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Diminishing returns on single language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6142 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 13 19 February 2014 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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If I study a single language for three to four hours in a day, it seems like the first couple of hours are quite fruitful, but the last couple are not as productive. However, if I use the same four hours to study two or three different languages the gains across all of them are a lot better. Has anyone else experienced this phenomenon ? Can studying multiple languages in a day really be better than studying just one ?
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| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5157 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 2 of 13 19 February 2014 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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That's exactly what I do. Actually I don't work on shifts longer than 30 minutes for a
single language. That allows me to study 6 languages through about 7 hours a day, while I wouldn't be able to study 1 or even 2 languages all that time. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7229 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog | Message 3 of 13 19 February 2014 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, there's some studies about that... studying the same thing for more than 30 minutes
tend to be less than ideal. Even the same language... if I'm just listening to it this seems to be true, then if I do anything else for a few minutes and come back then I've got a bit of a boost. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5121 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 4 of 13 19 February 2014 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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My learning happens mostly through listening, reading and interacting. I can read or listen for hours in any of my languages. In country, or when I'm with friends, I can interact in and consume language all day long. At home, it's fun to switch between languages, but this is mostly content driven, not due to fatigue. I'm wary of the idea that you need to 'study' languages (as in work hard); I prefer to do things I enjoy, and I can enjoy myself all day long. If I'm not there yet with a specific skill (e.g., speaking, or writing an essay), I don't force myself to do it. I know from experience I'll get there eventually. Edited by Bakunin on 19 February 2014 at 8:45pm 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4512 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 5 of 13 19 February 2014 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | ||
Me too, but this works only with compelling content for me. For moderately interesting content, I can endure about 30 minutes of reading (extensively) or 1 hour of listening to an audiobook. Unfortunately, there are always chapters that aren't as interesting as others. For whatever reason, I can do a lot more with TV series, and watching for several hours in one go seems to be actually more productive than watching only 1 episode. edit: maybe I should add that the same holds true for reading or listening in my native language Edited by daegga on 19 February 2014 at 8:57pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4524 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 6 of 13 19 February 2014 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are plenty of studies that show that practice of an expert skill (e.g., piano) can only be done for about 4-5 hours per day. Of course there are filler activities that you can do around these activities, but you are pretty severely limited to hours you can actually study/practice really effectively.
I am a bit dubious about the idea that 2 hours/day is optimal for learning - if so, why is immersion such an effective technique for language learning? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6694 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 13 19 February 2014 at 10:16pm | IP Logged | ||
Definitely. That's how I do my studying. I would say that the time I spend on one language in a row rarely exceed two hours (apart from holidays and TV watching), and one hour is more typical. And I try to mix grammar, copying/retranslation, wordlists and other activities so that I for instance study Asterix in Greek with a mixture of copying and retranslation, and after that I do wordlists in Icelandic or read some Spanish extensively. Doing one single thing a whole evening long would be boring. On the other hand I wouldn't get any 'flow' in an activity if I didn't give it enough time - and 10-15 minutes would normally be the lower limit. However surfing can take me through a whole row of languages with just a few minutes for each one. I guess even this in the long run is has some kind of accumulative positive effect - but I can't feel an immediate effect in the same way as I can with an activity that lasts twenty, thirty minutes or more. Edited by Iversen on 19 February 2014 at 10:25pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| sabotai Senior Member United States Joined 5873 days ago 391 posts - 489 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Japanese, Korean, French | Message 8 of 13 19 February 2014 at 11:06pm | IP Logged | ||
For myself, I've found that about 1 hour, 2 hours on a good day, of actual study in a language is my limit before I start to feel fatigued and start losing focus. That's why I break the 3-4 hours a day I have for studying languages between 2-3 languages. I keep a high level of motivation and enthusiasm if I spend 3 hours studying 3 languages. If I tried (and I have many times) to spend that 3 hours studying just 1 language, I end up quitting for the day sometime during that 2nd or 3rd hour. That 1-2 hour limit doesn't include "passive" activities like extensive listening and extensive reading. Those, as long as it doesn't feel like I'm making an effort or get bored, I can do for several hours. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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