By Martine Lamour, French Tutor
In this blog, we will debunk current myths about learning a foreign language as an adult, learn how cognitive science can help us in our endeavour and what tried and tested steps will lead us to success.
Let’s first debunk a few myths about learning a foreign language as an adult.
Myth No. 1: It is easier for children to learn a foreign language than for adults.
What is true is that children and adults learn very differently and that adults cannot acquire another language the way children do.
Two indisputable advantages that children have over adults are:
- Their ability to acquire a native accent
- Their lack of self-defeating thoughts about learning
Adults’ main advantage over children is their considerable cognitive strengths. Being fluent in one’s native language is one such strength. Language skills in our native language are transferrable and so are our ability to observe, reflect on and change how we communicate.
Myth No. 2: Only people with a natural ability to learn languages can achieve fluency.
Often people who come to that conclusion are not aware of the level of commitment and work required to achieve mastery in another language or one’s native language. Think about children whose parents emigrate to a new country; these children, whatever their innate linguistic talents, will learn the new language through schooling and socialisation with their peers. Some will be better speakers and writers than others but that is also true among monolingual children and certainly among adults.
Myth No. 3: Never use direct translation.
Although, indeed, one language is not merely a direct translation of another, many aspects of one language are directly transferrable to another language. It is inevitable at the start anyway and why not use the similarities that languages share to build one’s confidence? For example, an English speaker learning French could not avoid noticing that the French word describing “an unfortunate event that happens unexpectedly, unintentionally and typically resulting in damage or injury” – the word accident – is the same in English. Indeed, such cognates (words that have the same origin and mean the same in two or more languages) are not found between all languages. Cognates should not be confused with beguiling false friends i.e. words which although they look or sound the same have a completely different meaning. An example would be the word habit meaning a garment in French and a behaviour pattern in English. Nonetheless being able to recognise where concepts, categories or patterns are transferrable from one language to another is a great asset that adult learners possess. Developing what linguists call an interlanguage which is our unique version of the target language is an inevitable and necessary step on our way to mastery.
Myth No. 4: It takes twenty-one days to form a new habit.
Recent research has shown that there is no pre-ordained timetable for forming a new habit and that study habits should be evaluated in terms of quality rather than quantity.
Cognitive Science – How can it help?
The field of cognitive science has made great strides since its inception in the 1950s and research findings offer a lot of guidance to learners. What exactly is cognitive science? Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the human brain and mind and its processes. It explores and examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (how we learn and make sense of things). Cognitive scientists borrow from the fields of linguistics (the scientific study of language), psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, neuroscience, and anthropology (the study of what makes us human) to further their understanding of language, perception, memory, attention, reasoning and emotion.
Key findings are that metacognition and metamemory are adult learners’ greatest strengths. Metacognition is our faculty to think about the way we think and metamemory our awareness of the way we memorise. These cognitive processes function so smoothly and effortlessly that we rarely pause to reflect on them.
Metalinguistic awareness however functions differently. It appertains not merely to knowing a language but also to understanding how it works, how to use it to be polite, or to lie, or to make a joke. In adulthood, metalinguistic knowledge can be incredibly precise. Knowing the difference between a clever pun and a cringy one reflects a sophisticated metalinguistic awareness. As adults we have subconsciously become masters at these metacognitive skills and the good news is that we can apply them to the study of another language.
10 steps to take for success
- Make a wholehearted decision to learn the language
- Commit to what it takes to succeed
- Join a class or find a tutor if you prefer individual tuition
- Find a meet-up group for conversation opportunities in your chosen language when you are ready
- Ideally study at the same time every day and on tough days remember that even five minutes is better than no study at all.
- Trust that you can achieve self-efficacy i.e. the ability to motivate yourself, shape your behaviour and manage your environment
- Try hard not to try too hard i.e. do not set yourself up for failure by doing too much
- Remember that past disappointments are not predictive of what you can achieve now with your new approach to learning
- Study materials that are neither too easy nor too hard
- To maximise your chances of success, practise the four key skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing as they consolidate each other.
It is easy to underestimate how much time, effort and money it will take to accomplish a goal. One way to avoid this planning fallacy is to separate the reasons for wanting to master a language from the necessary steps to accomplish its mastery. Focussing on the process of reaching a goal is more beneficial in the long term than focusing on a successful outcome. This mindset not only increases our probability of success but also considerably reduces our stress. We become more flexible and amenable to the changes that life imposes on us and therefore able to keep on track when the going gets tough.
So, which language will you choose?
According to the website Ethnologue dedicated to research on all the world’s languages, there are currently 7,164 languages spoken worldwide. So take your pick and enjoy the journey!
For French and/or Spanish we are ready to welcome you at Mr Gillman Tuition!
For more information and to book your place, visit our website: https://mrgillmantuition.com/
Reference List
Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2024. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-seventh edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com
Phillippa Lally, Cornelia H. M. Van Jaarsveld, Henry W. W. Potts, and Jane Wardle, “How Are Habits Formed: Modelling Habit Formation in the Real World,” European Journal of Social Psychology 40 (6) (2010): 998–1009. As cited in Roberts, Richard; Kreuz, Roger. 2015. Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science Can Help Adults Learn a Foreign Language. MIT Press. Kindle Edition. Footnote 8. Roberts, Richard; Kreuz, Roger. 2015. Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science Can Help Adults Learn a Foreign Language. MIT Press. Kindle Edition.