How to Naturally Learn a Language Like a Child?
Adults can learn English naturally, easily and effectively like children
Children don’t start speaking their mother tongue straight away. Until they utter their first words, they are acquiring language, even if they are not using it. Adult learners, both inside and outside the classroom, need this silent period, too. Children can also take their time and wait until they feel confident before attempting to speak. Moreover, they often have lower expectations of themselves and this helps to ensure that their anxiety levels are low, which, in turn, increases their rate of acquisition. They are not ‘force-fed’ grammar too early before their language acquisition devices are ready for it. Instead, they acquire the language first and then consider its structure after acquisition has already taken place. You can see a word and reason that it must mean something based on the roots and suffices, whereas a child would only ever do this out of intuition from lots of exposure. Finally, they learn the elements of a language in the natural order.
Everyone knows that, when people move to a new country the children will eventually speak the language natively, and the adults won’t. Teachers said that, for adults languages should be taught and studied, instead of learned naturally. But are we any better, with present language teaching? Could it be that, early teachers were mistaken? Maybe adults can do what children do, Maybe it’s just adult behavior (not lack of talent) that, prevents them from succeeding. What would happen if an adult were to just listen for a year without speaking? Both adults and children can do it right, but only adults can do it wrong. The reason that children always end up as native speakers is because they learn to speak by listening. And the reason that adults don’t is because they learn to speak by speaking.
In fact, I don’t know any young children who “study” English at all. Their number one focus is always to have fun! As a result, children are totally relaxed when learning a language. They don’t stress about mistakes. They don’t stress about their progress. They don’t constantly measure themselves with tests. Unfortunately, many adults seem to have trouble with this. Consciously thinking of one’s sentences – with translations, rules, substitutions, or any other kind of thinking prevents you from speaking like a native. Stress and misery are bad for your brain!
Most language teachers are constantly telling their students to try to speak as much as they can, and to think carefully before they say anything, so they’ll get it right. The method says that, any attempt to speak (or even think about language) before automatic speaking comes, will cause damage and limit final results. With translations, rules, substitutions, or any other kind of thinking prevents you from speaking like a native. If adults understand natural talk, in real situations, without trying to say anything, for a whole year, then fluent speaking with clear pronunciation will come automatically.
So as a foreign language learner, you need to devote time to actively listen to your target language. Take every opportunity to listen to the language as spoken by native speakers. Listen for the inflections, tones and rhythms of words. Listening to a 1-year-old talk is such a delight. And remember around 1-2 years old when babies can’t get enough of those sing-songy rhymes? They wanted you to keep pressing the “replay” button while watching their favorite cartoon musical on YouTube. You were wondering when they were gonna get sick of it.
Repetition. It’s a vital element of learning. Adults never have the patience to overlearn a language lesson, to repeat the same lesson over and over without feeling bored to tears. Repetition is vital to learning. Unless you’re a genius with an eidetic memory, repetition will be one of your most important allies in the quest for foreign language mastery. Keep on repeating until it becomes a habit.
In psychology, there is a theory of memorization and learning called the “spacing effect.” The spacing effect is the idea that we remember and learn items more effectively when they are studied a few times over a long span of time. The spacing effect indicates that information is learned better when presentation trials are distributed over time (spaced presentation) rather than consecutively (massed presentation). Let’s take a practical example. Let’s say you have freshly learned something:
- In method 1 (massed repetition) you repeat it immediately ten times in a row. Do you think it helped you to remember it longer? Probably not.
- In method 2 (spaced repetition) you make the first repetition after say 1 hour, the second after 5 hours, the third after 1 day, the fourth after 3 days, and so on … until finally the tenth repetition after about eight months.
Although you spent exactly the same amount of time for the repetitions in both cases it is very likely that you will have forgotten the piece of information with method 1 after about 1-2 days, whereas using method 2 (spaced repetition) you will still know it after almost a year. It is important, however, that you don’t wait too long. After the point of forgetting it is almost as difficult to relearn the piece of information as the first time you learned it. That’s why it is necessary to know exactly when you will forget a piece of information.
Children spend a lot of time learning their first language. So copy their enthusiasm, their joy of learning and their willingness to make mistakes and not care about them. The best approach means nothing if you don’t use it. Adults have such a big advantage in that they can do things kids can't. They can arrange to meet up with people to practice the language.