How can we best learn a new language?

Hello colleagues, Paul Nation, who is a professor in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand, is one of the leading experts in the world on what it takes to learn a new language. In his recent book Nation poses the question, What do you need to know to learn a foreign language?

I wonder how members would answer this question. What do you think, folks?

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

 

Comments

Hello colleagues, In my first message in this thread, I posted the question posed by Professor Paul Nation, which also happens to be the title of his free online book, What do you need to know to learn a foreign language? Based on year's of research into language learning, Nation has identified what he believes to be the 20 most important language learning techniques.

Nation's book is written for anyone who is learning another language, and is -- of course --highly relevant to those of us teaching language, too.

Since I have been familiar with Nation's research for some time, I know that one thing he recommends is that opposites not be studied at the same time. Here is how he puts the advice in the online book 

"Avoid learning near synonyms, opposites or members of a lexical set together. Lexical sets are groups like the months of the year, the names of fruit, colours, parts of the body and articles of clothing. If you learn the words in such pairs or groups at the same time, the words in them get mixed up with each other making them harder to learn (p 6).    I was quite surprised when I first learned about this research since this is the way many ESL textbooks are organized. What are your thoughts?   It would be great to have an in depth discussion here in our community about each of Nation's 20 recommendations.

I'm looking forward to members' comments!

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

 

I've come across this research in the past and thought it was interesting, but couldn't figure out how to make the advice practical. I teach thematically and, as you say, most textbooks/websites/apps are organized by topic. How could language be taught in context without coming across words that are in the same set?  Also, opposites can be an easy way to teach new words. So--nice in theory, but I don't know how it would work in practice. A quick scan of the link you posted doesn't reveal any techniques. I'm curious to see if anyone here has tried it successfully.

Hi Lisa and all, I agree that it seems totally logical and intuitive to teach words that are related at the same time. Your point about teaching contextually is important. Nation argues that people get words mixed up when they study related words at the same time. It's a little hard to imagine exactly what this means in practical terms; I have the same question as you, Lisa.

I do think it can be hard for students to learn sets of related words that are near synonyms with subtle differences, such as walk, amble, stroll.  

I wonder if anyone has experience as a language learner themselves.Can you recall getting words that are part of a lexical set confused?  I can't recall the experience myself.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, Adult English Language Acquisition CoP

That's a good point, Susan. I don't remember having this problem when I studied other languages. I think that problem is more likely to happen when learning third or fourth languages, but then it looks like confusion between  which word is which language, not within one language. So I might have to stop and think sometimes whether the word is Spanish or Portuguese, but I don't confuse the words within the lexical set (saying orange when I mean purple). I notice that with some of my students, too, where they use the correct word in their second language when trying to use an English word (when English the third and target language).  The examples I can think of within lexical sets all involve negative transference from another language, for example pronoun confusion for people whose first/earlier languages use pronouns differently. Or in my case confusing French elle (she) with Portuguese ele (he). So I guess that's an excessively wordy way of saying that I'm not convinced that it's a big enough issue to warrant completely changing our teaching in order to accommodate the potential confusion within a lexical set.

Thanks for sharing your reflection on your own language learning experience, Lisa. It's super interesting!

Here's a question for everyone. I have noticed that beginners often have trouble with the WH question words. I have wondered if this challenge fits with what Paul Nation has argued. As a result, I have begun introducing only one or two question words at a time. For example, I introduce what and where, so that early on we can ask What is your name? and Where are you from?  Later and at separate times, I introduce when, who, and which . I think this practice has helped beginning learners to better internalize these question words.

I'm eager to hear about other teachers' experiences.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

When I was learning English (age 15), I was given a set of "Vocabulary" words to memorize. I forgot all of them and I would not be able now to "chant" the memorizing list I was graded after. What I mean is: I have learnt this words but within context. The list I was given and which got me a straight A, back then, I forgot. I can´t even begin to think about which words where part of it. This I know: it was a set of alike/opposite words. So, what I think he means - and it´s a common teaching method in schools for primary students and also in ESL teaching - is thit: "Don´t teach them all at a time, don´t give them sets to memorize. Instead, provide context for the words so that they might mean something to the student". 

Thanks for sharing your language learning experience, Dorcas. I agree 100%! Memorizing decontextualized sets of words is not a great strategy. However, creating flashcards for new vocabulary that is learned in a meaningful context can be quite effective. In fact, creating flashcards is at the top of Paul Nation's list of tips for learning a new language.

I wonder how many teachers have students create flashcards. How has this worked for you? Have you used flashcards when learning a new language yourself?

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

 

I have not used - as far as I can remember - flashcards on my own. But I am using them now to teach my children some words in English. The two older kids (10 and 12) "teach" the toddler (3 years old) a "game word", they show the flashcard, read the word in English and then in Spanish. I haven´t noticed any improvement in English or Spanish in the 3 year old kid but I have seen the older girls get better at both languages! LOL!

I love using flash cards, but mostly for games.  I get most of my class sets from https://www.eslflashcards.com/.  He provides small, medium and large cards.  When I am in a classroom where I can use a projector (not always the case in adult education), I use them to play games like Bingo, Jeopardy or What's the Word.  The small cards I give to students to play "Go Fish" and other matching games.  Students also create personal sets.  I give them key rings and they can put up to 12 of their own "I-wanna-learn" words on their ring.  They only had words when they are satisfied they have learned one of the existing ones and can rip it off the ring with great gusto!  (There is something so satisfying about that.)  

I mainly teach beginners and advanced, so the flash card itself may be bilingual, an image, a definition, or an example sentence (for the advanced group, lifted from something we're reading).

For the past 6 or 7 years, I've been using Quizlet more.  The first time I used it in class, a student asked if she could use it at home.  That sold me.  Anything that has my students wanting to practice outside of class works for me.

The point for using flash cards is to reinforce vocabulary learned in context, not to memorize lists and lists of decontextualized words.  As long as they are used to support learning, and not as the primary way of learning, I find them helpful or myself as a learner as well as an instructor (note: I left out "language," because flash cards can be helpful in most content areas). 

Glenda

Thanks for sharing these great ideas for using flashcards, Glenda! I am not sure I know the game "What's the Word." Would you be able to explain that one?

In my beginning class, students create flashcards for -- I'll admit it -- lexical sets, e.g., illnesses, occupations, recreation activities, etc. We then use the flashcards for several activities, including Line Drill, Mingle and Trade, and Match Mine.

We also use Quizlet, which I definitely encourage students to use at home. Students can even create their own flashcards on Quizlet for free.

Looking forward to hearing more ideas from members!

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

 

Hi Suan,

It's the early iteration of the "Headband" game.  In my version, the student sits in "the hot seat" - a chair with its back to the screen.  I show a flashcard on the screen and the classmates take turns giving clues as to what they are seeing on the screen.  

What I always find amusing is convincing someone to get into "the hot seat," but once s/he is in it, s/he always wants to do "one more."

Of course, you could also do this with the smaller flashcards on the forehead. :) 

Glenda

I *just* did a combination of Quizlet and headbands...you can print out your Quizlet sets as flashcards and then do a round of headbands with the cards.  I am a Spanish language learner, so I explain how you can use the skill you use in headbands.  I tell my students, "Sometimes when I'm speaking Spanish, I get stuck, I don't know the word I need...does that ever happen to you?  {yes, of course} at that point, I can switch languages, stop and look up the word, OR continue the conversation and ask the person, Oh, how do you say in Spanish  "Como se dice, en espanol" the big thing in your kitchen to keep things cold, for milk, eggs.... of course they say refrigerator maybe in English, maybe in Spanish, but it gets the point across, use your conversation partner as a dictionary and keep the conversation going...we use the headbands game for vocabulary a fair amount...also Go Fish, Bingo, and I have...who has?  because those give students practice with the pronunciation too, which they seem to appreciate.

 

The major bonus I discovered just this week though was that you can print out flashcards from your Quizlet lists.  

In our program we have been using the Anki method of learning vocabulary for about two years. Anki is based on a spaced-repetition method of memorizing vocabulary. It is available online, and there are smartphone and index card versions as well. In our classrooms we use a mix of Anki and index cards. I won't try to explain the method  - you can read about Anki  here and the index card method here. Both methods used the spaced repetition model and can be tweaked to be more or less complicated. What I want to emphasize is that if done properly and regularly it really is effective. I downloaded a list of the 5000 most common Thai words about 6 months before I went back toThailand a second time. I knew about 3000 of them, but I learned about 1000 more (20 at a time) using Anki on my iphone. I also made myself listen to a half-hour of Thai news shows, native speaker conversations, cooking shows, movies, soap operas, or talk shows on Youtube everyday. Over the 6 months I did this, I heard virtually every new word I had learned as a result of studying my Anki cards every day. THAT is the context in which my new words became real to me. I was amazed at how effective it was, and now our ESL students use this system, too. 

Thanks, Julia, for sharing this method and additional resources for using flashcards. It's great to hear about your personal success in learning Thai vocabulary using this method. It's definitely useful for sharing with English learners.

Cheers, Susan