When studying a language in your free time outside of class, which activities give you the most results? The best ROI? (return on investment). - Watching movies or TV shows? - Listening to podcasts? - Reading books? - Reading social media in the target language? - Studying grammar books? - Socializing by using the target language? - Writing to practice output? - Trying to think in the target language? And do you practice "active listening" (100% focus) or "passive listening" (half focused half busy with something else like house chores etc)? For me it is "active listening" to movies & TV shows in my target language. That means 100% focus on listening to the dialogue in the movie or TV show and then quickly glancing down at the subtitles in my first language just so it can give me some context to understand new words. Sometimes I also pause a lot as I go through the movie or TV show, it helps to learn more in detail. But sometimes playing the movie or TV show full speed helps in other ways, building sharper listening skills. If I do "passive listening" (which means half doing the housework and half listening to the podcast/movie etc) I really don't learn much at all, the "ROI" is low for me It would be interesting to hear everyone's thoughts about active & passive listening :)