The Language Learning Formula
Language Learned = Time x Conscious learning x Exposure + Time x Exposure/10 – (Time plus 1) / Review
In other words, language learned = Purposeful learning + Natural Acquisition – Memory Loss
In mathematical terms: LL = T*CL*E + TE/10 – (T+1)/R
*This is not a real formula – so you cannot plug real numbers into the equation. This is just a way to simplify language learning into it’s basic parts
An explanation of the formula:
Time affects everything. If you put in 0 time, you will get actually get negative results because you will forget what you learned before, unless of course you didn’t know anything before. If you put in a lot of time, you will get results quicker, as long as none of the other factors are 0.
Exposure will lead to results given enough time. You can pick up a language through massive exposure – it might just take 10 years. I use 10 as my dividing number for natural acquisition because I believe that one can achieve the fluency of a 10 year old in 1 year of purposeful learning. When you learn on purpose, you also get the added affects of natural acquisition on top, which suggests that in reality we should be able to far surpass a 10 year old in 10 years, as long as we are conscious about our learning along the way. If you just learn through exposure, you will eventually become fluent in the language; my Chinese teacher had another student that was fluent in spoken Chinese, and yet had never studied the language before: he watched so many Chinese Kungfu dramas, that he stopped having to read the Korean subtitles. He was illiterate, but he was fluent!
Review is important in everything and always must be considered in the learning process. You will forget some of the things you learn unless you review them. If you take a lot of time in learning the language, but don’t review often enough, you may reach a point where you forget most of what you learned. This is what happens in school: every new chapter has a complete new list of vocabulary that doesn’t cover previous vocabulary other than the basics. You then quickly forget what you learned before, and when it comes midterm or final time, you have to re-learn everything from before, rather than simply knowing it. If schools understood that we forget things we learn without adequate review, they would not need to
Conscious effort separates natural language acquisition from purposeful learning. When you take the conscious effort to improve, you improve at a much faster rate than those that do it through passive means and necessity. This is an over-simplification of the differences, but it’s enough for you to understand how you should think about spending your time and the language process as a whole.
Massive Exposure and Persistence:
In reality, review is also a function of exposure. It’s hard to create an equation out of it, but basically in the beginning most of what you read will be new, while a small fraction will be review of what you know. When you get closer and closer to native, less and less of your exposure will be new information, resulting in more and more taking the place of review. Of course you could use spaced repetition based flash cards to help you along the way, but that’s beside the point.
Since all 3 parts of the learning process – purposeful learning, natural acquisition, and memory loss – are all functions of exposure, it makes sense to leverage exposure as much as possible. The person who is exposed to pure Chinese for 5 hours a day and is going to learn more than the person that is exposed to it for only 1 hour a day, no matter how hard that person works. If you want to achieve fluency, you need exposure and lots of it.
I’m fully immersing myself into the Japanese language – well whenever I can since I work as a Chinese to English translator for 8 hours a day. I listen to only Japanese music. I watch Japanese TV shows and Japanese movies. My phone is in Japanese, and my lang-8 is in Japanese. I’ve been making Japanese friends, and writing a journal in Japanese. I’m trying to get as close to 100% exposure when I don’t absolutely have to use other languages.
It is important how you choose your exposure, but that goes into an entire different topic. I wrote previously about the importance of materials in language learning, although I feel I probably should add a few points in the future to that article. It’s more important that you increase your daily exposure to the language, than to worry so much about what materials you learn to use it that you don’t do anything. Don’t get stuck thinking too much about how to approach your language learning – just go do it.
Review on crack – Output
I didn’t mention output in the above equation, but that’s because output is another form of review. There have been huge debates on the internet about input vs output, which one is more important and which one should you spend more time on etc. The reality is: everything is important, and it depends if you want to be able to use the language or just understand it.
Without input, you wont’ have anything to learn. You can speak as much Japanese as you’d like, but if you’re not intaking new words, you won’t be able to use new words. In terms of the learning process, output only strengthens what you know. It makes sure that the words don’t go away, but it actually can’t teach you anything.
If you have lunch with your language partner and have a conversation in your target language, you are learning only when your partner is speaking. You don’t learn when you say something incorrectly; you learn when you get corrected and consciously take note of your mistake.
This doesn’t meant that you shouldn’t focus on using the language, actually it’s quite the opposite. Using the language keeps the language fresh in your mind so you can use it more later. If you never use it, then you won’t ever be able to use it. Many people in China can read whatever you throw at them in English, but when it comes to actually producing the language on their own – they can’t. Production requires keeping the language as fresh as possible in your mind so you can use it at your whim. If you only review just enough to not forget words when you recognize them, you will have a hard time ever being able to communicate in the language, and will only attain “mute fluency”.
Output is also a good way to drive quality input. When you use the language, you will quickly find out where you have gaps in your ability and understanding, which you can then fix by looking up words that you want to use but can’t, or grammar structures that you aren’t quite sure of. Output also makes sure that you focus on what is important and necessary to you: what you want to say and can’t is exactly what you need to be learning. It’s like hiking through a forest; normal exposure is like taking random paths and eventually getting to your destination, while output driven exposure is like always taking the shortest route.
If you aren’t living in a country that speaks your target language, and don’t have ready access to a native speaker, you might wanna try out lang-8. At lang-8 you write journal entries in a target language, and then native speakers of the language will come and correct it. You can use what you learn (review) and then get corrections from native speakers (exposure + conscious learning). It’s a resource that everyone should use if they are serious about learning. Just be sure to help others as much as they help you!
Stay in Learning Mode – Conscious Learning
Stay in learning mode as often as possible. The more words you write down and look up, the more attention you give to the audio rather than the subtitles, and the more thought you put into your conversations or journal entries, the more you will learn. When I watch Japanese anime, I focus a lot of attention to my ears to try to pick out words that I know. If I watched passively, I would just focus purely on the subtitles, the pictures, and the music.
If you are passive during your exposure, it might take hearing the same thing 5 or 10 times to equal one conscious observation. Staying conscious is active, and that’s the way our mind works best. When we pay attention to things, it signals to our brains that we need to learn it.
So remember: Exposure, Conscious Learning, Time, and Review. Review is best done through use of the language and exposure to the language. In other words – exposure, use, exposure, use.
Ok, I’ve taken enough of your immersion time away – get going! Go expose yourself! (and not in an inappropriate way 
)
Related posts:
- Frustrating phases in language learning – How to focus your efforts
- Just Let Go – Recharge Motivation with Passive Language Learning
- How the Brain Learns, Memorization and Language Learning
- The importance of materials in language learning
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