Best ways to learn irregular verbs

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There are only about 150 commonly used irregular verbs. Make a list of them, post them in the bathroom, and drill them until you can repeat them fast, accurately and sight unseen. That is as efficient as it can get. I'm not much for games unless my students are children.
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I'm the unregistered person who posted the question. The fact is I find that each of these can serve in different circumstances.

Learning the verbs and their irregular past tenses is something anyone can do: it is just that each person has different methods of memorising, and the games certainly help to make that task less tedious, although as you say it very much depends on the people i

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Trying to 'understand or use correctly' irregular verbs as distinct from regular verbs is an error in effort. There is nothing special to understand about them-- native speakers certainly do not. Considering them a 'barrier' is also an unhelpful approach-- there is no further problem than memorizing the unusual spellings of a couple of hundred verb forms-- in a language that is awash in u

Considering them a barrier is not really a matter of choice. It is a fact. In the same way that if you speak language A and want to communicate with a person who speaks language B, then the lack of knowledge of language B is a barrier to your communication with that person. Similarly, not knowing English irregular verbs is a barrier to fluency in English. However, if you object to the word "barrie

I think language is better learned by real contact with real language than through a quasi-mathematical approach with drills. It seems to me that mistakes are normal in learning, and there is no need to stress students with artificial exercises to master. Personally, I never got a lot out of such drills when I learned foreign languages.

Thanks CJ, I think we are actually saying the same thing. It works best when students see the verbs in context. That's when I use the Dictionary of Irregular Verbs because the quotations provide various different contexts, all of which are real, they are often amusing or fascinating and always interesting, so students tend to forget they are learning irregular verbs, and that's the most effective

KKEESimilarly, not knowing English irregular verbs is a barrier to fluency in English.

It's not a barrier to fluency, and it's not an impediment to communication. My kids are 3 and 5, completely fluent in English, but, like many kids of their age, frequently regularise verbs, both in English and their mother tongue.
Irregularities are just that, irregular

You can take advantage of the similarities in teaching irregular verbs.

bend - bent
build - built
lend - lent
send - sent
spend - spent

sell -sold
tell - told

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You can find a complete list in some grammars. For example, in A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language.

DiamondrgYou can take advantage of the similarities in teaching irregular verbs.

... all the while cautioning about the likes of:
tell - told vs. hold - held and sing - sang vs. bring brought

What is it about "brang"? Most American children quickly learn which irregular verbs don't follow patters, but I hear "I brang" more than any other incorrect verb form! (Well, except "I seen it" which makes me want to scream.)