Language Learning: Your Personal Guide

Chapter 2

The learning process: Your brain, learning type and information acquisition

How does your brain work?

Do not worry! I will not write a scientific essay about your brain. Here are only some basics: the human brain has two halves, left and right. The left half is responsible for logic, structure, analysis and mathematical reasoning. The right half is the creative part, responsible for language, aesthetics, new ideas and artistic expression.

A combination of both would be ideal for language learning. The left half is perfect for grammar rules because of the analytical and structural aspects; the right half is perfect for vocabulary work because of the connections and links.

Far more important, however, is a positive attitude towards learning!

The five steps of learning

Every learning process contains five sequential steps that you must go through one by one. Each step depends on the prior step, so you cannot skip one. If you try to skip one step, for example, the repetition step, you will fail.

These five learning steps are:

Perception of the learning resources

Here it is important to encounter the language itself. You read an article; you see a word list; you open your grammar book, or you listen to a radio program. You only perceive that the material deals with texts, words, or grammar rules in your target language. You do not realise, however, that this material could be a learning resource for you. Perhaps the content will attract your attention. Maybe you will find it useful.

An example is a dialogue in a restaurant you are listening to, maybe only by chance. You are following a conversation between a waiter and a guest. They are discussing some dishes on the menu; the guest wants some further information and then orders his meal.

Relevance of the learning resource

Now we are in phase two. Is the topic exciting and relevant to you? Could the vocabulary list help you? Would the grammar rule be useful when using the language? Do you need any idioms or expressions from the text? Our conversation in the restaurant would be helpful to you if you went to a restaurant often during your vacation. It would then be an advantage to know some of the structures, expressions, customs and practices of the country where you usually spend your vacation. As you realise, language learning includes not only the language itself but also the culture and the way of life.

Search for relevance

Now you search for relevance to your life and your environment. You should ask yourself if it is useful for you to learn this? Now you prioritize material according its importance and value for your learning goals and your life. You realise that the received piece of information could interest you, and you memorize it. In our dialogue, the connection would be the following one. During your vacation, you enjoy going to restaurants, and it would be great to order meals in the country's language. You realise that the same expressions are used repeatedly, that there are always the same grammar structures. So when you want to order something in Italy, you need the form "vorrei", which is the "conditional" in Italian for "I would like". You also need certain keywords, grouped into themes. In this case, it is food and drink. At this point, you realize one important principle. The more a topic relates to your life, the more interesting it is to you.

Integrating the new content

In this step, you find out that you can connect the new pieces of information with the facts you already know. You keep them in your memory, remarkably similar to a computer. The better this process works, the easier you can recall the content needed. Taking our example of the restaurant again, you will probably find out you have already stored many general facts and pieces of information about ordering food in a restaurant. You may say to yourself, "Ok, I have already seen this, I have already heard that, so I only need to learn vocabulary." or "Oh, it is strange what they eat here".

In this step, you save the new content and information, for example, the grammar rules, vocabulary, sentence structure, intonation, and facts like "What can I eat there?". This is getting progressively easier, the more you are exposed to that topic and the more prior knowledge you have. How often have you already eaten in a restaurant? If you do not find any useful information and know nothing about the topic, you have to create a new file. In one country, you know it is probably easy to order a meal in a restaurant. In a country like Greenland or Bhutan perhaps it is not that easy. Maybe there are also unfamiliar habits and customs. You need to know all this in advance if you do not want to embarrass yourself! In our dialogue, the guest and waiter were talking about an Italian menu, with dishes like "Saltimbocca" or "Bruschetta". Since you enjoy cooking and Italian cuisine, you know these two expressions, and immediately you can visualise what they are. Maybe, however, you do not know "mi porti" (please bring me .), "vorrei" (I would like.) or "potrebbe consigliarmi" (could you recommend.). Then this is the starting point for your learning.

Compare your brain to a fisherman's net. If the structure is only coarsely woven, the fish can easily slip through. The more densely woven the structure is, the more quickly the fish's fins become entangled in the net. Applied to language learning, this means if you want to acquire new knowledge but do not have any previous experience, you will always run into problems. Since you cannot link your new information to prior knowledge, this leads to problems. Your brain is not able to memorize that learning content, and you probably cannot retain it for exceptionally long. However, if you link new learning content to a foundation of facts you already know, you solidify your brain structure. New material is easily remembered.

Try to anchor your new content to old content; connecting unknown content to content you already know. You will memorize the new material far more efficiently, and it is easier to access and activate.

Repetition of the newly learned material

Now you might think your work is over. However, remember that we are not computers and forget the things we have learned. This happens quickly if you do not repeat regularly. It is, therefore, essential to plan repetition tasks. In our example, this means practice, practice, practice. It does not matter if you make mistakes when speaking, but it is only essential to talk or to practice the language. Let us take our dialogue in the restaurant again. There are many possibilities for repetition. It is essential to have variety. The more enjoyable your review sessions are, the more likely you will do them.

Repetition at regular intervals is necessary. Ideally, a review session should occur shortly before you forget the material. I recommend a first short repetition after some minutes, the second one after one hour, the third one after one day, then after three or four days, one week, one month, half a year. If you "lose" your content within these periods, the circle starts again from the beginning. It sounds worse than it is. Review can also be to read only a few words from a text for 30 seconds or to skim a document or a mind map. Going over it in your head also works well, at least from time to time.

Let us take our dialogue in the restaurant again. You can also find such conversations in the printed version. Here is one piece of advice: do not simply read a dialogue mechanically and in the same way but vary your learning process. You can .

. read the dialogue aloud. Read it to yourself or a partner. By doing so, you are also practicing your pronunciation.

. copy the dialogue. Copy it or read one sentence, cover it and write that sentence down by heart. If you cannot remember the entire sentence, you can look at it again. The better you can concentrate, the better this works. If you have problems with spelling, you can try this technique: visualise the word as if it were on a cinema screen, in big illuminated letters. Many learners listen to the word, though there are some languages where this technique does not work. It often works better if you visualise the word as a luminous advertisement.

. take the dialogue as a basis for a cloze text. You can choose, for example, every fifth word, only words of a topic or only verbs or prepositions. I recommend saving the dialogue as a computer file. By doing this, you can make changes to the text, while keeping your original.

. make a vocabulary list with words on the topic "restaurant". You can start with the target language or your mother tongue, then translate the whole list. Write down all the interesting words you find, using a dictionary if necessary. It is helpful to use a specialised dictionary that arranges the words according to topic. By doing this, you save a lot of time. It is possible to include words you would not have thought of. One thing, however, is essential: Limit yourself to the words you need! You need not know 50 types of fish or distinguish 20 kinds of different knives. Your choice depends on your individual needs. Which situations come to mind? As you can see, there is a difference between a cook, who might need to know specialised vocabulary, and a guest who only wants to eat...