Twenty-sixth week, The end? – thirty-fifth post

The theory after 6 months/ 26 weeks of learning

• Language acquisition could be organised into 3 stages
  1) Establishing a reference base (data base of general/common items)
  2) Solidifying the reference base (gaining familiarity and proficiency with general language and everyday items)
  3)Expanding the reference base (gaining proficiency and fluency with very specific/uncommon language items)
• Mnemonics and memory techniques can be used to cut learning time significantly
• The learner must develop the ability to filter language (or rather choose) to study and language to leave for the time being
• The learner should develop methods for exercising the various parts of the brain involved in language (comprehension [listening & reading] and production [speaking & writing])
• The learner should take a context-based approach (meaning the situation in which the language is used is more important than the language itself, but it is by no means the only important element to notice)

The Brain has abilities which should be honed

• Identifying patterns
• Predicting meaning of unknown items from context
• Reducing specific items to a general meaning
• Filtering items to be studied from all language input
• Collocations. Identifying them and using them.
• Noticing target language in new contexts and situations
• Memorising selected items

What did I do?

Well, in short, here is a basic summary of the most important steps stumbled upon over the last 6 months, included small things I thought to be important.

Post 1 – prediction to become an advanced learner in 6 months

Post 2 – basic memory technique to memorize 100 words per week

Post 4 – theory of how the brain functions (IIT/connectionism)

Post 5 – breakdown of collocation construction

Post 6 – state the aim of the method (prove adults are better, current methods are inaccurate)

Post 8 – active versus passive study

Post 11 – started making videos every 4 weeks to document improvement

Post 12 – embracing error correction

Post 13 – cultural relativity and how language cannot exist without it

Post 14 – reached 1000 words and importance of authentic input

Post 16 – nature of translation, context first

Post 17 – tenth week, started changing memory techniques

Post 18 – realise that, like physical exercise, the brain needs rest periods

Post 19 – twelfth week, 3 tier mnemonic technique established

Post 20 – schema, learning model, 'whys' aren't necessary but rather 'wheres'

Post 23 – setting of more realistic goals

Post 25 – context rich scenarios help with prediction of language

Post 26 – two types of bilingualism proposed

Post 27 – study cycle, 3 week rotation

Post 28 – 100 collocation mark

Post 30 – article of research to support the theories

Post 32 - 23^rd week, true vocabulary explosion

Post 34 – Filtration hypothesis

Post 35 – Reflection, revise and future goals

What would I do differently if I could go back in time?

Well, first I'd start on a time table of 10 collocations per week using the 3-tier memory technique. Apart from this, identifying the contexts which the collocations are used (past/present/ future/ etc.) and speaking out loud. Reading out loud and watching more movies with the audio in the language.

I think if I did these things, I could have cut my time and learning by at least a month.

What's next?

Well, although I might enter a post here from time to time, the weekly entries wave us goodbye. I will start to study Spanish as part of my degree. First year is beginner and Intermediate Spanish. Second year is Upper Intermediate and the final year is Advanced. So I have another three years ahead of me, but I will use this as an opportunity to see the differences between the methodology/ language approaches.

Also, I would like to continue using this technique to push my second level of learning (I believe I am at the 'solidifying' stage).

And then, I will dedicate myself to doing some Chinese using this method as well. I will not be memorising items as frequently (degree studies take priority) but I think its good enough to make significant improvements in a short space of time.

Perhaps dedicate one 'memory house' to a different language?

Thanks very much to all who helped, in whatever capacity, it was a hell of an experience and I hope to make it even better and take it even further :)

watch this space.

Here is my final video for Argentina

As a last post thing, I have compiled all my videos into one clip to be able to see the progression.

Thanks again.

The Tao of Yun

(J)

Twenty-fifth week, the filtration principal – thirty- fourth post

weeks results?

Another 10 in the head. Some nice ones this week.

The filtration principal

comments on the previous post have prompted more in depth discussion on how to filter language input. Consider that for each level of learning (or reference base being worked on) there is a different method. Different things are valuable to the different levels.

Establishing reference base: very selective! Only basic/ general words and phrases as well as the most common.

Solidifying reference base: remain fairly selective with words and phrases, but expand on the manipulations of the words and focus heavily on the sentence structures.

Expanding reference base: focus on rare and uncommon words/ expressions/ sentence structures but paying attention to those most useful to you.

Your reference bases (passive knowledge/ vocabulary) is always going to be greater than your speaking level/ ability to produce language. Always. This is the same with our native language and whichever language we try to learn.

Ready for an example?

OK, don't laugh. I read a comic called “Hellboy” (I'm sure you all know the movie?) anyway, the context (pictures and story prior to this example) is that an artificial humanoid (much like Frankenstein's monster) is describing how his creator threw him into a dark pit to hide him from the world and, well, just be rid of him. So the picture is of the monster lying there on the floor and he says, “pero algo curioso ocurrio en la oscuridad. Decidi vivir. Me tomo anos pero infundi vida nuevamente en mis frios miembros”

Right. Not so difficult for someone solidifying their reference base.

“but something curious happened (occurred) in the darkness. I decided to live. It took me years but ********* new life/ life again in my cold limps.”

I have never encountered this word “infundi” however knowing other words and expressions, I know its a verb, its past tense (reaffirmed as often first person past tense ends with “i”) and know that its connected with life and his body. Easy. The general meaning is “put”

However, the specific meaning could be “will”, “infuse”, “instil”, “charge” or numerous other things.

The real question is, how often will I need to talk about putting life into something? much less a body.

The answer? Unless I use a metaphor, this word is useless to me personally.

Especially as I am trying to solidify my reference base, there are other expressions here more valuable.

Even though I could produce these by translation, I want to program my brain with linguistic 'chunks' like “decidi + infinitive verb”, “me tomo anos pero + past 1^st person verb”.

If I put these in my mind with the memory techniques, when I speak, they will flow off the tongue and I wont need much thought to say them. Also, these are native constructions and not translated which means my production will be accurate and high quality as well as 'arming' me with expressions that I am likely to hear on TV or from a native.

Whatever level/ reference base you are working on, the limits of your process must be very personal. Things which should influence your filter are:

• Context (relative to the speaker) if it is a topic you like or need, its a context for you!
• Frequency (subject to preference) if you hear/see it all the time, or want to use it all the time, its for you!

Remember that, as I said in one of the first posts on this blog, that the brain must develop many abilities such as identifying collocations, predicting/ inferring meaning and also to distinguish between general/ common use vs. specific/rare.

Your language filter should have these characteristics.

Just because you understand something, it doesn't mean that you would produce it accurately nor in the same manner. Reception is always easier than production. Therefore we must train authentic chunks so as to produce native expressions.

Next week

Another 10. more speaking. More listening. Blah blah blah.

I hope this post defines things better.

Have a good week.

Twenty-fourth week – thirty-third post

weeks results?

Well, thanks to a very busy week regarding training and work, I had a very lazy week with regards to language and collocations. So, in other words, no 10 new collocations. I'm lazy. Deal with it.

So what then?

Well, I more Spanish interaction than ever. My CPE ladies, the German and I all drove to Uruguay for a visa run (my visa, road trip for them) and hence we set out from their place. As a result, I met some family and friends. It was a linguistic eye-opener...

really? How come?

Well, my theory is based on the principal slightly in conflict with what is known as the “communicative approach” which is currently the popular teaching methodology. Basically one need not speak with others to train the brain. But that's a bold and generalised statement, so I'll back up and say that I haven't had much speaking practice at all. General functional things like asking for food or whatever, but not exchanges of opinions and stories. Being in that situation was eye-opening because I saw that I understood a very large amount of what was said and that I know the words to communicate myself.

The parts which were on the flip side were that I didn't communicate fluently and that I still had understanding gaps with unknown words. Speakers used the language faster than I could compute (recognition of collocations meant I needed fractions of seconds more, but I still needed more time) I needed support.

Remedy?

Well, I felt that if I pushed myself into more of these situations, I would fall into the trap of fossilised errors (linguistic errors that you repeat continuously until the become almost impossible to change). This would be because I have a need to communicate but don't yet know a native way to express it. This is what I need to see. Now that I have a good reference base, the solidifying of this base should come in the form of a more natural and native production of the language. In training myself for this state I must expose myself to more spoken word and therefore my listening speed will increase too.

• increase comprehension speed through more common collocations and practice
• increase speaking fluency through the same.

the collocations to be learnt must mainly be comprised of know words.

To say “a pie” is by foot (both words are know, but the combination of them is unfamiliar)

as contrasted by the know which is “de pie” which is to stand (literally 'of foot')

This is what I consider to be make the reference base much more sturdy, that is the reference base becomes more comfortable and natural. Perhaps functioning in only a handful of common situations, but fluent enough for you to feel relaxed and fast enough to keep pace in a conversation.

Next week?

Another 10 collocations. Starting the series “kdabra” which is Spanish, and watching some Argentine films in order to fish out some unknown combinations

Twenty-third week: The vocab explosion – thirty-second post

The weeks results?

Well, most interesting indeed. Another ten in the head. But more importantly, there have been significant insights into the language!

The insights?

In one of my earlier posts I quoted a researcher who believed children learn day by day until they experience a vocabulary explosion. I said that this is a matter of time but more importantly it could be accelerated by study. Although I estimated a much shorter time, I believe that I have experienced the beginnings of this explosion. According to the theory of the three reference banks, this would mean the explosion comes in the second stage/ second reference bank development.

How can you tell?

Well, defining a vocab explosion, it suggests that a learner gets to the point where they are able to predict unknown vocab very easily and produce unknown forms of words based on current knowledge of how the language is typically constructed. It takes all the 'monkey see, monkey do' information, connects it all together and the learner can now produce language never before encountered, now its 'monkey hasn't seen, monkey do'.

This doesn't mean the learner should stop the process, just that they now can acquire at an accelerated rate and should have more confidence with the language.

This is what I feel has happened to me.

Video

As promised, its video time. I tried using a variety of grammatical forms and some new expressions.

Enjoy.

Next week?

Another 10 collocations. But specifically working on natives speaking and speeding up my listening translation time.

Chau