Language notebooks are great. Bullet journals are great. Combine the two together and you’ve got something that’s borderline fabulous.
Or at least has the potential to be. Journals for language learning are as good as the content inside. And since content is structured by layouts, you need some solid spreads to guide your language journey.
The spreads I’ve collected for this article are a mix of motivational, educational, and aesthetically pleasing. These journal layouts are good for language learners of all levels– beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
A language journal with these spreads will totally upgrade your whole self-study routine. Journals are engaging ways of holding yourself accountable and actively working towards your goals. They can be structured however you want them to be and they’re arguably the only language learning tool that is 100% personalized to the learner.
Technically, there is no wrong way to set up your language journal. There are inefficient ways to. Definitely ineffective ways to. But as long as they further your language acquisition process in an interactive manner, they’re doing their job.
I don’t want you to go into setting up your language journal blindly though. They can be so useful if you know the correct spreads to include. If you don’t have a bullet journal already, grab a hand-designed journal available on Amazon here.
Or check out my self-designed language journals with multilingual covers and strong boss babes depicted. Latin languages, European languages, African languages, Central American Languages, and more represented.
You can also grab some matching stickers to really make your language study sessions fun.
All these designs are also available as printables on Etsy. Any support means the world to me and allows me to continue sharing content with you lovelies.
For some help getting started with a language journal, check out:
- The Smart way to bullet journal to speed up language learning
- 10 ways to NEVER run out of ideas for your language learning bullet journal
- 10 things you NEED to include in your Language Journal (for maximum memory!)
Here’s a quick list of supplies to get you started with your language journal:
Now on to the list! Keep in mind all these images are clickable and will take you back to their original source, unless their originally mine, of course 🙂 (Unprofessional to include an emoticon in a blog post? I think not.)
1.
What this spread includes:
- Practice Speaking Monthly Tracker
- Practice Writing Monthly Tracker
- Duolingo Daily Monthly Tracker
- Learn New Vocabulary Words Monthly Tracker
- Listen to music/ Watch a movie Monthly Tracker
The image displays German, but this spread can obviously be used for any language.
2.
What this spread includes:
- Checkpoint Trackers for Units in your Target Language
- Alphabet, Phrases, Basics, etc.
Again, the image displays Korean but this journal spread can be used for any language. If you are learning Korean though, make sure you check out Top 20 Korean TV shows & Movies Free with Amazon Prime.
3.
What this spread includes:
- Duolingo Tracker
- Structured by modules and crown levels
- Includes Checkpoints
4.
What this spread includes:
- Duolingo Tracker
- Structured by modules and crown levels
- Compact design
5.
What this spread includes:
- One word a day
- Monthly Layout
Keep in mind that if you’re learning more than one word per day, you would just choose either your favorite word or the most “important” word you learned on any given day!
6.
What this spread includes:
- Progress Tracker
- Podcasts Section
- Online Resources Section
- YouTubers list
- Grammar Checklist
7.
What this spread includes:
- Practice Speaking Monthly Tracker
- Practice Writing Monthly Tracker
- Duolingo Monthly Tracker
- Homework Monthly Tracker
- Watch a movie / TV Show Monthly Tracker
- Vocab: One word a day
8.
What this spread includes:
- What I studied Daily
- Monthly Layout
- Percent Fluency Section
9.
What this spread includes:
- Vocabulary lists categorized by word type
- Double Page Spread
10.
What this spread includes:
- Duolingo Tracker
- Organized by Modules
- Filled in by Crown Levels
- Divided by Checkpoints
11.
What this spread includes:
- Study Time Tracker
- Monthly Layout
- 1-hour segments
This spread should be personalized by the amount of time you normally spend learning your target language daily.
12.
What this spread includes:
- Doodle Page
- Visual Depictions of each vocabulary term
13.
What this spread includes:
- Words and their opposites
- Think: “Hateful” and “Loving”, “Scorching” and “Freezing”, etc.
14.
What this spread includes:
- Forgotten Vocabulary Spread
- All words you’ve forgotten
- Flashcard style
15.
What this spread includes:
- A mind map for language learning
- Can demonstrate any topic
- Displays associations and related words
15.
What this spread includes:
- Grammar Daily Tracker
- Listening Daily Tracker
- Reading Daily Tracker
- Writing Daily Tracker
- Monthly layout
16.
What this spread includes:
- An Anki Tracker (Popular Flashcard Language Learning App — seriously if you haven’t already tried it, you seriously should!)
- Amount of cards studied
- Amount of time they were studied in
- Number of cards you learned
- Number of cards you relearned
- Number of cards you reviewed
- Monthly layout
All of this info can be accessed daily from Anki’s statistics dashboard.
17.
What this spread includes:
- Duolingo tracker organized by modules, crown levels, and checkpoints
- Simplified Layout
18.
What this spread includes:
- Color-Coded Labeling system for tracking
- Daily Study
- Daily Reading
- Daily Writing
- Daily Watching
- Daily Listening
- Daily Talking
- Key system for labeling multiple languages
- “K” for Korean, “F” for French, “S” for Spanish, and so on
The best spread on this list for students learning multiple languages.
19.
What this spread includes:
- “Mini” Goal Tracker
- Date created
- Mini goal
- Date achieved
- Any Time Duration!
20.
What this spread includes:
- Daily Language Tracker
- 4 Objectives
- Time allotted to each objective
- Whether the learning method for each objective was passive or active
- How effective the study period was for each objective
- A space to reflect on how the day’s study period went as a whole
Before you’re off on your creative journey
If you benefited from this article, then you’ll love 10 effective ways to organize your language notes!
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No worries if you’re learning another language though! Rocket Languages offers online language courses that are simple, powerful, and effective. Devised using the strategies polyglots use, their award-winning courses are designed to get you using your new language quickly, correctly, and confidently.
The languages that they offer courses in include:
For other languages, I strongly recommend Innovative Languages. Native taught courses & podcasts available for both free and paid subscriptions.
Before you head off on your language journey– I want us to stay in contact with one another. Us language learners have to stick together right?
My language craziness expands to multiple platforms so you can also find me cranking out polyglot inspiration on Instagram and Pinterest. Don’t hesitate to direct message me or comment on one of my posts! I’d love to get to know you beyond this blog.
Aside from that fun, if you’re still here then I want to make sure you don’t miss out on your free language learning toolkit.
All exclusive content curated specifically for atypical language learners looking to make the language acquisition process as fun and unconventional as possible.
Equipped with a 4-week checklist, 100 fun learning ideas, the keys to a “naturally simple” approach, a rapid acquisition 2-week plan, and science-based guides to creating a language journal you love. All straight to your inbox. And trust me– I never spam.
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Keep learning languages my friend! And I look forward to seeing you again real soon.
Make sure to snag your copy of the Masterguide to color coding for maximum foreign language memory retention!
A full guide to efficiently color-coding your foreign language notes and language journal. Guides you in how to color code different kinds of adjectives, nouns, phrases, and more. The guide addresses both ink colors and highlighter colors and provides science-backed research on which colors are most effective for memory retention. These color-based memory hacks will translate over into all kinds of note-taking. You’ll never go into blindly highlighting your notes again and you’ll be the smartest note-taker in your class. Impress your friends and upgrade your whole self-study routine with just one guide. Priced at less than 1 cup of coffee for a lifetime of colorful knowledge. The questions this guide answers include:
- What colors are the most effective?
- How can you ensure optimum contrast in your notes?
- What are the emotional arousing affects of different colors?
- Black vs. Colored Ink. Which is more effective?
- What are the benefits of different colors?
- Green vs. Red vs. Blue
- How to properly integrate color into your language journal/note-taking routine?
- The SMART way to label adjectives
- The SMART way to label nouns
Hey! Someone in my Facebook group shared this website with us so I came to check it out.
I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers!
Excellent blog and brilliant design.