Beware! English language learning is a stimulant.
How we learn Languages is possibly the most difficult and complete task that our brain has to deal with in our lives. If you think for a moment about how we learnt our mother tongue (or tongues) without studying grammar rules or lists of vocabulary, you can’t help but be amazed.
A child’s brain has the capacity to learn any language and any number of languages from birth. It (our brain) can work out the grammar rules for itself. We can see this process working when a child makes a mistake such as:
Yesterday I doed my bed without help from Mummy.
The child has noticed that with verbs such as: like, live, love, climb etc we make the past form by adding “ed” or “d”. Later, as they become exposed to more language inputs they start to see that some verbs are “irregular”
P.M.Lightbown and N.Spada in their book “How Languages are Learned” have examined much of the available research into language acquisition.
The developmental psychologist Ellen Bialystok in her studies published in 1991 and 2001, and others, have found that there is clear evidence that bilingualism can have positive effects on academic abilities. There is also a study which took place in Quebec in Canada that demonstrates that senile dementia starts at an older age in bilingual people than in monolingual people.
So, stimulate your brain …. Put another language in your life!
Start by reading regularly.
15 to 30 minutes every day is going to help you have daily contact with correctly formed English
Put an English habit in your life
Interesting post Ian. Particularly like the fact that dementia seems to come later in bilingual people. If that doesn’t motivate me to study, nothing will!
I’ve learnt two languages after the age of 30 …. but at times I wonder if I started too late 😉
Well there’s no doubting that learning a language is fantastic exercise for the brain 🙂
Absolutely! But more importantly, it opens us up to a wider world for better communication
I live in china. I am a project manager. I am interesting in learning English, but I found it is hard for me. Listening and vocabulary is a big problem for me. I don’t know the best way of learning for a adult. Need help,thanks!