How Do We Learn Language 5 Key Tips That Unlock Your Brains Potential

How Do We Learn Language 5 Key Tips That Unlock Your Brains Potential How Do We Learn Language? Heres What Modern Linguists and Learners Have to Say It seems like magic.Crazy multilingual hyperpolyglots are learning six or seven or twenty languages.Others only learn one or two, but they  learn them  to exceptionally high levels of fluency,  with the  accent and local slang to pass for natives.Babies, otherwise unable to do literally a single useful thing for themselves, make the leap from babbling poop machines to creators  of fluent sentences seemingly overnight.Even retirees, old enough to be the great grandparents of the freshest generation of two-year-olds approaching fluency in their native languages, are learning new languages later in life  and doing it well.Which raises the question: how do we genius humans, with our big brains and advanced societies, learn language?The answer to that question is complicated, but we can tell you one thing outright: you dont need to be wildly intelligent, especially talented or good at languages to learn a language.The specifics of how you personally set out to learn a foreign language are particular to you, but for the most part, we all learn language through the same series of biological, cognitive and social processes that work exactly the same across cultures and individuals.Now, learning our first language as a child is a different feat entirely than  setting out to learn a foreign tongue as an adult. But to really get a grip on whats going on when were learning foreign languages as adults, it helps to understand not just how we naturally acquire our mother tongue, but also why language is both unique to humans and ubiquitous in our societies. Learning Language: The Thing That Makes Us Human?You could argue that when youre learning a language, youre at your most human.Language is something we all share as humans, and alongside our fancy opposable thumbs its one of the core characteristics that make us just a bit cooler than all the other animals.Today there are around seven thousand languages spoken around  the world, including sounds and grammatical features that can seem distinctly alien to the languages many of us are familiar with, yet all languages are  in nearly every way more similar than contrasting.Starting with the most fundamental fact, any healthy human child exposed to any language anywhere in the world will always, always learn language. Theres never once been a kid who just never quite picked it up, and there never will be.It doesnt stop there: did you know that children learn many linguistic structures in the exact same order  throughout the world, regardless of their language?The facts that language is universal in human societies and that we all learn it in the same way are two of the biggest pieces of evidence for the theory of Universal Grammar, one of the concepts that launched MIT linguist Noam Chomsky to fame. Universal Grammar argues that humans are born with an innate ability to learn languages and that the mechanisms that identify and interpret grammar are hardwired into the brain.While there are tons of argumen ts (some more compelling and exciting than others) for different interpretations of human language, Chomskys theory is and has been the near-consensus among linguists since the 1970s.Regardless of diverging thoughts on where it comes from, most of modern linguistics is in agreement that human language is essentially a system of symbols used to communicate. We use words like apple, pomme  and ????? as symbols to point our minds to the delicious red fruit that actually has no inherent relationship to the word were saying. Its just an apple or a pomme or whatever else because we say it is.You could say that its this capacity for symbolic thought that makes us human, allowing us to  use sounds, pictures, letters and other abstract representations of things or ideas that arent right in front of us.As we climb towards fluency in our first language or any other, were learning how to use and understand these symbols to communicate with others and interact with the world around us. And thats important for how we think about how we learn a language.How Do We Learn Language? Heres What Modern Linguists and Learners Have to SayChild Language Acquisition: How We All Learned Our Native Language Without Cracking a BookNobody ever had to learn how to learn their first language. It happens whether we like it or not.One of the reasons babies are so good at language learning is neurological: babies brains enjoy some special tech upgrades. While all of us were born with them, we lost them somewhere between diapers and high school Spanish.Babies, like all humans, are experts at statistical learning: observing the overwhelming amounts of linguistic information theyre presented with every day and making exceptionally accurate generalizations about the patterns they deduce. Every time you say bottle with bottle in hand, the infant brain jots down some notes on the possible relationship between the sounds its hearing and their possible relationship to that object in Moms hand.But they re also busy investigating when you use in versus  on, why you sometimes call yourself I and sometimes me, and what happens when a familiar verb gets an -ing at the end of it.Listening, analyzing and collecting statistical samples is only half of the story of child language learning.We can think of the other half as the use it or lose it principle.In combination with the masses of statistical data they gather, children employ social language learning strategies to truly master their mother tongues. This is the reason behind another universal linguistic truth: no child will ever learn a language without human interaction.Its through combining the statistical with the social that babies finally start taking off at breakneck speed and using their language to interact with other humans around one year of age. Want milk makes Daddy bring the bottle, again makes Mommy come back for another round of peek-a-boo and whats that becomes the key to unlocking all the worlds secrets.Adult Languag e Acquisition: How We Learn Language, How We Cant and How We ShouldThe two key components of child language acquisitionâ€"statistical and social learningâ€"are the same ones at play when adults learn languages. But both the adult brain and, more importantly, the adult social life feature some key differences from those of children.Adult language learning is basically the same game, just  with different rules.Being a grown-up is hard: why we cant learn language exactly like babies doSetting out to learn a language like a baby is a great strategy, as long as you remember that youre doing it  like a baby, with the differences between child and adult language learning in mind.Since both the statistical nuts and bolts and the social use of language are the main cruxes of language learning, you may not be surprised that they figure in differently to the lives of three-year-olds and thirty-year-olds.Its understanding these differences that can help you learn a language like your younger se lf.Here are some of the key differences adult language learners should be aware  of as they embark on learning a new language:Adults already speak at least one language fluently. Yes, you already have some language skills. But this can actually be a problem. One way of explaining why babies always beat us in language learning is that we as adults are actually so incredibly good at our mother tongues that it confuses the way we think about language in general. Your first language hardwires your brain for language learning and has a huge impact on any language learning that follows.Adults respond to social sanctioning, where children mostly dont. Babies arent afraid to make mistakes. If it takes them two tries or twenty to get a grammar rule or a pronunciation down, theyll keep coming back until theyve got it. Adults, on the other hand, are particularly susceptible to shame and embarrassment. Were afraid of looking stupid in front of others, so we protect ourselves by using a new lang uage too conservatively (being afraid to try out new words and forms we think we might understand) or not speaking at all.Adults communicate in mostly equal relationships. A babys main conversation partners are her parents and other adults, who naturally adapt their speech to accommodate childrens less advanced linguistic abilities. Adults, on the other hand, are used to communicating as equals. The vast majority of your speech exchanges in a foreign language force you to engage with the same level and speed of speech as native speakers.Other things demand our attention. Babies as a group tend to have sky-high unemployment rates, which means theyre free to dedicate absolutely all of their time to learning their mother tongue. For adults, between jobs and errands and relationships and the thousand other things we need to do every day just to keep ourselves afloat, finding the time to learn a language can be a challenge.Adults have to try. This is the biggest difference: a baby just n eeds to hang around for a couple years not doing much of anything, and their linguistically awesome brains take care of the learning for them. As adults, our brains are less plastic and more resistant to change, which means we have to push them, and sometimes all that trying just makes things worse.In essence, how adults and children learn language is really the same. We observe native speakers,  identify patterns in the language (statistical learning) and then we test those patterns by interacting with other people, using their feedback to correct and better nuance the patterns weve deduced (social learning).What really changes between childhood and adulthood is both our brains and our lives.But the first doesnt change as much as you might think, and we have enough control over the second to keep it from  squashing our multilingual ambitions.Brain plasticity and the critical period: the neuro-acrabatics of  how we learn languageIf theres one specific thing that separates how childr en learn language from how we as adults learn language, its the critical period.The critical period of language learning refers to the period of a childs life, from birth until somewhere between age 5 and puberty according to various experts, in which theyre uniquely neurologically prepared to acquire a language. Studies show that there is in fact a critical period for all language learning, even sign language.The trademark feature of the critical period is what gives babies their ultimate language learning advantage: increased brain plasticity.This means that babies brains are uniquely adapted to growing and changing quickly, whereas our adult brains generally become less plastic over time. And physically growing your brain isnt just one of the benefits of learning a language, but also a requirement for it.So, how do we as adults account for our decreased brain plasticity and the practical factors that make it harder for us to learn languages?5 Key Language Learning Tips That Unloc k Your Brains PotentialUsing what we know about how both adults and children learn language, we can  make our brains learn language faster and better as adults.The  following  lessons and tips  are all aimed at navigating the constraints of learning a language as an adult,  increasing your brain plasticity  and doing your best to incorporate the strategies of a child language learner into the life and reality of an adult language learner:Even though our brains mechanisms for language learning are severely weakened around puberty, we can re-strengthen them as adults.  Just by starting to learn a new language youre reawakening these parts of your brain. Borrowing learning strategies from child learners helps the process.Retraining your brain to learn second languages more easily, like you did as a child, might be one of the best language learning advantages you can give yourself.Adults and children both rely heavily on statistical learning, but they do so in very different ways. Babie s brains are like sponges, whereas adults are more like cups: dump liters and liters of language on and around the first and itll get soaked up, but the second is useless unless the language is poured directly and purposefully into it.Adult language learners need to actively pursue and dedicate time to their language learning, as well as  acquire language input purposefully.Social interaction is indispensable, but it works differently for adults and children. Babies lives are filled with a few unequal relationships with caretakers and loved ones who become personally attuned to the childs speech and learning. Its like having a flock of attentive, patient and understanding personal tutors round the clock.Adults, however, lack the guiding light of motherese,  and instead have to use their language to navigate complicated adult interactions. Adult learners need extra patience and dedication for getting through these interactions, especially in the earlier stages of learning.While most adults can only recognize speech sounds present in their own language, your ears can be reset to learn new speech sounds naturally. Part of learning a language as a baby is strategically narrowing the range of speech sounds listened to and focusing in on the ones that matter in your language, but you can retrain your ears and regain your ability to recognize and interpret new sounds that you havent previously given meaning to.Adult learners must be prepared to work extra hard to both understand and be able to pronounce new sounds in the languages they learn.Adults can achieve native-like fluency in a language learned later in life, but only under certain circumstances. Certain immersive language situations can lead adult language learners to develop native-like pronunciation, usage and even psycho-linguistic processing of a second language. Some learners who also follow other best practices attain and retain the brain activity patterns of native speakers, which may also imply a nati ve-like understanding of the language. Adult learners generally benefit most from immersion or immersion-like learning settings.Its true that there are a lot of important differences between how children and adult learn languages, and its clear that babies have some distinct advantages over older learners, but adults also enjoy certain language learning advantages over their tiny crawling counterparts.While its been a popular urban myth for decades that only children can  really  learn languages and learn them, well, nowadays we can definitively say we know better.Language is inherently human, and humans are always changing, which might be why were able to miraculously revive our childlike abilities for language acquisition and literally grow and reshape our brains when we want to or need to.So, now that you know a bit more about what learning a language looks like inside your head, you can start learning a foreign language today! And One More ThingSo you really want to learn a la nguage? Then its time to check out FluentU!FluentU takes real-world videosâ€"like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talksâ€"and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.With FluentU, you hear languages in real-world contextsâ€"the way that native speakers actually use them.Just a quick look will give you an idea of the variety of FluentU videos on offer:FluentU really takes the grunt work out of learning languages, leaving you with nothing but engaging, effective and efficient learning. It’s already hand-picked the best videos for you and organized them by level and topic. All you have to do is choose any video that strikes your fancy to get started!Each word in the interactive captions comes with a definition, audio, image, example sentences and more.Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab, and easily review words and phrases from the video under Vocab.You can use FluentU’s unique adaptive quizzes to learn the vocabulary and phrases from the video through fun questions and exercises. Just swipe left or right to see more examples of the word youre studying.The program even keeps track of what you’re learning and tells you exactly when it’s time for review, giving you a 100% personalized experience.Start using FluentU on the website  with your computer or tablet  or, better yet,  download the FluentU app from  the  iTunes store  or  Google Play store.