Prolific Learning Advice: Language Learning

Main Ideas Behind Language Learning

Most people give up on language learning because they don’t understand what they are trying to accomplish. If you understand what you need to accomplish, you can acquire usable language skills.

If you can read this sentence, you are capable of learning a new language. The main difference between people who successfully learn languages and those who do not is this: successful language learners have figured out how to enjoyably and effectively convert their time and effort in acquiring language skills. Successful language learners have figured out how to make progress today and enjoy it enough that they want to do more tomorrow.

To have success at language learning, there is a single concept you must clearly understand. Language learning is about acquiring actual use of language skills. To the extent you acquire new skills, you will be able to use a new language. You must focus much of your time and effort acquiring skills. Language learning is more akin to learning to ride a bike or play guitar than it is to taking a history class.

Language learning is about exposing our brain to the new language until it becomes familiar to us. The most challenging part of learning to use a new language is that our brain is used to rejecting anything other than our native language as gibberish. Years upon years of exposure to our native language has caused our brain to internalize it to the point where it is automatic. We can simply use it without consciously thinking about it. The sounds, rhythms, patterns, and meaning are internalized. Any sounds, rhythms, and patterns which do not conform to our native language make little sense to us. The only way for a new language to start to be internalized by our brain is by consistent and pleasant exposure to it. Consider how many songs you know. From simply listening on the radio or wherever it might be, your brain has internalized those songs to the point they are familiar. There are likely several dozen if not hundreds of songs that you can recognize within hearing their opening bars. Effective language learning is similar to this. By consistent exposure to the sights and sounds of a new language, our brain will naturally start to latch onto those patterns and recognize them as familiar and having meaning.

From the beginning, you need to start exposing yourself to audio and written material in your new language. Over weeks and months of exposure, the new language will simply start to become more and more familiar. As you listen and follow along, more and more words will just start to jump out at you as having meaning. You measure success in this approach by how many words start to jump out at you with meaning. This is indicative of your brain starting to internalize the language. You learn to be content and satisfied with each word and phrase you can now understand rather than being frustrated with those things you do not understand.

This is in contrast to more traditional approaches which focus on memorizing descriptions of the language. You memorize vocabulary lists and grammar patterns. You translate individual words and sentences. In practice, you end up spending much of your time thinking in your native language about the new language. Your brain is not so much being exposed to the new language as being given a series of fact driven exercises to do. You measure success in this approach by how many facts you can remember on tests and exams. There is often pressure to do things correctly while meeting deadlines rather than being satisfied with consistent progress.

This will probably come as a disappointment, but there is no one “THE Language Learning Method” which works for everyone. There is no best course to take that guarantees success. The primary thing that characterizes successful language learners is that what they do is enjoyable and effective for them. Indeed, it was in researching how many successful language learners achieved their success that lead me to the concept of of enjoyable and effective learning underlying prolific learning. The successful language learners (by which I mean people who can use many languages) employ a variety of methods and practices to acquire new language skills. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing a new language learner is sorting through the many available methods, materials, and courses to find those which will be most enjoyable and effective at various stages of progress.

Many successful language learners have learned how to use bilingual courses (as exemplified by many of the French company Assimil) as a starting point. These courses have some dialog or text in both the new language and your native language on opposite sides of the page. There are also some explanatory notes. The audio for each lesson is only in the new language. At the beginning, a typical daily study session will consist of mostly listening and following along with the day’s lesson. The goal is NOT to memorize or master the material, but simply pleasant and repeated exposure to it. Each day, the next lesson is listened to along with reviewing previous lessons. Over the course of weeks and months, this exposure to the language allows it to start becoming familiar. There is no particular goal or deadline for learning new words or grammatical patterns. There is just the gradual and consistent process of the new language becoming more and more familiar.

Most successful language learners start as soon as possible to use their new language in some way in their daily lives. Some people are comfortable with stumbling conversations with people. Others like to listen to audio books while following along with a printed version. Others like to watch dubbed and subtitled TV shows or movies. Successful language learners realize that this is a long term process of internalization so that the language becomes familiar over time. They have in mind the things they want to do with their new language and they start practicing those things.

This is not to say successful language learners do not spend time looking at grammar books or other reference materials. The key is that they use those things to improve their understanding of the language as they are being exposed to it. They do not sit down memorizing facts from those reference materials. They use those reference materials as needed for assistance.

I believe that anyone who is reading this can be a successful language learner. If you can learn your native language, you can learn another one. I’d strongly urge you to become familiar with the various prolific learning principles and how they apply to language learning. This will help you pick and choose what methods, materials, and approaches will be most enjoyable and effective for you.