top of page
Search

Adulthood and Learning a new Language

Updated: Sep 9

How can an adult learn a new language, quickly, normally and effectively?

ree

Learning French can be stressful and intimidating. It also requires some intentionality particularly for an adult. And as the world evolves with different technological development and innovations, we need to be able to speak each other's language. But, how do we do that as an adult language learner?

There is a myth that is popularly believed amidst language learners and that myth is that “Children are exceptionally good at learning different languages rather than adults". But, this is not true because when you transport a five year old French child to Spain to learn a new language for 500 hours and you compare his ability with an adult who is also subjected to that same learning process, you will realize that the adult would learn faster than the child, and this is because the adult is smarter and has learned to learn different things.

One of the most effective ways for an adult to learn a new language fast is by acquiring the language. Acquiring a language is a mostly unconscious process by which humans gain the capacity to perceive and comprehend languages without studying it. It is similar to how we learned our first language as toddlers. The key to acquiring a language is comprehensive input.

The more you listen to a language, the faster you will acquire it.

Dr. Thomas Bak, a lecturer at Edinburgh’s school of philosophy, psychology and language sciences conducted a research and it was seen that “Adults who picked up a second language in their adulthood, such skill had positive effects on them”. So, it is never too late to pick up a second language.

Here are some tips to learn a new language fast;

  1. Focus on a language content that is relevant to you: Listen to what you like. To topics that quicken your fancy. As an adult, you have come across books, you have read and even at a point in your life, you swore to never read anything even if it were a sign board. But, here you are learning a new language. Which some people in Nigeria call "learning another man's language (Ede k'ede)".

  2. Focus on getting the meaning first before the words: When listening to a French song or watching a movie, the best thing to do is to listen with the mind to understand the sense or what message the actor is trying to pass across. Stop trying to get the meaning of each word, it will drain you.

  3. Use body language if you don’t understand words. Start mixing words: Learn to read between the lines. Body languages pass more information than you know. As you improve your vocabulary, put two and two together to form sentences.

  4. Get a language parent: Someone interested in you that will communicate with you essentially as equal. Someone that will willing ensure you speak solely the language with him/her and nothing but that language.

  5. Face copying: In order to speak effectively, copy facial expressions and ways in which different words in your target language are formed. Learn how the muscles work.

  6. Don't try to be perfect: As a language learner, it's very okay to start off not getting all the tenses and forgetting what vocabulary to use. Keep going, Keep speaking. At the end of the day it pays off because you are able to learn from your mistakes the best expression to use and how to place words.

If you want to learn a language efficiently, you have to give your life to the language. Every word has to connect to words, images, scents, tastes and emotions. Then you will realize that this is what everyone has the time and ability to do.


 
 
 

Comments

©2018 BY MAPETITEFRANCE. PROUDLY CREATED WITH WIX.COM

bottom of page