Language Islands (Boris Shekhtman's book)

[tungemål]

The book "How to improve your Foreign Language Immediately" by Boris Shekhtman is well-known in this community, and especially his concept of language islands. I am reading it now. The book has a lot of practical tips and exercises, and seems to center around the "island-idea" (I am not finished with it).

I have seen various threads referencing this idea, and this thread has an interesting discussion of methods.

Do you use language islands?

The method
Here is the method as described by Shekhtman:
Write some texts or stories that you have polished and memorised. They have to be well memorised. The texts should be short, and are of two categories:
- Personal (about yourself, your family, your job, your interests...)
- Non-personal - usually about the home country (he says) and how it differs from the new country.

The advantage of these memorised texts are twofold:
- they can be used as they are for fast and confident speech
- they provide grammatical patterns or template that can be used in different contexts. For instance, politics play an important role in society --> sports play an important role in my family.

Then he describes techniques that can be used to steer the conversation towards these islands: linking and baiting . The reasons for the language learner to do this is:
- improving the quality of the conversation
- to get "a rest", while keeping the conversation going
- gaining confidence and showing the native speaker that the learner is capable of conversing
- evading topics that are difficult for the learner to speak about (because of limited vocabulary)(see ch. 3)

[reineke]

"Philip Taubman, a former Moscow correspondent for The Times, said Mr. Shekhtman could be direct and demanding in his teaching while employing the element of surprise.

“There was the moment when Boris arrived at our home, told me to pick up the phone and call a number he gave me,” he recalled. “The Russian lady who answered, a fellow émigré, spoke not a word of English, forcing me to try, with limited success, to communicate in Russian. A great learning exercise.

“On another day,” Mr. Taubman said, “Boris reached into his briefcase and pulled out a real pistol, pointed it at me and started shouting in Russian, ‘Communicate, or die!’”

"At the institute and in private practice, Mr. Shekhtman taught his students to distinguish the muscular litany of curse words that they were likely to encounter in Russia, but not how to write Cyrillic.

In his published manuals, including “How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately” (2003), he recommended that students give verbose responses, memorize mini-speeches and, when stumped by what they are hearing or reading, find “islands” of familiar phrases that conversationally, as one pupil recalled, produced “the appearance of fluency.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/worl ... at-77.html

Has anyone actually tried researching his teaching methods? The whole language islands thing looks more like a band-aid and a side show that gets rechewed and regurgitated on language forums.

[jeff_lindqvist]

I've read about the method on the Learnetarium blog - it seems like the blogger Harold Goodman (creator of the new Michel Thomas courses) was studying with Boris Shekhtman for a while.

[tungemål]

Quite some stories, Reineke! However, I am actually not that interested in mr. Shekhtman.

I am interested in the island method, and how I can make use of this method as a tool in my own learning. So it would be interesting to hear how forum members use language islands. Do you use this idea, or some variant of it?

[reineke]

It's a common-sense strategy known to interpreters and globetrotters alike. Shekhtman elaborated it and gave it a catchy name.

[Xmmm]

“On another day,” Mr. Taubman said, “Boris reached into his briefcase and pulled out a real pistol, pointed it at me and started shouting in Russian, ‘Communicate, or die!’”

Why aren't more teachers like this?

[aravinda]

“On another day,” Mr. Taubman said, “Boris reached into his briefcase and pulled out a real pistol, pointed it at me and started shouting in Russian, ‘Communicate, or die!’”

Why aren't more teachers like this?

Because they don't have access to firearms?
Actually there are (or rather were) teachers like that, but they use(d) canes instead.

[Speakeasy]

Why aren't more teachers like this?

... Actually there are (or rather were) teachers like that, but they use(d) canes instead.

This causes me to recall a very vivid scene from my Third Grade class in the early 1950’s (before the era of child-centered education). The boy sitting me behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked, in a hushed voice, if he could borrow my eraser. The teacher, in an uncontrolled rage over the boy’s flagrant disregard for the general rule that all speaking in the class must take place between the teacher and students only, rushed down the aisle and beat him senseless with her closed fists, causing him to fall unconscious to the floor. She clearly had difficulty reviving him and sent us all home early. The story made the rounds and, a few days later, my father asked me why I had not mentioned the incident. I was truly speechless! This level of corporal punishment was so common in school, in church (particularly in the basement), and in the home (even from my own parents) that, as children, we all accepted it as being part of the regular routine. We never discussed it, not even amongst ourselves. So, why on earth would I mention it to an adult, particularly as doing so might have meant inviting trouble? Ah, yet another trip down memory lane!

[Voytek]

I've read about the method on the Learnetarium blog - it seems like the blogger Harold Goodman (creator of the new Michel Thomas courses) was studying with Boris Shekhtman for a while.

I cannot really agree with that:

From context the unconscious figures out what the words mean just like a kid learning a language understands that you use this or that word in certain situations.

The context in a book is different from social contexts. Situations in books are perceived in a different way than in social situations. But of course we can learn the meaning of words from the context of a book too. The main advantage of social learning over "bookish" learning is that you get the "social" meaning/use of the word and social context is that area we want to use language ultimately. The main advantage of "bookish" learning is that you can study the language despite the fact you have no opportunity to immerse into a native environment.

It's a nice idea to build your islands and then practice it with native speakers of your target language (online or in real life). I think its main value is getting confident in the language and it could be a great source of getting motivated and tracking your progress.

[AKDiscer]

“On another day,” Mr. Taubman said, “Boris reached into his briefcase and pulled out a real pistol, pointed it at me and started shouting in Russian, ‘Communicate, or die!’”

Why aren't more teachers like this?

Because they don't have access to firearms?
Actually there are (or rather were) teachers like that, but they use(d) canes instead.

LOL, come to the U.S.

I'm sure teachers these days have guns, considering we have school shootings every 3 or 4 weeks now. I remember when Columbine happened when I was 19 or 20, and that was absolutely shocking! Nowadays, it's just like watching another sporting event.

TL;DR
Yes, I like the method; it has helped, and no, I don't care who coined the method or who is getting credit for it now, so I will continue to use it.

As far as being on topic, I bought this book when I saw Luca Lampariello's YouTube video pretty close to the time he published it. I've used the method, and it's helped me a lot. I've more or less melded what Luca has said, Boris, and the Language Lord's videos on YouTube. Sure, the idea has been around, and someone came up with a "catchy name," but who cares? Sometimes, things need to be reconstituted in a different light before they take hold. It's kind of like when your parents give you a piece of wisdom, and you don't listen, but your best friend's dad says it, and all of a sudden, it "sticks," and you feel wiser, lol.

Much of the time, especially when you're first meeting people, the questions and conversations are similar.

Hi, how are you?
The weather sucks today...
Where are you from? Oh, wow, what's it like there?
How did you learn xxxxx language? You speak pretty well for a beginner.
Do you have brothers and sisters?
Hi, I'd like to buy xxxxxx
Being at the airport, Uber, transportation, the cafe...etc., etc., etc.


When you have these short responses, canned answers, and "language islands" in the bag, life gets easier, and one certainly feels more confident. With the growth of new experiences and other language islands, they get easier to build because of similar grammatical patterns, and all you have to do is learn the new vocabulary. I find that as I get more proficient in a language and gain more vocabulary, vocabulary comes easier, meaning it doesn't take as long to grok or memorize.