs require three or four semesters of the same foreign language. It is to your advantage to put in the effort required in the first two semesters of the language, since the more you learn in those first two semesters, the easier the courses that follow will be for you.

• If you’re in your second semester, and you had less than stellar results in the first semester, it is imperative that you go back and review material from the first semester. Make time in the first two or three weeks of the semester to relearn the material. It will be essential to your success. If it has been a long time since you took the first semester course, seriously consider retaking the previous course before moving on.

• Don’t look at your foreign language courses as a hurdle you need to jump over to get your diploma. See it rather as a new experience in learning, a true opportunity to expand your knowledge and awareness of the world around you. If you look at the positive side of the experience, you will get greater benefit out of this endeavor.

• Remember that our world is getting smaller.  The people living in this century will come more and more in contact with people from other nations, either through travel, business or telecommunications. Knowing a foreign language is becoming increasingly important in many aspects of our lives.

• Studying a foreign language will make you more knowledgeable about people and cultures other than your own. You will instinctively know more than those who have only been exposed to their own culture and language.

• Speaking more than one language will help you grow as a person. It will develop a side of you that you never knew existed. It will be an experience you will never regret.

• Remember, many people who speak other languages learned them as adults, not as children. In fact, many foreign language teachers had their first experience with the language in college. You can learn to understand and speak a foreign language as an adult.

• If you’re still not convinced, and you need more tangible proof that        this endeavor is worth all this effort, think of the investment in time, money, and effort you will be making, and expect, or better yet, demand a return. The tuition, the books and your time all combine to make this experience worth several hundred dollars . . . expect results!

17.    SEE THE TUTOR IF YOU NEED HELP, IF YOU WANT MORE PRACTICE, IF YOU WANT MORE TIME TO WORK ON SPEAKING.

• If you are having difficulty with the course, or are less than pleased with the results of your first exams, make time to work with the tutor. Your grade can improve dramatically through his or her guidance.
• It’s free! You can have up to a half an hour to work with the tutor, and if there are no other students waiting, you can have more time.
• It’s a good place to practice speaking and listening to the language.
• You don’t need to wait until there’s something you don’t understand to go there. You can go there just for extra practice.
• More often than not, it’s the students making the better grades that go to the tutoring center.

18. REMEMBER THAT THE MOST COMMON PRECURSORS TO NOT SUCCEEDING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE COURSE ARE:

• Missing class.
• Not doing the workbook assignments.
• Not listening to the Lab Audio CDs.
• Falling behind.
• Procrastinating on studying the vocabulary and grammar structures and “cramming” forthe exams. This is not a course for which you can “cram”.
• Trying to do too much in one semester, such as registering for 15 hours of classes while working 30 or more hours a week.  (There are exceptions to this one, but few are the students able to make the necessary personal sacrifices to successfully manage this.)

PREPARING FOR A TEST

Remember, no amount of test-taking skill can substitute for understanding the course material. Still, there are a few principles to keep in mind:

• Go to class. Participate in class, listen to your professor, take notes, read the text, ask questions. If you still feel uncertain, ask for help before you do poorly on an exam.
• Keep up with the material. No matter what you hear in the halls, very few people can study, read or learn all the material the day before an exam and do well on that exam. In a foreign language course, a manageable amount of studying every day is much more effective than a lot of cramming a day or two before an exam.
• Study smart.

      a.  Study all major sections of your chapter.
      b. Go over your chapter’s vocabulary and make sure you know the                                        meaning and spelling of each of the words.
      c. Go over any practice sheets your professor handed out.
      d. If your teacher provides you with a Chapter Review or a Practice exam… DO IT!!!
e. Know your verb forms. Devise an effective method for committing verb forms to memory. Often, the key message of a sentence is the verb. It tells you what happened and when it happened.
f. Ask your professor about the format of your exam. Foreign language  exams will generally use a variety of formats: listening comprehension, fill in the blanks, translation, questions on culture, writing of short paragraphs, reading comprehension...
g. Form a study group with two or three other classmates. This will enable you to more easily practice understanding and answering aural questions in the target language.
h. See the tutor as soon as you realize you have fallen behind or if your grades are not as high as you wish they were. For Lab hours at each ACC Campus, see: http://www.austincc.edu/rvslab/alllabs/ 

• Anticipate. If you are going to be overwhelmed with work when a particular test is scheduled, plan to study early, tell your professor about your situation. If you are sick and many not be well in time for an exam, warn the professor before the scheduled exam, not after you miss the exam.
• Look for clues from your professor. Many teachers “telegraph” the content of the test by repeating favorite points or key ideas. Look for reoccurring topics in your notes. Never miss the class before the exam. Professors are prone to signal the test content because they probably just finished preparing the test.
• Test yourself. Review, reread, practice with a classmate, a friend or the tutor.  Think about what material is most likely to be tested. Go back over any handouts your professor may have given you.
• Use the night before an exam effectively.  Study the night before the exam, ending with a final look at a summary of the key points or concepts. Study the end of chapter vocabulary list.  Then, get a good night’s sleep.
  

TEST TAKING STRATEGIES

• Read all directions. It sounds simple, but students often loose points simply because they did not follow the directions.
• If you do not understand the directions, ask your instructor.
• Start with the section you know best. No rule requires you to do the test in order.
• Spend the most time on the section that is worth the most points.
• Don’t let any one part of the test bog you down. Move on, go back to that section afterwards.
• Focus on what you know, but never leave anything blank.
• Use your test time effectively. Work deliberately, but don’t hurry. Keep track of time, and pace yourself accordingly.  Don’t rush through any section, but don’t spend too much time on any one section at the expense of the rest of the exam.
• When translating, don’t rely on English. You cannot translate word for word equivalents, you need to translate in groups, and ideas instead. Notice that even the word order may change.

            I am not                       ...a teacher.                 I am                 a student.
            = Je ne suis pas           professeur.                  Je suis             étudiant(e).
            

It’s                 seven                           fifteen              p.m.

            = Il est             sept heures                  et quart                        du soir.           

             I am studying...            French,           but I do understand                 Spanish.
            = J’étudie                    le français       mais je comprends                   l’espagnol. 

                I think...                      French                      is easy.

            = Je pense que               le français                est facile. 

            I am working               on Monday,      but I don’t work                                 on Tuesdays.

            = Je travaille              lundi                mais je ne travaille pas            le mardi.

• Before turning in your test, go over it, check spelling, word order, pronouns, verb forms, proper agreements.
• Don’t make corrections on an impulse, change only what you are sure of. Remember, your first instinct is usually the correct one.
• If you get a low grade, analyze it thoroughly. Find out why you did poorly. Go over the test with your instructor. Learn the material you missed so that you won’t make the same mistake again.