Mikhail teaches English at a Moscow university, he wrote a letter criticizing our course. We decided to take into account his wishes and are already finalizing the materials. In the meantime, on occasion, we asked him about the development of language abilities.
What, in your opinion, is necessary first of all to master a language?
We know our native language not so much because we learn it from childhood, but due to the fact that every day we scroll through words and sentences in our heads a thousand times, that is, we think. This daily practice is the cornerstone of learning any language.
Previously, English was taught in schools and higher education institutions, but there was no real need to study it, since trade and economic ties did not develop. Fortunately, today the situation is different. Globalization is doing its job, and English is relevant for all segments of the population. The development of the World Wide Web and the ability to immerse oneself in the language environment creates excellent conditions for daily practice.
What is the fundamental difference between adults and children learning a language?
A child perceives everything more simply than an adult. He quickly immerses himself in the language environment and immediately tries to repeat, without burdening himself with an intellectual understanding of grammar. Children build rules from the knowledge they already have.
Adults act according to a clear algorithm, which often leaves no room for improvisation. In principle, the capabilities of each person are individual, but adults certainly have a lot to learn from children.
What difficulties might a neophyte encounter when learning English?
Any European language begins with understanding the basics of grammar, which is essentially a linguistic skeleton on which vocabulary is built up, like muscles. From this point of view, English is quite simple.
English is an analytical language; it lacks personal endings, but has a very developed system of tenses.
For many, it is difficult to learn prepositions, which are presented in great abundance and have meaning-forming functions.
Many students give up the language because of the supposedly complex tense system. But this is the ABC of the language, which is worth focusing on; further learning will be easy.
This is more of an “excuse” than the real state of affairs. It doesn't matter how developed your working memory or imagination is. If a person does not suffer from brain injuries or is not sick, then he can learn a language using the right methodology in about a year. You need to change your psychological attitude and things will improve.
Give advice to those who are studying English on their own
Try to spend at least 30 minutes a day studying! Practice total immersion in learning the language, divide words into topics - cutlery, items of clothing, interior design, stick stickers with foreign words around the house. Constantly talk through everything you see around you. Get to know. Dare, discover new facets of your intellect, expand the boundaries of consciousness and you will succeed!
Abilities for foreign languages are, of course, special abilities. But within the framework of this concept, attempts are also being made to identify certain types of it. It is proposed, for example, to distinguish between speech abilities (ability for practical mastery of foreign languages) and linguistic abilities (ability for research work in the field of linguistics). From the point of view of psychological science, of course, the ability to master foreign languages is of greater interest, although such a division should be considered rather arbitrary. It is not easy to imagine a person who has linguistic abilities, but is not able to master several foreign languages. Most likely, the exact opposite statement will also be true: with proper motivation, a person who speaks many foreign languages will be able to make a certain contribution to linguistics.
First of all, it is necessary to consider the totality of those cognitive operations (components of special abilities) that distinguish the most successful students. Researchers have identified a relatively small number of them. Most often, the importance of developed verbal memory is noted, which ensures the rapid formation of verbal associations, their mobility and rate of association, and the effective learning of foreign words along with their equivalents in the native language. High sensitivity to the functions of words in a sentence, speed and ease of formation of functional linguistic generalizations also occupy an important place in this list. And finally, the third group of components covers imitative speech abilities, auditory differential sensitivity, and plasticity of the articulatory apparatus.
A special role in predicting abilities in foreign languages is given to the level of speech development achieved by a person in his native language. After all, people master it in childhood, use it in speech and mental activity, and at first glance it seems that all native speakers have approximately the same level. However, if you ask a randomly selected group of people to name as many words as possible in three minutes, or to come up with a sentence that necessarily includes three of the proposed words, differences will quickly appear. But when mastering the vocabulary of a foreign language, coding and mediation are carried out on the basis of updating stable interword associative connections, reflecting the organization of the native language system. For people who speak several foreign languages, when learning new vocabulary, there is a comparison of the structures of different languages, which, when memorizing, manifests itself in the mediation of material on the basis of previously acquired foreign language systems. For this reason, it is not uncommon for professional simultaneous interpreters who speak several foreign languages to continue translating after some hesitation, but into another language, without noticing it at all.
It should also be emphasized that abilities are a dynamic phenomenon that develops in the process of engaging in relevant activities. In the process of mastering languages, the development of abilities is primarily manifested in the specifics of the organization of verbal memory and the nature of the relationships between language systems. This fact was experimentally confirmed during a comparative analysis of the process of mastering a completely unfamiliar language by people with obviously different levels of proficiency in foreign languages. The experimental group consisted of persons with higher philological education, fluent in several foreign languages and 5th year students of language universities, numbering 9 people aged 22-30 years. Hypothetically, thanks to active foreign language speech activity, they should have developed a specific psychophysiological speech organization that would ensure the rapid formation of skills and abilities when mastering a new language system. The control group consisted of 12 people aged 20-30 years who did not have a special philological education. As one might expect, philologist subjects were more successful in learning artificial words. It took them significantly fewer presentations to learn the words. Apparently, people who speak several foreign languages have more opportunities in terms of sound and semantic differentiation through the use of stable interverbal connections of foreign language systems, greater activity, expressed in the use of various private methods of organizing and mediating the material. Its subjective organization was carried out on the basis of grammatical classification (division into nouns, adjectives, verbs). The success of memorization was facilitated by composing complete sentences from several artificial words. The meanings of words denoting animals were easily learned. The subjects conditionally assigned nicknames to the animals that corresponded to the given artificial equivalents. One might think that the specific speech organization of those who speak several languages represents a unified system of interverbal neural connections within individual language systems, as well as external urgently formed connections between the structures of multilingual systems.
Diagnosing abilities in foreign languages involves searching for more specific indicators based on the set of cognitive operations discussed above. Their number depends to a certain extent on the authors’ points of view on the process and result of learning foreign languages. Among the most common are: a) the pace and strength of learning foreign words along with their equivalents in the native language; b) the speed of formation of associations and associative systems; c) probabilistic forecasting; d) characteristics of an individual dictionary in their native language; e) quality of sound discrimination; f) the effectiveness of establishing language rules and generalizing language material.
Evidence of the existence of special abilities for languages could also come from clinical data on speech restoration in polyglots. However, numerous hypotheses regarding which of them may be the least susceptible to damage or which recovers faster after a brain injury or disease are quite contradictory. In one study, for example, a patient who was fluent in German, Farsi and English did not speak at all for the first week after injury. Then for five days he used a little Farsi, and for the next three weeks he spoke only German, even if he was addressed in Farsi. Then suddenly he spoke Farsi again, and four days later he had complete control of all three languages. The conclusion is that the violation is possible separately for each language, and any of them can be selectively used as a means of communication in a certain period of time. There is evidence in the literature that the specifics of language recovery after brain injury depend on factors such as the cerebral representation of the second language, teaching method, level of language proficiency, and individual cognitive style. It seems that the use of nuclear magnetic resonance promises significant opportunities for understanding the phenomenon, when it will be possible to conclude which parts of the polyglot’s brain are most active when using different languages.
11. How to develop your ability to speak foreign languages!
It is very difficult to artificially maintain the ability to speak fluently in a non-native language, even if there is motivation for this. I know this from personal experience, having lived in California for twenty years without being able to speak my native French. In order to prevent forgetting a foreign language (or even your own), you need to constantly use it in written or spoken form. Otherwise, your active vocabulary will be reduced, although you will still have the ability to passively understand.
According to your interests or needs, you can either read books and newspapers or listen to the radio and tape recorder. Reading is a great way to retain information about language in the area of consciousness. Get a book or magazines on topics that interest you and read them regularly - say once a week. Books can be recorded on audio cassettes or compact discs - this way, in addition to everything else, you can correct your pronunciation. Shortwave radio makes it possible to listen to many programs in a variety of languages, including your native one (which is important for a person traveling around the world). Find a time and place for this kind of practice: consistency is a prerequisite for mastering a language, as it is for mastering any other subject. If you catch a program on the radio in a language that interests you, note the time it aired and listen to it as often as possible. You may want to make some notes in a notepad as the show progresses, or maybe you will record it on a tape recorder so you can listen to it again.
In general, do not miss the opportunity to speak a foreign language, at least briefly and superficially. Perhaps, with the help of your neighbor - a foreign worker or student - your knowledge of the language can move from a passive state to an active one. For example, with two Mexican women who come to clean my house, I speak exclusively in Spanish. I please my gallomaniac neighbor by addressing her in French at every meeting. I watch foreign films in the original, without translation, and I try to speak German with my German friends. When visiting an Italian restaurant, I always exchange a few phrases with the Italian owner, to our mutual satisfaction. In short, I take advantage of every opportunity to speak a foreign language.
If you have the time and energy, you can take foreign language lessons in a conversational format. On university campuses you can always find many foreign students who will gladly agree to earn extra money in this way. Moreover, many high schools and colleges offer evening language courses for adults. Of course, it is more difficult to start learning a language in adulthood than in youth - but the more knowledge a person has accumulated throughout his life, the more connections he can make between new material and information stored in memory, thereby facilitating the learning process. The hardest thing is to start from scratch. If you know one language from a group of related ones (Romance, Anglo-Saxon, Slavic, etc.), then you can easily learn another: you just have to learn the differences between them. With a good direct learning method at your disposal, you can quickly master any language - especially if you have a good reason for it (like a trip to Mexico)!
Tip: To expand your active vocabulary, place each new word in a different context and review it regularly for several weeks after first introducing it. (To firmly fix a word in memory, you will need to use it in at least six contexts - the same applies to small children who are just learning to speak.) Here is the following fun exercise: you need to create a tiny story from 8-10 new verbs, conjunctions, idiomatic expressions, prepositions and nouns. Ask your teacher or native speaker to correct any mistakes and review the revised version of the story several times during the week. Never repeat the mistakes you once made! It is very difficult to get rid of them - like bad habits. In any case, it is easier to learn a new strategy than to forget an old one.
Regardless of your type of activity, try to maintain constant contact with the language, and it will be much easier for you to remember it if necessary. In the first days of your stay in a foreign country, you will have to come to terms with the delay in response caused by searching your memory for the right words. To speed up the search process, read more in a foreign language while traveling around the country, and listen to the radio and watch TV when you return home. In this way, you will perceive many words that will trigger the recognition memory. This will give you confidence in the conversation. I noticed that very soon I began to speak fluently after such training. The courage to pronounce half-remembered words of a foreign language has nothing to do with organization and relaxation. If you consider doubts and difficulties in finding words to be a normal phenomenon during the first days of your stay in a foreign country, then you thereby recognize the need for intensive practice in speaking the language and, therefore, are more likely to restore lost knowledge.
Always remember: both stages of learning a foreign language - passive understanding (recognition) and active use of the language in conversation and, later, in writing (remembering) - require a person to have skill, desire and, above all, perseverance for constant practice. And don’t blame your memory for anything if you lack these qualities!
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LANGUAGE ABILITIES. MYTH?
Have you often encountered people who complain about their lack of language ability? Words don't stay in my head. They can’t say anything intelligible, although the phrases seem to line up in their heads. ... Maybe you yourself are one of these people?
Don’t rush to dismiss your own “linguistic cretinism.” Better listen to the expert:
Alina Karelina – course leader of the “Foreign Language” discipline, director of the VI - SHRMI FEFU (Oriental Institute - School of Regional and International Studies) for development and head of the department of professionally oriented translation:
“Almost every day of my teaching activity, I am forced to answer one question that worries not only students, but also the directors of some FEFU schools: “Why should I/the students of my school (underline as appropriate) learn English if I/they have no ability for it? Why are students forced to drop out due to poor performance in a foreign language?”
Why are students so unsure when?
For them, I always have one answer - unless you have a mental disorder (such as aphasia or a speech disorder) or a physical disability, you cannot have difficulty learning a foreign language.
However, I am ready to admit that “language abilities” still exist. Here it is necessary to clarify that people who do not have a language ability do not always distinguish between the ability to speak and the ability to communicate freely.
Statistics say that 5% of the total population of the planet has the ability to use language as a sign system. In this ability, an important role is played by the analytical functions of the intellect, that is, understanding the structure of a foreign language. And it doesn’t matter what language we are talking about: Chinese, or native, for example, Russian.
Thus, I am sure that there are no people who are absolutely incapable of languages. The ability to communicate linguistically is inherent in humans from birth. Due to the characteristics of the brain, consciousness and character, people can comprehend a non-native language faster or slower. We simply tend to justify unsystematic behavior in learning a foreign language, lack of motivation, laziness, unsuccessful methods of teaching a foreign language and unprofessionalism of teachers as an inability to learn a foreign language.”
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My mother loves to remember how, at the age of 4-5, I would sit down with a book and “learn English” myself. The teacher of the intensive French course “from scratch” refused to believe that before that I had never studied French a day in my life. I learned to understand Portuguese without even opening a single textbook. In general, I am one of those who are considered “with abilities”, and today I want to debunk the myth of abilities.
1. Listen a lot
Listening is generally the simplest thing you can do with language. Headphones in your ears, and go about your business. Simply listening does not require any special willpower or extra time to study. Everything happens in parallel with our daily activities.
Experts advise listening to foreign speech for at least three hours a day. At first glance, this figure seems monstrous, but I can confirm from my own experience that it is quite realistic. For example, I listened to Spanish audio courses on the way to university and back. In total, I spent three (and when there was an “unexpected” snowfall for Siberia, then all four) hours a day in transport.
How much time do you spend on the road? For example, in 2016 we are promised 247 working days. If you get to your place of work or school for at least an hour one way, then on weekdays alone you can listen to almost 500 hours of audio recordings. But on weekends, we also usually go somewhere.
If you work close to home, or right from home, or don’t work at all, it doesn’t matter. Physical exercise, house cleaning, and even blissful idleness on the couch can be perfectly combined with listening.
It is worth discussing separately what exactly to listen to. It is best to listen to live everyday speech, or training courses that are as close to it as possible. Audio lessons in which speakers speak slowly and mournfully usually only make you feel sad and sleepy.
I also advise avoiding courses based on the Russian language. When our native language is interspersed with a foreign language, it does not allow our brain to tune in to the right wavelength. But learning one foreign language with the help of another one you already know is a great idea. For example, I found a wonderful audio course in Portuguese for Spanish speakers. Understanding Portuguese, starting from Spanish, turned out to be much easier than starting everything from scratch based on Russian.
2. Watch videos
Watching is like listening, only better!
Firstly, by watching native speakers from video materials, we not only learn words and phrases, we also absorb their facial expressions, gestures, and emotional states. These components are often overlooked, although in fact they play a huge role in language acquisition. To speak Spanish, you need to become a little Spanish yourself.
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Secondly, when watching videos, we have more opportunities to learn new words from context. If when listening we rely only on hearing, then when working with video the whole picture helps you expand your vocabulary. It was in this way that we memorized the words of our native language in deep childhood.
I also want to talk separately about subtitles. Many “experts” have a negative attitude towards the practice of watching films with Russian subtitles, but I categorically disagree with them. Of course, in this case, our brain tries to follow the path of least resistance, that is, first of all, we read the text in our native language, and only on a residual basis we try to understand something by ear (but we are trying!).
I insist that watching films with Russian subtitles is a very important and necessary step for people with a low language level.
When we try to watch a film without subtitles, in which almost nothing is clear, it tires us very quickly, and we immediately want to quit “this is a disastrous business.” The same thing happens with foreign subtitles - we simply don’t have time to read them, constantly stumbling over unfamiliar words.
On the contrary, you can watch films with Russian subtitles from the very first day of learning the language. Then, as your language level improves, you can move on to watching films with foreign subtitles, and then “without crutches.” For example, I started watching Portuguese videos with Russian subtitles, not understanding a single word by ear. However, when the subtitles for these videos ended, it turned out that I could easily continue watching without them.
Finding time for watching a video is a little more difficult than for listening, because driving a car and watching a movie at the same time is unlikely to be possible. However, most of us, one way or another, watch something every day. You just need to take the same content and watch it in the language you're learning. Turn on foreign news (at the same time it will be interesting to know how they look at us “from there”), watch your favorite films and TV series in the original, subscribe to foreign language YouTube bloggers, etc.
3. Read everything you can read
To be honest, I started reading in foreign languages not at all for the development of languages, but simply because, firstly, I love reading, and, secondly, I really like books themselves. Nikolai Zamyatkin in his treatise “It is impossible to teach you a foreign language” very accurately described the phenomenon associated with fiction: usually authors (most likely unconsciously) try to “stuff” the first chapters of their book with the most complex literary expressions, the smartest words and florid thoughts. If you have the patience to wade through these jungles, then you will find a completely normal “edible” text.
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So, at the “wild” stage, paper books really help me out: beautiful covers, the smell of paper, the rustling of pages - all this pleases and distracts me from complex grammatical structures. Before you know it, you find yourself in the center of a very exciting novel. In general, this is my little life hack - I read works of fiction in foreign languages only in paper form. Electronically, I read mostly non-fiction in English. Such works are usually written in simple language and filled with useful practical information, so you can do without “entertainment”.
If you don’t like reading books in principle, then I don’t recommend tormenting yourself with it. Switch the language on your phone, tablet and laptop to the one you are studying (translate Facebook, VKontakte and all other sites where possible to it), subscribe to the profile of your favorite rock band on Twitter, read sports news and film reviews of the latest blockbusters in a foreign language , find a carrot cake recipe and bake it. In general, the principle remains the same everywhere - do what you love!
4. Communicate with native speakers
When I first started communicating with native Spanish speakers, my vocabulary allowed me to answer three questions: what is my name, how old am I, and what country am I from? It is clear that with such baggage one cannot count on even the slightest meaningful conversation. However, the Spanish language brought me such sincere childish delight that I wanted to start using it right here and now.
Now there are many sites that allow you to meet foreigners for language exchange: italki.com, interpals.net and others. But “in those distant times” I only had access to the Internet through a telephone line (which is not much different from its complete absence) and icq on my mobile. So ICQ helped me out. With her help, my first penfriends appeared from Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Spain...
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At first, each phrase was difficult. I had to painfully remember the necessary forms of verbs, select prepositions, look up nouns in the dictionary... But word by word, phrase by phrase - and now I could calmly discuss matters at school and at work, the vicissitudes of my personal life and, of course, eternal questions about frailty of life. It was in these simple correspondences that my active use of the Spanish language began.
However, writing is much easier than speaking. Firstly, we simply have time to think, better formulate a thought, look up the right word in the dictionary or remember how a verb is conjugated. In spoken language there is no such luxury. Secondly, unlike writing, speech is a physiological process. From birth we hear the sounds of our native language and a little later we learn to reproduce them. We train our articulatory apparatus every day, without holidays or weekends.
But when it comes to a foreign language, for some reason we forget about it. No matter how well we know grammar, no matter how rich our vocabulary, when we first open our mouths and try to speak a foreign language, what we get is not at all what we wanted to say. After all, our vocal cords are not trained at all, they are not accustomed to reproducing the sounds of a foreign language. This is why it is very important to find someone to talk to. For example, at first I communicated with Spanish-speaking friends on Skype, then I met with volunteers who had been brought to our Siberian hinterland from Latin America, and went on trips around Spain.
By the way, communicating with native speakers is much more pleasant than communicating with a strict teacher in the fifth grade. If a teacher scolds you for mistakes and gives you bad grades, then foreigners are usually very flattered that a person from another country is trying to speak their language.
As Nelson Mandela said: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.” If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” (“If you speak to a person in a language he understands, you speak to his mind. If you speak to him in his native language, you speak to his heart.”)
5. Finally, grammar!
And only now, when we complete all (or at least several) of the points listed above, will the grammar reference book turn from a terrifying enemy into our friend. I firmly believe that it is impossible to learn a language from textbooks. Language is a living system that has developed over many centuries, under the influence of territorial, socio-economic and other factors. Language can be compared to a river, which makes its way where it is natural and convenient.
All grammatical rules are formulated after the fact. Rules are not the basis of the language, but just an attempt to explain it and find some patterns. That is why for every rule there are a bunch of exceptions, and the rules themselves often look very vague and far-fetched.
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How to defeat the villainous grammarian? Practice, practice and only practice. When you intuitively know how to say it correctly, because you have memorized it, having processed a huge amount of authentic material (listening, reading, speaking), it will not be difficult to look at a sentence in a textbook and say: “Well, yes, of course, here is the present perfect, after all, the action is over, but the period of time is not yet.”
I will not argue that we should learn a foreign language like little children - this is not true. In adults, the brain works completely differently. But what about adults - according to research by neurolinguists, the opportunity to master a foreign language at the native level (which implies not only a masterly command of grammatical structures and vocabulary, but also a complete lack of accent) is slammed in front of our noses already at the age of two or three years.
But I know for sure that language is a practical skill and it does not develop in any other way other than practice. Learning a language “in theory” is the same as learning to swim in theory. So go ahead, close your textbooks and go use the language for its intended purpose - as a means of exchanging information. To begin with, use at least one of the above methods.
Post Scriptum
Surely there will be those who disagree. Surely, someone will say: “I watched the film in English and didn’t understand anything.” I constantly hear excuses like: “It’s no use anyway.” In response, I usually want to ask: “Tell me, how many languages have you already mastered?”, but, as a rule, I restrain myself out of politeness. I would never believe that someone does all of the above and does not make progress in learning a language. You're either doing too little or you're just cheating yourself.
As an example, I can give you my story with the French language (the very language for which the teacher suspected I had hidden knowledge). I listened to a couple of dozen audio lessons, watched several films and educational videos, took intensive courses for beginners for 1.5 months, started reading The Little Prince and went to France.
By the way, in France I spoke mostly English and for some reason also Spanish. In French, I only beautifully answered the people who addressed me: “Je ne parle pas français” (“I don’t speak French”), which puzzled the French a little. Oh, yes - I once again told the maid at the hotel that I was afraid to ride their prehistoric elevator! Upon returning home, I decided that neither the French language nor the French themselves inspired me, and I didn’t study the language anymore.
Formally, of course, I can tick all the boxes - I listened, and watched, and read, and took grammar courses, and even, in some way, communicated with the French. But in fact, I believe that I did nothing at all to learn the language. Instead of diving headlong into the tongue, I only touched the water with the toes of one foot. The results are appropriate: now I can understand fragments of French songs and part of the French lines from War and Peace. However, considering that I spent almost no effort, this is a good result. So be honest with yourself and learn languages!
