Learning to Listen the hardest soft skill
One of the most important keys to becoming a good learner is the ability to listen (or do I mean hear?).
Many consider themselves to be good listeners, although what they may consider being ‘a good listener’ is sometimes questionable and listening still remains one of the hardest of all the soft skills.
As we have seen in some other posts, it is vitally important to be able to hear – one of the basics of good listening is being able to hear in the first place, but they are not the same thing.
A person with perfectly good hearing may be a terrible listener – but rarely is the opposite true due to the need to be able to hear – a binary process, with the latter being dependent on the former.
It is important to see the distinction between hearing, which is a passive process and listening, which is a conscious and active process, which includes a certain ‘motivation’, need or desire to make sense of what our ears hear.
Hearing defects or shortfalls can cause diverse problems with learning, often directly related to listening but also to attention spans and memory retention – especially in learning foreign languages. Problems related to hearing can also affect balance, dexterity and other motor skills.
Skeletal morphology also affects hearing – we hear our own voices through a mixture of hearing and bone vibration in the skull – if you have ever noticed how your voice sounds different when recorded, this is one of the reasons.
Loud, sudden noises can cause us to jump with surprise – this is because we have felt the noise through shock-waves vibrating through our bodies before the noise has reached our ears – if only by a matter of micro seconds.
Good listeners are able to filter out ‘parasitic sounds’ and concentrate on the essential – poor listeners are bombarded with such a range and amount of sound waves that they are unable to filter out and discriminate from what is important and what is not – the result is a hubbub of sounds much like one could experience in a noisy room.
Some listeners, especially in language learning, cannot even hear the high and low ranges used in some languages – in fact the range patterns in some language start and end before some languages begin.
The result is that people often say they don’t ‘understand’, when in fact they have no chance of understanding something that they cannot even hear.
French tonal range starts and ends before English begins, whereas, Russian goes well over half-way into the tonal range of English – these are the usual sounds that occur in the language.Of course, we can train our ears, working them-out and training to hear and subsequently, listen, but it is a sorry fact that few learners carry this out.
I must add that this is a very complex thing to achieve and requires a sustained effort over long periods due to the complexity of sounds – have you ever come across a really effective text-to-speech application?
Try asking SIRI a question … especially in a language that is not your mother tongue.
Yes, they are getting better, I’ll give you that.
Even the most complex computers are still challenged by the huge amount of information stored in sound, including :
Sound length
Pitch
Range
Volume
Variation
etc.
People are quite willing to accept that they have a dominant hand – which they prefer to write or to use tools with – a dominant foot, ever heard of ‘goofy-foot’ in surfing? They can even recognise that they may have a dominant eye – look how they look through a telescope, a camera or a microscope…
However, few will be aware that they have a dominant ear, which has a huge influence on learning, hearing and finally listening.
A dominant right ear, which is connected to the left hemisphere of the brain gives an advantage for language learning and language processing, so theoretically, providing an advantage in the ability to hear, listen and understand language – whether it be our own native language or a foreign language.
A dominant left ear, which is connected to the right-side of the brain, where there is no language processing faculty, will slow down hearing, listening and thus understanding as the information is carried back over to the left hemisphere, which results in late reception of information and incomplete “bytes” of information being received.
Right-footed football players can learn to be left footed, right handers can learn to write with their left hand and even become ambidextrous – and the good news is that we can also train our ears to become right-ear-dominant.
If you have ever listened to a presentation given by a speaker with a low, monotonous voice, you may recognise the fact that low frequency sounds have a tendency to bore and send us to sleep.
It is very difficult to speak with energy and dynamism using a low-frequency tone – usually the most inspiring speakers use a good mix of low and high frequency sounds which stimulate the brain and prevent us nodding-off in front of such a speaker.
So how can we learn to listen?
One of the most crucial aspects of good listening, and this is just an image, is to be able to open the ears to incoming sounds and filter out that which is indistinct.
Now this requires an ability to accept that, that which is lost is of no interest, when our instincts tell us that we should be concentrated on the act of listening – but we are not there yet!
If we concentrate on listening, the stress of the act, and even the anxiety can effectively close-off the senses, resulting in a form of filtration that does little more than throw the baby out with the bathwater – but, this is a learnt skill.
We have, largely, learnt to do this in our native languages and then forget all of these good instincts when listening to a foreign language.
Good listeners are able to filter out the dross and concentrate on the important things such as what is being conveyed on an emotional and sensory level by a speaker.
If we go back to image, think of a camera focusing-in on a subject that renders most of the scene still visible, but not completely in focus – this is how a good listener is able to focus their hearing, which results in a heightened ability to listen.
Good listeners can, by consequence, hear subtleties, in all senses of the term in what is being said – those who we could call, bad listeners, are unable to do this – the whole scene is sharply in focus, which results in a surplus of information that is overwhelming and they then tune-out and lose concentration.
It may be a contradiction, but in order to be able to get things into focus, we need to be able to relax and ‘open our senses’ to be able to take control of our filters – ever thought about your receptive capacities in times of stress?
Stress cuts down our ability to hear, which obviously affects our listening, which may in turn be a stress trigger in itself – the dog chasing its tail?
Some problems, including concentration, hearing and dyslexia have been successfully treated using sound therapies such as the Tomatis system, where, speaking simply speaking, high and low frequencies are transmitted at timed intervals to alternate ears – although it is much more complicated and involved than just that.
Others swear by listening to Mozart’s music, which allegedly uses the entire audible sound spectrum to help, whilst others swear by listening to Gregorian chants, where the beat is in synchronisation with the average human heartbeat at rest to train the ear.
Whatever works for you is obviously good – but it is clear that good listening and good hearing entails much more than just cocking an ear and getting closer to the sound source and is, undoubtedly, perhaps the hardest of the soft skills.
A long and complex process of training and self-managed learning is required to help train the ear, conversely, the activities and training exercises are very simple to apply – the hardest aspect is the frequency and thus, the durability of the effects of training – then again, rarely do we get a free lunch …
Functions in a language
Most of us will agree that a language is used to perform a variety of different things – these things are called functions.
It is used to make statements, ask questions, express emotions, direct people, etc.
It is clear that language is used to perform practical everyday functions, although the number of functions can indeed, be disputed from a linguistic or a socio-linguistic point of view, but let’s keep our feet squarely on the ground here.
We could argue that functions in a language refer to what language items do in the real world – what we want to achieve in communication terms.
Some language items, however, cannot be taken at face value as flat, binary communication episodes, from speaker A to speaker B.
For example, “ Where do you think you are going?” has a clear meaning, if taken literally, but within a language function, it means, “You are not supposed to go there!”
Halliday (1975) identifies seven language functions (although his research was done with monolingual children.) :
- Instrumental: Language used to express needs.
- Regulatory: Language used to tell others what to do.
- Interactional: Language used to make contact with others and form relationships.
- Personal: Language used to express feelings, opinions, and individual identity
- Heuristic: Language used to gain knowledge about the world.
- Imaginative: Language used to tell stories and jokes, and to create an imaginary environment.
- Representational: Language used to convey facts and information.
Jakobson’s model of the functions of language distinguishes six elements, or factors of communication, that are necessary for communication to occur:
(1) Context
(2) Addresser (sender)
(3) Addressee (receiver)
(4) Contact
(5) Common code
(6) Message.
Each factor is the focal point of a relation, or function, that operates between the message and the factor.
The functions are the following :
(1) Referential (“The Earth is round”) describes a situation, object or mental state.
(2) Emotive (“Yuck!”) “Wow, what a beauty!”
(3) Conative (“Come here”) “Fred! Come inside it’s bed time!”
(4) Phatic (“Hello?”) provides the keys to open, maintain, verify or close the communication channel: “Hello?”, “Ok?”, “Hummm”, “Bye”…
(5) Metalingual (“What do you mean by ‘krill’?”) is the use of language (what Jakobson calls “Code”) to discuss or describe itself. (All this article is an example of metalinguistic Function).
(6) Poetic (“Smurf”) “the message for its own sake”
Leaving the linguist’s point of view aside, functions in a language refer to why we use a language to communicate, in a variety of formal and informal ways, which in turn require specific grammatical structures and vocabularies.
Savignon describes language functions as, “The use to which language is put, the purpose of an utterance rather than the particular grammatical form an utterance takes” (Savignon, 1983).
Some of the specific functional purposes in language are (and you can perhaps think of others) :
- To compare and contrast
- To order people to do things
- To ask permission
- To apologise
- To thank
- To persuade
- To ask questions
- To express likes and dislikes
- To talk about cause and effect
- To summarize
- To sequence
- To predict
- To agree/disagree
- To greeting people/introductions
The interpersonal metafunction of a language covers all the ways in which we interact through language.
This includes the basic mechanisms of interaction, such as turn-taking and interruption and also the ways in which we set out to achieve things by using language.
By using the ideas of functions in a language, teaching (and thereby learning) focuses more on the meaning and the goals of communication and less on the form, with learners using language to achieve specific purposes and achieving more targeted goals.
Along with clear learning objectives, this will help us to effectively address learning goals and thus craft language learning to the specific needs of our learners.
Developing Auditory Memory in Language Learning
Memory span refers to the longest list of items that a person can repeat back in the correct order immediately after presentation of the information.
Items may include words, numbers, or letters. Recalling a list of numbers is a task as known as digit span.
Memory span is often used to measure short-term memory and is also a component of cognitive ability tests.
Backward memory span is a more challenging and complex variation which involves recalling items in reverse order.
A variety of information may be presented, such as digits, letters, words, and sounds, and almost any sense or combination of senses may be used to receive the inputs.
Associability is required for memory span to work effectively. Associability refers to the ability of a person to group a series of elements together: to perceive relationships among the series in order to reproduce them.
Another process involved in memory span is imagery. A person must be able to image or make sense of the information to be able to reproduce the series presented.
This is why I favour images (where possible), or mindmaps / concept maps over lists of words in developing auditory memory in language learning.
It is important to remember that memory span and memory are different in the length of time over which reproduction is possible.
Memory span is transitory, whilst memory is a fairly permanent phenomenon.
The amount of ‘data’ involved in memory span is obviously much less than the amount involved in memory.
When developing auditory memory in language learning – remember that memory span is affected by extrinsic (outside) and intrinsic factors (within the person).
Extrinsic factors
- If the material is all closely related, it will be much more easily reproduced. This relationship of the material is called the “coefficient of associability.” People also have increased memory span for concrete words that they can visualise like computer over abstract words like ethics. That’s another vote for mindmapping, where concepts are linked to form the map.
- The way information is presented has an effect on memory span: Studies show consistent increases in memory span for lists presented verbally over ones presented visually, another reason to listen more often in language learning.
- Memory span is consistently higher for shorter words rather than longer words. This increase is due to the decreased amount of time needed to pronounce the shorter words.
- Distraction: The greater the distraction, the performance of the person. Attention is one of the processes involved in the functioning of memory span, if the attention is directed towards some other stimuli, then memory span suffers. Sometimes we need our quiet time for learning – but not always.
Intrinsic factors
Apart from pathological factors, one main intrinsic aspect affecting memory span is age and everybody appears to have a clear opinion on this. Scientific tests have found that memory span peaks at around 20 years old and declines slowly, but almost imperceptibly until the age of 70. However, memory ‘gymnastic’ activities, such as doing crossword puzzles and word games, Sudoku and even playing chess can help maintain a very healthy memory span well past 70. This is why it is essential to train the memory, rather than rely on automatically writing notes on post-its that will never be reused again. Basically use it (your memory) or lose it.
There are many other meta-cognitive skills that we can apply to auditory memory, when thinking of developing auditory memory in language learning.
Rehearsal strategies, including repetition, highlighting important facts and physical cues is an excellent way to work on auditory memory.
When we are able, as a language learner, to use auditory memory to work on listening and then paraphrasing it or repeating it, we must remember what is important – and not everything we listen to is important, a selective skill that is developed by using rehearsal strategies.
We can create mental pictures and paraphrase ideas, and also organizational strategies where we put the important bits together, group, classify and identify the main ideas. Discussing what we have listened to helps build our memory.
In rehearsal we can emphasize key words and pronunciation of words – “This is a big problem that we are facing.”.
Chunking information and pausing is another way to help develop our auditory memory – it is easier to remember the number 123987456321 by breaking it down into chunks and pausing within the chunks 123-987-456-321, than trying to remember it as a whole number.
We may also memorize numbers with rhythm – remember your multiplication tables in school, which in my school were sung an I still remember them well. We can also use this for verbal items – “Mirror, signal manoeuvre.”
Make auditory memory activities fun and relevant to the greater language objectives that you are working towards.
Make things as natural as possible – if you can get out and get your hands dirty, all the better. Doing an information search outside that involves directions that you, as a learner actually take, is much better than a flat, didactic set of directions read on paper – learning by doing.
Think about how a barman remembers an order for several drinks – here it is important that the barman remembers the drinks, but he may just recheck with you, do that when listening.
Music can increase verbal rehearsal and the ability to maintain and increase attention to auditory memory tasks, as there is a definite correlation between music and language or even any form of learning.
Here is one activity to try to work on developing auditory memory in language learning :
Listen attentively to the news in English for about 5 minutes (it is useful to record it as you will need to go back over it later.) If it is on TV don’t look at the screen.
Note down just the news items that you hear after listening, not at the same time, then take your notes and put them in the order in which you heard them.
Listen again to the broadcast to check the order you have noted down the items and the order it was originally read.
Repeat this type of activity regularly and you will train yourself to listen more attentively and to increase the span of your auditory memory.
Auditory memory is different to visual memory.
When Sight & Memory are Superimposed
Adoncricg to a sutdy dnoe et the Uvinertisy of Cmabrigde, the oedrer of ltteers in a wrod is not itmoprnat, the olny tnihg of itpomcnnarte is taht the frist and the lsat wrdos are in the rghit pclae.
The rset can be in taotl dedrisor and you wlil slitl be albe to raed tehm whotiut any plorebm.
Tahst bausece the haumn biran deos not raed ervey ltteer ilstef but the wrod as a wolhe
You will be surprised to note that the visual memory of the whole word takes precedence over the word as it is written. The image that you carry in your memory of the word is enough for you to find the word that make sense immediately.
In second language learning however, this phenomena is restricted to common words that you already know but, you can often make an educated guess at the word from the logic that you posses of word construction in your visual memory.
The same text, heard audibly would make no sense at all.
Memory involves the full functioning of the 5 senses, cognition and emotions. So sensations and feelings are therefore just as important when developing auditory memory in language learning, as reason, logic and reflection.
If you have difficulties remembering things then it is more likely that it is a malfunction in the way that you attempted to remember it than a memory malfunction per se :
- It is difficult to remember something you didn’t hear clearly.
- Nothing can be committed to memory if your senses are not alert.
- Concentration needs to be good and functioning, which relies on such elements such as interest, enjoyment, curiosity and a relatively calm emotional state.
- Being in the right state of mind.
- Being active and engaging fully with the learning.
- Being Proactive
- Being empowered and responsible for your learn
Now go and try to put this in action.
How not to Learn A Language – 10 Urban Myths
In this post, How not to Learn A Language – 10 Urban Myths, we are going to look at some received ideas about language learning.
There are a great deal of opinions and ideas related to language learning that are either founded on solid pedagogical theory and tested strategies and others which are clearly urban myths to the point of almost being ‘old-wives-tales’.
I have often met people who state that they cannot learn a foreign language, which I feel is total nonsense – albeit that by simply uttering a defeatist statement, defeat usually follows, so I guess they are ultimately right – self-fulfilling prophecies …
However, I have never met anybody who was not capable of learning a language.
Furthermore, I have never met a complete beginner in language learning, in as much as they have not one single word of vocabulary or a very simple sentence or phrase that they can rattle off (well I did, but only once.)
That said, I meet on a daily basis, many people who have strong opinions or beliefs as to how a language should be learnt, and unfortunately a lot of their ideas have very few solid truths, so let’s have a look at some of the myths and misconceptions regarding language learning.
- To Learn a Language effectively you must go to the country where it is spoken.
This is partly true and also false, especially if we look at the vast numbers of Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Mexican etc. immigrants in the UK and the US or some of the English in France, who still have problems mastering the language for various reasons. One of the reasons is the community aspect, where people live and move almost exclusively through their community in their own native language.
Satellite tv and radio, also means that the news and entertainment comes to them in their native tongue too, so there are times when it is not even necessary to acquire all but the rudiments of another language to survive. For language learners who do not live where the language they are learning is spoken, this would be a good compliment to a language learning program as long as the conditions are right. Student exchange programs are so often done as a job lot to enable learners on a limited budget, access to this type of program – one of the intrinsic problems here is that they usually end up living and speaking with their friends in their native tongue, embracing the foreign language and culture briefly. There is also the problem that I have seen where learners go to the UK to learn English and spend half the day in a classroom (could they not do this in France too?) then half a day sightseeing with their friends (unfortunately speaking French). This seems a bit of a waste of time and money, especially as they are often boarding with a family that sometimes has little time to speak with them at the end of the day, or during mealtimes. Going it alone, can be a good solution to language learning on-the-job, but it needs a certain kind of temperament to be separated from ones family and culture and be plunged into a foreign one, alone, the learner would also need to have a certain ability to get-by in the language to survive over a period of time, either working or studying.
- Children Learn Languages Quicker than Adults
Studies have shown that children’s initial efforts pay off better than adult learners, but adult learners acquire languages more effectively over a period of time. One of the reasons for this is that children see another language as another opportunity to play and to imitate, which adults can have issues with as learners. Adults have experiences of learning and grammar patterns using memory strategies that children have not yet learnt, which helps in the recall process of language learning – some are later overtaken by children. When children play with other native children, they imitate, shout and copy their friends whilst enjoying the language interaction, whereas adults are often too self-conscious to even go all-out in role plays in a learning situation.There have been studies in bilingualism, Lenneberg’s Critical Period Hypothesis for example, which have argued that there is a certain age when true bilingualism is no longer possible – at around the age of 14 years of age (some say younger). Lenneberg’s theory argues that the plasticity of the brain in children up to the age of 14 years of age, allows for the rapid and effective acquisition of languages to bilingual standard, this theory has been criticised by Newport and Snow & Hoefnagel-Hoehle 1978 but all of the theories relating to natural accent and language use are difficult to compare as the research methods differ, they have been either diachronic, synchronic, or experimental.
- Starting Young Makes For Better Language Acquisition
This can be true in authentic situations where children are using the language at the same time as they are learning, but not always the case where Children have little or no authentic usage for the language in their lives with interaction with native speakers – either friends and family or in school. It has been shown that the age that a child starts learning a language is not so important as the volume of input and stimulation they they get to use the language in authentic situations. There are many examples of, for example, an English child learning both French and English through the interaction with their mother or father in English, and in the world outside the family in French. There are also instances of families where the father is English and the mother is French and the child grows up being monolingual in French, being able to understand English but not being able to speak English fluently.
- Language Learning is a Quick Process that can be acquired Rapidly
You must have come across the books and Audio CDs “Learn French in 20 Lessons” and other such pie-in-the-sky promises whilst browsing a bookshop. Well, believe me it’s a lot of hot air, as I’m sure you know, although it’s very hard to resist the temptation to believe it at times.Learning a language is often a hard and difficult task that takes years of effort and practice to perfect.
- Pronunciation is not important.
Pronunciation is of utmost importance in language learning in order to be understood by native speakers. This is why so many English speakers understand each other in a learning setting when they speak a foreign language such as French but can be floored when they realise that French native speakers can’t understand what they are trying to say. take, for example, the word “Souhaite” in French – to wish or to desire, a close pronunciation would be akin to the word “Sweat” in English but very far from ” Sue-Hate”, which many English speakers say. See the blog post on Linkwords, which is a good technique to help remember pronunciation. Problems with pronunciation occur for two main reasons; either the learner has read the word but never heard it spoken by a native speaker or the word has been spoken by a ‘teacher’ with pronunciation problems themselves – which is very common. I have seen the word “clothes” phonetically spelt in my sons English learning book for school as “Cloth-siz” and heard most French speakers pronounce the word thus.
- Having an Accent is Bad for Foreign Languages
As we have seen, from Lenneberg’s study, most of us will inevitably keep our own native accent, however strong or mild it remains, but never fully eradicate it when speaking a foreign language. This is not a great problem as long as what we are saying is pronounced well and intelligible for native speakers. An accent in a foreign language is both a part of our own identity and can be charming when speaking. I personally hate hearing my own accent when speaking French, and I have been here, in France, for over 20 years, but people tell me that it is charming and that I should keep it – grrrr.
- You can Learn a Language by Learning The 100 most Commonly Used Words
This is another urban myth that is often promoted as the next biggest thing in language learning. Think about the words you use in your own language an a day-to-day basis, now choose 100 of those words. Do you think that this is sufficient to be able to operate and communicate effectively? Your list would probably consist of articles – The, A, An, then pronouns; Him, Her, They, Us, We, It, Hers, His, Ours, Theirs, I, You, then prepositions; on, in, into, out, under, behind, in front of, next to, near, far etc., nwo before you start looking at verbs and tenses you already have 25% of the language – to be able to communicate effectively. The chances of you choosing the remaining 75% of the language to communicate is pretty slim and quite frankly, impractical.
- Languages Can Be Learnt Through Interactive CD ROMS
This myth already has a mistake in the title – a CDROM is only as interactive as the original programmer has designed it. A CDROM will never be interactive in the way the people are interactive, it will never surprise you after you have been through the activities once.It cannot speak faster, louder, or as varied as a real person. It will never speak to you as a person does, such as turning away from you to say something. You cannot rewind a person or get them to repeat exactly what they said and how they said it as you can rewind a CDROM back to the beginning. OK a CDROM has its uses but is a very limited aid in language learning and is only a part of the toolbox and not the whole toolbox as some companies would have us to believe.
- Grammar Rules Must Be Learnt to Learn a Language Effectively
Grammar rules can be useful to learn a language but are not essential. Grammar terminology is a way of describing the way a language works – but it does not mean that by not knowing what the present perfect tense is, that we cannot become very able in a foreign language.English schools abandoned teaching grammar rules in English teaching during the 1970’s, but this does not mean that English children cannot learn English. Indeed they may have difficulties when attempting to talk about the functions of the language, in terms of knowing the labels for parts of the language – this was something that I learnt later at University. I was unable to put a label on parts of the following sentence “I have lived in France for seventeen years”. But I had no problems writing, understanding or speaking English. I would suggest that grammar patterns and grammar functions are more important for language learners – more, how the language is constructed and what the functions do taking precedence over knowing the terminology. If You feel it important to know the labels, then OK, this may work for you, but difficulties arise when a learner tries to transpose the rule they have in their own language to a foreign language. French learners who try to make a parallel between the present simple in French and the present simple in English will know what I am talking about. The function and the tense, although sharing the same label has a completely different function in terms of describing time and its usage.
- Making Mistakes is Not OK
This is one of the biggest surprises for me to see written in black and white on websites. I can’t believe that people can even think that making mistakes is a bad thing as I consider that making mistakes is a good sign of a learning process actually happening.
I would add that making continuous systematic mistakes and not learning from them would indicate otherwise.
If we aspire to learn and speak a foreign language we will inevitably make mistakes along the way – this is a natural occurrence in learning and is, the part of the way that we learnt our own native languages at the outset.
Banning mistakes means making people aware of their weaknesses in such a way that they are not permitted to dare and experiment – take this away and learning becomes restricted almost to the point that it just does not happen.
In summary we have seen here some of the urban myths surrounding language learning – maybe you can recognise some of them and maybe you disagree, that’s fine and you can add a comment to let me know what you think – I would be interested and grateful to hear what others think.
When all is said and done, language serves a social purpose for a social animal; for humans to communicate.
A language can therefore, not be learnt effectively in isolation using whatever method or technique available, without the opportunity to use it for its pre-destined function – to communicate with other people.
Language is quite simple when we boil it down to the basics – it is made up of only four skills (I would add others but it may be just nuance):
Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking (Hearing I would add too, which is needed in order to listen and cultural skills).
In order to effectively learn a language requires an holistic approach which encompasses the 4 skills plus lots and lots of dedication – there are NO shortcuts, so don’t bother looking for them.
To fully learn a language requires an additional aspect where the learner is able to embrace and understand the culture of where the language is spoken.
Language and culture are two determining factors in understandings across languages and culture and cannot be dissimilated from the learning of language.
Winston Churchill once said of Great Britain and America, that they are, “.. Two countries separated by a language”.
But we both speak the language don’t we?
The jury is still out on that one ….
What is your take on this?
Maybe you have other urban myths to add…
We hear so many people, so many times state, and believe what they are saying, that “I am not good at languages”.
If we think about this, the person has either written or spoken this statement in a clear and intelligible way – so they CAN actually USE language, which says that they CAN actually LEARN a language – because they did at least once with their own mother tongue.
To state that you just cannot learn a language is totally flawed and untrue.
So what are they really saying?
I’ll leave that to you to answer…
Have you ever wondered how you learnt your own language as a child?
Well, most of us don’t, as learning to communicate and thus learning our own native language is so hard-wired into our brains that it just seemed to be learnt by osmosis.
Pause for a moment, if you have ever tried to learn a second language, either at school or later in life – wasn’t that just so difficult?
Well most would answer yes, as they recall the times that they have tried and failed to learn French, German or Spanish etc.
Have you ever wondered why learning your own language was so pain-free, compared to another language you may or not have succeeded in learning?
Have you ever compared the principals that were used in the language learning process of learning your native -mother tongue and another language?
These are all questions that are so obvious that we seldom take the time to ask them, let alone pause for thought to consider them, and this is generally why second language learning is so difficult, and often, not always, an uphill task.
As I mentioned earlier – all humans are hard-wired to learn languages and to communicate – we have already a wealth of experience of learning our own mother tongue, so why, when we approach the learning of another language to we throw all to the wind and try other methods that frankly have little or no chance of working.
This is of course not applicable to people who grow up in a bilingual family setting where there may be two or more languages used and learnt as the norm for communication.
In this context people, usually kids, can drift in an out of two or more languages with ease.
One of the biggest hurdles to language learning is ourselves and that strange thing called adulthood.
Often adults, who have a plethora of learning experiences, lack the guile to put these experiences into action and succumb to any ‘miracle-cure’ touted by the marketplace.
So let’s look at the differences between adult and children as language learners:
Children:
- Imitate and mimic sounds that they hear and thus can actually hear the sounds that make for understanding.
- Take risks and actually dare to experiment
- Words, sounds, expressions are picked up with an open mind
- Listen for the sake of listening and don’t always need to make sense of things by comparing with their own language – meaning is extracted through context.
- Associate with what is actually going on in their minds and bodies, linking expressions and vocabulary with strong emotions “Beach” “dog” is associated with what they know or have experienced which makes for excellent memory retention.
- Use language without needing to peer into the mechanics of the structure of language – it is just like that!
- Play with the language – experiment, try-out and look for reactions and results
- Learn by instinct – making meaning through their common sense approach to play – there is no risk
Adults:
- Go straight for understanding before being fully able to understand the range of tones that make up the language.
- Feel stupid imitating sounds, without really feeling comfortable with mimic
- Words, sounds and expressions are often decoded into their native language – this is the benchmark – one size fits all.
- Often get frustrated when they block on speed of speech, unknown expressions etc.
- Vocabulary is very often a=b, i.e. iron in French is fer, but that is the metal, what about the iron for pressing clothes …
- Want to know how the language is constructed before really feeling comfortable about constructing sentences and often this is compared to their native language too which only confuses matters.
- Are often loathe to play with language, at an early stage at least. Language learning is a thoroughly serious affair.
- Learn lists of vocabulary that they have no hope of retaining nor of ever being able to use effectively.
- Learn lists of verbs that are isolates of the language and very difficult to integrate in a flowing conversation.
We can see that although adults hold the edge in as far as experience of learning goes, it doesn’t really do them a service in the long run, at least in the majority of cases.
Very few adults will listen for the sake of listening, although many will say that they listen in their cars – until they get so frustrated with not understanding that they abandon this by the wayside.
In order to improve listening skills there needs to be a concerted non-effort to actually be able to hear the sounds that make up the language.
I say non-effort as it needs to be something that is undertaken almost constantly in order that listening becomes part of our everyday lives.
There is no way that listening for a couple hours on the weekend will make you a truly effective language learner – it needs to be mixed into a cocktail of concentrated and non-concentrated listening, much the way that we listen in our own native language.
Take the example of someone who listens to the news whilst preparing dinner, the person always has an ‘ear to the ground’ but their concentration is diffused.
However, when a news item of interest to them is reported, they stop, momentarily what they are doing to listen more carefully.
If you can train your ear to do that in another language you are well on your way to success, but another key is the frequency that you are listening to the second language (L2).
If this is done in fits-and-starts, such as on weekend, you will get something out of it, but far less than you would if you listened, even for as little as 30 minutes a day.
You need to juggle between your “prime” and “down” time concentration and actually start stretching your concentration in the L2.
Start playing with the language, enjoy it, have fun and provoke as many communication events as possible to be able to use the language in authentic contexts.
At the advent of the CDROM and Elearning for language learning it was proclaimed from the rooftops that “the teacher is dead – long live the teacher”.
This, of course is utter rot, although I am not suggesting that you need a teacher to learn a language – far from it!
Language learning is a facilitated process that entails communication, learning strategies, autonomy and interdependance or social learning.
Elearning or CDROMs will never surprise you, there will be little or no variety as you rewind back to the beginning – people, on the other hand, in real situations will surprise you as they employ different speech patterns, sounds, accents, expressions etc. These are just tools that are mixed in the cocktail to facilitate language learning – not one, nor another will replace the other.
So if you, against your better reasoning, become seduced by the latest language learning solution of “Learn french in 40 lessons”, just remember three things :
- There are no short-cuts to learning a language
- The way you learnt your own language. –
You are an expert at language learning, as long as you use your common sense and memory of past experiences.
