An analogy about language learning

Meeting language

The first time we meet someone, we may not even talk to them. We will probably still remember their face, but that’s all we remember, just their face. In language learning, this is like seeing a word and saying, ‘I know I’ve seen that somewhere before…’ The next time we meet the person, we are told their name; unfortunately, that’s no guarantee that we’ll remember it in the future. This is like learning a word but later forgetting its meaning. It happens all the time. And this can go on several more times before we can confidently recall a word and its meaning. So it is with words and rules. We can expect to bump into new items several times before we can truthfully claim to know it well.

Visiting language

The good news is that there are many ways of accelerating this process of 'becoming friends' with new language, all of which could be described as 'visiting'. Instead of waiting to accidently bump into a word, you can deliberately visit them again and again. There are many techniques for meeting, visiting and revisiting language, and you might like to reflect now on which of them are your preferred techniques. To give you an idea, they include such methods as:

• listening to and reading things you’ve already studied
• revising and taking part in tests and exams
• testing yourself
• going over your notes
• using word cards or flashcards
• listening to and singing your favourite songs
• reading things you enjoy in English
• repeating phrases in your mind and out loud


Review
Consider the following related words:

review revision revisiting recycling

They are all valuable ways of thinking about learning English:
review = looking at language again, or noticing
revision = studying what you think you know, or working
revisiting = meeting again, or familiarising
recycling = using again, or putting it to good use

That last one, recycling, is a particularly important idea in learning English because it implies that if you don’t put what you learn into practice, you’re throwing it away. A crucial element in learning English is trying it out, experimenting, perhaps getting it a bit wrong at the start, but using it even so. Here’s a famous English cliché:

“Use it or lose it”*

Learning English is not simply about memorising lots of words or rules but about making them work for you. This means you'll learn faster if you practise English. Here are a few ways to do this:

• in a classroom, with your teacher and fellow students
• in a language exchange, or intercambio
• online, via one of the sites that get you in touch with teachers, such as myngle.com, or with other learners, such as italki.com
• online, in a virtual world like Second Life
• on holiday in an English-speaking country

While some of these take a lot of time and money, many learners find themselves talking English with someone who is always around… them! For example, I practised my Spanish numbers and letters by reading the number plates of passing cars out loud as I walked to work every day. I got a few strange looks, but it was worth it. Others have silly dialogues with imaginary people while cooking or taking a shower.

So learning a language can be seen as a series of many meetings with words, structures and sounds. Some learners may be happy to just let the language come to them, but most try to accelerate the process by actively visiting and revisiting specific language. Finally, to ensure learning, many people make sure they activate their English by using it.

*Footnote: ‘Use’ and ‘lose’ rhyme; both contain the /u:z/ sound, so it’s rhythmic and quite easy to remember.