Although nothing can take the place of in-country language instruction, there are a few practices new language students can implement to increase their pace of foreign language comprehension. The beauty of totally immersing yourself in another language is that your written, auditory and oral skills are forced to operate in that new language. Lacking this benefit of living abroad, you must then create the illusion of total immersion. Improve your writing skills, for example, by attempting to write everything in the language of study. Start first with simple lists like to-do and grocery lists.
Lists are perfect for beginning students because there are no sentence structures to perfect.
You simply need to look up the word in the language dictionary and jot it down next to the English equivalent. Each new list means new words, but also repeats from prior weeks. Soon enough you'll begin to remember the foreign equivalent without the aid of a dictionary. Intermediate students can graduate to more complicated thought formations. If you are a journal writer, take one paragraph to express your thoughts in your new language.