The Importance of a Synergetic Approach to Learning Languages

March 6th, 2016

There are many ways to learn a foreign language: some people spend years on formal classes; some go abroad in the hope to pick up the language naturally; some take private lessons; some do self-study; some watch TV programs in the original language etc. Which of these approaches is the optimum one? Well, as many people as many minds and this is definitely not a "one-size-fits-all" context. However, there are some factors that do speed up the language-learning process for the absolute majority of learners. Depending on whether you are mostly right-brained or left-brained, you might favour a more logical/structured or intuitive/immersion-like approach to language learning. However, for the absolute majority of learners combining the two would bring the best results. Here's why.

Learning through immersion (or continuous exposure) ACTIVATES THE UNCONSCIOUS LEARNING PROCESS that allows you to absorb language patterns in a natural way. The speed of this process depends on a person's overall pattern-recognition ability, but not a single learner is 'exempt' from the powerful effects of unconscious learning, or immersion. Basically, your mind has a certain inherent mechanism that allows it to understand and store new patterns, provided the exposure is long enough.

On the other hand, even the most intuitive adult learners quickly discover that no matter how well they understand the language, being able to speak it is a completely different story. Unless you take some extra steps, you might end up with the frustration of understanding everything and not being able to speak a word. Contrary to popular belief, most adult migrants do not end up speaking the local language well. As you might have noticed, the absolute majority speak it poorly even after many years in a country, except those few who take some extra steps. So what are these steps required on top of the IMMERSION?

The first one is CONSCIOUS PATTERN ANALYSIS (targeted grammar and vocabulary study). Normally, immersion provides you with an ability to understand the language GLOBALLY, but your ability to speak depends on having the skill to produce the INDIVIDUAL expressions and structures. That's where the conscious analysis of grammar structures (or patterns) comes into play. It's the MISSING LINK that provides adult learners with the building blocks they need to start constructing proper sentences from the very beginning. Technically, even without this analysis after many years of immersion you might start speaking the language correctly, but COMBINING the two types of learning (CONSCIOUS and UNCONSCIOUS) speeds up your language-learning process manifold due to their SYNERGETIC EFFECT on each other. Truly, 1+1 ≠ 2 when it comes to synergy. On the other hand, there are learners who spend years studying a language through a very formal process that lacks immersion-like exposure and speaking practice and consequently do not develop the right speaking skills. The problem is that when a language-learning process relies exclusively on either conscious or unconscious learning, it's like a two-legged table, which is obviously a pretty shaky structure.

The second step to speeding up the language-learning process is wrapping these two types of learning in intensive and targeted speaking practice. This will add additional synergy to your language-learning process as speaking activates certain brain centres that are responsible for information storage. (Basically, the more you practice what you are learning through speaking, the higher the likelihood that you will retain it well.)

So the conclusion is that all types of learning could eventually result in fluency, but the real question is how long you'd need unless you rely on this powerful synergy. The Intuniti method was created with this synergy at its core which is why our students get immersion-like tasks as homework and in class practise grammar patterns and vocabulary through targeted speaking practice. Wherever you are and whoever you are, if your objective is learning to speak a language, we encourage you to take the right steps in that direction by making this synergetic approach your friend! Let the language "happen" to you, but meet it half way! ;)