For most people, the web has grown to be essential. Could anyone contemplate modern society without it? It is far too hard to comprehend. Things that have died out might still exist, things that exist might never have come to exist if it was not for the online world.

Lots of people use the Internet for staying in contact with friends, Internet shopping, playing online games and so on. When referring to learning, and the sharing of information, the net has completely revolutionized the language learning process. There are hundreds of languages to study: from Spanish to Vietnamese and Hindi to Swahili. The web is increasingly establishing itself as a necessity to learning languages.

Anyone can use the web in countless ways to help you learn a foreign language. There are a lot of online translation tools. A few years ago, these online translation services were rather unreliable. Many learners seeking an easy way out of tasks would try and use translation services only for them to unknowingly return mangled translations. Translating tools have seriously improved - especially for translating languages into English. You may even be able to hear your translation in the foreign language. Online translation services may also offer translation of webpages with browser toolbars. The art in using an online translator is not to expect too much. Sure it will be able to translate isolated words, sentences and maybe even complete paragraphs. But the accuracy rate will go down as the word count increases. So much meaning is conveyed in the pragmatics - the intention of your words, no the literal meaning. Online translation tools cannot pick up on this meaning so you need need to watch this carefully.

Apart from using online translators, there is plenty of resource material online. Whether you are just learning the basics or a high level learner, there is bound to be some online tasks for you. A lot of language websites even feature genuinely fun interactive flash games that will help make studying fun. A dictionary is a great technique to acquire vocabulary (the harder it is to learn a word, the more energy you put in results in a greater chance of remembering that word later), unfortunately they are often also quite expensive. Many language learning websites feature free online dictionaries which work nicely. These are often faster compared to browsing through dictionaries as well ( furthermore, some foreign language dictionaries may not be organized in alphabetical order like English versions).

Furthermore, exposing yourself to the vocabulary you are learning as much as possible is a fantastic method of picking up a few words here and there. The web's love of all things media lends itself well to foreign language learning - why not watch a foreign language television show, listen to music from singers from a different country or read a foreign language newspaper (or try to!). This is really fun!

The evolution of the web's web 2.0 is all about social communication and interaction with and/or through the Internet. Social communities dominate net usage and the number of users continues to increase day by day. Advances in technology mean we can now blog from our phone. So, why not seek out a people who are also learning foreign languages - or better yet find people who are native speakers? Maybe you can help them learn English and they can offer some help in return. There are plenty of social networks specifically for language learning.

Last but not least, use the net to organize your foreign language learning and time more effectively. Text books can be fantastic but others can become confusing. Using the Internet anyone can take charge of their studying and organize it to facilitate effective and easy learning. You can sign up for social book marking tools that allow you to bookmark your favorite online language resources so you can access them from anywhere and at any time. No matter where you are, if you can access the Internet you will be able to spend a few minutes learning. The more exposure people have to a language, the quicker they will pick up words and grammar rules. You can also use a customisable homepage which will allow you to bookmark your favorite language learning resources and websites in one website.

This is not to say that traditional techniques for language learning are redundant. Taking classes, working with text books and practising are still key approaches to language learning. However, the Internet offers a richer and more varied approach to language learning. Having access to rich resources such as videos, online dictionaries and even classes means language learning is more fun which in turn means people will hopefully learn quicker.