Tuesday's Tip for Language Learning #24: Tactics and Strategies - Deepening Your Knowledge
Excerpt from Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star
Deepening Your Knowledge
No matter how you look at
it, if you are going to get better at your language, you will need to broaden
and deepen your knowledge. More words, more sophisticated words, more complex
sentences, greater grammatical control, and a growing understanding of the
culture are all important.
This is not what we call
proficiency, and someone with less knowledge but more skill at using what he or
she knows can actually be more proficient in a language than someone who
actually knows less. However, a broad vocabulary, a deep understanding of grammar,
and a wide acceptance of cultural differences (and the knowledge of those
differences) can set you up to become highly proficient once you develop the
language skills you will need (reading, writing, listening, and speaking).
Strategies
So, how do you go about
getting this broad vocabulary, deep understanding of grammar, and extensive
knowledge of culture? What kinds of strategies will help you achieve these
long-term objectives?
Here are some guidelines
for developing your strategic approach:
·
Vocabulary: You will need broad vocabulary
for every day things, but for professional things, not so much; think about
what professional topics will you be using in your career—that is the
vocabulary you need to work on acquiring, not vocabulary for nuclear physics
(unless you are a physicist), astrometrics (unless you plan to work with or in
space), or any vocabulary that you do not know in English (though sometimes it
happens because of cultural differences, literary fiction that you may read, or
odd conversations you may happen into that you will learn vocabulary in your
target language that you do not know in your own language—it is not extremely
common, but it happens. (In languages that do not use the Latin alphabet, in
addition to the sounds of words, you will need to learn how the words are
written, and in languages that use gender markers, you will need to know the
gender of the nouns you learn.)
·
Grammar: You will need all the basic
grammar for the language—how to express how words relate to each other and
sentential functions, how to indicate the time in which something has occurred,
how words are formed
·
Culture: Knowing words and grammar is not
enough if you do not know how and where to use them appropriately. So,
acquiring a strong sense of culture should indeed be one of your strategies for
language improvement. You do not have to become a cultural chameleon. You do
not have to have a goal of passing for a native speaker; realistically, a
blue-eyed blond studying Chinese will never be able to pass for being Chinese
regardless the level of proficiency attained. What you do need to do is
determine the kind of relationship you want to have with the culture—to be able
to do business as a foreigner, to work together as a partner on some kind of
project or in some kind of organization, to enroll at a university, to conduct
research with colleagues, or whatever else dream or need brought you to the
language course in the first place. That desired relationship will set the
parameters for how well you need to know the culture and how extensively.
insightful
analysis of needs and desires = development of good strategies
Tactics
Once you have completed an insightful analysis of your
needs and established your strategies for acquisition of vocabulary, grammar,
and cross-cultural competence, you need to figure out what methods (tactics)
you will need to reach your objective. (These tactics are often listed as
learning strategies as, indeed, they are such.)
Here are some ways to
think about how to approach your tasks tactically:
·
Increase your vocabulary:
o
Avoid being overwhelmed by long lists of
words to learn (in fact, unless you are in a program that gives a daily or
weekly vocabulary list—I hope we are past that nowadays) by keeping a personal
dictionary of the words that you want to remember for personal reasons,
such as words that you have needed for
presentations, words that you use all the time in your own language, and words
you have come across that simply appeal to you and you know therefore that you
will find an opportunity to use them.[1]
o
To
remember words short-term (with continued use, they will stay with you
long-term), repeat them every opportunity you get. I have personally found the
3-3-3 rule very helpful. Using a new word or expression deliberately three
times over three days in three different contexts means that word has become
mine. I don’t have to work anymore at learning it. Try 3-3-3, and see if it
works for you, too!
o
Account for your learning preferences in
how you go about learning new words: if you learn best through your eyes, read
a lot of articles on the topic associated with the vocabulary you want or need
to learn. If you learn best by using your ears, listening to a lot of
broadcasts, or more fun, movies on the topic associated with the words you want
to learn. If you depend upon movement to learn, then, get physically involved
from playing (usually children’s) games in the language that target the words
of interest to you to computer games (at least, your hands are moving) to
acting out words (Charades, anyone?). If you really do not have a preference,
the do all three; even if you do have a preference, move on from your initial
mode of acquiring the words to using, hearing, or reading the words in a
non-preferred style. The more senses you use to acquire vocabulary, the more
avenues you will have for recalling the words.
·
Grammar:
o
Grammar is probably best learned “in the
wild”[2] or, in other words, in
context. Learning grammar through de-contextualized rules parallels the task of
pushing a rock up a hill. Ultimately, you might make it, though not without
many rollbacks. Grammar does not occur in real life in isolation so learning it
in isolation does not make a lot of sense, yet nearly every textbook presents
grammar in this fashion.
o
If you are not taught grammar in context,
then go hunting “in the wild” for examples of the grammar you are studying—in
articles, movies, broadcast, TV shows, novels, short stories, letters,
editorials, whatever you can find wherever you can find it. The Internet is a
big help in tracking down these examples.
o
To remember grammar, associate it with
grammar you already know. Perhaps it parallels English or another language you
have studied. Perhaps it builds on something you have already studied in your
language, an example in Russian being the relationship between past tense
(usually met earlier in context and textbooks) and participles (usually met
later).
o
To understand grammar and even predict it,
expanding your ability to speak and write grammatically correct, look for
patterns. Test them out by applying them in your writing and conversation and
see if they work; most of the time, they will.
·
Culture:
o
Area studies publications can help you
understand the historical and social facts and statistics about the culture you
are studying, and, fortunately, a great many experts have written a great many
books about almost any culture. Google your culture: you will find them.
Happily, you can find some very helpful language-learner-focused area studies
materials, paid for with taxpayer dollars (meaning that they can be obtained by
you for free) on the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center’s website.
Use the URL: www.dliflc.edu.
Then, look for products.
o
Other kinds of cultural materials look
more at the everyday side of culture[3] in various countries. Sometimes,
words and expressions are associated with everyday culture; sometimes not.
Either way, not knowing these things, even if your linguistic skills are
superb, reduces your ability to interact properly with native speakers and in
the country, which is generally one of the goals for learning a language.
o
In some cultures, words and sentence
structure can reflect a different way of thinking that is not really noticeable
until you pay attention to it. For example., in English, we say, “I am a
doctor,” but in Arabic and Russian, one says, “I doctor” and in German “I am
doctor.” Perhaps a Russian example can
better demonstrate a cultural mindset difference. In English, one says, “Can
you tell me the time?” In Russian, one says, “Will you not tell me the time?”
In Russian, the negative used in this way shows politeness; to some speakers of
English, it seems odd or even rude.[4]
o
These differences do not apply only to
street talk, kitchen conversations, and chit-chat among friends. They also can
play an important role in business as well. Several books have been written on
this topic—do a search for them. An older one that I like for its simplicity is
Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands (Morrison & Conaway, 2006).
o
When you notice something odd culturally
that does not make sense to you, check it out on the Internet, from a book, or
with a native speaker. You may find something of great interest or tremendous
value.
using
methods that fit you personally = reaching your own strategic goals sooner
Deep and broad acquisition of vocabulary, grammar, and
cross-cultural competence represent the trifecta in the race for language
proficiency!
[1] I
absolutely do not recommend what worked like a charm for me in learning Russian
as a young soldier at the Defense Language Institute. I bought two copies of a
Russian-English dictionary and cut out all the words (two copies since I needed
the words on both the front and the back of the page). Every day I would spend
a half-hour randomly pulling out words from the dictionary bucket and, if I
knew them, adding them to my bucket. Gradually, my bucket got quite full, and
the dictionary bucket became less full. By the end of the year-long course, I
knew more vocabulary than anyone in my class: thousands of words. That did help
me tremendously on the final proficiency exam, which was wide-ranging and not
based only on class activities. This would be an unwieldy and unsuccessful
tactic for most learners. If you are like me, however—a concrete-random learner
(hands-on and non-sequential) with near-eidetic memory and a background in
structural linguistics, go for it!
[2]
Dr. Philip Johnson, an American with near-native control of Arabic and an
outstanding Arabic instructor at the Defense Language Institute, coined this
phrase. He never taught grammar that was not embedded in some form of
communication: articles, literature of any sort, recorded conversations,
broadcasts, movies, etc. His students always tested among the best of the best
in the Arabic program.
[3]
Dr. James Bernhardt, an educational administrator at the Foreign Service
Institute, calls this “gee whiz” culture, meaning that this aspect of culture
includes the kinds of every day things that two cultures do differently, such
that when you encounter some aspect of it, you are likely to say, “Gee, whiz, I
would not have done it that way” or “gee, whiz, who would have thought that.”
An example of gee whiz culture is baby showers. They are expected in the United
States; they are not done in Russian—could bring back luck to celebrate a
baby’s birth before the baby is born. Another example is bringing flowers to
someone is good in the United States. It is also good in Russia, but only if
you bring an odd number of them. Gee whiz! Who would have thought...!
[4]
There are so many such cases of negative expressions used to show politeness
that one of my Russian students once commented to me, “Wow, the Russians really
have a negative view of the world!” Well, they don’t, but with literal
translations, it can seem so. That is why understanding cultural differences
for what they are is so important.
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