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How to teach yourself linguistics online for free

Wish you were enrolled in an intro linguistics class this semester? Starting a linguistics major and looking for extra help? Trying to figure out whether you should study linguistics and what comes after?  Whether you’re just trying to grasp the basics of linguistics or you’re trying to construct a full online linguistics course, here’s a comprehensive list of free linguistics websites, podcasts, videos, blogs, and other resources from around the internet: 

Linguistics Podcasts

Specific episodes:

The International Phonetic Alphabet and vowels

Constituency

Gricean Maxims and presuppositions

Kids These Days aren’t ruining language

Learning languages linguistically

Phonemes and palatalization

Prepositions, determiners, verbs

Morphemes and the wug test

Why do we gesture when we talk?

Syllables

Podcasts in general:

Lingthusiasm

The History of English Podcast

Talk the Talk

Lexicon Valley

The World in Words

A Way With Words

Vocal Fries

Linguistics Videos

Modular topics:

NativLang (cartoons)

The Ling Space

Tom Scott’s Language Files

Arika Okrent (whiteboard videos)

Structured video series like an online course:  

Introduction to Linguistics (TrevTutor)

Another intro linguistics series (DS Bigham)

Phonology (TrevTutor)

Mathematical linguistics (TrevTutor)

Syntax (TrevTutor)

Another syntax series following the chapter structure of a free online syntax textbook (Caroline Heycock)

The Virtual Linguistics Campus at Marburg University

“Miracles of Human Language” (on Coursera from Leiden University)

Blog posts

General

How much do I need to know before taking intro linguistics? (Spoiler: not much) 

28 tips for doing better in your intro linguistics course

How to find a topic for your linguistics essay or research paper

For typesetting linguistics symbols: What is LaTeX and why do linguists love it? (with sample LaTeX doc to download and modify).

An open access intro linguistics textbook, all freely available online

Further linguistics resources about specific areas, such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, language acquisition (first/second), historical linguistics, neurolinguistics, prescriptivism. 

Phonetics & Phonology

How to make your own paper model of the larynx

Teaching phonetics using lollipops

How to remember the IPA vowel chart

How to remember the IPA consonant chart

IPA transcription practice

A detailed explanation of sonorants, obstruents, and sonority

A very elaborate Venn diagram of English phonological features

The basics of how Optimality Theory works, with coffee analogy

Allophones of /t/, explained with internet gifs

Several good visualizations and explanations of the vocal tract

How to type IPA on your phone (Android and iOS) 

Various ways to type IPA on a computer

Morphology & Syntax

Morphological typology cartoons

So you asked the internet how to draw syntax trees. Here’s why you’re confused.

Types of trees: a sentence is an S, a sentence is an IP, a sentence is a TP

A step-by-step guide to drawing a syntax tree, with gifs

Distributed Morphology

Garden path sentences: how they work, some examples

Structural ambiguity and understanding people in Ipswich

How to draw trees on a computer (TreeForm and phpSyntaxTree) 

Pronoun typology and “the gay fanfiction problem”

The solution to violent example sentences: Pokemon

Semantics & Pragmatics

The difference between epistemic and deontic, necessity and possibility (with bonus modals as Hogwarts houses)

Why learn semantics? Comebacks to annoying people.

Presuppositions, implicature and entailment, and more presuppositions in Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Gricean maxims in Welcome to Night Vale

Scalar implicature and a duck gif

Giving a shit about Negative Polarity Items, NPIs explained using Mean Girls references, and a follow-up on Free Choice Items

The lambda calculus for absolute dummies

The Lambda Calculator (software for practising in Heim & Kratzer style)

Teaching linguistics

Linguistics resources for high school teachers

Teaching linguistics to 9-14 year olds

On writing an IB extended essay in linguistics (& follow-up)

IPA Bingo

IPA Jeopardy and IPA Hangman

Practising syntax trees using cards and string/straws

Find a linguistics olympiad near you!

Editing linguistics Wikipedia articles instead of writing a final paper that no one but the prof will read (see also wikiedu.org)

Academic/career advice

Should you go to grad school in linguistics? Maybe

Figuring out if you actually want to go to linguistics grad school

How to decide which linguistics grad school to go to

How to look for linguistics undergrad programs

How to interact with someone who’s just given a talk

An extensive list of undergrad and/or student-friendly conferences - apply to one near you!

Advice for linguistics profs on increasing enrollment and supporting non-academic careers

Linguistics jobs - a series about careers outside academia

Languages

Linguistic approaches to language learning resource roundup

Will linguistics help with language learning? / Will learning a second language help with linguistics?

The problem with “economically useful” as a reason for language learning

Further link roundups

This list not enough? Try these further masterposts: 

A very long list of linguistics movies, documentaries, and TV show episodes

A list of books (fiction and nonfiction) about linguistics

A comprehensive list of language and linguistics podcasts, from Superlinguo 

A very long list of linguistics YouTube channels and other free online videos about linguistics 

20 linguistics blogs I recommend following

How to explain linguistics to your friends and family this holiday season

I hope every shawol does well on their finals

Weekly Verb

달리다 - To run

Conjugation:

달렸어요 - Past

달려요 - Present

달리고 있어요 - Present progressive

달릴 거예요 - Future

✨The language learning tip you have not heard (works for all written languages)

The tip: Copy down (entire) passages of text

Why it works: You get WRITING SKILLS since you are writing down every word. You become familiar with the spelling, grammar, different writing styles, script (if you are unfamiliar with it), etc. You get READING SKILLS because obviously you are reading, exposed to the written text in context. You can even incorporate SPEAKING and LISTENING SKILLS by listen to the audio format (you can try google translate audio if you find nothing else) and/or read it aloud to yourself. Since you are limited by the speed of your writing, you will pay more attention to pronunciation. *Also, everyone knows you retain more information when you write by hand.*

How to:

1. Select a text. Make sure it is appropriate to your level and desired new vocabulary set. If I want to know more political vocabulary, I will read a news article. But for colloquial language/slang, I will read a YA novel.

(Btw you can find tons of texts for novels online if you search: “title name” + pdf)

2. Get a paper and writing utensil (you can dedicate a notebook to this if you want).

3. Don’t stop until the text is done or your hand hurts

4. Limit looking up vocabulary. If the text is more challenging for you, allow yourself to look up about one word per paragraph. If it is at your level, then wait to the end of the session to open the dictionary. Chances are, you’ll figure out the word’s meaning a few lines later.

4. Go back to the text later to review and/or make vocabulary lists from what you learned (flashcards like anki or memrise would be great especially if you put the sentence on one side with the word indicated and a representative picture on the other side

Ex. Side one: I planted a *rose* today

Side two: picture of a rose in a pot)

**btw I don’t know if this is an “undiscovered” method. I used this to learn spelling and writing structures in my native language when I was little. I would even put the writing right in my picture books**

Integrate Language Learning into your Daily Life: a Handy Guide

Reading

Internet is your friend! Fill your social media feeds with content in your target language: follow blogs you like, news outlets from other countries… The occasional absent-minded scrolling can thus turn into a more productive experience!

Treasure the little things: when I was a kid, I would read literally anything I happened to lay my eyes on… which included cereal boxes at breakfast time. While not overwhelmingly exciting per se, nutritional values, ingredients (and somewhat troubling warnings) often come in more than a language; small occasions like these are more common than you’d think in our daily life, and grabbing them is definitely worth a shot!

Books you know, stating the obvious since 1997: if given the choice between reading a novel in its translated version or in the original language, I usually go for the latter. Goes without saying, but: don’t overdo it. Challenging yourself is great, but if you tackle Crime and Punishment two weeks into learning Russian the whole thing will hardly end up well. Choose books suited to your level that you feel comfortable about, that will neither bore you to death because of their easiness nor drain your vital energy with their killer prose.

Listening

What’s not to love about music, right? Thanks to YouTube (plus numerous streaming services), the average learner has decades of songs from all around the world at their fingertips. Browse through playlists, try different genres, and enjoy a resource you can take with you anywhere!

I was never the type to listen to the radio all that much, but I must say I’ve had to change my mind: many international stations provide web broadcasts that can prove extremely useful in your learning journey.

Needless to say, YouTube is a gold mine: look for interesting content in your target language and enjoy! An additional tip if you want to work on your speaking as well: pause the video every once in a while and try to mimick the pronunciation.

Eavesdropping isn’t normally a habit to be encouraged, but we’ll make an exception for language learning: trying to catch glimpses of conversations half-heard on the bus or while walking around the city can be very stimulating, and is a good way to train your ear.

Watch TV shows and movies. Others are firmly against using subtitles if you’re doing it for learning purposes, but I’ll have to disagree: while I get that it makes you focus less on pronunciation, they can be vital to fight the initial disheartenment that could turn the whole experience into a self-inflicted chore. Depending on your level, I’d suggest you start out with subtitles that are in your native language, then abandon them as soon as possible to move on with subtitles in the target language (and then, when you see it fit, get rid of subtitles entirely).

Writing

This doubles as reading: translate a lot, both from your target language into your native one and the other way around. The object of your translation doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s something that holds some interest for you: songs are usually fast and fun to do (also, check out this website: https://lyricstranslate.com/), but this can be applied to anything, really.

Most people will recommend you try keeping a journal, and I must say I agree. You don’t have to write something every day, but as you start to get the hang of it you’ll find out how useful that can be: having to look for the words to express your very own thoughts effectively will provide you with vocabulary that could be crucial in later interactions.

Chat: Tumblr, discord and Telegram, among others, are good places to find fellow learners, and if you don’t feel like actively studying having a chat in your target language is definitely better than nothing! Besides, you’ll probably end up learning a bunch of useful slang words, plus some essential colloquial expressions that will make you sound more natural.

Speaking

Sing in the shower. Really, do. There’s nothing like a little karaoke session to get a hang of new sounds!

Talk to yourself (preferably when no-one else is around, but ultimately you do you). Pick a random topic and ramble freely. Recording yourself is also a nice trick: you’ll be able to spot the things that don’t sound quite right and work on them with a better focus.

Read aloud, and, once again, record yourself while you do it: you can check out later terms that were new to you (and, if need be, their pronunciation).

Don’t fear the natives! It’s easier said than done, I know, but if you try to grab any opportunity you get to speak your target language the overpowering dread will later give in to a pleasant sense of satisfaction, and you’ll end up looking for a chance to speak far more often than you’d think!

language learning is a never ending path

I signed up for this free Finnish pronunciation course from the website Her Finland and I have gotten a couple of emails from the maker of the course, Varpu. In one part she was speaking about how it can be difficult to learn a language and struggling with that “it’s impossible” feeling and then she wrote this:  “Then I understood that learning a language doesn’t have a finish line. It doesn’t matter if you take a small step or a big leap, you’re always on the path. And the path never ends.” And this just really resonated with me. For a lot of people I think the idea of learning languages has a finish date, that one day we won’t have to look up words or go “huh?” when speaking to a native speaker. But the reality is that we are on a never ending path of learning and that’s kind of cool, because we always get to learn new things. And I think thinking of it as a never ending path rather than a final destination helps relieve some of the pressure of “I’m not doing enough” or “I’m not progressing fast enough” Anyway, this really resonated with me so I thought I’d share it with y’all

it doesn’t matter how long it takes, just keep going, you’re doing great

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