Stop fighting your Brain! Work With IT!

Have you ever wondered why so few people in the world actually master a second language? If all the school classes, university classes, online classes or other learning systems to teach languages actually worked effectively, then pretty much everyone in the world should be multi-lingual. This – clearly – is not the case. True – some people speak a few languages well. But this is rare. And, those that do speak several languages well have mostly learned them OUTSIDE formal educational contexts.

Why Current Language Teaching “fails”

So, what’s going on? The answer is simple! The way languages are taught in the world today almost universally flies in the face of the way in which the brain actually acquires language! Despite all that we know about the brain, and how people acquire language, learning systems available today fail to incorporate this knowledge into their design!

Most language courses cause learners to fight against what their brain can do naturally, therefore guaranteeing slow learning or complete failure!

How Does the Brain Learn Language?

How does the brain learn language? It recognises patterns (in sound, mostly) and connects those patterns to meaning! Meaning is made up of the internal representations that people have in their minds about the world – including objects; actions; aspects of objects (size; shape; colour; etc); relationships etc. When patterns repeat enough times, in various contexts where meaning is clear, the brain stores the patterns for later use! It REALLY is THAT SIMPLE.

The way to design language learning, therefore, is to present multi-media content to learners in a way that the connection between language patterns and meaning is clear, and make sure the repetition occurs frequently enough to build memory. On top of this, learners need to be able to output language (connect mental images to sounds that they then produce in order to communicate).

When this is done in situations that are fun and engaging, the new language is acquired with minimal effort!

Allow People to Experience Patterns

With the Kungfu English learning system – designed for Chinese learners of English – Chris Lonsdale and his team have already implemented this brain-based approach into a fun, engaging, and highly effective digital self-learning system.

With Speech Genie we take this work to a new level, so that learners can engage in two-way interaction with a digital avatar that understands what they say – thereby closing the loop! Learners engage in ways that first create recognition memory. THEN – with that recognition memory in place – learners extend themselves to production memory (recall memory) and speak to a language partner.

Because the language partner in Speech Genie is not a flesh-and-blood human, issues of embarrassment and fear of speaking also do not occur, which is a KEY element required in the successful acquisition of a new language.