Tuesday, February 25, 2020

How to learn a new language - Tomoki Fujiwara

I think that when learning a new language, especially for beginners and intermediates, it is important to study in a proper order and to repeat practicing and reviewing. The former is especially about input, and the latter is about output. Regarding the order of learning, some people say that the important thing is not to stick to studying about grammar, but to communicate with people who can speak the language or native speaker of the language, but I don't think so. If the person has the freshness and flexibility to learn a lot of new things every day, that method will eventually result in learning the right grammar and quickly speaking a new language, but for a person who has grown up to some extent, that's hard. However, because they understand some difficult concepts and can apply them to some real use in reading or listening comprehension, systematically learning a language will be effective. I think that learning a language from a bird's-eye view will result in mastering the language faster than just in communication. It is also essential to increase the vocabulary in parallel with the grammar. When we increase our vocabulary, we should remember not only the word but also the phrases and sentences in which the word is used. I think sometimes it becomes help now when I talk without the time of thinking about the usage of words. Also, although it is troublesome, when learning a word, it is of course important to listen to it and know the actual pronunciation. So as for the order of learning, we need to learn grammar and get enough vocabulary before we output unnecessarily, I think. Practicing and reviewing is especially about output. Of course, it is important to speak as much English as we can with confidence in front of people, but just using it will slow our progress, I believe. If we can reflect on the fact that this kind of expression was better than what we used or that we successfully use some expression, it is probable that we can improve our language skill faster. Considering these things and from my experience, I believe that we should think about the proper order, then use the language and reflect on the usage again and again.

7 comments:

  1. I think it is good to argue separately between children who have flexibility to learn new things and adults. I agree with your idea that it would be effective for adults to learn English with wide perspectives.

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    1. Thank you for your commenting.
      Yeah I think children is so flexible that they can put their experience together, and learn grammar or something like that unconsciously.

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  2. The way of learning you have suggested in your essay seems very fundamental but it is always good, I believe, to go back to the basic particularly when you face difficulties.

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    1. Thanks a lot for your comment.
      Yeah that's right. Fundamentals require us to spend a lot of time, but they're worth looking at.

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  3. I feel your suggestion is quite logical and it's interesting in that it refutes what is often said. For me, the problem is how to obtain the bird's-eye view of learning languages.

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    1. Thank you for your commenting.
      I used the word "bird's-eye view" just for the area of grammar, so I think you've already had the bird's-eye view.

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  4. I'm deeply impressed with your essay. While every one emphasize the importance of communicating with native speakers, you focus on the basic of learning. This makes me looking back on my way of learning. Thank you so much!

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