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Learning Styles? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5373 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 17 of 42 09 March 2011 at 6:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think having control of the data is part of the reason why maps and written instructions may be easier to remember than spoken instructions. You can reread or analyze the information your own way, whereas aural input is very ephemeral.
Similarly, if you control the way you learn a language, you will do better than if you expect others to direct your learning. If there are ways that work better for everyone, they can still only work if the student chooses to adopt them. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5091 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 18 of 42 09 March 2011 at 7:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This might sound like trying to oversimplify the question, but doesn't everything become easier when you actually have fun doing it?
You say your son is "playing around with the material and making creative answers." You expose this as a result of him having an "easy" time learning the language. What if it was the other way around? I don't know about you, but over the years, I've come to greatly admire Sun Tzu and his writings : the victorious warrior wins first and then goes to war - the defeated warrior goes to war first and then tries to win. This seems to make a WHOLE lot of sense in this situation and it does also seem to fit with the attitudes both your wife and son are showing. I can also testify as for my own situation : I'm currently learning russian, I'm having a great time and it also happens that I'm progressing pretty fast (according to my teacher, and I'd tend to believe him, even though there's a part of that statement of his that is definitely meant to push me even further). Now, am I having fun because I learn fast or do I learn fast because I'm having fun? Well, as soon as you understand that you only need to trigger one of the two elements to get the wheel spinning, it really doesn't matter which came first. Fun generates ease, which generates more fun, which generates more ease, etc. I think your wife needs to mimic your son a bit more. They say children have an easier time learning languages - although there are some definite physiological reasons for this, I'm sure it couldn't hurt if your wife approached the language course with a more "child-like" mindset. After all, children are the most resilient human beings. Edited by FrostBlast on 09 March 2011 at 7:38pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5373 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 19 of 42 09 March 2011 at 10:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
I had attempted to answer that here 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kmart Senior Member Australia Joined 6116 days ago 194 posts - 400 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 20 of 42 10 March 2011 at 12:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
No, you just think you need to see it, but you don't. I am absolutely certain of this, even though I've never met you. And I can prove it. How did you learn your native language? Did you see it first or hear it? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Shenandoah Newbie United States Joined 5019 days ago 30 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 21 of 42 10 March 2011 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
While I started speaking before I could read, I didn't gain any sort of competency until I was reading (but then, I started reading at a very young age, so I can't prove any cause and effect in that). I'm sure I eventually would have become fluent, even without reading materials, but based on my current experiences working on a second language, I believe it would have taken me much longer. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5373 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 22 of 42 10 March 2011 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
It's often been asserted that we don't learn language the same way as babies as we do as adults. However, as I said before, humans learned eachother's languages by listening and speaking only for millenia before the advent of writing, so this is no doubt an ability all humans genetically possess. Moreover, that is STILL how a very large portion of humanity learns languages, as we are not all literate, far from it. Edited by Arekkusu on 10 March 2011 at 3:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5091 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 23 of 42 10 March 2011 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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And the age-old presence of religions and cults prove that even before writing, people were capable of developing complex thoughts and ideas, suggesting that a high proficiency in whatever language they spoke was obtainable even without a writing system.
I would tend to agree that it simply took them longer to reach that specific proficiency, but then, in a different society, maybe the brain (which can change and adapt) worked in a slightly different way to make learning by ear easier. This would also suggest that millennia of using writing as foundation for thought may have shaped the brain in a way that makes it more difficult for us to reach a high language proficiency solely by ear than was the case before the advent of writing. This being said, I'm no expert. I only taking "educated guesses" according to various books I've read. Edited by FrostBlast on 10 March 2011 at 4:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5373 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 24 of 42 10 March 2011 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
Why would it take longer?
You are confusing the advent of writing and the use of it by the general population, the latter being a very recent innovation. In France, it wasn't until the turn of the 19th century that a majority of people could read and write (evaluated on the basis of their ability to write their name). There are still today many countries where the literacy rate is below 50%. Genes simply don't change that fast. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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