Many people often wonder why they learned their native language so easily, but find studying a foreign language so difficult. Now that I have learned about how our brain works at Birkenbihl University, I would like to venture an answer from this perspective:
Research into how we learn has been going on for many years. First, children of different ages were observed. Then there were also experiments with adults: students, but also senior citizens. Now researchers are also observing babies and even measuring their brain waves.
Today we know that babies are prepared for their mother tongue even before they are born. The ear is one of the first organs to develop. However, we also perceive sounds through our skin. Vibrations, which we cannot even hear, are transmitted to our head via our bones. They can then be processed further in the brain. Before birth, however, the child only perceives. It learns to recognize the voice of its mother, as well as that of its father and other family members. All regularly occurring sounds are stored as “normal.” There is a neural pathway for each of these sounds.
After birth, the child recognizes its mother by her voice. Now the amygdala in the brain begins to select stimuli. It starts to filter out regular sounds that do not offer any interesting information. Everything new and interesting is forwarded and stored. The amygdala sorts these stimuli according to positive and negative experience. When similar sounds occur later, the amygdala can immediately say, “That’s nice!” or “That’s dangerous!”
The baby listens to its environment and sorts what it hears. At around two and a half years old, the child’s vocal apparatus is developed far enough for it to start speaking. Within a few months, it rapidly expands its vocabulary and increases the complexity of its sentences. In doing so, it discovers grammatical rules almost incidentally and makes few mistakes. It can also correct these mistakes by itself as long as it hears correct language from the people it interacts with.
How do babies deal with multiple languages?
Learning languages is very easy for toddlers. If they grow up in a multilingual environment, they also learn to distinguish between these languages. They are often associated with the people who speak them. It can be confusing when one person speaks several languages. In such cases, children might mix up the languages.
Incidentally, during childhood, the brain uses about 60% of the body’s energy. No wonder it saves energy wherever possible. One saving strategy is to concentrate on one language. I grew up bilingual in English and German. When I discovered that my mother also spoke German, for quite a while, I only spoke English when my grandparents from England were visiting. And I know many other stories of children who refuse to speak any language other than German, even if they understand it well.
What is different when learning a foreign language?
We humans learn our native language gradually: first we just listen, then we repeat what we hear, and finally we form our own sentences. There is rarely anything threatening about this whole process. Our amygdala does not need to protect us. Instead, it acknowledges every new discovery and every step forward in our acquisition of speech with a positive stamp: we are able to communicate more and more effectively. Being understood even triggers a rush of endorphins at first, and we feel happy.
Reading and writing come even later, when we start school. When children at school are confronted with major differences between their native dialect and standard language, the first problems can arise. This is certainly the reason why children (at least in Germany) are allowed to write what they hear at the beginning and spelling mistakes are only counted marked after they have learnt the relevant rule.
Traditionally, foreign language learning has been approached in a completely different way: languages are broken down into vocabulary and grammar. Vocabulary is compiled in bilingual lists and is supposed to be memorized this way. Grammar is summarized in rules that are more or less complex depending on the language. In textbooks, grammar is usually presented in tables. According to Vera F. Birkenbihl, neither of these approaches is brain-friendly. In other words, presenting content in lists and tables does not help the brain to learn. As a result, many students—both young people and adults alike—become frustrated. The failure to remember vocabulary; the feeling of defeat when we are constantly corrected and our texts in the new language are littered with red marks – all of this produces a negative imprint in the amygdala. Language learning becomes torture and we become increasingly blocked.
Learn languages as you once learned your native language
At GaLaLea, we believe that even later in life, a language can be learned as easily as your native language. Every student usually knows why they want to learn a language: to communicate with other people. We take a similar approach to learning a native language:
1. LEARNING TO HEAR the language (language immersion)
2. DISCOVERING the language (audio and decoded texts – comparison with the native language)
3. LEARN the rules of sentence structure and grammar in a PLAYFUL way
4. PRACTICE speaking, pronunciation, and text production
Throughout all of this, we keep the amygdala happy and produce happiness hormones while learning. This allows us to break down barriers that were built up during language learning at school.