Do we all learn languages the same way?
The quick answer is yes, but I can refine that answer a little bit.
Our brains learn the same way.
We all have more or less similarly structured brains, just like our digestive
system works the same in every person.
Now, it may be that we like certain foods and we don't like other foods, or we live
in an area where there's lots of fish.
And so we tend to consume things that are available to us,
or things that we like to consume. In our stomachs, in our digestive system,
the same is true in our brains.
Some people like reading and some people don't like reading.
Some people can't read.
Some people have problems with their eyes.
Some people are dyslexic.
Some people are visually impaired or auditorily impaired.
So obviously they are going to absorb the language in whatever
way suits their capability.
But if we have people who are equally
able to see, equally able to hear, then essentially they're going to
process language input in the same way.
Some people may prefer speaking to listening
or reading, but that doesn't mean they learn by speaking.
The only way we can learn a new language, that is, a language that we
don't have in ourselves, is to get the language from outside ourselves. Input!
And that means listening,
if we are able to hear. Reading, if we are able to see and read. A combination
of both, which is ideal, because the more different ways we can acquire
the same information, the better we're going to learn that information.
But the process is the same.
Now, if you Google, "Does everyone learn the same way?" you'll find
a bunch of articles, scholarly articles from educators saying
that we all learn differently.
We have visual learners and auditory learners and Kinetic learners. But
in fact, there is no scientific research which supports this.
In fact, when they ask people what kind of learner they are and people
say, "I'm a visual learner" and "I'm an auditory learner," and so forth,
and then they put them in separate groups and have them learn something,
there's no difference whether that person learns in the way they think
they are more inclined to learn; the way they think their brain works.
And someone who is learning in a way, which in theory, they
say, "I'm not a visual learner,"
tt's all the same.
So that's just a myth. And I'm going to leave a link to some articles
on the subject. But it becomes a bit of a crutch.
So, "I only can learn things if I hear them."
In fact, we all learn better if we both read and listen, when
it comes to languages. Speaking,
of course, in order to speak well, we need to speak a lot. And part of
speaking is that we then generate input that's relevant to us because
it's from the person we're speaking to and you want to learn that.
It's an important part of the input process is speaking with people.
And of course, an important part of practicing speaking is speaking.
And in my previous videos, I explained
the steps that the brain goes through in drawing on its memory of the language and
its experience with the language in order to generate an utterance in the language.
Language learning starts with getting the language in you,
and we all do it the same way.
But there are two other things that should be considered when
we say do we learn the same way.
One is our preferences.
So some people simply don't like to read.
So if a person doesn't like to read, because our motivation is so important in
language learning, then to push against something that person doesn't like to
do is going to be counterproductive.
So in that sense, it's a good thing to allow people to learn in the
way they find the most pleasant because then they're most likely
to continue and put the effort in.
However, it shouldn't be used as a crutch.
"I can't learn by reading."
No, that's not true.
If you develop the habit of reading, you will learn through reading. And
that will reinforce the learning you're doing through listening.
Another consideration is, sort of, the level we are in the language.
Obviously at the very beginning, it's very difficult to start speaking.
We have very little to say.
And if we rely on our ability to speak, we simply go around and around
using the same words all the time.
So at the beginning stage, it's more important to do a lot of listening
and reading in order to build up some experience, some memory,
some knowledge of the language, if we're at an intermediate stage.
So now we're in this particular language, we want to speak, we want to speak well.
So we have accumulated now some resources, some words, some phrases,
some experience with the language.
We want to get out and use it.
So therefore, we need to speak more.
So at that stage,
the speaking activity should become more important.
So at different stages in our journey in a particular language, certain activities
may be more important, may be preferred. An activity which is preferred is probably
going to be better because the student— the learner—is keen to do these things.
But it's important to not get carried away with certain educational fads.
Like the idea that we have different learning styles. And this myth of the
learning styles, it's still strongly held. And it seems kind of intuitive. But any
scientific research on the subject has shown that in fact, it's simply a myth.
So obviously if we have a strong preference for a certain learning
activity, that's what we're going to do.
And as long as we are motivated and we spend the time with the language,
we are going to learn. But we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking that some
people will only learn if they hear the language and others will only learn
if they read the language or they will only learn if they speak the language.
In fact, all of our brains function more or less the same way.
And it's a subject of great interest to me because I'm doing all this reading on
how the brain learns different things. But we all, basically, just as we have
essentially the same digestive system, we have the same cerebral system.
So yeah, the quick answer is we all learn
the same way, with a few caveats that I mentioned.