New Business For Older Students With College Education

New Business For Older Students With College EducationAct Tutoring Minnesota is the largest provider of independent college students and home schooled students for tutoring. They offer the most experienced college students and home schooled students, along with the most recent professional training in the world of teaching. They offer the most affordable tutoring services to more than 200 colleges and universities across the United States. There are many students that require their college education to be completed by a reliable tutor.Act Tutoring Minnesota tutors are trained in the use of technology and they give much thought to what technology can do for the student. For example, they allow students to perform better with all the learning tools. They are usually very well-versed in the terms of the contracts and many students find them easy to work with.They have expertise in many subjects and they specialize in the areas of engineering, business, medicine, mathematics, computers, anthropology, social sciences, environmental science, and many others. For the aspiring technology-oriented students who are not interested in studying the field themselves, they have professors or researchers in the subject. The tutors are also exposed to the latest education advances in the field of technology.These tutors are highly skilled in analyzing the reading, writing, math, and social studies knowledge of college students, and they utilize that knowledge to facilitate their students in achieving their college grades. They provide students with high levels of accountability and practical application. They offer a wide variety of tutoring services including writing assistance, essay editing, grammar editing, class management, personal tutoring, and field experience.They are a leading service provider for colleges and universities in Minnesota, Nebraska, and many other states. They are also recognized by several academic associations for their work in assisting students with college applications. Their goal is to meet the needs of students and to assist them in achieving their college grades.They are highly proficient in evaluating the student's strengths and weaknesses in every subject area. They look for learning issues and identify and implement learning strategies to enable students to become better educated. They ensure that the student follows the right path and help them learn the right curriculum to achieve higher grades.This gives them a genuine understanding about college education and they are skilled to implement learning plans. They are skilled to determine the suitability of curriculum and materials. They are not afraid to experiment with the learning strategies they have been using and they have demonstrated results.

Solve the quadratic equation by completing the square

Solve the quadratic equation by completing the square The study of algebra consists of solving for the known and unknown variables. There are different kinds of equations in algebra. The quadratic equation is the equation which has the highest degree of the variable as 2. There are different mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, square roots, completing the square and division used to solve the equations according to the requirement. Example 1: Solve the given quadratic equation x2 + 4x +4 = 0; using completing the square method? Solution: Given equation is x2 + 4x +4 = 0. Here the unknown variable which needs to be solved for is x. The degree of the equation is 2(Quadratic equation.) Completing the square using the formula: (a + b)2 = a2 + 2ab + b2. This gives x2 + 4x +4 = 0; (x + 2)2 = 0. Square root on both sides gives x+2 = 0; x =-2 Hence the solution is x = -2 Example 2: Solve the given quadratic equation x2 + 6x +9 = 0; using completing the square method? Solution: Given equation is x2 + 6x +9 = 0. Here the unknown variable which needs to be solved for is x. The degree of the equation is 2(Quadratic equation.) Completing the square using the formula: (a + b)2 = a2 + 2ab + b2. This gives x2 + 6x +9 = 0; (x + 3)2 = 0. Square root on both sides gives x+3 = 0; x =-3. Hence the solution is x = -3

What is it Like to Attend Boise State University

What is it Like to Attend Boise State University Keleah earned her bachelors degree in English Composition from Boise State University. She specializes in English tutoring, writing tutoring, phonics tutoring, and many related subjects. Check out her review of Boise State University below! Describe the campus setting and transportation options. Keleah: Boise State is incredibly urban, they have made a lot of great new upgrades to the campus to make it more safe and accessible for students. I loved being able to ride my bike to campus every day! How available are the professors, academic advisers, and teaching assistants? Keleah: I was a learning assistant for English professors and an assistant for academic advisors and they were all very welcoming and available to students. It was their mission to help as much as they could. How would you describe the dorm liferooms, dining options, location, socialization opportunities with other students? Keleah: The best part about dorm life was the meal replacement options. I could choose from burgers, tacos, or even pizza. This even allowed me to get out and about on campus to socialize with my peers. Which majors/programs are best represented and supported? Keleah: The English department was really good to me. They had a large faculty and staff who constantly opened their doors to students. This was one of the reasons I chose to be an English major; I could see how well the students in that department were supported. How easy or difficult was it for you to meet people and make friends as a freshman? Does Greek life play a significant role in the campus social life? Keleah: I had no trouble making friends on campus. The students who lived in the same area as I did freshman year ended up being great friends for much of my college career. How helpful is the Career Centerand other student support services? Keleah: The Career Center was a great resource for methey actually helped me create a resume and prep for an interview senior year when I began my job-hunting process. How are the various study areas such aslibraries, the student union, and dorm lounges? Are they over-crowded, easily available, spacious? Keleah: During peak times in the semester, things would get a little crowded, but generally the libraries and student study areas were very relaxing and quiet and offered excellent areas for college kids to study. Describe the surrounding town. Keleah: Boise is an incredible city that has been growing for what seems like forever. It maintains a small town vibe but offers all the fun and exciting adventures of big cities. It has certainly transformed into a college town where students roam the streets looking for new experiences. How big or small is the student body? Were you generally pleased or displeased with the typical class sizes? Keleah: Boise State is somewhere in the middle in terms of class size. We have a large student population but plenty of faculty to support most subjects, so classes tend to be a bit smaller. In the STEM fields, there are naturally larger class sizes. Describe one memorable experience with a professor and/or class. Perhaps one you loved the most or one youregretthe most. Keleah: I absolutely loved my British Romantic Literature class. My professor and I created such a fantastic rapport that by the end of the term she invited me to be her research assistant. It was really wonderful to get a chance to expand my network of contacts into the professional landscape. Check out Keleahs tutoring profile. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Varsity Tutors.

How to Help Your Teen Stop Procrastinating

How to Help Your Teen Stop Procrastinating How to Help Your Teen Stop Procrastinating Its Sunday night, and once again your teen has put off a big school projectdue tomorrowuntil the last minute. If frantic trips to the library or the office supply store are all too familiar, youre likely dealing with a procrastination problem. It is possible to help your student change, however. Here are a few ideas to help your teen overcome procrastination: Break down large or complex projects into manageable tasks. The idea of a looming paper or project can overwhelm students who can only see the many cumulative hours required to cross the finish line. Work together to break a large task into smaller subtasks and schedule those to-dos well in advance of the final due date. Get startedand only work for manageable periods of time. Often the biggest obstacle for a student is getting going on a project. Set a small goalsuch as writing two sentences for that term paper or brainstorming for five minutes on the topic of that science project. For sessions thereafter, set similar mini goals that will help keep your teens wheels turning. Define the most important tasks for each day or study session. Making a short list of things to accomplish for each study session can help keep your student focused and prevent him or her from feeling overwhelmed, which can easily lead to procrastination. This will also help your teen learn to prioritize. Set goals and rewards. Try incentivizing your teen to work toward small milestones and involve him or her in selecting the rewards. Remember to hold him or her to the standards you put into place. While a reward system can help ignite your teen, long term, your student must be intrinsically motivated. The greatest reward for not procrastinating should be the satisfaction of completing work on time and the relief that accompanies not waiting until the last minute to do something. Practice using a calendar. All students need an organizational system, and using a planner effectively will help your teen stay on task. Show your teen how you use your own calendar or planner to record appointments and deadlines. Then, sit down together with his or her planner to record daily homework time and extracurricular activities, subtasks for big projects, study sessions for upcoming tests and more. If all else fails, let your student fail. Though it may be hard to do, allowing your teen to experience the negative outcomes of procrastinating may be the best way for him or her to learn a valuable lessonand become more responsible. Let your student suffer the consequences of his or her own actions so he or she can identify the bad patterns that result from his or her behavior. Procrastination can be a self-fulfilling cycleand a difficult problem to solve. However, with persistence and patience, your efforts will pay off. Encourage your teen to take ownership for his or her own successes and failures and establish good study habits and watch him or her become a more responsible student and person.

Build Your English Vocabulary With a Lovable Author

Build Your English Vocabulary With a Lovable Author Do you want to improve your English vocabulary or help your child grow her English vocabulary? Who doesnt love Dr. Seuss?  I grew up reading his books, and I still love  sitting down to enjoy them  with my students, nieces and nephews.  These rhyming stories  have been translated to many  different languages for  people all over the world  to adore.  Today, well use an interesting rhyme about Dr. Seuss to learn new vocabulary.  By the end of this lesson, youll be able to wow your friends, colleagues, or your  LOI English teacher with your new vocab!  Also, if youre interested in improving your fluency, I would recommend reading the rhyme several times.  The first time, you can read it nice and slow, focusing on good pronunciation.  Then, the next few times, try picking up your speed.  After you complete the activity, try reading in time  with the narrator for an extra challenge!  Also, in case you missed it, its not too late to try the 10 Day English Challenge, which has fun fluency lessons and a lot more!First, learn the English vocabulary:deduce (v): use reasoning to arrive at a conclusion.  After completing the experiment, they could deduce what a plant needs to grow.perplexingly (adv.): describes something as confusing.  She spoke perplexingly fast, so we couldnt understand her.coined (v): invented.  I wonder who coined the phrase, google it.signature (n): a special characteristic that identifies someone.  My mom  always wears the same perfume, so she has a signature scent.constraints (n): restrictions or limitations.  I want to live with no constraints.  descent (n): nationality.  His family is of Chilean descent.semblance (n): appearance.  Your drawing shows some semblance of the beach.acclaim (n): praise.  The author was happy because his book received  a lot of acclaim.essence (n): the nature or quality of something.  Arguing with your siblings is the essence of childhood.Now Practice The English VocabularyNow you try:  Before watching the video, try filling in the vocabulary.  Then, play it  to check your answers.  Finally, remember to do the fluency exercise mentioned above!Theres a structure to language we all learn when were young.A flow to the words that could almost be sung.Something most of us learned from the great Dr. SeussWith his chartreuse  villains, rhythm reminiscent of Mother Goose.English Vocabulary Gap Fill:And his imaginative world, so (1)____________  abstruse,Told with a simplified language, even a kid could (2)______.His name was Theodore Geisel, the man who (3)______  the word nerdsAnd wrote Green Eggs and Ham with just 49 words.He made reading a tool kids could finally enjoy,Not like Dick and Jane books, which would bore and annoy.In much of his work he used this literary trick.Its a rhyming tetrameter thats anapestic.Section 2 Gap Fill:Its that (4)_________  style thats always greeted with laughter.Its just two unstressed syllables and one stressed syllable after.And today the Great Yert el that marvelous he,Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see.Studies show that that rhythm helps with core memorizationAnd builds childrens confidence with classroom dictation.Some (5)___________  on a canvasss language designGives a structure to reading and a writing guideline.You could see all these kids were finally reading by choice,These stories told through the voice of Dr. Theodore Soiss.And yes, Soiss is correct.  He’s of German (6)_______.It’s just harder to say with an American accent.And the (7)_________  to Goose helped skyrocket his fame.Kids preferred saying Seuss, so he stuck with that name.But his (8)_______  wasn’t bound to just one single nation,His stories exported through the gift of translation.Section 3 Gap Fill:The books’ phrasing and language in which they were writtenWorks perfectly fine in the US or Britain.But to reach out to the world in all of its culture,Hello’s not enough, you need ‘hola’ and ‘bonjour.’And not just the words, but the rhyme patterns too,Like poisson un, poisson deux, poisson rouge, poisson bleu.With designs in the hundreds all with distinct features,Translators worked hard to rename all these creatures.Translating them all with their (9)_______  intact,While preserving their fun had a major impactOn the habits of reading of kids at young ages.There’re so many lessons in the words on these pages.BONUS English Vocabulary:  Can you use the surrounding text and pictures to deduce what these words mean?      10.  abstruse  (adj):      11.  chartreuse  (adj):Listen to improve your English Vocabulary

?? How Much Does A Guitar Tutor Cost

?? How Much Does A Guitar Tutor Cost How Much Does A Guitar Tutor Cost? So your child wants to become a guitar hero, but you don’t know how much it’ll cost you? Let’s take a look…The average cost of a guitar tutor in the UK is £23.15, when you take location and level of study into account. Oxford is the most expensive place to learn guitar, with an average rate of £30.66 per hour. The cheapest area is Sunderland, costing £19.57 on average.What are the guitar tutor prices near me? City Average Hourly Cost ( £) Oxford £25.55 London £23.08 Cambridge £22.92 Peterborough £22.03 Southampton £21.95 Wakefield £21.48 Nottingham £21.45 Birmingham £21.59 Derby £21.35 Coventry £21.35 Bristol £21.26 Edinburgh £21.19 Leeds £20.53 Portsmouth £20.30 Glasgow £20.23 Newcastle £19.85 York £19.69 Leicester £19.41 Plymouth £19.35 Manchester £19.32 The table above shows a quick overview of the different average cost of a guitar tutor for each location. The effect location has on cost is generally due to the overall affluence of the area, and the demand for guitar tutors.How much is a guitar tutor for each level of study?Depending on the level of guitar your child is learning, the costs can vary. The more advanced the level, the more a guitar tutor will cost.This is due to the level of expertise required to teach each level.Here’s a brief breakdown of how the cost of a guitar tutor changes depending on the level of study:Beginner â€" £22.50Intermediate â€" £22.96Advanced â€" £23.99What factors affect the cost of guitar tutoring?Location and level of study are two of the main factors that affect the cost of a guitar tutor, but they aren’t the only ones. You also need to take experience and certifications into account.If a guitar tutor has a relevant, music-based degree, then they’ll have a wider breadth of knowledge when it comes to teaching music in general. As a result, they can often justify charging more.Perhaps more important, however, is how much tutoring experience they have. Playing the guitar is one thing, teaching others to play is another. The more teaching experience a tutor has, the better they’ll be at explaining concepts and helping your child to understand.A more experienced tutor will also make your child feel more at ease, and will therefore improve their learning experience.Have you considered online guitar tutoring? Online tutoring is fast-becoming a preferred approach, both for parents and their kids. Kids are used to using online platforms for a range of different educational activities, whether it’s submitting their homework, doing tests, or watching videos. They’re already well-versed in learning online, and so online tutoring is something they’re familiar with.It means they can learn from the comfort of their home, improving their concentration and ease-of-mind.For parents, it means not having to worry about travel costs, and being on-hand to ferry your child from A to B. This also means the tutor won’t have any travel costs, which ultimately means cheaper tutoring for you.Tutorful’s online platform has a lot of useful features, including video calling, screen sharing, and an interactive whiteboard. It’s been designed to provide a great learning experience for your child.Get a quote from a guitar tutor near you!There are loads of guitar tutors out there waiting to hear from you. Use the link below to find some near you.Find a guitar tutor near me

Language Learning 101 What Is Language Acquisition

Language Learning 101 What Is Language Acquisition Language Learning 101: What Is Language Acquisition? Can a dog tell another dog a joke?Or can a cat (other than Garfield) describe an experience so vividly that it makes the other cats feel like they just ate the same lasagna?Language. It’s an exclusively human condition. Other species definitely do communicate through movements and sounds, but theyre definitely not in the same class as humans.A poet can write lines that can make any woman swoon. A 140-character tweet can spark a revolution. Even  children can tease an acquaintance to tears.But how did we acquire all these skills and abilities?We’ll look into that in this post. Well examine the differences between first language and second language acquisition, as well as some of the leading theories presented on the topic.And have you always wondered what terms like syntax, semantics and phonology are really about? They wont be so mysterious after this post. Well peak behind the curtain and talk about the five characteristics of languages.Finally, to finish things up, well touch o n the four language skills you need to speak a language.So, ready to go? Lets begin. Language Learning 101: What Is Language Acquisition?Have you had the wonderful experience of gazing at a newborn baby through a hospital nursery window? You know full well that those babies can’t appreciate your soulful admiration, right? They cant understand a word you say, much less talk to you.But what kind of awesomeness happens in so short a time, that turns this ball of pure cuteness into a determined fellow pointing at everything in the grocery store, having a fit when you don’t get him what he wants?Language acquisition is that process of building the ability to understand a language, using it to communicate with others. It’s the process of going from a wordless wonder into somebody who can’t stop talking during class.That’s language acquisition or, more specifically, first language or native language acquisition. If you were born in Korea to parents who speak Korean with you, yo u’ll naturally end up talking Korean. The same goes for whatever native language youre taught.Another type of language acquisition is the one that happens after you’ve acquired your native tongueâ€"aptly named “second language acquisition.”Maybe you’re an English speaker who wants to learn Mandarin or Spanish. Maybe you’re taking a German class. Most readers of this blog are probably in this same boat, tremendously enriching their lives by learning a second (or third) language.There’s a lot of difference between native language and second language acquisition. When you learned your native tongue, you weren’t given a long list of vocabulary words to memorize or a thick grammar textbook to sink your teeth into. You were just with mom and dad, who always told you what to eat and when to sleep.Your experience was highly immersive, and it was largely unconscious. You probably can’t even remember how you picked up your native tongue. Yet, while waiting for your first for mal English lessons to begin, before Mrs. Johnson even set foot in that class, you were already chatting away with your seatmate Steve, asking him if he saw the new Mentos commercial.Second language acquisition, on the other hand, happens at a very different time and place. Usually, it happens when you’re older, maybe inside a school or university classroom, or nowadays even a virtual one.Maybe youre learning a new language because your new job requires you to do it to speak with customers. Or maybe you just want to learn how to flirt in a new language. Whatever the reason, the methods used are quite different from what happens in childhood. You consciously study grammar. You have your word lists with their corresponding pictures and translations. You have apps, podcasts and YouTube videos.Many people successfully learn a second language, but not everybody gets there. On the other hand, we know first language acquisition is amazingly effective. The proof? The 7.5 billion native sp eakers today who speak their respective languages with finesse and flair that take our breaths away, making us wish we were born in a different country. Its led many to believe that learning a language is the sole province of the youngâ€"people in the “critical period,” whose highly elastic brains absorb language like a sponge.But while its true that our brains rapidly develop in our early years, it doesnt lose plasticity over our lifetimes. We can create novel neural connections and learn something new at any age. That means you can embark on a language learning journey at any stage in life, your stabilized brain notwithstanding.Studies have pointed out that there are indeed other factors that exert a stronger influence than age on an individual’s language performance. For example, one study found that a person’s motivation is a better predictor of linguistic success than age. Just because you’re young, doesn’t mean you’ll pick up the language no problem.What is it th at drives you to learn the second language? What gets you over the speedbumps? Why do you do it when you could’ve done something else? These are more important than what you write on the blank after “Age.”Another factor that does better than age to predict language acquisition is the quality of inputs. That is, even if you start learning a language later in life, you can still be better off than those who started early, as long as you spend considerable time interacting with native speakers or use authentic materials in your study. The quality of inputs determine your linguistic success.So really, it’s not that second language acquisition is unnatural or that it’s only for the gifted. It’s just that we need better tools and methods to do it.The good news is that in addition to people looking into the mechanisms of first language acquisition, taking a page or two and applying it to second language acquisition, were developing better tools and methods on a daily basisâ€"an d well talk about some of them out in this post.But whether it’s first or second language acquisition, how do these processes actually take place in the mind of a language learner? Psychologists and linguists have put forth several theories over the decades to explain the phenomenon, and we’re going to look into three of the most influential ones in the next section.3 Competing Schools of Thought About Language AcquisitionPhilosophers have always been fascinated by the human linguistic ability, particularly its initial acquisition.Ever since Socrates intoned “Know thyself,” we have tried to peek behind the curtain and find out how we are actually able to learn language and use it for a myriad of communicative purposes.Here are some theories on the matter:1) Behaviorism (B.F. Skinner)Whether you learned about it in your Psych 101 class or from the lyrics to any number of songs, you’ve probably heard of Pavlov’s work with canines. He’s the guy who was studying salivation in dogs as a response to being fed.Pavlov noticed that the dogs started salivating as soon as he (or his associate) entered the room, even when no visible food was presented. Somehow the dogs learned to associate food with his presence. They were conditioned to salivate upon seeing him!Thats all part of behaviorism, which had its heyday from the 1900s to the 1950s and held its sway in how we think about language acquisition.  B.F. Skinner, an eminent behaviorist, proposed that language acquisition is really one big and complex case of conditioning. At its core, it’s all pattern recognitionâ€"associating words with meaning.For example, if a baby hears the word “milk” often enough right before being fed from the bottle, hell soon learn what that word means. If he always hears the word “ball” right before being handed a spherical object, he’ll begin to associate “ball” with its referent.Through a process of trial and error, a child (or a second language learner) will b e able to learn correct grammar. Language acquisition, in this view, is a stimulus-response mechanism. A child will get to the correct form of the language when he observes reinforcing behavior from those around himâ€"a smile, a nod or being handed a spherical object when he says “ball.” These all tell him that hes thinking in the right direction.And one of the fastest ways of getting to the right form or use of the language, instead of going at it through personal trial and error, is imitation. A child can simply imitate what an adult says or how she says it. That’s why accents can be contagious. If you live in a southern state like Texas or Arkansas, your English will likely have that sexy southern drawl.In the behaviorist view, language is simply reinforced input.2) Universal Grammar (Noam Chomsky)In the 1960s, the field of behaviorism came under serious attack from the likes of Noam Chomsky, a man recognized as the father of modern linguistics, and about as decorated a sch olar as any.He pointed out that if you really look closer, parents give only very little linguistic input for tots to run with. Chomsky argued that parent-child interactions are limited to repeated utterances of things like “Put that back” and “Open your mouth”â€"not very likely to make significant dents towards the cause of language learning. And besides, when a child says, “I swimmed today,” he didn’t really get that from any adult figure in his life. That’s not imitation.So how does one account for the fact that children learn to speak their native tongues in spite of the “poverty of the stimulus”? One is left with the conclusion, Chomsky argues, that if not from the outside, external input, then the ability must have been there all along.Chomsky asserts that human beings are biologically wired for languageâ€"that we have a “language acquisition device” that allows us to learn any language in the world. Linguistic ability is innate to us.Proof of this are the emergent abilities that have no external source. For example, we know that writing comes later in the language learning process, perhaps in the classroom. But how then do children make out the individual words in the string of sounds that they hear, when they haven’t seen a single written form of those words?Chomsky would argue that children use this “language acquisition device” to figure out the rules specific to their native language. He even goes on to assert that there is such a thing as a “Universal Grammar.” For how else did the different languages end up with the same categorization of words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) when there’s an infinite number of ways words can be categorized? We always have nouns, verbs and adjectives.Chomsky’s work represented the “nature” side of the nature-nurture debate, while the Behaviorists account for language as part of “nurturing.”Of course, because of its sweeping and seemingly simplistic assertions, Chomskys theory has its own set of strong dissenters. Let’s talk about them next.3) Cognitive Theory (Jean Piaget)Your churning brain might already be asking any number of questions:“So what proof do we have for this ‘language acquisition device’? Where in the brain is it located? Can we see it in action?”“Have we studied all the languages of the world to conclude that there is indeed ‘Universal Grammar’?”These and other queries prompted a different approach to the whole question of language acquisition. And as is often the case, subsequent theories, like new kids on the block, often point out the weaknesses of those that came before them.Chomsky’s theory did that to Behaviorism, and in turn, those that follow will try to fill in the gaps. And instead of taking a side on the nature-nurture debate, the cognitive theory of language acquisition recognizes that both processes have their roles to play.The psychologist Jean Piaget is a major proponent of this cognitive model, which sees language acquisition in light of the developing mental capacities. The idea here is that were able to learn language because of our ability to learn. It’s because of our cognitive development. Our brains become more complex, and we learn so many things so fast.Babies initially don’t talk because their brains and mental capacities still lack the experience and scaffolding necessary for language. But as babies grow, as they interact with adults, as they gain more experience, as they observe more things and as they learn more concepts, language becomes the inevitable result.Piaget believed that the understanding of concepts must first come before language. When a child says, “Ball is red,” he must first understand what a ball and the color red are before he can comment.So if you notice how language develops, it follows the complexity of our thinking. The more nuanced and layered our thinking, the more textured the language that comes out. That’s why children talk o ne way, and adults talk a different way.In this model, language is seen as part of our advancing mental capacitiesâ€"alongside our ability to reason or to think in the abstract. We are rational beings, information processors that interact and learn from experience.Those are three of the most influential theories on language acquisition. Each has its merits and each gives a certain view of how we learn language. Needless to say, more research and study is needed on the topic. There’s still so much to discover, and so much to learn in this area of linguistics.When we say “language acquisition,” what is it exactly that we acquire? Well, we now go to the next section to find out.The 5 Characteristics of a LanguageHere we get into the nitty-gritty of languages, and look under the hood to see their basic components.We need to meet the things that animate languages, behind the scenes, in order to have a proper appreciation of them. I’m talking here about the five characteristics of a language: syntax, semantics, phonology, morphology and pragmatics. Whatever language you’re considering, it has them. And they work awesomely with each other, as youll see.1. SyntaxSyntax is really just another word for grammar. Languages are governed by rules. Without them, language would be a jumbled mess of words, phrases and concepts that would be very difficult to understand and therefore barely useful.Each language has a specified arrangement of words and phrases. Because of the specific ways the elements are arranged, we can decipher meaning and understand each other. Syntax doesn’t exist so that Grammar Nazis can oppress those who don’t know the codified rules. Grammar is there to facilitate meaning and help us communicate the correct information or message to each other.Without syntax, we’d have sentences like: Robert Susan killed dog the pet of.Whoa, what happened in this sentence? Who killed whom?Without a consistent arrangement of words, we can never figure it out.2. SemanticsSemantics is all about meaning in a languageâ€"what words, phrases and sentences actually mean. Semantics works hand in hand with syntax because different arrangement of words can create different meanings. For example, we have a sentence:“She tapped him on the shoulder.”Let’s say we’ll insert the word “only” somewhere in the statement. Notice how this changes the whole meaning and complexion of the statement, depending on where exactly we place a single word.Only  she tapped him on the shoulder. (Nobody else did.)She only tapped him on the shoulder. (She didn’t punch him.)She tapped only  him on the shoulder. (Nobody else got a similar treatment.)She tapped him only  on the shoulder. (Not on his head or anywhere else.)She tapped him on the only  shoulder. (What sort of a man is this?!)Meaning can change depending on how you arrange specific words. And not only that, meaning can also change depending on the form of individual words. Let’s talk about that next.3. MorphologyMorphology is about the form of words. Its best observed in the written form of a language. Change in form often brings with it a change in meaning.Root wordsâ€"the most basic word formsâ€"can be decorated with a bunch of prefixes and suffixes to form new words, each with a different meaning. A single root word can give birth to many new words, and that’s where the linguistic fun begins.Take the root word “drive.”Add “r” at the end and you have “driver.” From a verb, your word has become a noun, a person.Next, add s to your newly formed word and you have “drivers.” Youve just performed magic and cloned a lone person by using the plural form of the word.Change “i” to “o” and you have “drove.” From a verb in the present tense, you introduced a time change and turned it into a past tense.You can do many things with the root word “drive” and come up with new words like:drivendrivingdriveabledriveabilityoverdrivemicrodriveAnd so on .That’s what morphology is all about. Different meanings come from different word forms. Speaking of forms, when spoken, each of these new words will inevitably sound different. That’s what the next language characteristic is all about.4. PhonologyPhonology is the study of linguistic sounds. And if ever you want to be considered fluent in your target language, you have to be very familiar with the intonations, stresses, pauses, dips and tones of the language.To sound like a native speaker, you have to pronounce words, phrases and sentences like they do. There are specific sounds and sound patterns that exist in a language. For example, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese have rolling “R’s” that give some English speakers a heck of a time.In languages like Italian, you oftentimes only need to look at how a word is spelled (morphology) in order to know how it should be pronounced. In other words, in those languages there’s a close correspondence between the language’s writte n form and its spoken form. In the case of French, though, you’d practically have to be dead drunk with French wine to figure out how to correctly pronounce “houx.”  You can stare at it all day long, but those silent letters won’t speak to you.5. PragmaticsSpeaking of silence, the next linguistic characteristic deals with that part of the language that isnt spoken. This is sort of the wink-wink, nudge-nudge aspect of a language.Because language happens in a specific context, we can actually be ambiguous and still deliver perfectly clear communication. We can go beyond the literal and structural forms of the language. We can say one thing and actually mean another.Pragmatics is concerned with how meaning is negotiated between speaker and listener. When your boss, after reading your submitted proposal, tells you, “This won’t work. Go back to square one,” you begrudgingly know what he means. You don’t take his words literally and look for “square one.” You start aga in.Or when you’re hours late for a date with your wife and she asks you, “Do you know what time it is?” you know better than to give her the exact time. You know a rhetorical question when you hear one.Pragmatics lends languages levity, so we don’t get stuck with being so literal all the time. You know you’re fluent in a language when you understand idiomatic expressions, sarcasm and the like.Now that we know about the five characteristics of languages, we get to the four modalities in which language acquisition can be judged: listening, speaking, reading and writing.The Four Language SkillsHow do you know if or when you’ve acquired a language?That’s a very difficult question to answer. It’s not an either-or kind of thing. When you get down to it, language acquisition isnt a dichotomy but rather a continuum, and language learners stand at various stages of acquisition.And to make things a little bit more complicated, there are four basic language modalities or skills involved: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Theyre closely related, but still clearly different. You may have thought of “language acquisition” in terms of speaking ability, but it’s just one of four competencies considered.Lets look at them.ListeningWe know that listening is the first language skill to be developed. Before babies can even talk, read or write, theyve already logged in serious hours listening. They listen to how their parents talk, to the intonations and pauses, and take their cues as to the speaker’s emotions.Babies have this “silent phase” when they simply give you those cute bright eyes. No words are spoken. But you know something is happening inside those brains because one day, they just start babblingâ€"something unintelligible at first, then gradually moving into their first words, like wooden sculptures slowly arising from individual blocks of wood.Listening has often been mistaken for a passive activity, where you just sit there and orie nt your ears to the audio. You can even sleep if you want to. But nothing is farther from the truth.To listen effectively, you actually have to lend your focus and be actively into it because you should be listening for specific things. What things? You’re going to be listening for intonations, motivations, emotions, accents and the natural flow of sound.A language has a specific musicality unique to it. It’s not just about vocabulary. To be fluent, you need to be aware not only of the words but also of the sounds of those words. And the only way you can hone this skill is by investing the time by listening to both authentic sources and study materials.You can for example use an audio-based study program like Pimsleur. Listen to it on your commute. For authentic material, you can get podcasts produced by your target language’s native speakers. Even YouTube offers a lot of native speaker content. (Just because you’re listening doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to audi o.)At first, you don’t really need to go for complete comprehension of what you’re listening to. Heck, you don’t even need to work out the individual words. Close your eyes and consciously notice the dips and rises of the tone. Notice for example how the tone evolves from the beginning of a sentence to how it ends.You have to invest time in this. That is, you do if you want to sound like a native speaker.SpeakingSpeaking is probably what you think of when we mention “language acquisition.” It is, after all, the most vivid proof of your linguistic chops. There’s nothing like speaking fluent Mandarin to impress a dateâ€"never mind that what you actually said was the equivalent of “Wheres the bathroom?”Ironically, although speaking may be the end goal for many language learners, many devote very little study time to it. Many learners instead dive deep into vocabulary and grammar. Hey, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it. This is what I’m saying: Vocabulary helps on all frontsâ€"listening, speaking, reading and writingâ€"but it doesn’t score a frontal hit on the main goal of speaking.You know what directly hits this target? Actually speaking the language, all tongue-twisting be damned!To learn how to speak a language, you practice speaking it. Perhaps unintelligibly at first, like a novice swimmer awkwardly flailing appendages in the water, but gradually getting there.Speaking is a physical phenomenon, so you need to actually practice getting your vocal ensembleâ€"your tongue, mouth, teeth and palateâ€"to move the way native speakers move theirs. You need to feel what it’s like saying those words. You need to hear yourself speak. You need to open your mouth. And often. All the time. There’s just no way around it.The thing that stops language learners is that there’s always something else to learn before the talking. You don’t want to mess it up, so you think you need to perfectly know the requisite grammar and techniques before you e ver open your mouth. But that’s really an excuse not to be embarrassed. Even when we’re totally alone, we’re embarrassed that somebody from far away might hear us butcher the pronunciation of a single word.Babies don’t have those hangups. They babble away, butchering their mother tongues all day long, while their egos remain intact. Is it even a wonder why they acquire the language?ReadingBeing able to read in a second language  opens up a whole world of literature to you.Imagine being able to read and understand the classics in their original languages. Imagine being able to read “The Three Musketeers” in the original French or Dante’s Divine Comedy in the original Italian. There’s just nothing like a helping of those works in the language in which they were written because there are some things that just can’t be adequately translated.Thankfully, all your time studying vocabulary and grammar rules all works in favor of reading comprehension.In addition, you can g radually build your comprehension prowess by starting off with dual-language books. These are books that give you a line-by-line translation of the story. You can compare and contrast the languages as you go along.Next in this build-up would be the children’s books in the target language only. Children’s books would be easy enough for you to read. Choose stories you’re familiar with so you can do away with the plot guessing and focus on learning.And remember, just to practice moving your mouth in the target language, try reading aloud the text in front of you. That way, you’re hitting two birds with one stone.WritingMany consider the ability to write in another language the apex of language acquisition. Maybe they’re thinking about writing in terms of epic volumes, academic in nature, read and revered by one generation and the next.Here we’re talking about writing in more prosaic terms.Writing, in many respects, can actually be easier than speaking the target language. W ith the written form, language learners actually have a visible record in front of them. Written texts are more malleable than spoken words. You can scratch written texts, reorder them and correct their tenses and conjugations.Again, vocabulary and grammar training help a lot to build this skill.In addition, you can practice write by doing short paragraphs on things like:My Perfect DayMy Secret HobbyWhy I love “Terminator 3”Your work may not become a fixture in the language classes of the future, but the cool thing about writing is that the more you write, the better you become at expressing yourself in the target language. This inevitably helps in honing the other communication skills, like speaking on the fly, understanding content written by others and listening to native material.Now you know a lot about language acquisitionâ€"from the theories about it, to the differences between native language and second language acquisition, to the five characteristics of languages and t he four linguistic skills to hone. I’m hoping that, if anything, this piece has sparked more interest and desire in you to learn the languages of the world.We at FluentU are ever ready to extend a helping hand in that journey of discovery.Happy learning!