II. Approaches to Learning and Language Learning
Learning Objectives
At the end of this chapter, I will be able to
- Talk about different learning theories and name key features
- Identify procedural and declarative knowledge in different parts of my life
- Identify my learning preferences and ways to help me learn
- Give examples of implicit and explicit learning in various settings
- Talk about different teaching methods and identify them in practice
Welcome to Approaches to Learning! Congratulations, you’ve made it to the second chapter. Before we get started, I have a question. Have you ever considered how you learn languages? Have you sat down and said, “Maybe just memorizing flashcards for a written test about vegetables in Mandarin won’t get me to be conversationally fluent”? Or maybe you wondered if studying dialogues in French class was a better approach to learning to speak. Or maybe you just decided to learn Spanish by talking with your friends. Learning a language is a long, tedious process, or at least that’s what many people think. I’m here to tell you that it is in fact a long and tedious process, and you, the learner, decide whether to make it fun or even to make language learning worth it. Let’s look at an example of a polyglot who talks about his learning in deep detail and doesn’t glamorize the language learning process.
In the video, notice how Tim talks about his language learning process. Most of his languages were learned in the wild, outside of the classroom, but he also has experience with French which he learned in a formal setting. His experience as a language learner is extremely valuable to learn from precisely because of the variety, so let’s dissect some of the processes he mentioned.