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Too Many Resources? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5669 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 12 01 January 2013 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Is it possible to have too many resources for learning a language?
I was prompted to ask this question after seeing a video of a person who had a massive collection of books and audio courses that I am sure could never be tackled in a lifetime. It may seem that more is better, since it increases choice, but there is also the phenomenon of being "spoiled for choice". I remember a documentary about small children which showed that when they had beyond a certain number of toys they spent a short time running from one to the next, and then soon abandoned them all, and sat there doing nothing. In contrast, they showed the same group when given only one or two toys and they played for hours on end. I know that when I first started out with language learning, I became addicted to buying books and other resources, with each new find resulting in a temporary giddiness that at last I had found a magical resource that would make me fluent. Then, a few days later that book would end up on the stack of books to never be looked at again. Since restricting my purchases, despite frequent temptations to buy more, I have found that I feel compelled more to keep returning to a given resource. A textbook, a reference grammar, and perhaps an audio course seem to just about cover it - along with a belief that any gaps in those materials will be filled by subsequent immersion in authentic materials. Maybe buying all those courses was just a beginner's mistake, and it is only now that I am a bit more capable as a language learner that I can resist the temptation. I do wish, however, that people had told me earlier on that buying more resources can actually have a paralyzing effect, and that each new purchase would actually impede my learning rather than enhance it. Edited by Splog on 01 January 2013 at 7:01pm 16 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4665 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 2 of 12 01 January 2013 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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I remember one of Luca's videos in which he recommended that beginners in a language
concentrate on one course and try to master its material. I don't know if that will necessarily work best for everybody, but I have been doing it myself for the past few months (with Assimil) and find myself progressing much faster than I did when I was spreading my efforts all over the place. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mikonai Diglot Senior Member United States weirdnamewriting.bloRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4929 days ago 178 posts - 281 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Swahili, German | Message 3 of 12 01 January 2013 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not sure if having too many resources can be a bad thing, but I certainly
see your point with too many courses. Maybe I'm splitting hairs, but here's the difference to me: having tons of "stand- alone" courses can be a lot like having dozens of toys, where you play with one, move on to the next (because maybe it'll be more fun/work better!), until you get bored with them all, but not all resources are courses like those. Moreover, it depends on how you use them: I will often find a course I like to be my main focus, one like Assimil, but then I will also take tools like Anki and various online courses (say, Duolingo) for practice. I don't expect anything to teach me the whole language, even as well as it says it does. I agree, it's probably not a good idea for an absolute beginner at learning languages to run around trying everything: some of the most important aspects to language learning are motivation and commitment, and that includes sticking with a course: otherwise you learn the same basics over and over again and you don't make any progress. But I don't feel any qualms about looking to outside resources to augment whatever course I'm following at the time. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5009 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 12 01 January 2013 at 7:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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I partially agree.
As a beginner in language learning (not just beginner in the particular language), I believe one should follow advice from more experienced learners, get one or two different basic courses (really different, like Assimil and TY, not TY and Colloquial), go through them and choose additional resources when the need arises. Having a ton of crap in your shelf or computer is good for nothing and will probably work the way described. But as a more advanced learner, I prefer to look at a lot of resources, try a bit and to choose what will suit me the best. After making my choice, I go through two or three resources at once, to prevent getting bored and to get more exercises. Seriously using more is too much for me, especially consiering my time limits for learning. I tried quite long ago and failed, now I know better. The trouble is that a beginner without access to good advice from language learning friends, forum, good teachers etc., has got a trouble. They choose one or two resources but if they are not content with them, which can easily happen as the bookshops' shelves are filled mostly with crap, they need to try others and it takes more time than it would take to more experienced learner (who can usually tell a course will be useless just by running through it in the bookstore). So, many of them try and try and some drop the language before sticking to something. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5982 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 5 of 12 01 January 2013 at 8:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I do remember standing in front of all the Japanese books, resources, courses, textbooks etc that I had collected and feeling quite frustrated, wondering how on earth I was going to get all the information stored in my bookshelf into my head. So I agree that you can definitely have too much of a good thing.
However, when I was a beginner, I had no idea how to tell a useful course from a bad one, much in the same way that I didn't know how to tell good advice from bad advice. I also had no real insight into how I personally prefer to learn languages, and what my language needs and desires really were (I just thought I wanted to be "fluent" of course). As I was lucky enough to have some spare cash to waste on language materials, it's no surprise I overdid the purchases really. But I think once you recognise "resource paralysis" for what it is, it's fairly easy to deal with - just stick all the stuff you're not using in a box and forget about it (or even better, find it a happy home with another language learner). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 12 01 January 2013 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes and no.
What you described as being 'spoilt for choice' is something that has also been observed in adults, namely that when we have too many options we exhaust our executive function system trying to choose and stay on track - and we could have used that resource to keep on track for longer. However, if you're trapped in a system that constantly runs low on executive functioning due to something like ADD, having only a few choices does not necessarily fix the problem. In that case some kind of outside impetus is more helpful. For me, Mandarin and French classes create just enough impetus to make me concentrate on the textbooks I have for each, and use additional material not as a distraction but as an addition. Only having one course to use does not create enough impetus on its own, because there is always something else than language study to do. It is possible to learn a language flitting from one resource to the next, but especially at a basic level it takes a long time, and a lot of instant gratification. Edited by Bao on 01 January 2013 at 11:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5345 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 7 of 12 01 January 2013 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
Which video is it? I for one love language-learning materials, even just to watch them. I see them as an invitation to an enchanting journey. As for the subject of your question, yes, if not well selected, you can end up with too many of them, particularly beginner's courses. Going through a manual most of whose contents you have already mastered elsewhere can be tedious, especially the repeating explanations of basic concepts in the instruction language. One thing worse than this though, with the exception of very challenging or resource-starved languages, is re-reading the same course. So I believe it is a good idea to have a redundancy of materials for each level, each book selected for its quality and richness of content in the actual language you are studying (the smaller the ratio between instruction language/target language content the better), but more than a few beginner's courses can be a waste. Intermediate and advanced materials are most useful to have in quantity since you are bound to find something -or much- new in each of them. Regrettably, these are the least abundant materials and the hardest to procure. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4682 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 8 of 12 01 January 2013 at 10:22pm | IP Logged | ||
I think is better to use two (or perhaps three, but no more) different methods at the same time. Their different approaches will complement each other. Before setting on a method, beginners should do some research about which methods are available and which suit them best to their style of learning. I would not get very far trying to concentrate on a FSI course, because I cannot stand the drills and I would find plenty of excuses to do something else instead of language learning. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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