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Hi there, Steve Kaufmann.
Today, I want to talk about language hacks, hacking language learning. It’s very fashionable to talk about hacking things. There’s a self-help site called Life Hacks, a form of advice on how to tie your shoelaces faster and stuff. What do I think about language hacks, hacking language learning? I should say that you do see articles on how to hack the subjunctive or hack the imperfect or hack Chinese characters.
I don’t like the word ‘hack’ because the word suggests to me something destructive, somebody coming in and destroying my computer. I don’t really believe in shortcuts, but if we just take the word to mean tips. I think every language learner develops his or her own habits and some of us like to share them here on the Internet, as I do, so perhaps they’re hacks.
If I look at my three sort of ‘golden keys’ of language learning, we could call them hacks. So hack number one is to have a positive attitude, to enjoy the process and to do things that you enjoying doing. So, one hack might be to stop going over the same boring learner content that you’re not really interested in, just in the hope that somehow it’s helping your language learning. Do things that you find interesting, get on to compelling content, as Stephen Krashen says. So, in a sense, that’s a hack. It gets you to enjoy the process and makes you more positive.
The second key, of course, is to spend enough time. Here again, the hack or the shortcut is that there is no shortcut. It’s going to take you a long time, but if you follow the first hack and do things that are enjoyable then you don’t mind spending the time. You’re not anxious to have a shortcut of a process that you find enjoyable, so try to make it enjoyable and then you’ll spend the time.
The third hack would have to do with my third key, which is developing that attentiveness, the ability to notice and here there are different things we can do. Obviously, just massive exposure makes you more attentive to the language, if you’re paying attention. Occasionally, reviewing the grammar makes you more attentive. But the main focus, again, is on this massive input, in my view.
When I read and listen I try to notice. I underline when I read. I save links in LingQ. If I review some grammar rules or some examples I don’t expect to remember all of that, but I do believe that it makes me a little more attentive. When I’m learning if the text is difficult for me, then I’m focused mostly on understanding it, saving words in LingQ and trying to understand what’s being said. Sometimes I don’t fully understand it, but if I’m motivated to get through that content I’ll continue to plow through it, even though there are a lot of new words to me.
On the other hand, when I’m reading something that’s easier for me then I’ll make a conscious effort to try to notice certain constructions that I know I have a problem with because that increases my ability to notice, my attentiveness. If you notice again and again, eventually, you develop new habits and start to sort of ingest the language and develop the language habits you want.
So there you have it, my take on language hacks. I don’t think there are real language hacks; I think we have to develop our own special activities that we enjoy doing.
Thank you for listening, bye for now.
1 comments on “Can You Hack Language Learning?”
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Shimmerism (2015) a neologism, derived from India, and used to refer to any English professor who doesn’t know his/her English, but slavishly heaps praise upon praise, on her unworthy bosses, in their awful butler gibberish English, to get monetary and other ‘benefits’. In other words, a sycophantic English professor with broken English, who posts eulogies on social media about a College/University, where he/she has not studied, for the sake of attention-seeking and favour-seeking.