applied linguistics

Author: Tymur LevitinFounder, Director, Senior TeacherLevitin Language School / Start Language School by Tymur Levitin© Tymur Levitin, 2025 Introduction: Fluency Is a Result, Not a Starting Point In modern language education, fluency has become an obsession.Students want to speak fast. Courses promise quick results. Teachers are encouraged to “get learners talking” as early as possible. […]

Many learners describe themselves as “slow”. Slow to understand.Slow to respond.Slow to speak. They assume the problem is memory, age, or talent. Most of the time, it’s none of that. The real issue is mode. Language Has More Than One Thinking Mode Languages do not operate in a single cognitive mode. There is: Both are […]

📌 Article available in other languages: 🇷🇺 Russian version: Понимать грамматику — не значит уметь ею пользоваться 🇺🇦 Ukrainian version: Розуміти граматику — не означає вміти нею користуватися 🇩🇪 German version: Grammatik verstehen bedeutet nicht, sie verwenden zu können 🇪🇸 Spanish version — Entender la gramática no significa saber usarla 🇫🇷 French version — Comprendre […]

Many people believe they don’t speak a foreign language because they lack confidence. That’s only half true. What really stops them is something else:they are waiting to be sure. Sure about the grammar.Sure about the word choice.Sure about correctness.Sure about how it will sound. And while they are waiting, nothing happens. Why Certainty Feels Necessary […]

The Language I Live — Author’s Column by Tymur LevitinLanguage. Meaning. Thinking. For more than twenty years, I have been teaching languages to people of different ages, cultures, professions, and life situations.And during all these years, one idea keeps returning — sometimes quietly, sometimes painfully clearly: Language learning is not really about language. It is […]