Just Listening to the Language is Enough?

I have come across a news article suggesting that just listening to the language without even understanding it is enough to help you learn it. First of all, I don’t quite think so. Why? Well, there are at least three reasons.

First of all, where’s the evidence? There’s an article, okay, that’s a start. What about , experiments with control groups, explanations how exactly that works (what parts of the brain are involved in this and why exactly this happens)? I don’t know, perhaps the person asserting this has some evidence in his thesis but I wasn’t able to find any good evidence in the article so it remains a bear assertion. And the fact that it’s a article from a newspaper in the New Zealand that I haven’t ever heard about doesn’t add much credibility to it.

Second, I know quite a lot of counter examples. For example, a friend of mine has gone to lives in Denmark for more than half a year already and he doesn’t speak a word in Danish. I meet people fairly often who live in the country and don’t speak the language (even though they are exposed to it frequently). I have recently heard a story where a guy has lived in a country for ten years and he hasn’t managed to learn the language. There are a lot of other examples.

Third, it doesn’t quite make sense. I can imagine how knowing some and then listening to the language can help you sometimes guess the meaning of certain words from the context and slowly build up your knowledge. I can imagine how watching people speak directly where they use gestures and body language, etc. can help you pick up new words and expressions. However, I can’t imagine how knowing nothing (or knowing just a little) you could call , say, listening to the radio in the language an efficient way to learn. Moreover, have you ever tried doing that? For me personally, if I don’t understand what I’m hearing, after a few minutes my brain would simply tune out all the noise and focus my attention elsewhere (just like it gets tuned out when you are watching a movie.

I would rather spend my time learning some solid basics and moving from there to listening and watching.

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Posted under: Learning

noweating

I would agree with you that it's not an efficient way to learn.

I find it interesting to consider what the brain does learn without any conscious effort.

I've been exposed to 2 languages a lot which I haven't learnt yet so I can comment on this. I have had Persian friends since school so over the last 20 years I've heard a lot of Farsi (Persian), however I maintain my same 10 word vocabulary as I decided long ago that due to the lack of comprehensive courses and a lack of motivation (they all speak English) I wasn't going to learn their language. The interesting thing is that because I've heard so much of it I can recognise individual words (as in “I recognise that word, I know how it's pronounced and I've heard it before”) without understanding what it means. I think this means if I were to decide to learn the language in the future that it would be easier to listen to conversations (as I already recognise individual words) and also to pronounce them. I think it's possible that the brain actually rehearses the pronounciation of individual words through micro-muscle movements which can be an important element of learning many things with a physical element – in this case – speaking.

The other interesting thing is I can “listen” to snippets of conversation and guess fairly accurately the content without actually understanding any of the component words.
Claire

Just listening is not enough but it definitely helps you improve your conversational skills, I tried this product that's audio and visuals and I really enjoy it. Listening to a language helps you get used to the tone of voice and pronunciation. I'm living in Buenos Aires, Argentina and it was really hard to get used to the pronunciation and the product did help… this is their website if you'd like to check it out http://www.generallinguistics.com/learn-spanish
Parrish777

This method alone would not work. Only a child could get away with that! As an adult we learn differently. However, if you are studying the language consistency in some format, than you can benefit for some passive learning. For example, being around people, or watching movies. Yet again, I consider this as a benefit only when you are at the same time engaged in structured learning.
robmclark

It may not be enough but it is a very important supplement. Just as you practice muscle memory when learning to dance or play tennis, your ear starts honing in on nuances that is has never needed to care about before Neural wiring and rewiring takes place and you can “hear” the language sounds even better. I think your brain wakes up if it is bombarded with enough foreign language dialogue. I am no expert but that is what I think happens.
Those unwilling to learn will minimize exposure, and ignore the exposure they get. You can get by with English in Denmark, so your friend did. I am sure he knows a few phrases he didn't even try to learn though, even if he never cared to speak them.

Listening to a foreign language constantly, is like trying to remove a piece of tape from packaging. At first you you scrape a little edge and try widen it. Once you get enough to grab you slowly try to peel back more. If you listen to a language long enough (like on tv) you will get the little edges of the language-hello, no, yes, sir, goodbye, etc.” With those, you can peel back a little more each time. Learning a language that way would surely be a gruelingly slow process though….

Just Listening to the Language is Enough?

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