Using Twitter for Learning a Language

Twitter is no exception when using social media in innovative ways of learning a language. While Twitter does not replace a language teacher and has it's own shortcomings, it can be a great addition to online tools when used properly.

You will be able to find people who tweet in a multitude of languages. Finding a right group of people to follow will enhance your learning experience.

Is learning a language with twitter for you?

Probably twitter is not the best tool to learn a new language when you are a beginner. Because of the 140 character limits, people use abbreviations, shortcuts, and even develop a twitter language which you will not find in any other situations. Twitter will be more useful if you are familiar with Twitter terminology in your own language at least, and you can understand the alterations in other languages which you are planning to learn on Twitter.

Join or follow conversations related to your interests

First, find the people that you are interested to follow. The best way to start out is to go to search.twitter.com and type in a couple of words in the language you would like to learn, which is related to your interests. The list of results will show you many people who are talking about your interest, in the language you would like to learn. If you like what they are talking about, join the conversation, or even follow them.

Make sure that you don't just follow anybody who has one tweet that you are interested in. While following for this reason is not a problem in itself, soon you will find that you are following more people that you can keep track of. Select who you want to follow carefully for a more positive experience. Different people have a different idea about how many people they should follow, but it mostly depends on
your interest, and the time you have to devote to Twitter. Some are perfectly content with tracking 20 people, others can easily keep track of hundreds.

Ask questions

Learning a language is one of those things that will always prompt you to ask questions, either because you are trying to understand a new concept in grammar, or you would like to learn a new word or expression. Twitter is one of those places where you can just shout into cyber space, somebody will answer your questions. If you would like to know how to translate an expression into another language, or you read something you don't understand, just ask away. Chances are that somebody will come across your question and will answer you. You might not even follow that person yet. This might be an opportunity to make new relationships.

But remember, it is always a two-way thing. Some help you, and you should help others. When you see questions on Twitter that you know the answer for, jump in with your answer. This is what makes this community work.

Are you using Twitter to learn a language

If you have any experiences using twitter for language learning, share it with us by leaving a comment below.