9 Best Articles on Language Learning
The most useful articles on language learning from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Language Learning Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved on language learning by Refind users in 2023.
How to ...?
How To Learn Stuff Quickly
As software developers, we're always learning new things; it's practically the whole gig! If we can learn to quickly pick up new languages/frameworks/tools, we'll become so much more effective at our…
«I have a terrible memory. This can be a bit problematic; it's hard to learn stuff if you can't remember things! Fortunately, I have a system: spaced repetition.»
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles on language learning—all under 10 minutes.
How to Measure Your Language Learning Progress
Learning a language takes time. By measuring your progress you increase your chances of reaching fluency. In this article we discuss several progress tracking methods and the one that might be the…
«It’s called Dialang and several higher education institutions developed it. Dialang compares your test results against the Common European Framework for language learning(CEF). It even offers advice on how to improve your skills.»
Learning Language is Harder Than You Think
Sure, kids imitate their parents, but that’s just a small part of the story
Why are adults so bad at learning new languages? We may be trying too hard
Despite the fact that adult brains are far more developed than children's, adults have a much harder time learning new languages.
«Children are better than adults at learning new language precisely because their prefrontal cortex is undeveloped. It seems that our advanced logical brains get in the way of the more basic intuitive forms of learning involved in language acquisition.»
Lockdown surge in language learning
By Sarah WhitebloomA surge in interest in language learning has emerged as a phenomenon of the current social distancing. One popular language learning apps has claimed increased usage of more than…
After years of failing to learn languages on Duolingo, I switched to Memrise
If you're bored of Duolingo's repetitive and useless language learning approach, you should try Memrise. It's free and excellent.
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles on language learning.
How does language learning differ across generations?
What's the most popular language to study for Gen Z? How about for Boomers? Find out in this week's Dear Duolingo!
This is the Language Each Country Wants to Learn the Most
Learning a new language has become a popular hobby during the pandemic. Here’s a look at the most popular languages people wanted to learn around the world.
To Understand Language is to Understand Generalization
In my essay “Just ask for Generalization”, I argued that some optimization capabilities, such as reinforcement learning from sub-optimal trajectories, might be better implemented by generalization…
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