[The LangLearner Methodology]

Until recently, the fundamentals of learning a language revolved around a concrete foundation of grammar. Language instruction was based on teaching the complex concepts of sentence construction, singular and plural forms, gender agreements, verb conjugation, and tenses. However, recent linguistic research has indicated that building an extensive vocabulary first is more effective in creating a strong foundation for a language.

Consider how you learned English as a child. Before constructing sentences with subjects, verbs, adjectives with appropriate agreements and conjugations, you simply reached for the juice cup and exclaimed, “juice!” Your mother may have corrected you, prompting you to complete the sentence, “May I have some juice?”.

At this point, you either repeated her words verbatim or missed a few sounds somewhere within the sentence. You learned “juice” before learning “have juice” or “I have some juice”. Learning important words first can significantly improve your focus when graduating to more complex material, as you are already confident in understanding the central focus of the phrase. In addition, not knowing the word for something in your new language will render your ability to create the appropriate “surrounding phrase” useless. For example, if you need to buy some ice, but you don’t know how to say ice, knowing the words for “I need to buy some…” will not get you very far.

LangLearner offers over 3,000 words and phrases in flashcard form, allowing users to see an appropriate image, hear the word in both native and target languages, and see the word in both languages. Practicing words as flashcards will build this vocabulary, and many of the words you’ll learn with LangLearner are also presented within relevant phrase flashcards. LangLearner provides the strong foundation of vocabulary that is necessary for the ongoing journey of becoming fluent in a new language.