We learnt in the first article of this series that our languages like to take a break from us when we don’t use them as often. Thus it takes longer to get them to come back when we suddenly need them and this leads to stammering and forgetting usual words. Whenever it happens, it is often embarrassing for us and it acts like a small earthquake to our trust in our language fluency.
If you prefer to listen to this article instead of reading it, I recorded it for you at the end of this page.
This article offers slightly more challenging methods we can try out out for maintaining our languages alive most of the time. The sequence in which they are listed runs from the easiest to the most complex method.
OBSERVE
Let’s have a closer look at discourses – others’ and ours. We can start by observing others while they talk, notice their choice of words, the structure of their sentences, their pronunciation. During this process we may choose to play roles for a better focus on the scope of the exercise. For example, we could pretend to be the eager pupil who wants to learn a language. What does such a pupil usually do? Take mental or even written notes of linguistic bits and pieces heard from other speakers. So in this case we would concentrate on noticing others’ complex phrases, elegant ways of formulating an idea, grammar structures that we need practice with, pronunciation of individual words and how the melody of the sentences sounds. Shortly, during this exercise we learn from positive examples.
Or we may choose to impersonate from time to time a critical teacher who is looking to spot the others’ inaccurate formulations while they talk or in their written texts. Unlike the role of a curious student, in this case we focus our attention on noticing slip-ups in pronunciation, in the syntax (the structure of the sentence) or in grammar. This way, we do not necessarily expand our language knowledge, as we do when we pretend to be curious students, but we apply our linguistic competence in noticing inaccurate language use.
In addition to noticing the hiccups, we can ask ourselves what the correct version would be like and thus end the exercise in a positive key, by reminding ourselves of the proper language usage. Whenever we take on this evaluative role, we should be careful not to betray verbally or non-verbally the discovery of slip-ups, so the persons we are observing do not get intimidated by our detective game. Let’s keep in mind that we are trying out the critical teacher’s shoes for our own benefit. Its purpose is to test if we may recognise inaccuracies in spoken or written discourse and not to pass judgements on the language knowledge of the persons we are observing.
When putting our own discourse under the lens, we may go through the same steps as when observing other people. The key here is get to the stage where we can give ourselves a pat on the back when we notice that we mastered complex formulations. And at the same time we should be gentle with ourselves when spotting out an incorrect usage in our written or spoken discourse. Reformulating it correctly in our heads is already one step closer to preventing this inaccuracy from popping up again.
Estimated related effort: medium, as we need to pay attention either to positive, complex examples or to the linguistic slip-ups we are able to detect and to mentally reformulate according to their proper usage. When it comes to analysing our own discourse, looking at it objectively and preventing rushing into harsh self-criticism requires some conscious effort as well.
Get the rhythm
Spoken language is a collection of sounds. It has its own melody – a soothing one or, on the contrary, one that might initially sound a bit harsh. Although sometimes regarded as less important than grammar and vocabulary when teaching a non-native language, native-like pronunciation and intonation deserve our attention from the moment we begin learning that language.
In the previous article I mentioned passive listening as a method to familiarise our ears to the sound of a language. In this article, I suggest to take it one step further, namely to active listening. So let’s turn on the radio, the TV or a podcast in the target language and firstly try to identify the sentences we hear. One rather easy way to do that is to follow the narrator’s breathing rhythm – a pause might suggest a new sentence; a falling intonation is a specific clue for the end of a sentence in some languages.
Once we trained our detective ear in recognising sentences, let’s focus our attention on how their intonation sounds. We can use gestures to mimic the rhythm of a sentence by raising our hands when the intonation rises and lowering them when we notice the intonation falling. By doing this exercise regularly we get our ears accustomed to the melody of the sentences in the target language, which might differ from the one in our mother tongue. If we can notice what the differences to our native language are, we’re already on our way to being a pro!
The next step is to shift our focus from sentences to words. For this part of the exercise, a rather slow-rendered discourse is more suitable. You can either look online for texts read at a slower pace or you can find a video that you can play at a slower speed. First, let’s identify the single words – for beginners this might already be a demanding task, so let’s keep exercising it until it gets easier.
Next we can try to notice the stressed syllables in each word – I suggest we follow the ones that we hear louder. Once our ears start recognising louder syllables, we can see if we notice a pattern in the way the emphasis is placed in the words – is it rather in the beginning of the word, towards the middle or at the end? A practical way to help ourselves here is to tap our foot against the floor when we hear a stressed syllable. By following the rhythm that emerges, we start noticing the pattern in which words are stressed in the target language. This exercise will help us put less conscious effort in learning the native-like pronunciation in this language.
Estimated related effort: medium-high. First of all, we need slow-paced materials to practice on initially and then gradually moving to distinguishing sentences, words and syllables in language spoken at a natural speed. We also need to be patient with our ears and give them time to notice the speaker’s breathing patterns for recognising sentences in the first part of the exercise. Afterwards we can move on to smaller segments like words and syllables. Several attempts and repeated exercise sessions will be needed until we reach this stage, so let’s not rush it anyhow. The last level, where the stressed syllables should be observed for establishing a pattern is the most challenging one. I won’t lie to you, this complex exercise might give us headaches until we get the knack of it. But I recommend it to you nonetheless, as it is a great help in structuring our spoken discourse closer to the native-like pronunciation of words and intonation of sentences.
Try out these methods for a week and share in the comments your experience with them. Which one did you find most useful? What method does not really suit you and why? Don’t forget, language learning is an individual process, therefore we need to see what fits us best via trial and error.
The methods presented in this series are meant both for language learners and for their educators. If you are teaching a language or in a language that your students need help with or you are casually supporting someone improve their language knowledge, pass these methods on to them and gather their feedback. I would surely be glad to hear about it.
New methods for you to try out coming up soon, so stick around for the next article of this series!
Yours confidently,
Corina