A good friend recently shared a TedX talk with me that made me think in a whole new way for how babies learn language, and how the way they learn turns out to be very much the way we learn many things, including languages as adults.

The key value learned in this talk is summed up in one word: MISTAKE.

You may be surprised to hear the heart of learning is mistake.  After all, from Kindergarten through high school through graduate school, we are taught the best students make no mistakes.  What is the best score after all?  It’s not 10%, it’s 100%.  We once thought a 4.0 was the best possible GPA, now the ceiling has been raised towards 5.0 and the best GPA’s are those closest to 5.0.  The maximum score on the AP test is a 5, on the SAT subtest it’s 800, and for the ACT it’s 36.  Not only do all students and teachers value the 5, 800, and 36 best, but your fate in getting into college may hinge entirely on how close you get to 5, 800, 36.

But that’s not how toddlers learn to talk.   They spend many, many long months, perhaps years doing something entirely different, they make mistakes.  All day long, all the time, so severely often we have no idea what they are saying.   They spend a very long time being wrong nearly all day long.

And yet, if you learn a language that way, you come out with the top ability to speak any language you may ever range.

Contrast that with two ways most adolescents and adults learn languages:

1. Courses with books and assignments
2. Self-help CD and software courses

These approaches are dismal failures compared to how the 2 year old learns to speak their first language.  The 2 year old learns a whole language with terrific fluency to talk to anyone about anything.   The 12, 25, 40, and 60 year old using language courses in school or on the computer fail dismally.

How come the 2 year old outperforms the adult, over and over?

It must be biology, right?  It must be that there is a unique period on your life during which you can learn a language.  And this is a conclusion widely believed across the world.  Language specialists, pediatricians, and psychologists all agree this is the case. Only one problem, it’s not true.

Linguists who have actually tested the speed with which humans learn languages at various ages have found that the speed and the ability actually get a bit better with age.

There may be a residual accent if you learn a language after age 7, but if you use a good approach, you learn as quickly, and even faster, than a toddler.

The other reason offered is that some people are so gifted at learning languages, but most mortals, like me, can spend 4 years studying a language in school and never really learn it.  Or even go to a country and fail to really learn how to talk.

Take a look at these astounding youtube TedX talks on how to learn a new language, and you will see that the talent and the age issue are not the issue.

https://www.fluentin3months.com/tedx/

http://blogs.transparent.com/language-news/2016/06/06/10-must-watch-ted-talks-for-language-learners/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yGdNEWdn0#t=1101.954864

So how does the 2 year old learn their language(s) and how should we?

The answer is a bit shocking.  They learn be being wrong, and so should we.

If we do not, we will not learn, just as if they wait to get it right, they will never learn.

The videos give great tips, but they boil down to these key principles

1. Only speak the language you want to learn.  That is a two part principle, to learn you must speak, not read, not study, not memorize.  Do NOT read, do NOT study, only speak.  And only speak the language you want to learn.  Toddlers are very good at this step, they cannot read, they cannot study, and the language they are learning is the only one at hand for them.
2. Make mistakes.  Every mistake gets you closer to the right answer.  Remember toddlers make mistakes for months, years, but they keep trying, and they get better for their efforts.
3. Have a trusted guide.  It helps if you have a tutor or friend from that country who can gently correct you, just like the parent of a 2 year old.

Take a look at the videos, it is simply astounding how quickly one can become fluent.

It’s not a gimmick, it’s just a different approach.  One speaker spent a year in a country studying their language, and made no progress.   But with the technique of a 2 year old, he learned 4 new languages, including Chinese, in one year!  I mean fluent.

Lessons learned

The main reason I present this insight is that it speaks to the very much larger issue of how we think our kids can learn best.

As many of you know, I have worked many years as a certified working memory trainer, honored to work with neuroscientists who are respected the world over.  This cognitive training program sets the ideal failure rate on their exercises at 50%!  That’s right, they have found the brain changes, improves, best, if it fails about half the time it tries.

Now think of school.  This is a place where the worst thing you could possibly do is make a mistake.   You get flunked if you make too many.  All the kudos go to those who make almost none.

This is only a recipe for misery.  Our minds simply do not work that way.

Look at the videos again.  None of these people would have learned anything about a language if they had enrolled in a course, and sought the A+.  One tried that approach and learned nothing.

Instead, all these successes came from getting F’s, daily for months, and emerging with 4 new, fluent languages, in one year!

I have little hope that schools, public or private, will transform their approaches anytime soon, but I do think it helps that it’s not your imagination that many children truly suffer being bound to the oppressive expectation of perfection, of being denied the exploration that only comes from getting things wrong, a lot.

BOTTOM LINES

1. Our minds learn best by being wrong.    That is, by exploring, coming up with an approach or idea that is incorrect, then correcting it.
2. We learn best when learning something we need to know.   Being unable to speak any but the language you want to learn, then only speaking what you need to say, is an excellent example.  There is no grinding away at work that holds no interest, it’s all about having to say something you really want to say.
3. And, it turns out we can learn languages to the level of fluency in 3 months!  Extraordinary.

To your health!
Dr. Arthur Lavin