THE SUCCESSFUL LANGUAGE LEARNER ACCORDING TO D. NUNAN

Successful learners…

…find their own way of learning
…are systematic
…are creative and experiment with the language
…find ways to use the language in and outside the    classroom
…learn to live with insecurity and develop strategies   to understand the language, even if they don’t   understand every word
…use memorytricks (rhymes, wordassociations etc) to   remember what they learn
…learn from mistakes …take help from the context   (knowledge about the world and the language in   question) to understand
…learn to guess intelligently
…learn sentences, phrases and idiomatic expressions   instead of just words to be able to advance in the   language
…learn techniques to keep a conversation going
…learn different styles in writing and talking, and vary   the language according to the situation.

How do you fit in with the successful language learner?

Rate each point on a scale from 1-5 (1 being poor and 5 being excellent) to get an idea of how successful you are as a learner! Then discuss your answers with the group to see if you can get any tips from your fellow students on how to improve your learning of English.

(D. Nunan is a researcher in language learning. This list appears in his book Language Teaching Methodology. Published by Phoenix ELT, 1985.)