Precerpt from My 20th Language: Cognitive Load

 

Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from My 20th Language by Dr. Betty Lou Leaver -- 

Cognitive Load

In native language processing, cognitive load is often minimized by familiarity. The reader (or listener) processes syntax, vocabulary, and idiomatic expressions with automaticity, allowing attention to shift toward higher-order tasks: inference, tone, nuance, and editorial judgment. For me, this means I can read and edit at quick speed in English, absorbing full lines and paragraphs in a single glance (I actually learned to speed read as a child)—my mind chunking meaning with ease, like a pianist playing from muscle memory.

Foreign language reading, however, introduces a layered complexity. Depending upon the text (something simple like an advertisement vs something more nuanced like an op ed piece), many words may demand conscious decoding for denotative, connotative, and sociolinguistic meaning—and sometimes, when working alone, that might even mean conducting some research. I often find myself leaving the text I am working with to track more information about a concept, phrase, or word—and I try to do the research in the foreign language. If I am forced into a dictionary as a resource, then I prefer a monolingual dictionary meant for native speakers. The examples help take away the ambiguity, whereas a translation creates ambiguity, in my experience.

Syntax rarely feels unfamiliar to me, after the study of 20+ languages, since I have experience now with a great many ways of ordering sentence elements and presenting meaning. However, there was a time, in my early days of study, that syntax was quite curious for me.

Primary meaning in some languages comes from syntax. An example is English. In other languages, it comes from morphology. An example is Russian (or any Slavic language, for that matter). I felt completely comfortable with Russian communication only once I had subconsciously made the switch from processing meaning via syntax to processing meaning via morphology. Later, as a teacher, I would spend much time getting learners to make this jump. When they did, Russian no longer seemed difficult or artificial for them and grammar became meaningful rather than complicated.

Other challenges appear in foreign languages that are not there in a native language. For example, idioms may resist interpretation and perhaps even require explanation from a bearer of the culture. Recognizing the significance of various registers requires much exposure: “more input, Stephanie, more input.” (If you recognize that quotation, then you have identified yourself as an American with a certain kind of interest and likely born in the 1950s-1970s. For a foreigner learning English, this quotation would likely cause some perplexion. And so it is with all foreign languages, making language learning more than a matter of acquiring vocabulary and grammar.

Reading or listening to a foreign language places a heavier intrinsic cognitive load—the mental effort required simply to understand the material—on the learner. This load competes with germane cognitive load, the effort needed to integrate new knowledge into existing schemas. When the balance tips too far toward decoding, comprehension suffers.

In my own experience, reading authentic texts (those written by native speakers for native speakers) in a foreign language initially is not just slower—it’s cognitively noisier. The editorial clarity I enjoy in English becomes clouded by the need to identify the meaning of words/phrases, verify that this discernment is accurate, and reassemble meaning. At the beginning of study of new languages, I find myself allocating more working memory to processing meaning, rather than osmotically discerning it, as I would something new in English. While that can slow me down, time on task does have value, and time spent thinking about/learning about an expression means that I will be more likely to remember it later and even be able to use it in speaking and writing.

With time and exposure, some of this cognitive load shifts. Familiar structures become automatic. Words become friends. And the cognitive terrain begins to resemble the native landscape—less jagged, more fluid. With each new language, the shift occurs more quickly, in great part because I have a greater range of similar structures, similar kinds of syntax, and similar lexical items tucked away in my brain that come to the fore more or less automatically, osmotically, with a new language. With a language from a language family I have studied, the cognitive load lightens dramatically. For example, my proficiency in German and knowledge of Old German and Proto-Germanic made it very easy for me to read and understand most of the signs and information I came across in Dutch in a brief trip into/out of Holland, Danish when traversing Denmark, and Swedish when spending a short study visit to Finland. I could also usually read the newspapers while on the plane (or in similar such circumstances) and in this way would completely confuse a stewardess or someone else when I would respond that I had never studied any of these languages to which I responding properly.

But in new languages at earlier levels, my efforts are marked by deliberate pauses and analytical effort. Three recurring challenges stand out:

🧩 1. Deliberate Decoding: When Reading Becomes Problem-Solving

At early stages, decoding is not automatic—it’s intentional and effortful. Each unfamiliar word becomes a puzzle:

·                Is it phonologically recognizable?

·                Does it resemble a known root or affix?

·                Can context help infer meaning?

This process demands working memory, attention, and linguistic reasoning—resources that native readers typically reserve for higher-order comprehension. Deliberate decoding can be satisfying, even meditative, but it slows the rhythm of reading.

🔍 2. Analytical Stopping Points: The Value of Pausing

Authentic texts often require deliberate pauses—not as interruptions, but as invitations to inquiry:

·                Why did the author choose this construction?

·                What cultural nuance might be embedded here?

·                Is this idiom literal or metaphorical?

These moments allow me to engage with the text as both linguist and learner. I’ve encouraged my students to do the same, treating authentic materials not as hurdles but as landscapes to explore. And as a teacher, I have always introduced authentic materials starting from the very first hour of the class even when the alphabet differs from that of the learner’s native language. (For example, I generally take about 20 minutes to introduce the Cyrillic alphabet to learners of Russian—it is rare that anyone takes longer than that to learn the alphabet in my classes; I use the same system with learner of Arabic, but because Arabic letters have different shapes depending upon where they are in the word, it often takes the full first hour of class before students can pick up a newspaper. Teachers, including very experienced ones, are shocked when I make these statements, but I have demonstrated the accuracy of them on many occasions, and a number of other teachers have been able to do the same—I discuss how and why this is possible in the book chapters about Russian and Arabic (skip ahead if you like, if this statement perturbs and you do not see how this is possible.)

⚠️ 3. False Friends: Familiarity That Misleads

Some words appear friendly—familiar in form or sound—but betray the reader’s expectations. These false friends disrupt comprehension and demand semantic recalibration:

·                Gift in English means a present; in German, it means poison.

·                Library in English is a place to borrow books; librairie in French is a bookstore.

·                Embarazada in Spanish doesn’t mean embarrassed—it means pregnant.

These moments are cognitively jarring, often frustrating, occasionally amusing. For me, they serve as reminders that language is not just code—it’s culture, divergence, and surprise.

For more posts about language learning, click HERE.

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