Just Use It but Do Not Overuse It!

If you have to look up every word you do not know, you are probably working with material that is too difficult. That is, its difficulty level is requiring you to spend more time in preparing to learn by finding meanings than in actually learning. This is an inefficient use of your time. It is best to try to guess at the meaning of the paragraph or passage, then of the sentences before looking up much of anything. We call this a “top down” approach, as opposed to a “bottom up” approach in which the reader uses the meaning of words to put together an understanding of the whole text. A top-down approach is essentially synoptic, but it is an approach that all learners will probably need when you are using language in real life, not in class or for homework. After you have taken whatever guesses you can, then select one or two words that, if you knew what they meant, might clarify large chunks of the passage. Look those up. If you are doing “intensive” reading or listening, in which you need to understand a text thoroughly, you will go through this process more times than if you are seeking an “extensive” (broad understanding of a long text or texts). If you are an ectenic learner, you may feel a “tug” to use the dictionary for every unknown word. This is a natural feeling but not a helpful one. If you are very uncomfortable with the top-down approach (reading whole texts, getting the gist, and determining meaning of words from the gist), you can attack the task by noting all the new words and making some decisions about the ones that you want to look at first. It’s still best to do this with the context in mind, because even if you prefer bottom-up processing, you will still need to reach and deal with the text as a whole and with words you do not know and how they fit into the larger context. If you are a synoptic learner, you may find that you refer to the dictionary far too infrequently and trust your hypotheses far too often. Especially at lower levels of foreign-language proficiency, you may need a “reality” check of some sort from time to time; this could be the dictionary, your teacher, or other resource (bilingual books are great reality checks for synoptic learners – they handle the language of the text better than dictionaries and let you swim on your own as much as you want). You will probably like some of these better than others; your learning style will probably play a role in these preferences. Like reading a text, you can use these resources in surface or deep ways. Surface strategies would include such things as glancing at the reference and learning by rote.

1.  Try this experiment. Write your name with your right hand, then write it with your left hand. Were you equally comfortable both times? Probably not. This is what it feels like to work in accordance with your preferred learning styles and to work in your non-preferred styles. Of course, you could learn to write with the opposite hand, and you can learn to work with non-preferred styles, but that will take time, practice, and the development of new muscles (strategies).

2.  Using the E&L or any other learning styles scale, determine your own set of learning styles (learning profile). What does this profile tell you about how you might best go about learning a foreign language?

3.  Pick one area in which you have experienced learning difficulty. Analyze your difficulties from the point of view of your learning profile. If you find there is a conflict between your learning styles and the learning styles required by the task, select 2–3 strategies from styles that are required for the task that you do not now use and find some opportunities to use them.

4.  Make a list of expressions such as “tall tale” that could cause problems with a word-for-word translation. Then, figure out how you could possibly look up ways to translate these. Check out your translation with your teacher or a native speaker.

In this and previous articles a number of themes has been considered such as definitions of learning styles and learning strategies. Learning styles: habitual patterns of perceiving, processing, or reacting to information. Learning strategies: specific actions and/or techniques taken to learn. Kinds of learning styles: sensory preferences, cognitive styles, and personality types  as well as sensory preferences: visual, auditory, and motor modes of perception. Cognitive styles: synoptic vs. ectenic traits such as abstraction, deduction, field dependence, field insensitivity, sharpening, particularity, sequentiality, analysis, digitality, reflectivity. The relationship between styles and strategies: Each style category is accompanied by a range of strategies particular to that category.

Bibliography:

1.       Brown, H.D. (2000): Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. White Plains, NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Gass,

2.       S.M. I L. Selinker. (2008): Second Language Acquisition. An Introductory Course. New York: Routledge. VanPatten,

3.       Leaver, B.L; Ehrman, M; Shekhtman, B. (2005): Achieving Success in Second Language Acquisition. CUP

4.       B. i J. Williams. (red.) 2007: Theories in Second Language Acquisition. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.