Successful learning of English is the dream of everyone embarking on the path of linguistic development. What tips and tricks can polyglots with years of experience in teaching and learning languages offer?
However, let’s perhaps start with the other side. What does ineffective English language learning look like?
Ineffective English language learning
Tired of cussing vocabulary words? Do you repeat grammar rules, but continue to understand nothing from them? Or maybe you seemingly know everything, but in life’s situation words do not want to pass your throat? Or do you understand the written text, but you do not understand the same words in conversation?
You are not alone in this! This is the result of ineffective English language learning.
Repeating just vocabulary words and not whole phrases and expressions makes it take too long to glue them together into a meaningful whole with grammatical glue. In addition, we will then often use words in the wrong context.
Learning from books or most websites results in a passive knowledge of the language – we have it in our heads, but not in linguistic habit. Worst of all, if learning is boring, not only does it not enter our heads, but we stop learning, lose enthusiasm and motivation….
So what does effective English language learning look like for a change?
5 rules for effective English language learning
The following tips are inspired by Gabriel Wyner’s book Fluent Forever. This opera singer learned several languages in a short period of time and gained fame as a methodologist and author of books on effective language learning.
Although I personally don’t quite agree with all his theories and miraculous assurances, I find the following five research-based tips on how to learn English effectively very useful.
1. The first rule of effective English language learning: Use your whole brain
In the middle of the last century, scientists believed that memory acts as a storehouse. We put information into drawers in the brain and it lies there. Fortunately, they decided to verify this, unfortunately in a rather cruel way – they started cutting out individual pieces of the rats’ brains to see at what point they would forget something.
However, it turns out that memory doesn’t work that way. Scientists now believe that information is accumulated in the connections between neurons, their dense network – if you untangled this jungle, the length of connections in each person’s brain is long enough to circle the Earth three times!
This means that effective English learning must engage as many areas of the brain as possible so that as many connections as possible are made. We can do this by creating as many associations as possible.
Effective learning of English through association
The psychologists then conducted another experiment. They gave the students some words to remember. They placed each of them in such a context that the student built an association. They experimented with four types of associations – the structure of the word, its sound, concept and personal connection. They presented them with these four questions:
How many letters are in the word OTTER? (structure)
Does BOOK rhyme with HOOK? (sound)
Is TOOL another word for “instrument”? (concept)
- Do you like to eat PIZZA? (personal relationship)
Then, after some time, they checked what the students remembered. It turned out that they remembered six PIZZA for one OTTER. To count the letters in a word, you don’t have to imagine a gray furry mammal who loves fish. We only use a very shallow association, a structure.
This perfectly explains why dry learning of grammar or rolling out vocabulary doesn’t work very well (just the structure).
Totally different from pizza!
Here we immediately smell a cheese feast, recall a date at a favorite pizzeria, and feel the suction in our stomachs. In a split second, many different associations from all their levels are activated in the brain. Many synaptic connections are formed, which will make it easier for us later to extract this knowledge from the depths of memory.
These four levels of information processing are no anomaly. In the thicket of information, the brain has to decide which messages we will need to survive and which we will not.
Imagine memorizing the number of letters in all the names of the laundry detergents in the store. You also don’t want to mention that the word “tiger” is a proper noun when the big striped cat starts chasing you. You also don’t need to smell the cow when you buy milk in a carton.
If we couldn’t filter out the important information from the unimportant, our encyclopedic knowledge of the number of letters in the names of washing powders would cause us to bore everyone to death on a social level (“Hi lovely! Did you know that the sixth powder from the left in the nearby supermarket has seven letters in its name?”). Processing information in the brain allows us not only to survive in the jungle, but also to have fun at parties.
However, if we want to learn English effectively, we need to engage more associations in learning than just superficial structure – theoretical grammar and dry vocabulary.
From structure to sound
Therefore, the first step of effective English learning may be to move from just seeing the vocabulary, to hearing it. Not only do we then learn their correct pronunciation, but at the same time we build more associations in the brain. In the above experiment, students remembered twice as many BOOKS as OTTERS.
Therefore, do not be afraid to say a word out loud. Check the online dictionary for the correct pronunciation. And preferably repeat them throughout the sentence to put them in context.
That’s why it’s also important to surround ourselves with English sounds, to interact with them as much as possible – even if we don’t understand anything of what the presenter is saying on the English-language radio playing in the background. However, we do this so that our brain understands that learning English is something important for our survival, for ourselves.
And so we come to another sub-point related to effective English language learning:
Effective English learning is about building conceptual associations
I was once on a course in rapid memorization. The whole trick there was just building associations with particular numbers (the number one looks like a candle, two is a swan, etc.) and for each successive word to be memorized from the list you had to build a story.
For example, if the first word to remember is table, you imagine a candle on the table, if the second is green, you imagine a green swan, and so on. In this way, back when I was a kid in elementary school, I was able to memorize a list of dozens of random words. Even if this skill later turned out to be unnecessary for anything in life, it nevertheless shows the power of building conceptual associations in the mind.
The most practical way, in my opinion, to take advantage of this level of association is just to learn English with whole sentences – then we learn not dry vocabulary or grammar (superficial and easily forgotten structure), but we build a whole story, image, situation, which makes it sink deeper into our memory. Moreover, if we say these sentences aloud, we cover all the first three levels of association building (structure, sound, concept).
From the point of view of the effectiveness of English language learning, however, this fourth level of association building is the most important.
Personal image
It will be much easier for us to remember a word whispered in our ear by a lover under the Eiffel Tower than another entry from the dictionary. Of course, because in the former situation more senses are involved, the situation is important to us, personal. The aforementioned experiment clearly confirmed this – as many as 50% of the students remembered PIZZA (with which they made a tasty personal connection) more than the merely theoretical-conceptual TOOL.
That’s why it’s a good idea to put new sentences and words in the context of our own experiences – if we’re learning the word “dog” it’s worth not only repeating a sentence with this word out loud and seeing a picture of a cute pooch, but also remembering our childhood favorite wagging its tail happily.
Numerous scientific studies show that sight is our strongest sense, making it easier to remember what we see than just hearing. On the other hand, a combination of images, with sound and text (words) works best. We then make use of all four levels of association building and our English language learning becomes really effective – for example, as is the case at the Speakingo online English course, on which the brain interacts with sound, text, images, and sentences that are interesting, sometimes funny and provocative, so that we make a personal, emotional connection with them.
Enroll in Speakingo’s English course
2. The second rule of effective English language learning: Healthy laziness
Have you heard of the forgetting curve? German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus spent years memorizing a string of meaningless syllables to study what the process of forgetting them looks like over time. His forgetting curve is a legendary success of combining experimental psychology, perseverance and masochism.
What does this graph show us?
Paradoxically, it is the right side that is optimistic – even after a long period of time, after several years, Ebbinghaus was able to recall his meaningless words. If we learn something once, it stays with us forever – it’s much easier to refresh that knowledge than to learn something from scratch.
However, the left side of the chart does not fill us with optimism – the very next day, and even after an hour even, most of the information flies out of our heads….
What is the conclusion of this for effective English language learning? Don’t tire yourself out with long sessions – you’ll forget most of it anyway! Doing so will only discourage you from learning English, and not much of it will remain in your long-term memory anyway….
Study often and regularly, in enjoyable sessions. Work smart not hard as the English say (work smart not hard).
You can repeat the sentences in English on the bus, during a break at work, whenever you have a moment, wherever you are. If you install Speakingo on your phone, your regular English learning will become really effective!
3. The third rule of effective English learning: Remind yourself, don’t just repeat
Psychologists have conducted another interesting experiment. They gave the students a choice: repeat the list of vocabulary words twice, or only once, but in addition to that they were given a piece of paper and a pencil so they could check for themselves how much they remembered.
The results are surprising.
While it is true that after a few minutes those who read the list twice remembered more, after a few days or weeks, it was those who repeated it only once – but recalled from memory the second time what they remembered from the one-time introduction of the material – who had better results.
As for me, it makes sense – if we read the vocabulary list, we practice reading. If we try to remember them, we exercise our memory. As easy as that.
If we look at the lesson structure of Speakingo’s English course, this is how it works. In the first part of the lesson we introduce new material, get to know it and become familiar with it. However, in the following ones, we have to recall the answer off the top of our heads. In this way, we both learn and consolidate knowledge, which is what makes English language learning effective.
4. Fourth rule of effective English learning: repeat a while before forgetting
Have you perhaps noticed that difficult names of foreign friends are difficult to remember? Zewókle or Desiree is not as easy to remember as the familiar names Kate or John. But interestingly enough, once we manage to remember these exotic names, they stay with us for a long time. And vice-versa – the easily remembered Kate and John quickly disappear from our memory.
Statistically, after just one week, difficult names will be recalled 20% more likely than those whose recall came easily and we only remembered them for the first week. After a few years, this probability rises to as much as 75%.
In general, if we had a word on the tip of our tongue and the brain had to strain to get it out, we will remember it twice as well later. This is because the brain remembers much better during these nervous searches. However, it doesn’t have to be a nerve-wracking search – it’s enough that we want to remember something. The idea is to force our brains a little.
That’s why effective English learning involves repeating vocabulary right before you forget it. As we remember from the Ebbinghaus curve, after one day we forget half of it, and after a few days almost all of it. Therefore, repeating the material every day, or every few days, can double our effectiveness.
The 5th rule of effective English language learning: change your… past
Memory is an amazing thing. We remember not only what happened, but also what… what didn’t happen. In the process of storing information, our brains can confuse memories with plans, opinions with facts, dreams with reality. Really.
Psychologists proved this with another experiment.
They showed popcorn to two groups of students. One group was allowed to go home, and with the other they began to eat that popcorn. A week later, they asked about the taste of popcorn – all the students, from both groups, remembered its taste clearly! Even those in the group who had never eaten it swore it was delicious!
Every time we have an experience, the brain connects it to past events adding new story elements to it. If we rewrite our history enough times, it stays with us forever.
Therefore, effective English learning will consist of recalling whole phrases while enriching them with new associations. It will be easier for us to remember these sentences if we associate them with sounds, images and personally relate to them somehow. But what if we can’t remember a word or the answer to a question in English?
Then it’s easy to take the hint. That’s why learning with flashcards that have a word on one side and a drawing of it on the other is so popular. In Speakingo, on the other hand, this function is performed by a button with a question mark – the computer prompts us with the right answer, which now has a much better chance to settle in our mind.
Learn English effectively online with SPEAKINGO
Successful learning of English, therefore, is not just a matter of getting constipated and “forging” vocabulary and grammar. Rather, it is about a healthy approach to learning.
For example, on the Speakingo online English course, which uses all the learning gains described above!
Of course, regularity is key, but it doesn’t have to be a coarse endeavor. Since regular daily repetitions of a pleasant length, involving eye-pleasing images and a velvety voiceover will work better than slugging over a book, why get tired! Especially since nowadays you can also successfully learn English online, anytime, anywhere.
Knowledge of English means better wages and a higher quality of life, the ability to travel freely and make international contacts.
Learning English effectively is the best thing we can do for ourselves and our loved ones.
Therefore, there is nothing to wait for, English will not learn by itself!
And what do you think effective English language learning looks like? Share your experiences in the comments even if you are not (yet) a polyglot!
