Posts Tagged ‘accelerated learning’

Language learning made easy with music: Earworms – The Language Show 2010 – interviews part 5

Friday, November 5th, 2010

Thanks for indulging me with my exciting news about my new novel (which incidentally stormed to 28th position in Amazon UK’s Best Selling Thrillers yesterday!) - it’s time to get back to telling you about some of the great language learning products I found at The Language Show in Earl’s Court.

I was rather excited to have the opportunity to interview one of the founders of one of the cleverest and most effective ‘accelerated language learning’ products I’ve come across: Earworms (see note about discounts below).  If I had to recommend just one language learning product for beginners, or even rusty intermediates, it would be Earworms.  They’re a delight to listen to, at home, on the go, at the gym, or even in bed.  In fact, I’m listening to one in the background as I write this. I have some great news for you too: I’ve persuaded Andrew to give Bitesized Subscribers a hefty 25% discount on their products.  Co-founder Andrew Lodge explained at the show how their brilliant product works:

Earworms is a ‘Musical Brain Trainer’ which uses specially designed catchy musical riffs to anchor vocabulary into your long-term memory.  Each CD contains 200 new words, divided into topics.  A rhythmic dialogue between a native speaker and an English student is set to music in a way that’s both relaxing and a joy to listen to.  It goes further though, using ingenious mnemonics (memory tricks) along the way to help remember difficult words with almost no effort.  As I said to Andrew afterwards, frankly – and I say this very rarely – I wish I’d invented it.  But don’t take my word for it, have listen yourself:

Arabic
Spanish - I would like...
French - Reserving a room
Portuguese - parting
Italian conversation
Japanese - Is there... nearby?
Chinese numbers (example of mnemonics)

Buy now with 25% discount! (use code ‘bitesized’)

25% Discount for Bitesized Subscribers

Earworms is available in 16 languages, and there are two volumes of 200 words in each.  It has to be one of the most pleasant, undemanding and engaging ways to absorb vocabulary.  The CDs also come with beautifully printed vocab lists so you can see what you’re listening to as well.  They also make terrific presents for people!

If you’d like to buy one, you can get a 25% discount of the retail price of £14.99 simply by using the coupon code ‘bitesized’ when you order from the Earworms shop, so each CD is just £11.24.  If you think about it, that’s about 5p per word or phrase learned.

Earworms also have a 5 CDs for 4 offer on, which you can combine with our discount code for an even better deal, so that’s half your Christmas shopping sorted!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Let us know what you think.  I’m going to get cracking de-rusting my Spanish and I’m also taking on a completely new language: Japanese, to see how I get on.  I’ll report back in a week.

Gareth

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How to Dramatically Improve your Language Skills in a Week

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

A few weeks ago I decided to try out a system for accelerated language learning that I’ve been musing  about for years.  The results have been pretty amazing – so much so that we’re considering creating a course around this structure, but you don’t need to wait for us to do that – I’m going to tell you how you can do it for yourselves without spending a penny…

Years ago I was a member of an amateur drama group and we did a production of On The Razzle by Tom Stoppard.  There was one line for a waiter in Italian.  It was gobbledegook to all of us initially except the stage manager who was Italian and helped with the pronunciation.  When  the play was over, not only the actor playing the waiter, but every single one of us knew that line perfectly, including exactly what it meant, the correct pronunciation and cadence and I still recall it perfectly twenty years on.

That was just one line, but what about several scenes or even a whole play?  I know it’s possible to learn a mathematical proof by rote without understanding it, but I have a hypothesis: you can’t do that with language.  Unlike maths it’s instinctive – learn the dialogue, know the language.  So, this was my experiment – creating a language course based around a script.  I’ve pulled together a group of friends to practice with – we’re just performing to each other, but even after just one session we all learned a huge amount of dialogue, shared language knowledge with each other and most importantly we spent the whole three hour session laughing and having fun.

Here’s what to do:

  • Remember my article How to Learn a Language Matrix-style ? Start by raiding your DVD or Blu-ray collection.  You’re looking for DVDs that have many language options for both audio and subtitles.  If you can’t find one in your current collection, you can always go online and order something specific.  I chose L’Importanza Di Chiamarsi Ernest – the 2002 Miramax film which I have dubbed in Italian with both English and Italian Subtitles available (“In una borsa?!!”)
  • Get a group of friends who also want to learn the same language – it’s going to be easier if they’ve already covered the basics and are not complete beginners.
  • Pick a scene with interesting dialogue between two characters (or more if it suits your group – you’ll each understudy multiple parts).
  • Watch the scene first with no subtitles in Italian to see how much you understand (probably very little).
  • Play it again with Italian subtitles to see how much more you can understand this time.
  • Next play with English subtitles so that you get the whole sense of the scene.
  • Now, it’s transcription time!  Play the scene again with Italian subtitles, stopping at each line.  Everyone transcribes the dialogue.
  • Compare notes, get your dictionaries out and ensure you’ve understood the all the vocabulary and idioms used.
  • Finally, pick parts and spend the rest of the session taking turns at recreating the scene until you’re comfortable with it.
  • Your homework is to learn the lines by the next session.
  • Next session, perform the scene and start a new one!

If you want to go a step further and are feeling techie, you can do what I did and rip the audio and the subtitles to help create the scripts in a tidier form.  I put the resulting MP3s on my phone and listened to them constantly to help the dialogue sink in.   This is entirely legal so long as you own a genuine copy of the original film, and vital if, like me, you need to be a little creative finding the time to practise.

I promise you, you won’t find a quicker or more fun way to improve your language skills!

Gareth

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Ultimate memory tricks to boost your foreign language vocabulary – part 3

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

In the first of this series on memory tricks to improve your vocab I talked about the simplest of vocab tricks, word associations. In the second we got a bit more technical with an extension on word associations known as mnemonics. In this post I want to wrap it up by discussing how best to use these very powerful tools, and just as importantly how to avoid any potential pitfalls while using them.

Both of these things can be achieved simply by really understanding the role that these memory tricks have, namely establishing a mental hook so the word is forced into your short term memory. What they are not are speaking aids you should be using in the normal flow of conversation.

Fellow Bitesizer Gareth commented on the last blog that mnemonics in particular are great for words that just “won’t go in”. I’m a bit more enthusiastic than that in that I believe at very least a memory association for most of the words you look at will speed up your recollection and can be a good default option. Perhaps I don’t have as good a natural short term memory but I find that particularly at an early stage of learning most words don’t actually sink in without one of these tricks (or loads of repetition which can often be impractical if not tedious). What I remain acutely aware of however, and with practice this just becomes second nature, is that once I have the word in my mind that the mnemonic or word association becomes a background tool only to be used if I’m struggling to recall a word.

Once you have the word held in your mind, it is vital that you work on establishing both contextual patterns (i.e. by using the word in context as often as possible) and muscle memory. While above I described repetition as tedious; what I am specifically referring to is the unconstructive, flashcard-after-flashcard repetition that seems to pass the time but not achieve all that much. Repetition in terms of speaking phrases over and over, writing stories and sentences that use as many words as possible or trying to converse with native speakers is absolutely vital, and for me personally very satisfying.

Memory aids provide a foundation, contextual repetition solidifies muscle memory and embeds the word in your long term memory, and in the times when a word just won’t come out the memory aids can provide that little kick to keep the conversation going. Gareth mentioned “letting them go” when they have done their job, for me it is more about understanding their place, and not using them as a crutch – this is pitfall number 1 to avoid.

The second potential source of problems is the possibility that by allowing tenuous links between words (because they mean something to you) that bad pronunciation may be encouraged. This can happen because your associated patterns aren’t a perfect match. In my example I used the word “itu” which is Indonesian for “that” and my mnemonic was “’Eh Tu Bruté’, now that is Shakespeare!” The problem here is obvious; “itu” is not the same as “eh tu”) and if I relied on the mnemonic literally then I would end up pronouncing something that wasn’t actually a word (or worse meant something inappropriate!) This is an important issue and one you should be conscious of, but my own experience is that as long as you stick to the process that is: mnemonic first then follow up with the contextual repetition second, the risk of dodgy pronunciation can be minimised. Remember you should start practicing with the word in context as quickly as possible to iron out any glitches, the word will become part of your natural vocabulary without needing the mnemonic any longer.

As a part of the rigorous academic testing we do as part of our daily routine here at Bitesized ;) I’ve been working on some language learning games lately, one in particular around mnemonics and flashcards. I’ll talk about those in a future post, but last week I was able to knock off about 60 new words with no more than 10 minutes review per day using mnemonics, so if you haven’t done so already I urge you to give them a go, let us know how it works out.

Have fun!

Simon

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The power of groups

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

In this final article in my series on Building Learning Muscles, we’re going to look at the final R: Reciprocity.

Reciprocity is the social aspect of learning and it’s one of the easiest of the learning muscles to build, in fact. You can learn on your own, but even when you learn from a book or CD you’re getting information from someone else. As social animals we’re hard-wired to receive information from others in a special way; we bounce off each other synergistically.

Team or Group Learning
If you’re not already part of a group, why not form one? Group learning can be extraordinarily powerful – in fact there’s a huge body of research on group dynamics in education. Groups also provide a regular structure that you are unlikely to have learning on your own unless you’re incredibly disciplined.  Group learning also has certain pitfalls, so it’s important to understand what they are and to turn them into opportunities. Mixed learning speed is one issue: you may be the fastest in a group and get frustrated if the group slows you down; or you may be the slowest and feel embarrassed and eventually check out completely as you feel left behind. The trick here is for the extremes to help each other. Teaching something is absolutely one of the best ways to learn it properly. You can’t teach something you don’t fully understand. If you’re the slow one, you can benefit from multiple teachers (more on this in a minute). In well-integrated learning groups everyone benefits. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Being open to feedback
This is a critical learning skill. If you shut down or get sensitive every time someone gives you some critical feedback then you are missing out. Treat every piece of feedback as gold, even if you don’t agree with it, try it on anyway and see what happens. There’s always something to learn.

Being attentive to others
Pay attention to other students, not only their successes but their mistakes and why they make them. Analysing other people’s performance can really enhance your own.

Using empathy: stepping into others’ shoes
This is especially important to deal with group differences. The more effort you make to understand the other members of your group, the better you will integrate with them and be able to use them as learning resources. Don’t get frustrated with other people, try to understand them.

Imitating others
Try to find out what the other students are doing that helps them learn quickly, whatever it is you can mimic them. Mimicry is vital to learning – and I’m not talking about copying in an exam! In language, mimicry is the only way you will perfect your accent, your pronunciation, intonation and stress. Pay attention and copy!

That’s it for now on this series. I hope you’ve found it insightful. Let us know how you get on with building your learning muscles!

Gareth

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Building your resilience muscle

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

In my last article, Four muscles you never knew you had,  I explored Guy Claxton’s distinction between learning skills and learning dispositions.  Positive learning dispositions can be cultivated, built up like muscles, enabling you to learn faster and more effectively. If you recall, Professor Claxton’s learning muscles are the four Rs: Resilience, Resourcefulness, Reflection and Reciprocity.

If you’ve ever found learning slow and frustrating and wanted to give up, or just found you start things but somehow drift off, life gets in the way and never finish them then it’s your resilience that’s being challenged.  The good news is, you can build up your learning resilience, but just like training for a marathon, don’t expect that you can go magically overnight from couch potato to running 26 mental miles in under two hours.  Resilience is something you’ll build up gradually with practice.  But what exactly is language learning resilience?

Let me ask you some questions with respect to you as a language student:

  • How often do you break your word to yourself, especially around study?
  • How prepared and willing are you to look stupid?
  • Do you tend to give up or switch off when things are foggy or unclear?
  • How determined and persistent are you when it doesn’t go well?
  • How curious and adventurous are you in learning?  Do you learning actively or passively?
  • How flexible are you?  Do you try other ways when one way fails?
  • How focussed are you?  How easily distracted?

If you realise answering these questions that your resilience actually isn’t all that great you may find it a little depressing.  Don’t!  In fact, notice that’s actually low resilience talking.  Remember you can build up your learning resilience but you will need to start with baby steps.  Here are some ideas for improving your resilience. Why not pick one or two and commit to doing them.

  • Keeping your word to yourself is as important if not more than keeping it to others.  Practise keeping your promises to yourself about little things, like homework or practice.  If you only set aside ten minutes a day or an hour a week to improve any one thing and kept your promise, just think how much you’d achieve? (be realistic though – commit to what you know you can do).  Put it in your diary so you don’t forget.  Tell someone else what you’ve promised to do and ask for help in sticking to it.
  • Practise looking stupid and give up the need to look good in front of others all the time.  Learning requires you to make mistakes, to stand up and get it wrong, or to sound silly doing the accent.  In the long run, the ones who are prepared to look silly at the beginning are the ones who look great later when they can speak fluently.  Which of those would you rather be?
  • Language is messy.  Words simply don’t have direct one-to-one translations and sometimes there’s just no exact word or sentence in a translation.  Give up your need for clarity all the time.  Practise keeping going through the fog and eventually it’ll clear.  Expect fog, it’s normal.
  • Try “disowning” thoughts and feelings that pop up and stop you.  Just because your brain says “give up” or “I can’t be bothered” or “I’m tired” doesn’t mean you have to own that thought and run with it.  After all, your brain thinks up all sorts of rubbish all the time and you don’t say it all.  You have an internal censor.  What happens if you tell yourself that maybe that thought isn’t one you want to take on?  Practise censorship.  Now can you keep going?
  • Practise learning actively not passively.  Bring yourself to learning, don’t think it must come to you or be spoon-fed.  Practise taking control of it.
  • If you’ve tried a learning method and it didn’t work for you, what else might you try?
  • Finally focus.  This one is a killer for me.  I’m like a magpie, distracted by any shiny new thing and for me the internet and email are evil twins.  If you can’t focus because of distractions try moving where there are fewer distractions for an hour or two.  The library.  A café without internet access.  If it’s sunny, maybe go outside and practice in a park?

Two more things to remember: Firstly, your learning resilience is often a function of the subject matter – you may be super resilient at Piano for example, but poor at German. However, you can always build up, and learning is way more fun when your resilience is high.  Secondly, just like muscle strength your resilience can go down as well as up if you don’t keep the truck rolling!  If you’re struggling to even start, here are five ways to get motivated.

What other ways can you think of to help build resilience?  Why not share them with us.

Gareth

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