Learning Styles

http://www.lingq.com/

Do we learn languages differently? Is there a role for Twitter in language learning?

Category:

Education

Tags:

• foreign language
• polyglot
• hyperpolyglot
• multilingual
• grammar
• pimsleur
• rosetta stone
• tower of babel
• langues
• learn English online
• learn French
• learn Spanish online
• learn Chinese online
• twitter
• language
• learning

[ubny1]

I think everybody learns in a different way. Some people can recognize/memorize pictures better than words. Or remember hearing something better than if they read it. It's just a fact.

[lingosteve]

@ubny1 Don't confuse you strongly held beliefs with facts.

[NV417]

Actually, there are more than 3. there are total of 7 which are visual, aural, physical, verbal, logical, social, and solitary. I don't know much details to each one but I don't think we learn the same way. That's why many people don't like the system at LingQ.

[lingosteve]

And what makes you an authority?

[Deorca]

A lot of what you say here can be summed up by one of Confucius's sayings - "all men are by nature the same, it is their habits that differ".

As regards Universal grammar, I can't see where your contention is, as what you say here (apart from saying explicitly that you disagree) seems fairly inline with Chomsky's theory.

[lingosteve]

We have a universal ability to recognize patterns. We are not born with a universal sense of what is appropriate grammar and what is not. In fact this differs from language to language. If you read Pinker on Chomsky he goes into great detail describing the nature of this universal grammar. I do not agree. We can notice patterns in anything.

[Silvuschka]

I often hear that kids these days have no attention span, and can only focus for long enough to write a short text message. But, I just don't buy it. Just think what happens when each new Harry Potter book came out: kids would read for hours at a stretch, and finish each book in a couple of days, hungry for the next volume.

[vivdclyde]

Yes, I think we can learn better when we can choose freely how we learn it. We accept it from the bottom of our hearts that way. I did an experiment on myself once. I tried different ways to memorize different formulas in chemistry (which were about the same length): I stared at it, I read it out loud, I wrote it down, and I think reading out loud and saying it again helps me remember it better. For me, I had to stare at it several times to remember it...difficult.

[OtacooI]

I believe that we all learn the same, but we all like different things. Just as you said. Based on this, I've been thinking that it would be great if there was a web sight with information on several different methods of language learning, and links to all the major sites and blogs, so that people can see all that's out there, and then make the decision on which method they enjoy the most, or even take single parts that they like from several methods, and assemble their own method from there.

[marckami]

@lingosteve I think he refers to multiple intelligences theory of Howard Gardner.

[mohfuu]

I find that I remember numbers with greater ease if type them in on a phone or a numpad on a computer, I guess that's kinetic memory. I remember watching movies as a boy and I'd frequently ask my parents what this or that word meant and eventually started piecing the dialogues with the subtitles, I think that's how I learned English. I'm seeing a german woman, I hear words here and there that help me understand the gist of the conversations when she talks with her sister.

[mohfuu]

I find that I remember numbers with greater ease if type them in on a phone or a numpad on a computer, I guess thats kinetic memory. But I remember words and sounds just fine.

[ubny1]

@ubny1 It's not a strongly held belief. How can you deny that some people remember things better by learning them in a different way. If I can read something and remember almost all of it, but if someone reads it to me and I don't remember anything, that's learning in a different way... This is very common.

[MrOregona230]

haha oral we all used to laugh at that in French lessons

[lemontofu]

@lingosteve haha no one made him an authority, he is merely stating the fact