What is language learning?
The other day, a client of mine asked if it would be profitable to work on vocabulary and verb conjugations outside of class since "it's just memorization."
I responded, and with a bit more vehemence than is the norm for me, "No, it's habit formation."
Often, we think of language as something we know. It's actually something that we do. Yes, working through language requires a large body of knowledge. But it's the application of that knowledge over and over that enables one to communicate - an action verb - and to tailor one's communication on the fly.
For language learning, it's good to know the rules and to have a way to know what's going on. But in the end, one excels in learning language but using language, the same way one learns to ride a bike by riding a bike. The virtue of systems like Steve's beloved Lingq, then, are that they provide a form of training wheels for making real and extensive use of language. Assimil does something similar.
This weekend, thinking about what I had said about language learning as habit formation, I reminded myself that I should maybe engage in the language habit myself. So I went to Project Gutenberg and found a book in Breton. I fussed for a while, looking up a few words and figuring out sentences here and there. And when I later went over to kervarker.org, I discovered that some of the sentence patterns that had annoyed me no longer did so. It's not that I knew them cold or instantly understood. But they were a little more familiar. And so I did some reading and exercises and found that my Breton brain was a little stronger - I did all the fill-in-the-blank and put-the-words-in-the-right-order exercises correctly and with relative ease. I also read a little Italian at Project Gutenberg (Collodi's translation of Perrault's Le Chat botté), and found my Italian flowing a little bit better.
So, to answer my title question - What is language learning? Language learning is the formation of habits for communication and understanding. Like any complex set of tasks, the more you use language, the surer your ability to perform. So keep reading, keep listening, keep speaking and keep writing. And if you, like me, want to search for that fast and easy way to learn, don't forget that in the end it's only by keeping at it that you'll truly build and maintain fluency.
Alas.
I responded, and with a bit more vehemence than is the norm for me, "No, it's habit formation."
Often, we think of language as something we know. It's actually something that we do. Yes, working through language requires a large body of knowledge. But it's the application of that knowledge over and over that enables one to communicate - an action verb - and to tailor one's communication on the fly.
For language learning, it's good to know the rules and to have a way to know what's going on. But in the end, one excels in learning language but using language, the same way one learns to ride a bike by riding a bike. The virtue of systems like Steve's beloved Lingq, then, are that they provide a form of training wheels for making real and extensive use of language. Assimil does something similar.
This weekend, thinking about what I had said about language learning as habit formation, I reminded myself that I should maybe engage in the language habit myself. So I went to Project Gutenberg and found a book in Breton. I fussed for a while, looking up a few words and figuring out sentences here and there. And when I later went over to kervarker.org, I discovered that some of the sentence patterns that had annoyed me no longer did so. It's not that I knew them cold or instantly understood. But they were a little more familiar. And so I did some reading and exercises and found that my Breton brain was a little stronger - I did all the fill-in-the-blank and put-the-words-in-the-right-order exercises correctly and with relative ease. I also read a little Italian at Project Gutenberg (Collodi's translation of Perrault's Le Chat botté), and found my Italian flowing a little bit better.
So, to answer my title question - What is language learning? Language learning is the formation of habits for communication and understanding. Like any complex set of tasks, the more you use language, the surer your ability to perform. So keep reading, keep listening, keep speaking and keep writing. And if you, like me, want to search for that fast and easy way to learn, don't forget that in the end it's only by keeping at it that you'll truly build and maintain fluency.
Alas.
Labels: learning
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