Create a Language Learning Habit

It takes more than just studying to become fluent in another language. You can memorize vocab and grammar until you’re blue in the face, but to actually be fluent, the language needs to become a part of your lifestyle. We do this by creating language learning habits.

How to Form a Habit

How you form your language learning habit is going to depend on many personal factors like your goals, time, motivation, and resources, but there are some simple guidelines you can follow to ensure you’re successfully creating your habit. If you are practicing every day, you can train your brain to form a language learning habit and improve your fluency.

21/90 Day Habit Building Theory

There’s a theory that it takes between 21 and 90 days to establish a habit. So if you practice your new language every day using the same modality, like a specific app or journaling, you can make that practice a habit. That habit will move you closer toward fluency as that language become more & more natural in your life.

A bit about the 21 day theory:

Dr. Maxwell Maltz discovered that it took his patients a minimum of 21 days to adjust to changes in their physical appearance after surgery which was compared to forming a habit.

It’s important to note here that, the way this theory was developed, these changes were permanent all day - every day medical changes. It would not be reasonable to expect to create a simple habit like practicing your new language every day for 15 minutes to feel like a natural part of your lifestyle that fast. It would be reasonable to experience a noticeable improvement in a language after a 21 day immersion program in your target language where you use the language all day - every day. The key here is to hold your perspective around not just how often you practice but for how long and in what context.

The 90 day theory, however, can be effective for building a habit with a routine as simple as practicing for 15 minutes every day. It’s long enough for (1) those 15 minutes to add up to a significant amount of practice time - 1350 minutes or 22.5 hours - and (2) the act of practicing daily for short periods gives your brain time to process new information and use what you learn over time which helps it to become part of your long-term memory. We need this automatic recall ability to use what we know without having to think about it to become fluent which we develop by practicing over many months.

40 Day Habit Formation

The 40 day approach goes way back to spiritual & religious contexts and is rooted in psychological research showing how this amount of time allows us to reprogram our brains. Let’s start by taking a look at how the number 40 has shown up in history, religion, research:

Let’s start with the significance of the number 40. Whether you’re religious or not, it’s fascinating how often this number shows up:

The rain of the Great Flood – the Great Deluge – lasted 40 days and nights.
Moses fasted for 40 days and nights to prepare himself to receive the Law.
Moses was atop Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights receiving the Law.
The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years after fleeing the Egyptians.
The Manna rained down on the Israelites for 40 years.
The Prophet Elijah walked 40 days and nights to reach the Mountain of God, Horeb.
Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights to prepare for His public ministry.
Jesus Ascended into Heaven 40 days after His glorious Resurrection from the dead.
From Christmas Day to the Presentation (February 2) is 40 days.
The human gestation period for new life is around 40 weeks.
(The Fathers of Mercy)
Psychology researchers have found that personality can be changed through handwriting exercises over a period of 40 days.
In physiology, our skin cells on average take 40 days to renew, our red blood cells start dying from 40 days onwards and sperm count can be increased in 40 days.
As with many other cultures and religions around the world, including Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism, in China a new mother is confined to her home for 40 days after she has given birth. According to Chinese culture after the birth of a child the mother is at her weakest. She therefore stays at home whilst female members of the family take care of her and the child.
(Huffpost)
3ho (kundalini yoga) explains how a 40 day Sadhana practice is used to build a habit and the experience of committing it from start to finish.

The number 40 keeps showing up and continues to be a popular length of time for committing to new routines to form new habits. It’s a good length of time to plan for because it’s long enough to allow your mind & body to adjust to the changes of the new routine but short enough to avoid overwhelm that can be associated with creating a new habit.

Direct application for language learning:

Just as you would do for the 21/90 day habit building theory, you’ll practice every day for 40 days using one specific strategy like an app or journaling. Of course, you can do more than this, but it’s important to use the same strategy each day for habit building, even it’s only 15 minutes a day. You’re training yourself to become a better language learner but not necessarily becoming fluent in this amount of time. Instead, you’re gradually building the skills you need to need to become fluent over time.

When Habits Become Lifestyle

When your habits become a part of your lifestyle, you’re probably pretty close to becoming fluent. You’ve likely tried many habit building strategies, tips, methods and come to realize that you now have a style of your own. It might be a combination of these or something else entirely. It doesn’t much matter. What matters is that you stuck with it. You stuck with your language learning through the difficulties, frustrations, and all the times you wanted to quit. You’re approaching fluency because you decided you were going to do it & you found a way.