Once we start trusting this process, we can recognize that not all learning has to be explicit, effortful or difficult.
This is a good explanation as to why many people believe that immersion is the best method for language learning. Because you're constantly exposed, a lot of what you learn is unconscious and you can learn much faster - plus you actually need to use it to get by in day-to-day life.
Can you explain the typical order of adjectives in English? Many of you will probably say ‘No’. Let’s find out.
This is a fascinating example of procedural knowledge in English that I'm very surprised native speakers don't think about (myself included). I didn't even realize that this was a grammar rule until maybe two or three years ago. It makes me wonder what makes something a grammar rule what doesn't. Is there a reason adjectives are ordered this way?
Unlike Grammar Translation, this method does provide intensive listening and speaking practice to build procedural knowledge, but learners still don’t have the opportunity to improvise in real-life interactions.
I think that this method would only be truly beneficial for learning how to speak without an accent - which isn't a bad thing at all, but there isn't much use for that skill without the grammar or vocabulary knowledge to actually go beyond parroting exactly what you've heard before.
This “gamification” of language learning is not bad. Still, learners may overestimate their skills because of that serotonin release, thinking that mastery can be achieved on an app.
I think this is why a lot of people struggle to actually learn when only doing something like Duolingo. I've tried that route before, and I barely remember anything that I learned from attempting to learn solely through apps - people overestimate their skills even though they probably have never actually used the language in real life.
As it turns out, learners on average experience better results when their motivation is intrinsic. This is not to say that extrinsic motivation is bad, or that the two don’t blend together sometimes. Harmer (2001) says that “even where the original reason for taking up a language course, for example, is extrinsic, the chances of success will be significantly enhanced if the students come to love the learning process”
I think for native English speakers, in most cases motivation has to be intrinsic to fully learn another language. Because there isn't really a need for English speakers to know a second language, especially in the United States, unless you really, truly want to learn for the sake of it, whatever you learn won't stick.
How can our ability to learn just disappear? Newsflash, it doesn’t! It is not natural to stop learning.
I think the fact that people have a tendency to fall into a fixed mindset as they grow older is not because they can't learn new things, but they simply don't see a need to. When a child is learning their first language, it's necessary to function in society, so they have to learn. For an older child or adult who is learning a second language, such as in a classroom, there isn't really a necessity to use it outside of that environment, so when they fail to retain what they've learned, if they see no reason to keep trying then they simply won't.
You would immediately know that such high standards are ridiculous. Then why do many of us have such fear of learning languages ‘imperfectly’?
People often don't realize that the high standards they set for themselves aren't realistic. It's much more common people to set a high bar for themselves, than for other people to impose such expectations on learners, and they don't know how ridiculous they're being. I think this true for language learning and many other aspects of life.
The best time to learn a language is in one’s initial years of life.
I would argue that this idea and the idea that adults can learn a language completely from scratch can coexist. An adult can become fluent in another language, but they will likely have more difficulty learning a language than a child because a young child will most likely learn their second language the same way they learn their first: immersion. That's why it's often suggested to immerse yourself in your target language - it's how children learn.