Some thoughts on language learning

My biggest concern when it comes to learning has been the learning of science, the philosophy which has completely transformed the course of humanity. I feel a lot needs to be done to reinvent how people learn science. Science is not only a body of knowledge but a way of thought. According to me it is not necessary to know of big concepts in science for everyone, instead what is more important is to understand and learn to practice the core ideas of science, which is composed to logic, experimentation and creative imagination. To develop a framework for the learning for science I will need to dive into the history of science, understand how the greeks maintained records of the skies, how the records were analysed, how primitive ideas in chemistry and biology were developed etc. This is a very onerous task and will take years for me to do if not decades. 

However the learning of languages which many consider to be of deep value does not need such a deep study from me, for I believe command over language comes when someone tries to use it to express oneself. This singular motivation is enough for learners to teach themselves language, both reading and writing. Essentially every human being is born with a need to express, all we need to do is to tap into this deep desire to weave stories, express emotions, listen to stories and communicate with each other.

Because I don't believe in the idea of a classroom as such, I am not going to talk about how a 'language classroom' can be conducted, but how the learning of languages can be stimulated in students in general.

In my opinion the job of learning facilitators is to give exposure, encourage inner learning instincts, make learning materials available, post challenges, organize events around the subject etc. rather than make kids sit in a classroom and transmit knowledge / information.

So how can this start ? Let us talk about exposure. One of the biggest purposes or users of language skill is story telling. So story telling can be a very good starting point for exposure to the importance of learning languages. I remember as a child, one of my Hindi teachers used to conduct story telling sessions in which a nature lover would setup night long vigils in jungles to spot a tiger. I don't remember any of the poems or stories from my school learning but the story telling sessions I remember quite well.

So we can start with telling kids stories, and this can be a completely voluntary activity. Kids can choose to come to the story telling sessions in which they can sit comfortably, the way they want, they can even leave the session without asking for permissions. Of course talking among each other would interrupt the story teller so this can be told to them, and I am sure they would understand, so it need not be communicated to look like an order but an request to comply.

Kids should get to hear many interesting stories from different authors and even different narrators.

Then there is also poetry, but not poetry that is very deep or heavy, it can include even fun and childish rhymes.

Once kids have a lot of exposure to story telling, they can also be encouraged to come up with their own stories. They can be encouraged to let their imaginations wild. Their stories can have trees which give out ferroro rochers as fruits or jetpacks which let people fly wherever they want etc. Making of stories is also playing in a sense. If you look at play as a simulation for the real world then story telling is surely a very good type of 'play'.

In general there should be a lot of exposure to what good story telling looks like and encouragement to come up with their own stories. They should not be under pressure to come up with a polished story, rather they should be encouraged to come with different versions of their stories, to iterate over their previous versions and make them better. If the kids are shy then small groups of kids can try to come up with a fun story full of fantasy elements and lot of absurdity as well. The more naturally they are thinking the more absurd and fantastic their stories will be.

When the interest in story telling is triggered they can be shown how to express something slightly better and how to look for words that mean what they want to say, maybe from an online thesaurus or the use of a search engine if they are not too small. This work can be done by a senior student as well.

This whole activity can then be extended to reading and writing, events like open platforms to tell their stories etc can be planned.

All of this is bound to create an interest in language. This will accelerate language learning like nothing else can. A learner who has some kind of interest in learning something in my opinion can beat the best of teachers by a big margin. Think about it, if you work with kids to 'teach' them language , do think about some these ideas.