Finding my most EFFICIENT leaning style

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Longinus
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Re: Finding my most EFFICIENT leaning style

Postby Longinus » Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:20 pm

Cainntear wrote:
plnelson wrote:Different people have different learning styles

This is actually a massively controversial statement. There is no proof whatsoever for the existence of learning styles.

To expand on this, correctly stated, different people have different preferences for learning styles. They actually don't have different learning styles in terms of effectiveness. There is no evidence for differential effectiveness of methods which cater to people's preferred learning styles. For example, if you are a self-professed visual learner, you will in general learn no better or worse using visual methods than auditory methods, and the same is true for a self-professed auditory learner. It's just that you like the visual approach better. You can of course just stick with what you're comfortable with, but it can be eye-opening to try other, less familiar and comfortable, learning styles.
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Re: Finding my most EFFICIENT leaning style

Postby IronMike » Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:49 pm

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Re: Finding my most EFFICIENT leaning style

Postby aokoye » Tue Aug 29, 2017 7:09 pm

Longinus wrote:
Cainntear wrote:
plnelson wrote:Different people have different learning styles

This is actually a massively controversial statement. There is no proof whatsoever for the existence of learning styles.

For example, if you are a self-professed visual learner, you will in general learn no better or worse using visual methods than auditory methods, and the same is true for a self-professed auditory learner. It's just that you like the visual approach better. You can of course just stick with what you're comfortable with, but it can be eye-opening to try other, less familiar and comfortable, learning styles.


I do think, however, that there are plenty of situations where catering to the preferences of a learner is just logical. If, for example, I'm doing something that is inherently uncomfortable there might not be any point in making it even less comfortable or more confusing. I've been in physical therapy a lot and at most of the physical therapy offices that I've been to one of the intake question is your preferred learning style. In my mind (and seemingly in theirs) it doesn't make any sense to try to force fit someone into a box because, "they'll learn it regardless" when you have the ability to work one on one with that person and when you're asking them to do something that isn't actually comfortable.

It also honestly wasn't clear to me that the OP was talking about learning styles as they commonly are talked about in the US or if they were talking about things like, "should I use flash cards", "should I use an app", "should I learn from a textbook", and so on.
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Re: Finding my most EFFICIENT leaning style

Postby Steve » Tue Aug 29, 2017 10:50 pm

With regard to the OP, I'd differentiate between an inherent preferred learning style (which is somewhat controversial with regard to application) and the many available language learning methods to choose from. I have the impression that the real underlying question of the OP is what method(s) should I use to learn most rapidly?

I've spent quite a bit of time reading various threads on this forum, the previous HTLAL forum, and blogs of many successful polyglots. The reason I decided to do this is that people who have successfully learned a handful of languages to a decent functional level have learned to be *efficient* at learning languages. I wanted to learn what I could from them to make the most of the time I invest.

If I could summarize what I learned from them, it would be this. At different times in your language development, different methods will be more effective for you than other methods. The most successful language learners have found what methods help them develop the different skills (reading, listening, speaking, writing) most efficiently at different stages of their learning. There is no one best language learning course or method. It depends on you, where you are at, and what you want to accomplish. You need to be flexible and learn when to move to the next method when your skills have reached a certain point and when to stick with something and work harder at it for while.

The difference (as I see it) between successful language learners and yet-to-be-successful language learners is that yet-to-be-successful language learners put their time and energy into courses and methods that are not yielding many results. Some yet-to-be people make the mistake of jumping around between too many courses and methods and don't accomplish much. Other yet-to-be people make the mistake of investing all of their time and effort into a single course or method even when it is not yielding much progress. This perhaps sounds like an impossible balancing act, but the successful language learners (through experience) have learned when they need to work hard and stick to something for awhile and when they need to move on to a different course or method.
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Re: Finding my most EFFICIENT leaning style

Postby tarvos » Wed Aug 30, 2017 1:36 pm

And even the more experienced ones can and do screw up here and there, now and in the past. We were all noobs once.
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Re: Finding my most EFFICIENT leaning style

Postby aokoye » Wed Aug 30, 2017 2:00 pm

In addition to what Tarvos wrote, some of the axioms (of sorts) that are often stated in regards to how one should or shouldn't study just don't work for some people. I'll use myself as an example, vocabulary acquisition is not one of my strong points which is obviously a pretty big issue. For years I have seen people all over the internet say that you shouldn't use multiple choice because it's just too easy, it doesn't force your brain to come up with the answer by itself (or something along those lines), and so on. I've seen this said by members of this forum, on blog posts, and on language learning sites when explaining why they have one feature and not another.

What works the best for me? Multiple choice. While someone may at some point pull out a study that shows that it's less effective than other forms of flashcard related vocabulary acquisition, I can actually stick with multiple choice and because of that I learn.

When it comes down to it I think that saying anything other than, "whatever you do, just stick with it" and claiming that it is something akin to the bible is a bit foolhardy because there are far too many variables and just not enough research in terms of autodidactic second language acquisition.
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