Transparent Language is a company that is passionate about helping language learners succeed. That is one reason we offer this (and many other) free blogs for learning specific languages. We also offer A LOT of other resources to language learners, which you can learn more about at www.transparent.com.

Today I wanted to let you know about two FREE books you can download from Transparent Language to help you become a better language learner. Both books are written in English, so just reading them offers you another change to practice your English! The information you will learn by reading them is also a real treasure.

Click on each book title below to access your free copy:

15 Habits of Successful Language Learners

10 Ways to Make More Time for Language Learning

To give you an idea about some of the helpful information you will read about in these resources, I have picked out a few tips from each book to share with you today. To get the full book (and all the tips) just click on the links above and the books will be emailed to you for FREE!

Habits of Successful Language Learners

Tip #6: Don’t Think, Just Say
Stop worrying about speaking perfectly and just speak!  Even native English speakers make mistakes when they are talking, mistakes happen all the time, that just is a fact of life. The important thing is to practice as much as possible and learn from your mistakes.

Tip #9: Introduce Authenticity
Try to find authentic English language materials to read and listen to (check out my last post for some help with this), such as newspapers, magazines, podcasts, and videos. You can vidoes all over the Internet on sites like: YouTube, iTunes, or Netflix.  Accessing authentic materials are great for learning more about culture too.

Tip # 15: Record Your Progress
Try and keep a record of your progress (start today!) so you can look back over time and see how much you have improved. There are many ways to do this, but one of my favorite is to keep a notebook that you write in once a week. Also, you can keep 1 or 2 quizzes or tests from each semester you take a new English class and see you have improved on these formal examinations over time.

10 Ways to Make More Time for Language Learning

Tip # 2: Use up “dead time” (or use dead time wisely)
Use time you wouldn’t usually use to work on your English. “Dead time” is time when you are inactive in someway or between activities. So using your dead time wisely could mean listening to a podcast on your commute to work, listening to an English language radio station while in the shower, listening to something in English on your headphones while you are waiting in line at the store, or watching/listening to something in English while at the gym.

Tip #8: Learn with someone else
Learning with someone is usually more fun, right? Well why not schedule a date with one (or more) of your fellow ESL learners to get together to speak English once a week. You could arrange a game night, a meal, a study session, an outing…the possibilities are endless. Just be sure you spend your time together speaking in English.

You can check out all the other helpful Transparent Language learning tips at the links above and may also want to try and learn a new language better online with Transparent Language too!