Language Courses

No dictionary can accurately reproduce tiny variations in pronunciation, volume, and stress. You must listen to a language before you can fully experience its idiosyncrasies. Being able to converse with a native speaker who uses correct pronunciation and grammar is the best way to accomplish this.

However, well-produced MP3s, CDs, and other types of foreign language recordings will work well if you know how to use them properly. This article provides several tips for utilizing your audio recordings to squeeze the most benefit out of every listening experience.

The Brain Creates a Map to Familiar Sounds

The brains of infants and young children catalogue all the sounds they hear. As we grow older, our brains associate those sounds with words, and later with specific spellings after we learn to read. Many foreign languages contain sounds we do not use in our native language. When our brains hear these unfamiliar sounds, they draw from the existing map, and tell our ears that we are hearing something we already know.

Take for example, the German words ‘Bach’ and ‘mich’. The ‘ch’ combinations are for different sounds that do not have an equivalent in English. An English speaker might hear ‘back’ and ‘meesh’. Even though both German words end with the same letters, the pronunciations are different. Increasing treble levels on a recording often makes it easier to distinguish the differences in such sounds.

Adjusting treble also makes it easier to decipher sounds such as ‘f’ and ‘s’ in words like ‘auffahren’ and ‘ausfahren’; ‘m’ and ‘n’ in words such as ‘dem’ and ‘den’; or to pick out tiny variations in vowel combinations like ‘Meer’ and ‘mehr’.

Coping with Different Volume Levels

If you have purchased or downloaded foreign language audio from different sources, you probably need to adjust the volume when you switch from one recording to another. MP3Gain is a free software download that will non-destructively change the volume of MP3 files. MP3Gain works well on Windows XP and Windows Vista. There is also a MacMP3Gain available for Macintosh users.

vOLume VARiatiONS witHIN A forEIGN LAnGUaGE AUDio RECordING

Was the above title confusing to your eyes? Volume variations within a recording confuse your ears as well. With good audio software, you can normalize the volume for an entire file, or modify selected portions.

Full Speed Ahead – Or?

The first time you listen to an unfamiliar recording, resist the temptation to slow down the tempo. Play it several times at normal speed. You will pick up a few more words each time through. If there are some sections that seem incomprehensible, play those portions more slowly and listen to them several times. After you have learned the vocabulary for a new piece, try playing it more quickly than recorded. This technique gives the brain and ears a good workout!

Don’t Stop Learning When You Go to Bed

Listening to foreign language audio while you sleep speeds up the learning process. Try reviewing vocabulary for a recording just before you go to bed, listening to the audio while you sleep, and reviewing the vocabulary again when you wake up. Many people from around the world have successfully used this amazing sleep-learning technique.

Involve Your Entire Body

Do you listen to audio while walking or working out? Try to incorporate body movements and facial expressions.

For example, consider the following sentences: ‘Are the children upstairs? No, they are downstairs.’ As you hear the first sentence, look up, raise your eyebrows in a questioning manner, and point up if possible while you repeat the phrase with exaggerated facial expressions. Create a mental image of children playing at the top of a flight of stairs. For the second sentence, shake your head and look down.

Similar to Pavlov’s dogs or an athlete in training, this stimulates and maps a brain-body reflex. The more senses you involve while learning, the faster and more complete the process becomes.

Work it – Work it – Work it!

Your brain needs exercise and stimulation to work at peak efficiency. Apply the tips in this article, and you will push your brain to use more of its potential.

(c)Copyright Kathy Steinemann: This article is free to publish only if this copyright notice, the byline, and the author’s note below (with active links) are included.



By: Kathy Steinemann

About the Author:

Learning a foreign language is easier, such as Chinese, when understanding how you learn. The science of learning is based on several theories and include: multiple intelligences, right-brain/left-brain/whole-brain, and brain-based learning. Understanding how you learn new information becomes the keystone to effective study patterns and habits. Many people who attempt to learn a new language give up, primarily because they pick a program that does not fit their learning style. These people unknowingly try to fit their learning style into a program. The following discussion focuses on learning styles, ways of learning, and how to master second language usage.

Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles

The theory of multiple intelligences, by Howard Gardner (Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences., 1983), provides the foundation for the seven learning styles associated with this theory. They are:

- Verbal – Linguistic: use language and words to understand

- Logical – Mathematical: inductive and deductive reasoning in using numbers abstract patterns to analyze information

- Visual – Spatial: visualize objects/dimensions and create internal images/pictures to understand how something will or might work

- Body – Kinesthetic: control your body’s physical motion

- Musical – Rhythmic: recognize tonal patterns

- Interpersonal: person-to-person communications, relate with others

- Intrapersonal: spiritual, self-reflection, and awareness

Everyone has many styles of learning and one is dominate over all other learning styles. Knowledge of your dominate learning style helps identify which program to select for learning a second language. See the first link at the end of this article to spend a few minutes answering questions to determine your dominate learning style.

Left-Brain, Right-Brain, Whole Brain Learning

Most instruction in educational settings is left-brain oriented, which means a focus on logic and reasoning (Logical – Mathematical learning style). This approach does not emphasize understanding, because traditional education emphasizes rote memorization of facts. Right-brain activities focus on creativity, such as feelings and the arts (Sperry, R.).

A foreign language program needs to focus on a whole-brain approach to support dominate and non-dominate learning styles. This whole-brain approach focuses on comprehension, as learners are encouraged to describe a visual image, draw pictures, use reasoning, and act out situations in which the language is used to understand new language context. This is a very good method for learning new language vocabularies through contextual settings. See the second link at the end of this article to spend a few minutes answering questions to determine if you are left-brain or right-brain dominate.

Brain-Based Learning

According to brain-based learning research (McClean, P.), although each brain is unique, everyone can learn a foreign language such as Chinese. Better foreign language programs take advantage of brain-based research and dominate learning styles to using a whole-brain approach with the following techniques:

- Orchestrated – immersion into learning environments

- Relaxed – elimination or reduction of anxiety and still challenging

- Active – internalization of new knowledge by processing information

A program should not be strictly lecture-based and depend on rote memorization of knowledge. The best programs use many different instructional strategies that fully engage you in the learning process. Based on this brain-based research to support internalization of new knowledge, emersion in cultural and personal experiences with a new language is important to relaxed and active learning. With the wide diversity of people in this country, there are many opportunities to use the new language in an appropriate cultural setting that helps you process and internalize the language.

Mastery Learning of Chinese

Another key to selecting a foreign language program is allowing you all the time you need to learn and master the language. Mastery of learning moves beyond rote memorization of vocabulary to a level that the new language becomes second nature. After reading the different theories of learning you can see that everyone uses different strategies and techniques to learn, even if they do not understand why. Another aspect with knowledge of your learning style is that you do not learn at the same pace as everyone else. The Chinese program we offer supports learning at your own pace and giving you time to master the language. Mastery is attributed to how we learn and the ways we use a new language (Glasser, W.). The following demonstrates level of mastery when Chinese is:

- 70% – Discussed with Others

- 80% – Experienced Personally

- 95% – Taught to Someone Else

Examples of Mastery Learning

An example of 95% mastery is to teach someone else the meaning of yi gong which means all together in Chinese. This is accomplished by having the person take scattered items and place them together while saying the Chinese word. This helps you to internalize and learn as you observe using a whole-brain approach in an orchestrated/active environment. This example uses dominate learning styles that are Logical-Mathematical or Visual-Spatial.

A second example of 95% mastery is to teach someone else the meaning of yi gong by having them follow your actions. This is accomplished by having someone else emulate your motions as you both gather scattered items and bring them together. Again this uses the whole-brain approach in an orchestrated/active environment. This example uses dominate learning styles that are Verbal – Linguistic, Body – Kinesthetic, or Interpersonal.

A third example of 95% mastery is writing a short song that uses yi gong in a pattern or change the words in a musical lyric to include yi gong. Keep the meaning of yi gong in context at all times in the song or lyric. After completing one of these actives, think about how this fits within any of your other actions or situations. This example uses dominate learning styles that are Verbal – Linguistic, Musical – Rhythmic, or Intrapersonal.

Science of Learning and Our Program

My Chinese Lessons provides all the tools that fit within any learning style to help you master Chinese. Visit our online library of Chinese Lessons, Chinese Games, and Teaching Methodology to learn more how we can help you learn Chinese. Do not forget to complete the online questionnaire and quiz below to quickly discover the ways you learn.



By: Mark E. Piscopo

About the Author: