Language Learning - Subconscious Process
hi there this is Steve here again today
I want to talk about how language
learning is essentially a subconscious
process I saw these words in a forum
discussion actually it was a group at
LinkedIn that I belong to which includes
language teachers and there they were
talking about how grammar instruction
and error correction really doesn't have
much impact on our language learning now
of course this concept which is
something that crashing has put forward
and which is supported by a lot of
research of course is challenged by
teachers because if teachers can't be
engaged in error correction and in
teaching grammar well what are they
going to do so there's a lot of sort of
natural resistance to this concept even
though much research supports the idea
and I have found personally that much of
my learning takes place subconsciously I
learn my words without necessarily
knowing how I learnt them I have never
found that deliberate study of lists or
Enki or this kind of thing is where I
learned most of my words nor do I learn
most of my ability to speak correctly
from studying grammar rules that's not
to say that those activities can't help
because it is an exposure to the
language and there are activities which
in to some extent help us notice things
but they are not the main means by which
we learn a language because as was said
in this forum language learning is
largely a subconscious activity all of a
sudden you can start to say things if
you have exposed yourself to enough of
the language and I think this makes
language learning quite different from
learning math or learning science but
since I haven't been doing much learning
of math or science since I left high
school I can't really say for sure now I
was reminded of this also by a recent
experience with my Romanian learning now
of course first of all I should say that
we live in a wonder
world all the people who criticize
globalization I don't understand them
because there are more people living
more healthy and productive lives at a
higher standard of living today than
ever and we have this ability to access
people all around the world so I can
talk via Skype with my Romanian tutors I
can access information I'm now learning
about Romania Bessarabia Bukovina
relations with Russia Zara's Russia how
King Karl came in the you know end of
the 19th century and all this kind of
stuff so that Romania is not such a far
away strange land and I have my tutors
and one thing before I get back to my
main point here it's wonderful that a
lot of these internet polyglots are
meeting in Budapest on the 18th of May
which isn't very far away four days from
now and I'll probably do another video
when we get closer to the date but I
salute them that initiative which is
another example of how people come
together today in this world using this
technology so to my mind globalization
is a good thing not a bad thing however
getting back to the subject of
subconscious learning I had two tutors
in Romanian and I should say that I'm
starting to speak in Romanian much
earlier than I ever did in Czech or
Russian or Korean for a variety of
reasons one of which is that it's a lot
easier because so much of the vocabulary
is similar to the vocabulary and other
Romance languages and the some of it is
similar to Slavic languages so I find it
a lot easier to remember the vocabulary
to the point that now in link when I
import news items there's only 10
percent unknown words there for me or
new words now some of the words that
I've saved I don't yet know but words
that I meet for the first time there's
about 10% and many of them I already
know from Italian and many of them are
actually names so I'm flying in Romanian
so now I'm starting to speak much
earlier
kurz is easier but be because I have to
be in Romania next month and of course
even though the vocabulary is so similar
it's still very difficult to understand
when people speak I can understand
better when I read and I also want to
crack up my speaking ability normally I
would wait a month or two and then do it
and I'd be able to speak much better so
now I'm kind of struggling to speak
Romanian at any rate I have my I had two
tutors neither of whom they're both
ladies neither of whom were trained
teachers and we have a great time we
talked about what they're doing what I
did during the day my plans to visit
Romania or whatever comes to mind and
it's very enjoyable and at the end of
the 30-minute discussion I get a list of
the phrases that I used some of the
phrases that I used incorrectly or where
I struggled to find the word and these
of course I import in the link and I
study saving these words and phrases and
this is input for me this is content
which has a high degree of resonance
because these are things that I tried to
say so I don't learn all the words right
away or all the phrases but I become
quite aware of them and I think I
noticed them better when I next time
across them in other contexts so I
decided to step up my Romanian learning
and I decided to add yet another tutor
and this time it's a man because I
figured I should also be speaking to a
man because I may find it more difficult
or the intonation or whatever might be
difficult with a man or at any rate a
fellow should have a man as well as a
woman so we started our conversation now
this man is a trained teacher and
because he's a trained teacher he
insisted at least initially on doing
things his way so first of all he wants
to correct all of my mistakes on the fly
and he wants to use English to explain
and every time he uses a word he gives
me the English just to make sure I
understood and I kept saying look if I
don't understand I'll tell you in the
meantime just use Romanian and don't
correct my mistakes
send put them all in my report so that I
can study them later
and then he said well you know really
you should speak in very short sentences
for the first few weeks very simple
sentences like my name is Steve and then
after a while we can move to more
complicated sentences and I said I just
want to talk naturally and have an
interesting hopefully conversation and
he said well all right but I think we
then need to choose a theme so why don't
we pretend that you are in a store and
we can talk about the different items
that you would find in the store and I
said I don't want to have an artificial
discussion or role-playing about a store
I just wanna have a natural conversation
and I want to use simple sentences
complicated sentences present tense past
tense future tense whatever I want to
use whatever comes up in the discussion
so with great reluctance he agreed
although he still continued to interject
with English I think he's coming around
he seemed like a really nice guy he has
an interesting job as an editor of
educational magazines and educational
books in Romania so I'm looking forward
to developing that relationship with him
but it reminded me you know Here I am I
can tell the tutor what I want to do
because we're doing this across Skype
it's my nickel and I decide how the time
is going to be used but if I were in a
classroom I would be powerless the
teacher would be able to do role-playing
tell us whether to speak in short
sentences or long sentences and and
basically run the proceedings so getting
back to the original point that language
is a subconscious process we need
exposure we need obviously lots of
reading and listening and when we speak
we need to speak naturally and we do if
we do a few things to basically focus in
on some of the areas where we're having
trouble but we just allow ourselves to
hear the language and use the language
the brain is going to pick it up in a
largely incidental or subconscious way
and that is why the focus on what they
call form based instruction or
grammar or error correction is really
not all that effective and one example
again which was used on this forum at
LinkedIn LinkedIn was the third person
singular in English it's taught often
early and often I go you go he goes we
go you go they go and yet
it's perhaps one of the most common
mistakes that people make because just
instructing people or giving people
drills in certain rules of grammar
doesn't mean that those rules are going
to pick in kick in
they will kick in subconsciously
naturally at some point so go back
although I rambled as usual all over the
place the theme is language learning is
a subconscious process therefore give
yourself lots of exposure and don't get
upset when you don't learn things just
because you studied them thank you for
listening