The way an adult learns a language affects how it is processed by their brain
Expats who arrive in a new country unable to speak the language can obtain a near native level if they immerse themselves in it, scientists believe.
The way an adult learns a foreign language can affect the way their brain processes the language so those who undergo immersion, where they are completely surrounded by language examples, tend to have brain processes similar to that of native speakers, according to a study by scientists in the United States and Brazil.
‘We have confirmed that adults learning a foreign language can come to rely on the same brain mechanisms as native speakers of a language, and that this could be true even for those parts of a foreign language that are particularly difficult to learn, such as its grammar,’ said Michael Ullman, a professor of neuroscience at Georgetown University in Washington DC.
Along with Kara Morgan of the department of Hispanic and Italian studies at the university of Illinois at Chicago and Ingrid Finger of the department of modern languages at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil , he tried to find out whether classroom methods with many explanations of grammar was better or not than immersion learning where there are no grammar examples but lots of language examples.
They concluded that adults can achieve native like knowledge of grammar through immersion but they are not entirely sure why.
Previous studies have found that classroom exposure results in better learning than immersion. However no studies have looked at the brain mechanisms after different types of learning.
Those taking part were taught a simple, made up language Brocanto2, with grammar rules similar to actual languages but different from their native English. The results showed that only immersion led to full native like brain processing of grammar.
‘Native language brain mechanisms are clearly well suited to language, so attaining their use is a critical achievement for foreign language learners. We suspect that this should lead to improved retention of the language as well as higher proficiency over time. So if you learn a language you can come to use native language brain processes, but you may need immersion rather than classroom exposure,’ said Ullman.
The study also looked at whether people who achieve a high proficiency in a foreign language forget it if they don’t then use it regularly.
The researchers called the study participants back five months after the end of the study, without prior warning. Because the language was made up, the scientists were sure participants had not used it in those five months.
The results were quite surprising in that participants became more native like in their brain processing of grammar. This was true of both classroom and immersion groups. Though only the immersion group showed full native processing.
Ullman believes that, over time, memory of the language was consolidated in the brain. He says this process is probably similar to the consolidation of many other skills that a person might learn, such as learning to ride a bike or play a musical instrument.
Although learning a second language as an adult is notoriously difficult, research has shown that adults can indeed attain native language like brain processing and high proficiency levels. One reason why immersion learning leads to more native like attainment could be because it exposes learners to more meaningful phrases and sentences, the scientists said.
‘The possibility that explicit (classroom style) training may retard the development of native like grammatical processing is intriguing, and warrants further examination. It suggests that even though explicit training might provide early advantages, its longer term consequences may not be so beneficial,’ their study concludes.
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great post i am very glad to c u yours post its very informatics learning meaning you can grow your knowledge
OK, interesting and I agree in theory. But exactly what is "immersion" when you don't know one word of the language? You can sit and watch hours of a foreign language program, film, tv and not really understand much. There must be certain actions you have to take so that immersion can actually work. Like studying some of the basic grammar, understanding how a sentence hangs together, get a basic vocabulary on which you can build, or learn the correlation between sounds and writing. At what point does immersion really start to work?
there are easy to apply techniques to get you to use another vocabulary without using one word of the pupils native language. 'Pencil' – 'blue pencil' 'red pencil' 'this is a pencil' this is a red pencil… easy.
If pupils have no notions of grammar in their own language, they will be struggling learning a new one. This is often the case with immigrant communities, even the English don't seem to get much of an education in grammar these days, innit?
I am a social scientist – an anthropologist, who is planning to retire this summer, part-time in PI and part-time in China. So I'll be facing the same challenge myself very soon and fully intend to learn through immersion because it's so much faster than a traditional "educational" approach. That's the way we anthropologists have to learn a new language when studying a new culture because we have an immediate need to understand it and can't afford the luxury of the time needed to learn it in advance of our own immersion into the culture we're studying.
Immersion is generally the best way to learn a new language but not in the way you suggest. Rather than just talk about theory let's use examples. When we first learn our native language as a baby, do we learn it as you suggest, by studying basic grammar, etc.? No, we learn it from our parents and others who we encounter in our environment. So how do we learn at that age? We are TOTALLY tuned in to our environment and those people in it who have these strange sounds coming out of their mouths. And they keep saying them right to us, often repeating the same sounds frequently as they do things for us or as they point to things. I say sounds because words mean nothing yet. They're just sounds to a baby, mixed in with all the other sounds we hear. The learning comes through continuous immersion in this environment we are so focused on and continuously hearing THE SAME SOUNDS repeated IN THE SAME CONTEXT. That is is the key to learning language – repetition and context. Not just repetition alone or we would only learn the sounds not what they refer to in our environment. That's why immersion works so much better than educational-type learning – CONTEXT! Language moves from being conceptual as it's taught in an educational environment to concrete because it refers to real things we are interacting with in our environment.
The other big factor in an immersion approach is motivation. Humans, like all animals, are basically kind of lazy. Not lazy in the traditional worthless sense, but in the practical sense – we try to do as little as possible to get what we need and want. Makes sense since it conserves time, energy and attention for other things in our lives. I suppose you could also call it being "frugal" with our time, attention, and energy. When I am learning from a book, video, audio recording, teacher, etc., I am only tuned in with a relatively small part of my time, attention and energy – there have been many studies that show this to be true. Ask any teacher about how much of the time their students are totally tuned in to their teaching. I know – I've been a teacher, my parents were teachers, and 2 of my children are teachers. Again, it's natural, not something bad. We are motivated to devote that time, energy, and attention according to what we expect to get out of it. It's not a life or death matter in an educational setting, so our minds wander easily, picking up bits and pieces and then letting our reasoning abilities put those pieces together into a whole picture. It's enough to get by in an educational setting but not in real life..
But when immersed in an environment where our only means of interacting with those around us is through what we are trying to learn, in this case a common language, it does become an act of survival. The will to survive is so strong it becomes natural for us to totally tune in to our environment in order to do whatever it takes to survive. This will to survive opens up our mental learning channels to a far greater capacity than through traditional education.
Here's a real life example I encountered when I was in my 20's. One of my best friends joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to Malaysia. He was a very smart guy, but he just couldn't learn Malay well enough to deploy him to the field in Malaysia through their traditional educational methods. The Peace Corps doesn't provide translators and often they don't even have peers working with them who can translate for them. So they were just about ready to drop him from the Corps. In a last ditch attempt, they placed him into the home of a Malay family who didn't speak English. He was able to learn the language fluently enough in about a month to be deployed into the field, where he very successfully carried out his 2 year assignment – in Malay! He talked to me a lot about this experience and how the absolute necessity of having to communicate with this family in order to just live his daily existence radically increased his ability to learn a difficult language.
That's a great story about immersion and language learning. I've had similar experiences living with a host family in Mexico to learn Spanish.
Immersion is certainly a far better way of learning languages than most classes, primarily because in most classes the methods used are better suited to training animals than people. Drilling, rote memorisation are not ways to learn languages but they form a key part of many language classes worldwide. And that is just for starters!
However in countries with immigrant communities, it is also clear to see that immersion does not work for everyone.
Learning languages is hard as this article states for one reason, and that is the wrong tools are being used. Try digging a large hole with a spoon, or drinking soup with a fork! Get the right tools, the right mindset and you’ll be amazed at what is possible.
Couldn't agree more Andrew, but what are the right tools exactly? I taught myself German. It wasn't easy, but there was a nearly endless supply of material to assist me. Here in the Emirates I have a language teacher and I am finding Arabic more difficult than when I was learning German and not living there. Of course I was 15 years younger then too.
Total immersion works if people have an interest, and only then learning a language happens. I can speak from my own experience on this subject. I live in Turkey and I taught myself Turkish. Prior to leaving I bought a Berlitz phrase book, so I was prepared. This gave me the basis for every kind of everyday situation and need along with the vocabulary. I first learned the question words and some standard phrases such as Where is …, How much …, I want …, etc. Then I learned object nouns, colors, numbers, pronunciation of the alphabet, foods, weather, shapes, prepositions of place. I read shop signs, product labels and directions. I listened to how people interacted when shopping, traveling, ordering in restaurants. My constant companion for years was a Red House Turkish/English dictionary. As time went on I knew the root words, so I learned compound words, prefixes, suffixes and adverbs. I learned adjectives and their opposites. I functioned in present simple and continuous and went on to the past simple and future tenses. I'm still not good with the perfect tenses yet. Total immersion works simply because you are making the action as you are speaking. You have no choice but to think and speak in that language. I live in the southeastern region of the country where few foreigners reside or travel. So this is all Turkish all the time. You must also like the country and your ear must also find the language pleasant in order to master it as well. I lived a year in both the Czech Republic and the United Arab Emirates. I learned nothing in their languages since they weren't pleasing to the ear or tongue for me. I should also say that I'm an EFL instructor and so I went about learning Turkish much in the same way that I teach non native speakers English.
I am a language teacher and let me tell you that this immersion thing is hugely overrated. While it works for small children, the adult brain is wired differently. Immersion can only work if it's backed up by solid theory. My students always tell me how happy they are that I ALWAYS explain to them WHY the rules work in a particular way. Some admitted that they had tried immersion and found it totally useless, and were very happy to have found somebody (myself, LOL) who actually bothered to explain the theory behind the rules. Unlike a child, a grown-up human being is a logical creature whose brain needs a clear-cut system, not stream-of-consciousness blabbering.
Thank you Galaktionova! Finally someone who gets it. I'm a language teacher too, and a successful one. What many people don't understand, and don't want to understand, it seems, is that every sentence includes " grammar". If you learn by so called "immersion" you are still learning the "grammar" but without the benefit of instruction from people who know it already. Even the researcher who did this study shows he doesn't get it when he refers to the "grammar" as a "part of the language" that is "difficult to learn". Many people believe we learn our second language as we learn our first, but our brains change as we mature, as Galaktionova pointed out. I think immersion is great, but is best combined with study before (like Diane) or during the immersion experience. Furthermore, immersion is not an easy thing to set up, and most people who still work for a living, will not be able to immerse themselves. Teachers who refuse to use their student's native language (if they have one in common) as a tool, also drive me mad. It's a useful tool, just as grammatical terms like "adjective" and " adverb" are useful tools, because different parts of speech behave differently in the language, just as proteins and carbohydrates behave differently in our bodies. Do we constantly berate nutritionists for using those terms? No! Sorry if I sound bitter. I feel like I've been having versions of this conversation for forty years. Now I'm semi retired in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where the general level of Spanish proficiency among the expats is appalling, and they keep asking for me to teach them Spanish without "grammar". Many are satisfied once they can butcher their way through the language well enough to get their help to do what they want. They expect them to learn English. I can't help but wonder if these are the same people who insisted the Spanish speaking workers "back home" learn English. Unfortunately, we too often abuse the ears of those who cannot afford to complain.
I can tell you that you are wrong. I have learned French in a class room setting and it sucks and I have learned German by living there for 4 years without prior language knowledge I became fluent I German just by being there at the ripe age of 33. I also have a friend from Ireland who married a Swedish woman in Denmark, he now speaks fluent Swedish and Danish without any academic training in the oral aspect of the languages, he was 28 when he moved there. Later he learned to write and read Danish. You are also wrong about children not being logical and that adults are. Pure rubbish argument my tri-lingual kids conjugated verbs in 3 languages as if the verbs were all regular, their brains logically had found the pattern. Now put that in your pipe and smoke it as the Irish saying goes.