Professor Reveals Way to ACTUALLY Learn a Language (backed by research) 

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I personally find a non-native speaker who has learnt the foreign language the best teachers, because they understand all the mistakes, the lack of confidence and the need for patience, kindness and encouraging the learner. They have a literal understanding of the struggle and common misconceptions.

Very helpful video. In my experience the biggest impediment to learning a language is perfectionism, which leads to an unwillingness or reluctance to make mistakes. At least that’s my biggest problem.

Dr Neubauer is an impressive find. She offered lots of source-hints and ‘what-to-look-for’ advice for the independent language learner. I really appreciate that. Thanks for the video.

You're a very good interviewer. You guide the conversation, then let the subject say what they want to say. You keep it about them and their responses instead of being about you and some agenda of your own. Dr. Neubauer was an excellent choice for for an interview.

I am a language teacher and a learner. As an adult learner I personally find that I speak way better than I understand listening to people talk. Mainly because they don't talk at the level of my competency. The issue is that parents modify their speech to the needs of the child. Adults are expected to just be able to handle it. As a teacher working mostly with 9 and 10 years, native spanish speakers learning English, I talk to my students utilizing my classroom form of 'motherese' which gives my students time to hear and intuitively reflect. Similar to how adults talk to little children. Age appropriate. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the communicator to make themselves understood, not the listener. If my students don't understand me, it is my fault, not theirs. I started to learn Spanish by listening to children's stories and reading children's books. Find a level and start there. While it is important that responsibility lies with the communicator, as the listener, we also need to tolerate not understanding everything, let some things go without needing to know why. The more we experience something in meaningful communicative context the more the meaning emerges from inside us. Language is effectively an agreement between people that utterances (etc) have established meanings and context will guide us to it through repeated exposure. This is why we easily remember words we use a lot but words we use rarely we often have doubt over the exact meaning (even in our native langauge)

6:38 I couldn't find any teacher advertising comprehensible input lessons in my target language. so I sent messages to several teachers and explained exactly what I wanted. I tried a few different teachers, and one in particular was amazing. I actually sent her a couple videos from Dreaming Spanish to show her what I was hoping for, and she nails it!

Hey Matt Congratulations on a brilliant interview. Dr Neubauer was so insightful, articulate and passionate - a genuine pleasure to listen to. I am currently ‘acquiring’ Thai so the subject matter was particularly relevant ( especially re tones and characters) Thanks again Tom

Thanks Matt and Dr. Neubauer - I taught English in South East Asia and now I am learning Italian and find making a youtube channel on the target language helps me push forward to learn a new language. Thanks for you great video.

As a polyglot totally fluent in 5 European languages and a retired teacher and tutor I really enjoyed this interview and I really emphasised with it❤

Great video! People are quick to be intimidated by Chinese/Japanese due to the characters, but in my personal experience learning Japanese for 4 years, Dr. Neubauer is absolutely right about associating sounds/pronunciation to meaning first and then trying to associate that meaning to a character. I started out mostly by just listening to Japanese through anime, dramas, and conversations with no care about trying to learn Kanji at all. Once I had reached an intermediate level in conversational Japanese, the moment I started consuming written content, my brain just absorbed the characters like a sponge honestly. Obviously I still forget certain kanji now and then, but you can't be too hard on yourself about it. Anytime you learn something over again, you will remember it for longer and longer. I also believe that many people in the language learning community (especially with regards to Japanese) are far too adamant about using Anki or some other form of hard spaced-repetition training. I have not used Anki a single time while learning Japanese and am quite confident I could read 99% of words in a Japanese newspaper. Just as was stated in the video, the most pleasurable and meaningful way of acquiring words and character knowledge is by seeing the words in context from whatever material you are reading. Language learning is all about taking baby steps to complete a marathon. It is going to take a while to get to the finish line, but even a baby can make it if they keep on walking.

Great interview. Thank you.

The read along comprehension stories on youtube have been more helpful to me in learning french and spanish than any tool I have ever used. If I had had them from the beginning, I would easily be fluent by now. It is the same concept that we used as little kids with our native languages: our parents read to us as we read along, sounding out the words. SO helpful in speaking/reading/writing and comprehension of the spoken language! And there are hundreds of them on youtube!

In general I agree. A couple of points. Many textbooks and graded readers present language examples that, while not incorrect grammatically, do not reflect real usage, either in structure or vocabulary. For example, in a sentence where book needs to be the first element, English will write, 'A book was written by Simone.' Lithuanian will write 'A book wrote Simona.' (with appropriate endings showing that Simona is the subject). Thus, starting with authentic texts avoids wasting time with inappropriate and misleading information and also introduces a suitable syntactical and word frequency from the start. A second point is that grammar is extremely complex if you get down to the nitty gritty. Elementary grammar is a huge simplification. Thus the aim of the latter is to impede the user as little as possible. To spend 6 years learning French grammar without reaching any complexity is insane, but that is what we did in school. Better to spend a day or two on grammar so that it can be recognised and let the grammar seep in through using authentic texts. Obviously, I prefer reading to speaking because a. I have all the time in the world to study each sentence and b. there is no need to respond until I have a sufficient vocabulary base. But, it should be noted that spoken and written language can be very different and so a different method might be better for a person who prefers learning orally. She is spot on on tones. First, I learn the basic pronunciation and then the accent. Meaning is not conveyed by accent (or in Chinese, tone) alone but also by the letters and the context. Thus, if I say 'I cooked supper,' but pronounced cook as kook or kuk, the listener still understands me and his response using the correct pronunciation of cook will help correct my pronunciation in the future. It is only without context that it becomes unintelligible, like 'Eye kooka'. The best way to learn vocabulary is foreign to native because you encounter the foreign in a discernable context but to learn the six foreign translations of 'table' lacks that context. I obviously believe in diving not into the deep end but straight into the ocean, but with a flotation device to keep me from drowning.

Thank you :) That was really helpful and interesting

Hi Matt! Another top top video! I am soooooo grateful! Thank you!! Super guest! 😀👍👍👍

Late to this one, Matt-my apologies! Glad to see you’re still getting experts involved in the conversation. I’m learning even the best methods have some room for improvement. It’s also good to hear there’s still no replacement for consistency with time spent in the language. Looking at you, Duolingo!

Yeah, I would COMPLETELY disagree with the notion that grammar should only be studied in context and learning it outside of a context the textbook style way is the wrong way to do it. In fact, in my personal experience of learning 3 foreign languages(reaching C2, B2, B2 in them), the textbook way to learn the grammar seems to be the fastest way to progress ones learning process. For two of the languages, I've been learning them at school, so there I got the foundation in grammar the old school way. I've tried studying Japanese without studying grammar the textbook way and going at it with this comprehensible input, learning vocabulary and grammar in context and what not. After YEARS!!! of DAILY!!! effort (yes, I have been learning at least 15-30 minutes every single day for 5 years this way) of absolutely no worthwhile results (I couldn't hold a reasonable conversation in Japanese and I couldn't read any Japanese text nor understand spoken Japanese), due to wanting to pass certification levels, I have started learning grammar the textbook way. Only the grammar, actually at least I already had a good base in vocabulary thanks to my studying. That was finally the moment, where I was able to finally move from what was possibly A1-A2 Japanese to B1 and B2. In my experience of all the 3 languages that I have been studying so far, the textbook grammar study was an integral part of my language learning process and without it I'd never move on with my Japanese. Actually, most people who learn foreign languages do go through the textbook grammar study process. I don't have any numbers on people who only go the comprehensible input route, but I would guess, that most of them either give up completely, or anyway get help from textbooks every now and then to get them a step further in their language process. Most of the people who claim they have been learning by comprehensible input anyway already had a base of the language acquired in the traditional way. Or it must take much longer to be learning language that way. I'm not saying that consuming content in the target language is not helpful. Of course it is crucial to reaching high levels of fluency. That's the only reason I have achieved this level of fluency in English. But I would have never made it without the traditional study method, or at least it would have taken me significantly longer time.

When you're a kid, anything is good enough. When you're an adult, nothing is good enough.

Great discussion. Thanks! 😊 Best wishes.

It's very cool to come across this thoughtful discussion about how to study Chinese. I've been studying Mandarin for six years now. A year ago I wrote an album of songs in Mandarin and went to China to try to figure out a way to promote it. They are on my channel. For me it has been helpful to have project-oriented goals, that then naturally lead to new projects. I also postponed really learning characters for a very long time, instead prioritizing speaking and comprehension. 加油 everyone!

Sehr interessant, Frau Neubauer ist eine beeindruckende und kompetente Persönlichkeit!

She seems to be a very inspirational teacher, its always a pleasure watching someone who has really thought about their subject very deeply and can express it so well. I must admit I have always thought that its better to study by yourself to get to a higher level, and only then engage with a teacher to push up to fluency. She makes a very persuasive case for having a teacher from day one - but of course finding someone who does it well is always going to be a challenge.

[in my other native language, AAE] C’mon somebody! She laid out the blueprint. If the lady that teach the thing say go do XYZ , why try to be smarter than the teacher? Oh my god, it was like it was laid on my lap. I’m playing at, I’m doing a lazy model of comprehensive input for Mandarin daily but I was waking up feeling adrift. I was dabbling in it all. This video just solidified the role of each part of my study. Can’t thank ol’ girl enough. Also I’m a big fan of the learned. Dr. Diane Neubauer just revolutionized my life! Girlfriend laid it down now! All jokes aside, Dr. Neubauer was the first person to explain the concepts of language acquisition as an adult. And the concept of distance not difficulty. Coursera has free courses in Mandarin. After I passed my first test in all Hanzi, I said alright now. I had proof that all you gotta do is want it. It’s a marathon not sprint like everything else in life. I am on top of the world from this video. Much obliged.

Great interview! I learn a lot as a language teacher and also a language learner. Thanks Diane!

A really interesting interview - thanks to you both. I agree with Dr Neubauer about grammar, which I used to regard as very important but I now think that being familiar with common sentence structures is more useful. I also don’t think that flash cards are useful or interesting. But, to be honest, I now see grasping tones as very important when learning Chinese. I know that I will never sound like a native speaker but I have found that speaking with the correct tones is essential if I want to be understood. Thanks again.

The point of flashcards is not to memorize vocabulary (i.e. forever). It's to memorize words until the next time you see them, ideally in context. Vocabulary learning is pointless without other (preferably copious) input. But continuous input without targeted vocabulary learning is also rather scattershot.

Very interesting how many different factors influence the language learning process. You notice right from the start of the interview that Dr Neubauer is not just a scholar but also an active language teacher with lots of practical experience.

Thanks awfully. That's a huge help.

I really appreciate the content you're making! It's so important to platform ACTUAL researchers/experts in SLA rather than self-proclaimed youtube polyglots.

Very helpful. I believe she is correct.

💯💯 knowing a bit about formal logic and how the logic behind language gets translated into formal logic (imperfectly), I can imagine that formal grammar is similarly imperfect at capturing the living language.

I think the most vital ingredient of being able to learn a language is motivation and necessity....then sort of 24/7 exposure to that language...one can find a million different text book approach how to get the basics down,but learning is hard...at the end of the day you have to memorize basic words and expressions,you have to understand the structure of grammar....then the more success you find by interacting with others the more you want to learn....

Just FYI, your first link in the description, the one for her yt page, has a typo. Thanks for sharing the great talk!

I speak four languages, and come from a culture and schooling that encourages and supports learning foreign languages. We do have to address the most important aspects of the grammar, as it is the skeleton of a language. Grammar then has to be put into context, and practiced a lot, but we can’t consider it secondary, if we want to get to a high level of knowledge of a language. Do study grammar, please, read, and speak, and listen to songs, sing the songs, if you want to gain fluency.

I'm thinking of trying to offer conversation classes and this is great advice. I would 100% use comprehensible input and teach thngs in context. The only thing I would do different is actually using flashcards but only custom-made as extra help to understand a specific dialogue/story/movie scene etc. Also AI can be a great tool to create content more effciently if you know how to ask for it

I gained so much from this podcast! Now I want to implement some of the suggestions shared. Is there anyone else here who is learning either Swahili or Czech? Would love to have non-native speakers as language exchange partners.

Interesting, but my findings are the opposite. Diane seems to be a serious researcher, so I’m listening to her carefully. I suspect most of the research (at least what I’ve come across in my reading) is on the wrong track and I can’t understand why. My research is arguably more anecdotal and certainly not as robust as comparative studies with large numbers of learners. The approach that seems the most effective in my experience is kind of the reverse: 1. Reading + accurate pronunciation (by reading out loud). 2. Producing questions and answers in a colloquial setting (by reading out loud). Grammar on a need-to-know basis. 3. Understanding (written) conversations, memorizing role plays, songs, conversational texts (like romance novels), etc. - not children’s material, which is mostly irrelevant to an adult. Building vocabulary. 4. Listening to the material above, while following the text (e.g. closed caption or audiobooks). Listening again but without following the text. 5. Don’t bother with writing (viz. composition). It’s a different language, for advanced speakers and conversationalists only. (There is more nuance to this, but essentially, leave it for later.) I’ve named this the “repertoire” approach to language acquisition.

Interesting

def agree with takin a couple wks off every now n then, but they don't normally mention that!

Just a heads up. The link that you gave for Diane's channel doesn't seem to work. Fantastic video!

👌👌💯💯

If you can only get one point out of this interview, it’s at 23:50

You might be wrong as to the AI. AI nowadays can translate texts almost perfectly! One exception: literary texts and poetry.

"Way to actually learn a language" as opposed to "Way to learn a language" . What does "actually" mean in this context ? In other words, is there a difference between "learning" and "actually learning" ?

I have lived in Thailand for 7 years and can still barely put a sentence together. Even worse I struggle to understand what people say to me,as it is also a tonal language and I'm in Southern Thailand the dialect changes a bit, my husband does not help me, or VERY moderately rarely. I panic when people speak directly to me, I find it better to try and listen and if I hear a word repeated try to find the meaning, that is also problematic as there are various spellings. I will never be fluent but to understand those around me would be such a help and minimise my paranoia.

I was excited to learn about my role as a language parrot. So disappointed it turned out to be something else. I thought she was going to confirm a concept i made up, a little tongue in cheek. Primarily, teachers are Native Language Generating Devices. I start a class with whatever, then the whole rest of the time, I'm reacting as quickly and naturally as i can at a level that doesn't lose interest, interest being my proxy for comprehension. And i have to work in the target vocabulary and grammar and elicit whatever they're capable of doing... Language teaching is a hoot! A lot like coaching a sport.

50 yeers ergo i starteed two lurn Ingleesh hand me finks that hat larst i can not ownly speek good but right well as well..A few problems wiv wurds who has moore than threee letterrs but all inn all i are happy.Startting Mandrin sooon.

20:45 fossilization

Learning a language is not a single skill: speaking, reading, writing, and understanding are all different skills. A lot of emphasis on "learning a language" focuses on conversation, but not on reading or writing. There are many (and I'm one) who can speak Spanish at B-2 level, but my goal is to read at a C-2 level. And then there's my native language: increasingly I find myself unable to understand many Americans whose basic problem is that they're trying to fill time with minimal meaning content. (They blather and you can't figure out what they're talking about. Some politicians are great examples!)

What if you have a teacher, but they correct every mistake and word as you are speaking, so you lose thought of the story you are trying to explain?

Try Dreaming Spanish!

I found mandarin easier to learn than German. There are many things in Mandarin that make sense and helps make it easy to learn. In regards to tones, I found I could hear them clearly because I played the violin for a long time and my attitude was to practice as I was having conversations - than that's all that mattered. Most Chinese people give us foreigners a bit of slack and just ask them to help you learn Chinese and they'll offer baby corrections as you go.

If children only knew how hard it is to learn a language, they'd probably not bother learning it 🤣😂.

not really, you need understanding rules, except it's a weird language as Chinese that you can learn whole life and not learn fully... you think how AI learns languages... it knows most common thing to say and answer and applies rules all the time, she seems anxious here like introvert so trembling voice but did good job still! you need both chemospheres to learn language but in end only left one will stay that's when you stop learning and only use... never let kt happen

31 Minutes of my life ... I will not spend to your video ... wise words from Master Yoda

I've had all the same observations myself. Except pure CI is a massive waste of time with some languages.

Disappointing. Barely more than what is obvious.