II. Approaches to Learning and Language Learning

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. These are all examples of learning theories in practice, the ‘how’. So, let’s talk about the ‘why’ behind the ‘how’