What should the most essential skills of a good foreign language learner be?

I have been reflecting much more upon my teaching practices and beliefs. Moreover, I have been experimenting new approaches and techniques in order to make my students learn English more effectively.

I’m an EFL teacher and (occasional) translator with years of travel and language learning experience. I do have a huge passion for language learning – Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French (in the near future). Therefore, it is needless to say that I have lots of experience in teaching and learning – I have been teaching English for more than a decade and not only am I studying English, but also Spanish (okay, if it is unnecessary to say, why say it?).

At first glance, we can say that everyone can learn a new or foreign language, but students’ abilities may differ enormously depending on their background, age, beliefs, abilities… 

Some of those ‘late-coming students’ and all sort of learners – kinesthetic, logical, musical, spatial, Linguistic…

I wholeheartedly agree that everyone can learn whatever he or she wants to, but learning languages might be a real challenge for some people.

Thinking about everything I have just said, what should the most essential skills of a good foreign language learner be?

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