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Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science Can Help Adults Learn a Foreign Language
Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
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October 24, 2024
I had to finish this in a hurry because it was only free on Audible for a short time.
Again, I think I got more out of a TED talk on the same subject: practice for a half an hour each day. This got me through the book on hieroglyphs. At first I set a timer for 10 minutes but then realized I was fully engaged with drawing the hieroglyphs which took some time and did the whole half hour at one time. I probably spend too much time on the Greek now.
Roberts suggests switching to something else instead of "cramming," to give information time to sink in. Basically, you already know how to speak one language, so as an adult you have an advantage over a baby. Use what you know from the language you've got.
The cognitive stuff didn't really sink in. The historical stuff about English is something I enjoy, but wasn't really necessary.
Again, I think I got more out of a TED talk on the same subject: practice for a half an hour each day. This got me through the book on hieroglyphs. At first I set a timer for 10 minutes but then realized I was fully engaged with drawing the hieroglyphs which took some time and did the whole half hour at one time. I probably spend too much time on the Greek now.
Roberts suggests switching to something else instead of "cramming," to give information time to sink in. Basically, you already know how to speak one language, so as an adult you have an advantage over a baby. Use what you know from the language you've got.
The cognitive stuff didn't really sink in. The historical stuff about English is something I enjoy, but wasn't really necessary.
Displaying 1 of 1 review