It’s August! Back to school and study of a second language! Whether a student is in year one or year four of language study, it’s crucial to use llearning strategies that maximize mastery of French, Latin, or Spanish.In June I had the pleasure of introducing these strategies to incoming 7th-graders during our prep school sessions. Now, parents, I hope that you will consider several tested and proven approaches to maximal mastery so that you can help your student increase his or her success. The tips below come from a fascinating survey of the neuroscience of optimal learning, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown et al., (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2014). Some of the tips may seem counter-intuitive, yet consider that if intuition were all that’s needed to learn at a high level, we’d all be geniuses. And best of all, these tips lead to growth in other academic disciplines, as well..
Desirable Difficulty
A key requirement for students as they learn is building some difficulty into one’s study routine. Desirable difficulty helps students move from quick and easy recognition to lasting and meaningful retrieval, since overcoming short-term impediments leads to stronger, more durable retention. Re-reading textbooks and highlighted notes is easy and builds recognition, but recognition does not constitute reliable recall, production skills, or a capacity for use and analysis of information. D’Evelyn students benefit from swiftly adopting a study scheme that incorporates retrieval strategies, which, though hard at the beginning of a lesson, lead to growth through meaningful repetition as corrected errors in practice lead to accurate retrieval in application.
Learn in Many Modes
Each student tends to have an “easier” mode of learning (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.). Following on research establishing the value of desirable difficulty, neuroscientists have found that learning solely in one’s preferred style is actually less powerful than learning in multiple modes. Students who build study routines in which they practice the elements and use of language in all modes (writing, speaking aloud, reading, listening) will gain mastery sooner. In other words, vocabulary and conjugations can and should be practiced in writing, visually, and (with the right study partner or technology) orally and aurally.
Space and Interleave Learning
Massed practice (studying with one focus in a single long setting) is not the way to win, especially when it happens the day before the quiz! From the beginning of a semester and the beginning of each unit, students should do multiple shorter study and learning sessions. Effective learning can now be running through retrieval of vocabulary (in multiple modes!), now verb conjugation (in multiple modes!), or now practicing dialogue with a friend. Interleaving (working in learning and study activities for other courses between study of the Foreign Language material) multiplies the enhanced learning power of using spaced and varied modes of practice.
Calibration
It does no good for a student to wait until a quiz or test to demonstrate how much he or she knows. Calibration is the early and frequent use of learning behaviors (flashcards with Dad, written reproduction of vocab or conjugations that Mom can check against the original list or textbook, peer quizzing about concepts or skills found in notes, computer drill) which give a student an authentic gauge of current mastery and, more importantly, a chance to correct errors for total mastery. Parents, this is a powerful way to support your son or daughter with the essential elements of language learning!
Successfully Forward
As your child learns the rich content of D’Evelyn Foreign Language courses, he or she will benefit from implementing these four strategies as a start. Mastery of a second language requires that students build stronger and faster neural pathways both to data and to the skills by which students move from mere data to read, write, speak, and listen.. Making knowledge of a language stick for three, four, five years (and beyond) is critical. Talk to your student’s teacher at Back To School Night for other tips on how to make it stick!
The PHurrowed Brow 