Today's post is written by Mr. Richie Iskra, a Foreign Language teacher at Thayer Academy Middle School in Braintree, MA. Thank you, Mr. Iskra, for these fantastic tips for language-learning!

First, I would invite you to consider the truly relative word, “foreign.”  You should realize that each and every language is foreign to somebody, and that those people to whom it is not foreign had to work hard to learn it too.  We all have come into the world in the typical way, and we all were born totally ignorant of language: id est for some time at the beginning of our lives we did not know any language at all.  We communicated when we cried and when we laughed, but for some time we were not speaking a language.  After a while of absorbing the world with our senses and hearing our caregivers speak, we eventually began to comprehend specific sounds and even to replicate specific sounds.  Thus, already we all have learned at least one “foreign” language, and so we all have the ability to learn another one.  Here are some straightforward tips for approaching the acquisition of a new language.

1. Constantly compare and contrast your first language with your new language, for this practice will help you gain a more profound understanding of the two of them.  Your first language can help you more easily grasp both the similarities it shares with your new language and the differences between them.  Think about a plane and a car: the two look, sound and move differently, but they share the common purpose of transportation.  Your first language and your new language can look, sound and work differently, but they share a common purpose, communication.

2. Constantly consider these four actions when you are studying language: listening, reading, speaking and writing.  You should dedicate time to all four.  Listening and reading require us to consume information and then to decide the meaning contained in the information, so these two actions are called interpretive.  Speaking and writing require us to decide what we mean and then to produce information, so these two actions are called presentational.  Spend the most time on the action with which you are least comfortable, but be sure to keep a good balance.  Here are some ways to practice multiple actions at the same time:

• When you are reading or writing, always read the words aloud.  By doing this, you will also practice your speaking and listening skills.

• When you are listening, write the words.  Doing this will enhance both your writing and reading skills.

• When you are speaking, record yourself.  This will allow you to listen to yourself and pick up on any changes you might need to make to your pronunciation.

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3. Finally, be sure to use your new language with another person, id est, interpersonally.  Languages came about for the purpose of communication, so the best way to practice a new language is to use it with friends and family!

Recently, I read a graphic novel called Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi. It is about a girl growing up in Iran in the 1970s and 1980s. While I had previously attempted to learn more about that region's conflicts and underlying causes of them through reading traditional textbooks and news articles, I feel like I never really had a firm grasp of how the recent history of the country impacted how it fits in to the world today.

The format of this book, however, really helped me to see not only the personal impact of the revolutions and war during that time on one family, but also to understand some of the broader political and religious situations that contributed to this time of upheaval. While it looks like a comic book with its black and white drawings and speech and thought bubbles, and is broken into vignettes that could be read as individual stories, altogether the book really helped me to better understand the historical context of what has happened in the Middle East in the last few decades.

There are a variety of graphic novels and graphic representations of different historical periods that may help you or your student build background knowledge on this topic or others that students are learning about in Social Studies, Science, or other classes. Having background knowledge, as you know, will help you to better understand your textbook or other, more complex required reading. There are also graphic novel adaptations of many classic novels too, which can be a good supplement to reading the real book, an enjoyable review of major plot points, or a good previewing and jumping-off place prior to reading the whole book.

Below are some books that present, graphically, content that is common in some middle school and/or high school curricula:
English
The Odyssey adapted by Gareth Hinds (linked here)
Jane Eyre adapted by Crystal S. Chan (linked here)

Science
The Manga Guide to Electricity by Kazuhiro Fujitak (linked here)
Physics, Biology, and Astronomy all by Adrian Dingle (linked here)

Social Studies
​Alexander Hamilton by Jonathan Hennessey (linked here)
Cartoon History of the United States by Larry Gonick (linked here)
Understanding China through Comics (series) by Jing Liu (linked here)

Try reading a graphic novel, either just for fun or as an aid to comprehending other texts and school content, and let us know what you think by commenting below!