What prevents learning a foreign language
Today there are many successful methods of learning English. I want to insert my three pennies on the other hand: to say that it prevents the language from learning.
One such obstacle is that we teach it in the wrong place. It's not about parts of the body, but about areas of the brain. There are zones of Wernicke and Brock in the prefrontal cortex, which are associated with the perception and production of speech ... In adults, they are responsible for receiving acoustic signals, for the very possibility of speech activity.
And children of five or seven years old learn a different language with amazing ease! This despite the fact that their brain is truly immature. The formation of the cortex ends by the age of twelve to fifteen - and then a person gains the ability to complete logical constructions, “enters the mind,” as they say ... At this time, the Wernick and Brock zones mature and begin to answer for human speech activity. But what happens before the bark ripens, which we work hard when learning a foreign language?
The usual methods of teaching a foreign language in themselves are not very productive - many of them learned, but did not acquire knowledge. These techniques give results when, for some reason, they manage to activate the deep zones of the brain, its ancient sections, which are successfully used by children.
We can quite consciously approach the study of a foreign language: read and translate, replenish the dictionary, learn grammar. But language is assimilated (if assimilated) on a subconscious or unconscious level. And this seems to me to be some kind of trick.
The second obstacle: the methods of learning a second language themselves. They are copied from lessons learned by the native. Children learn to read and write in alphabetical form - at school or at home, everything starts with the alphabet, with simple words, then phrases, then grammar, then it comes to (if it comes) stylistics ... In all school education, the interests of the teacher are strong (not as individuals, but as parts education system): how many hours, in accordance with the approved methodology, were spent on this topic, what kind of result was obtained in the form of various tests ... behind all this there is an accurate account of the time and money spent. By and large, the language itself, the cultivation of love for him, an assessment of how he “entered” the student, and how long he remained - that is, the main interests of the student himself - remain overboard. All training is too rational and superficial. This part-time education system goes from the Middle Ages, took root in the industrial era, when standardized training and knowledge assessment was in price. One can somehow agree with all this - there are no perfect methods. Bureaucracy rules with objective premises. But! One huge difference: a child who improves his native language at school already knows how to speak it! What can you say about a student who has embarked on a new language from scratch ... Here, the traditional training system gives very modest results - remember your experience and that of friends. already knows how to explain it! What can you say about a student who has embarked on a new language from scratch ... Here, the traditional training system gives very modest results - remember your experience and that of friends. already knows how to explain it! What can you say about a student who has embarked on a new language from scratch ... Here, the traditional training system gives very modest results - remember your experience and that of friends.
As an addition to this point: how does the child understand that this is a kitten? What is this chicken? An adult can be given a translation from one language to another, associate a word with a word. In the speaker’s native, the phenomenon and concept are connected differently.
The third reason. A group of renowned American neurophysiologist Paula Tallal found that about 20% of the population in the population does not cope with the normal rate of speech. (such troubles as dyslexia, dysgraphia and other troubles get here too). These people do not have time to perceive and understand what they hear. The cerebellum is responsible for the process - this “motherboard" of our brain is not able to cope with the processing of incoming information in real time. Things are not hopeless: you can train at a slow pace and eventually reach normal speed. In most cases this succeeds. But you need to know that there is such an ambush that requires special approaches.
The fourth reason: elementary confusion in concepts. She was for me the most poisonous, perhaps. What do we do with the second language? We are teaching him. I did a good job at school with mathematics and physics and approached the study of English in the same way. It is necessary to learn words and grammar, and what problems can there be if you have learned everything well and remembered it well? The fact that speech activity is of a fundamentally different nature and in its physiology is much more diverse than speculative (without offensive subtext) constructions I was felt only after many years.
The fifth reason is partly intersecting with the fourth. This is the ego. If I know words and grammar, why repeat the phrase I have read many times? ("Am I stupid?"). Selfishness was hurt. However, mastering the language is not knowledge, but a skill that can be formed only as a result of repeated repetitions, and against the background of criticism addressed. The psychological feature - a decrease in reflection - also often burdens an adult. It was difficult for me to reduce self-criticism.
In summary, I would like to know about your experience in learning English (I'm trying to work out a methodology for mastering the language that would somehow remove the listed and other possible limitations). And the question arises: how relevant is it for a programmer to learn English on top of a professional minimum, the possession of which (minimum) is simply inevitable? How important is expanded language proficiency in terms of travel, change of location, temporary stay in an English-speaking or wider-different cultural environment where English can be sufficient for communication?
One such obstacle is that we teach it in the wrong place. It's not about parts of the body, but about areas of the brain. There are zones of Wernicke and Brock in the prefrontal cortex, which are associated with the perception and production of speech ... In adults, they are responsible for receiving acoustic signals, for the very possibility of speech activity.
And children of five or seven years old learn a different language with amazing ease! This despite the fact that their brain is truly immature. The formation of the cortex ends by the age of twelve to fifteen - and then a person gains the ability to complete logical constructions, “enters the mind,” as they say ... At this time, the Wernick and Brock zones mature and begin to answer for human speech activity. But what happens before the bark ripens, which we work hard when learning a foreign language?
The usual methods of teaching a foreign language in themselves are not very productive - many of them learned, but did not acquire knowledge. These techniques give results when, for some reason, they manage to activate the deep zones of the brain, its ancient sections, which are successfully used by children.
We can quite consciously approach the study of a foreign language: read and translate, replenish the dictionary, learn grammar. But language is assimilated (if assimilated) on a subconscious or unconscious level. And this seems to me to be some kind of trick.
The second obstacle: the methods of learning a second language themselves. They are copied from lessons learned by the native. Children learn to read and write in alphabetical form - at school or at home, everything starts with the alphabet, with simple words, then phrases, then grammar, then it comes to (if it comes) stylistics ... In all school education, the interests of the teacher are strong (not as individuals, but as parts education system): how many hours, in accordance with the approved methodology, were spent on this topic, what kind of result was obtained in the form of various tests ... behind all this there is an accurate account of the time and money spent. By and large, the language itself, the cultivation of love for him, an assessment of how he “entered” the student, and how long he remained - that is, the main interests of the student himself - remain overboard. All training is too rational and superficial. This part-time education system goes from the Middle Ages, took root in the industrial era, when standardized training and knowledge assessment was in price. One can somehow agree with all this - there are no perfect methods. Bureaucracy rules with objective premises. But! One huge difference: a child who improves his native language at school already knows how to speak it! What can you say about a student who has embarked on a new language from scratch ... Here, the traditional training system gives very modest results - remember your experience and that of friends. already knows how to explain it! What can you say about a student who has embarked on a new language from scratch ... Here, the traditional training system gives very modest results - remember your experience and that of friends. already knows how to explain it! What can you say about a student who has embarked on a new language from scratch ... Here, the traditional training system gives very modest results - remember your experience and that of friends.
As an addition to this point: how does the child understand that this is a kitten? What is this chicken? An adult can be given a translation from one language to another, associate a word with a word. In the speaker’s native, the phenomenon and concept are connected differently.
The third reason. A group of renowned American neurophysiologist Paula Tallal found that about 20% of the population in the population does not cope with the normal rate of speech. (such troubles as dyslexia, dysgraphia and other troubles get here too). These people do not have time to perceive and understand what they hear. The cerebellum is responsible for the process - this “motherboard" of our brain is not able to cope with the processing of incoming information in real time. Things are not hopeless: you can train at a slow pace and eventually reach normal speed. In most cases this succeeds. But you need to know that there is such an ambush that requires special approaches.
The fourth reason: elementary confusion in concepts. She was for me the most poisonous, perhaps. What do we do with the second language? We are teaching him. I did a good job at school with mathematics and physics and approached the study of English in the same way. It is necessary to learn words and grammar, and what problems can there be if you have learned everything well and remembered it well? The fact that speech activity is of a fundamentally different nature and in its physiology is much more diverse than speculative (without offensive subtext) constructions I was felt only after many years.
The fifth reason is partly intersecting with the fourth. This is the ego. If I know words and grammar, why repeat the phrase I have read many times? ("Am I stupid?"). Selfishness was hurt. However, mastering the language is not knowledge, but a skill that can be formed only as a result of repeated repetitions, and against the background of criticism addressed. The psychological feature - a decrease in reflection - also often burdens an adult. It was difficult for me to reduce self-criticism.
In summary, I would like to know about your experience in learning English (I'm trying to work out a methodology for mastering the language that would somehow remove the listed and other possible limitations). And the question arises: how relevant is it for a programmer to learn English on top of a professional minimum, the possession of which (minimum) is simply inevitable? How important is expanded language proficiency in terms of travel, change of location, temporary stay in an English-speaking or wider-different cultural environment where English can be sufficient for communication?