LEARNING THEORIES
LANGUAGE LEARNING THROUGH VISUALS
Spanish has never been on my top list of languages to learn. The main reason why I decided to give it a go was extrinsically motivated: my partner is Spanish-speaking and we have a daughter who is being raised bilingually.
Being a native French speaker, I have been able to make links and connections, which help me develop fairly good receptive skills (especially writing). I was not really considering learning Spanish through language classes, precisely because my decision to learn was not primarily ignited by a passion or particular strong interest in the language. In other words, a formal learning approach was not an option.
Rather, I needed to make the whole experience quite fun and entertaining in order to keep on learning. Some background information: the following process was not at all planned and evolved into something completely unexpected – and surprisingly interesting in terms of learning experience and outcomes.
HOW IT BEGAN
Since I was resolute to learn the language informally, I avoided textbooks altogether and opted for a newspaper article on a subject that I was interested in. I chose one in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
I spent some time looking up words on the Internet and I deliberately used monolingual online dictionaries, which contextualise a word or a phrase in different language situations.
MIND MAPPING AND DRAWING
I then started playing around with the language by organising lexis in visual maps. It led me to doodle. The more I was drawing, the more fun I had. Drawing eventually took over language learning.
STORYTELLING
At that stage, I realised that I was beginning to tell a story, which had nothing to do with the original text. Lexis acquisition took on another meaning here.
LANGUAGE
I wanted to test if this method has improved my language skills. I put aside all the materials that I had been working on and wrote a short text summarising the article. I gave it to one of my colleagues, who is a Spanish language teacher, for assessing the language and I was pleased to hear that there were only a few minor mistakes. The experience has proven successful.
DOWNSIDE
The only disadvantage that I can think of is time. It is a long process and can be time-consuming because it relies heavily on creativity.
Overall, I loved the experience. It brought me back to the days when, as a child, I spent most of my free time drawing. As an adult (learner), I gave up doing it altogether. I have somehow discovered a new way of learning something by simply having fun, without being judgemental to myself. Even though my drawing skills are fairly basic, I have felt a sense of achievement upon completion of the project.
Most importantly perhaps, the benefits in terms of language learning have been significant. I can say that still now, I remember a lot from the experience, something that would not have happened if I had learned the vocabulary in a more traditional, list-like approach. When it comes to long-term retention, it works better for me than other online apps such as Duolingo or Memrise. I would like to develop the concept and possibly adapt to a more formal learning setting and see if it works for others.
Oletic, A. & Ilic, N. (December 2014). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation for Learning English as a Foreign Language, ELTA Journal, Vol. 2, N°2. Retrieved from http://eltajournal.org.rs/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/V-Intrinsic-and-Extrinsic-Motivation-for-Learning-English-as-a-Foreign-Language-by-Aleksandra-Oletić-and-Nina-Ilić.pdf
Walker, L. (2015). The impact of using Memrise on student perceptions of learning Latin vocabulary and on long-term memory of words. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/B8F58571C6C7EDA40453FA9274D7CF9D/S2058631015000148a.pdf/impact_of_using_memrise_on_student_perceptions_of_learning_latin_vocabulary_and_on_longterm_memory_of_words.pdf