Language Learning is a 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 Krashen has put forward 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. 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, Anki or this kind of thing is where I learn 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.
They are activities which, 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. 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.
First of all, I should say that we live in a wonderful world. All the people who criticize globalization, I don't understand them. 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, tsarist Russia, how King Karaoke came to the land in the 19th century, all this kind of stuff, so that Romania is not such a far away strange land and I have my tutors. 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. 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 in other romance languages and some of it is similar Slavic languages.
So I find it a lot easier to remember the vocabulary, to the point that now in LingQ when I import news items there's only 10% 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%. 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 (A) because it's easier, but (B) because I have to be in Romania next month and, of course, even through 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 crank 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 had two tutors, they're both ladies, neither of whom were trained teachers and we have a great time.
We talk 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. At the end of the 30-minute discussion, I get a list of some of the phrases that I used incorrectly or where I struggled to find the word and these, of course, I import into LingQ and I study, saving these words and phrases. This is input for me. This is content which has a high degree of resonance because these are things that I tried to say. I don't learn all the words right away or all the phrases, but I become quite aware of them and I think I notice them better when I next come across them in other contexts so I decided to step up my Romanian learning.
I decided to add yet another tutor and this time it's a man. I figured I should also be speaking to a man because I may find it more difficult, the intonation or whatever might be difficult with a man. At any rate, I felt I 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. Every time he uses a word he gives me the English, just to make sure I understood. 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, put them all in my report so that I can study them later on. 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. I said I just want to talk naturally and have an interesting, hopefully, conversation.
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. I said I don't want to have an artificial discussion or role playing about a store. I just want to 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 seems 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. 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, basically, run the proceedings. 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. We do a few things to, basically, focus in on some of the areas where we're having trouble, but if we just allow ourselves to hear the language and use the language the brain is going to pick it up, largely, in an incidental or subconscious way. That is why the focus on what they call form-based instruction or teaching grammar or error correction is really not all that effective. One example, again which was used on this forum at LinkedIn, was the third person singular in English.
It's taught early and often – I go, you go, he goes; we go, you go, they go -- yet it's perhaps one of the most common mistakes that people make because just instruction people or giving people drills in certain rules of grammar doesn't mean that those rules are going to 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.
