Learning through memorization (Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies) Language Learning Forum

Learning through memorization
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Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies

9 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

s_allard
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5421 days ago
2704 posts - 5425 votes

Speaks: French*, English, Spanish
Studies: Polish

Message 9 of 9

18 October 2010 at 2:00pm | IP Logged

Cainntear wrote:

Yes, I know what you're getting at, but there isn't enough information there.

For you to be able to do this would require a massive amount of information not contained in the text -- that is, the substitutions that are allowed.

So in order to use these 10-20 pages successfully, you would still need another 1000 or so pages.

The technique described is therefore an illusion, a piece of misdirection. It points at a small text as the "core", when it is only a very small piece of the whole.

I beg to differ. Cainntear is confusing two separate concepts here. First of all, the idea behind learning a series of set phrases is that of learning fundamental or common structures. These structures are rather limited in number and some are more important than others. Secondly, these structures are manifested in an infinite number of utterances with infinitely different meanings. The underlying structures are finite, but the meaningful manifestations are infinite.

The idea behind this strategy of learning a certain number of phrases and then making substitutions is not really new. In my opinion, this is basically what all language methods do, albeit not in a clearly systematic way.

To take a specific example, let's say we want to learn how to ask questions in the target language? Do we try to learn all the possible questions in the language? Of course not. The logical approach is to study the structure of the interrogative mode in the language, which is just of fancy way of saying look at how questions are made. In the languages that I'm familiar with, English, French and Spanish, there are basically four ways of asking questions. You can see a marker such as What, Que, Qué. You can change word order: Are you coming? Vas-tu venir? ¿Vas a venir? Note that English makes extensive use of the auxiliary "to do". You can use the interrogative intonation with declarative word order. Finally, you can add a tag to the end of a declarative phrase. These are things like: You're coming, right? Tu viens, n'est-ce pas? Vas a venir, ¿verdad?

So, how do you learn the interrogative mode in a language? By looking at a few examples of each structure, you quickly learn to separate the structure from the content. With this structure internalized you can now recognize or notice how all future interrogative sentences are formed. Isn't this ultimately how all languages are learned?

Granted, learning the structures will only get you so far. It does not give you content. On this point, Cainntear is right. Learning the structures is no substitute for massive exposure to varied content.

I'm not sure that 20 pages of the basic sentences of a language would constitute an effective method. However, I do believe that as part of a general learning strategy, the memorization and imitation of certain series of examples can be very effective.

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