Study on Language Improvement with Native Materials

[klvik]

Is your hypothesis that participants that use native materials plus some form of SRS vocabulary study will advance further than participants that use native materials without SRS based vocabulary study? I guess I am confused about what parameters are being tested.

[Ani]

Is your hypothesis that participants that use native materials plus some form of SRS vocabulary study will advance further than participants that use native materials without SRS based vocabulary study? I guess I am confused about what parameters are being tested.

No I think it is all-native vs. Other. I do see a little confusion in the study design but since we are all real people who need to cooperate, it is a little complicated. I think rdearman's goal is to create a statistical model of the data which can then be asked multiple questions. Depending on number of participants and their attributes, more and different questions can be asked. Unlike some forms of scientific inquiry, this wouldn't need a fully formed single hypothesis at the start.
Of course, it's not my study. I could be wrong.

Edit: maybe I am totally wrong and this is more to do with natural acquisition of grammar? I first thought we were going to study subs2srs specifically, but since that's become optional(strongly encouraged?) and grammar lookups (even specific ones on wordreference) are forbidden, it seems like the biggest difference here between test and control is the grammar..

[Vedun]

Seems like an interesting experiment, but am afraid it'll interfere with my goals for the latter half of this year. Is joining while the thing is in progress allowed? Or will there be a second study?

[jeff_lindqvist]

Has anyone thought of doing this in a language with another character set? (I just checked an srt file in Cantonese, and it looks really strange)

[Cavesa]

Hmm, not sure whether I can participate. Signing up for intensive reading/listening sounds much less attractive, since I am definitely in the extensive camp and I don't know how would I participate, since there is no clear indication of how many words would I have to write to SRS/wordlists or how often would I have to review the wordlists, as those are an alternative to SRS. In the control group, there would be no problem, but I cannot choose, it seems. And the intensive input, which means putting every word into SRS, is one of the methods I really dislike and don't have time or energy for. I would find it much more interesting, if the study was comparing extensive methods with the classical, since the intensive methods are already well known, but I know that is not important.

So, the relevant question is, since I didn't find it too clear, are the participants just assigned into the groups without having any say, or can we sign up just for one option?

[rdearman]

I would need to be guided by peoples preference for control or test, because for example some may only have access to courses and no native media.

Gender is largely irrelevant to me and i haven't decided if i will bother to ask.

I don't have a problem with people joining later or dropping out early, since the times would be recorded and scaled appropriately.

Ani is correct. But the study is really about what if any improvement using srs and native materials will be seen compared to traditional grammar and coursework study. Yes there are a lot of variables but the more people then the more solid the dataset.

Casava, you have the wrong idea about the srs, but this crappy phone keyboard means I can't explain it.

[Brun Ugle]

I think the gist of this experiment is for the test group to study using a method similar to emk's experiment with using subs2srs to make Anki cards of a favorite TV show, which was based on Sprachprofi's similar experiment to learn Japanese. (Threads on this technique can be found on this site and the old site.) I think Rdearman wants to see if this method can be just as effective as traditional study. Now it seems like he might have branched out a little more, but I think that is the basis of the method the test group would be using.

[rdearman]

I would need to be guided by peoples preference for control or test, because for example some may only have access to courses and no native media.

Gender is largely irrelevant to me and i haven't decided if i will bother to ask.

I don't have a problem with people joining later or dropping out early, since the times would be recorded and scaled appropriately.

Ani is correct. But the study is really about what if any improvement using srs and native materials will be seen compared to traditional grammar and coursework study. Yes there are a lot of variables but the more people then the more solid the dataset.

Casava, you have the wrong idea about the srs, but this crappy phone keyboard means I can't explain it.

Yes brun Ugle.

[smallwhite]

... sounds much less attractive... I really dislike...

You don't have to study at your normal pace. You can study for this experiment for just, say, 1 hour a week, so that you only spend 1 hour x 26 weeks = 26 hours of your life using the prescribed method which you consider suboptimal, if you end up in the test group.

... the study is really about what if any improvement using srs and native materials will be seen compared to traditional grammar and coursework study.

Sounds like a lot of work to satisfy a minor curiosity. Do you have some major project in mind beyond a talk at the Polyglot Gathering? Creating a course or writing another book?

[zenmonkey]

Well, I have to say I just discovered that I can VPN my way to Portugal and watch TV shows in Brazilian Portuguese (with subtitles in Portuguese which I couldn't get 'here'). So part of my reactivation will be through some native material. I've also currently use other learning material which would currently put me in the 'personal study method' group. I could adjust to this to either group for a period.

Given that people that many people are studying multiple languages here I'd think it would be possible to subset one language to either group without too much difficulty not only as part of the study but also as a way of learning more about yourself. Being part of an observed group has some hidden magical motivation - go ask Henry Ford about that. Either group, both groups, I'll find a language or languages that fits into the study. (This may be post-conference euphoria or early-onset (more) madness... )

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