By Hu Wo (Cuckoo’s Song)

There has been a notice­able speech in the world of language that expresses the very importance of language exposure. This is nothing but `Use it or lose it´, which means that someone draws on the language skills he is learning, otherwise he will fail to remember those skills sooner or later for sure.

So, every language learner comes into con­tact with the language which they are studying on a daily basis in one way or another. There is no doubt that language in all its richness and variety — spoken, written, sung or read aloud — still plays a practically essential role in learn­ers’ future route to education. It is common knowledge that even babies already respond better to the language they were exposed to in the womb. A child’s early experience of language is, to my knowledge, considered fundamen­tal to their later success. Thus, the thinking often enters my head that starting early gives children more time to learn and excel. In other words, if a language learn­er spends more time focusing on language earlier on, he is building a strong foundation of linguistic skills that lasts several years to develop. The following are given some of the best ways to language exposure.

1) Going and staying in lan­guage-speaking countries for years

Saya Zaw Gyi once stated that it would be better if anyone who is learning a language has ever lived in the country where that language is spoken for such a long time. His tip on language learning perfectly sounds logical and reasonable with great wis­dom, for language and culture go hand in hand, as so often happens. That is, any language should be learned alongside its native speakers’ culture so as to get hold of the language better than usual. A country’s culture can be easily seen in its market just because the market is the only place in which people from different standards of living get together. Hence, when a language learner is going abroad and living there for a year or so, he ought not to stay indoors only — he will need to go out whenever possi­ble in order to sound himself out about his listening and speaking abilities, trying to talk to as many native speakers as he can meet.

2) Creating a private language learning environment as soon as possible

Unless a learner will be able to go overseas for linguistic study, he needs to create a language learning environment of his own as much as he can. There may be probably put TVs, radios, Bluetooth, bookshelves and oth­er learning aids in the language environment where the Internet or Wi-Fi could also be accessible. Language learners should allow themselves to listen to songs, see movies without subtitles, which of these are widely broadcast on TV and radio, or through the In­ternet and Wi-Fi, read at their leisure, and talk to themselves in the language in their use. Besides, language learning environments would act as an external stimulus to language learning provided, they are neat and tidy or beautiful­ly decorated with flowers and pic­tures. It is absolutely imperative that a language learner enjoy and develop language exposure suc­cess in his learning environment. And it should be remembered per­haps classrooms have become a really enjoyable learning environ­ment of language.

3) Making everyday practical use of language

Since anyone begins studying a language, they must have had it in mind to be able to apply that language again in the future. They should have reached the stage of authentic language application at least, even though they do not arrive at those of language analy­sis, synthesis and evaluation. It is language teachers, writers, trans­lators, interpreters, tour guides, public speakers, scholars and even vocalists who mostly take ad­vantage of language mastery. Of course, someone will never forget a language, which he has learnt, in future so long as the language is utilized in real-life situations daily.

In my view, the day-to-day linguis­tic practice involves not only recap on well-known vocabularies, but expansion and extension of us­ages or expressions. No sooner does memory stop working than it tends to lessen per se; there is little more than a short-term or long-term memory in nature. Also, memory is never inactive _ even worse, it is always leading to the likelihood of forgetting with age in particular. From the point of view of psychology, some words can be memorized simply by read­ing them more than 200 times. It goes, therefore, without saying that language learners must get used to redoing the language by means of functional language.

4) Running a language lecture to learners or taking an inten­sive language course

Language teaching is by far the most prominent way to lin­guistic exposure, including brain­storming, drawing a mind map and critical or logical thinking of language expressions. Actually, language teachers have got to take more notice of pronunciation, short vowels, long vowels, double vowel sounds, voiced consonants, voiceless consonants, final conso­nant sounds, stress, intonation, pauses, linking words, rhythmic patterns, timing and discourse markers for classroom language in accordance with their respon­sibility to provide the maximum linguistic accomplishment of learners. A language completely differs from a subject in theory and practice for the main reason that languages are basic to pub­lic or personal ideas, thoughts, opinions and biases. If and when anybody does not want to deliver a series of language lectures, he can do an intensive course in the lan­guage. But sometimes, both lan­guage teachers and learners are browned off with the language. At that time, they will certainly need a break on the road to language, maybe performing any other linguistic activities like studying another foreign language.

5) Meeting a language learn­ing partner

In order not to lack an extrin­sic motivation for language, all learners should have got at least one linguistic partner that may be one of their close friends with lan­guage fever or a native speaker. The learners need not be too shy or afraid to study language wheth­er their language partners might have done a higher degree in the language. Furthermore, it is best if they keep a regular appointment online or outdoors, for instance, for thirty minutes over a day. By doing that, linguistic learners will definitely triumph over their behavioural issues, emotional impairments and mother tongue barriers with respect to language in the not-too-distant future. Most importantly, the only language in the study must be used while they are in touch with each other. They would go into a crucial head-start that gives their life-long benefits via language thanks to learning partners. They could even have additional private coaching and tutoring from language partners. Then, their linguistic experience will appreciably be improving greater and wider than before.

6) Reading books only in language for study by native writers if necessary

Books, needless to say, take a vital aspect of rich language exposure since written language oftentimes includes a broader, more nuanced and more detailed vocabulary than everyday spoken language. This can in turn help in­crease readers’ range and depth of expression concerning language.

It will cause a widening linguistic achievement gap between now and before for language learners as well. The priority should be to pursue an independent interest in and familiarity with the books of their favourite so that they must be able to expand their vocabu­laries, extend their usages and then reach the expected read­ing standard, too. In fact, book reading can be picked up very quickly for vocabulary and com­prehension. However, there are no cheap tricks – it is hard work for discernible linguistic benefits. There may be arising individu­al variations in reading appetite and ability; even so, all readers like to get the joy of reading to a greater or lesser degree. Reading is more closely linked to linguis­tic writing competencies as well as the only effective and efficient route to reading for language ex­posure is picking and choosing monolingual books by native au­thors. This is after all central to linguistic reading success. That is why, in general, native writers will have owned more reliability, more validity, and more relevancy as regards language than average ones. It does not matter whether language learners start to read at four or five or six as long as the reading method is appropriate.

Frankly speaking, the more exposure somebody makes to lan­guage, the more essence he can absorb of the language, just for it is probable that the denotation of a language is in more ways than one. To grasp how the language functions, it will take linguistic be­ginners a minimum of six months. I am strongly of the opinion that without careful preparation for language, learners should con­front their top concerns over the language if it gets involved in the path to their coming education. The best formula for lasting lin­guistic success is language ex­posure, language acquisition and language learning included. With the coming of modern technology and linguistic teaching-learning methods, better outcomes of foun­dational language skills or literary skills are frequently obtained by loads of learners. Whichever en­vironment of language learning is, they can manage to immerse themselves in there at their pleas­ure. Not even polyglots could get out of language exposure.