Did you know that speaking a second language is particularly beneficial not only for your career but also for your brain? No surprise more and more people want to know how to learn a foreign language.
According to new scientific research, which comes to confirm previous studies, learning foreign languages is a beneficial form of brain training, which enhances concentration, attention, memory, and other cognitive functions.
Researchers from the Northwestern University of Illinois, who published a paper in the journal of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), concluded that bilingualism affects the brain and fundamentally alters the way the nervous system reacts to sounds, as shown by the laboratory experiments.
As the scientists found, when it was quiet in the lab, two groups of people, those who spoke only their native language and those who also spoke a second one, had similar brain responses to sounds.
But when the lab was deliberately flooded with sound stimuli and noises, then the participants in the second language group managed to identify the sounds much better, focus their attention on the voice of each speaker, and cut off the other noises in the background.
The difference in the performance between the two groups of volunteers was visible in their brain activity.
Those who know foreign languages and, therefore, seem to have a more efficient auditory perception, are more flexible and better able to automatically focus on sound stimuli and efficiently process them.
The easiest and fastest way to learn a foreign language is to immerse yourself in its natural environment. Using a foreign language in everyday situations in all spheres of life guarantees that within a year, you’ll be able to speak it, even if you won’t be fluent.
So use every opportunity to go abroad at least for a short period of time. Fortunately, today, there are many opportunities for students, such as the multiple programs of experience exchange between universities.
Today, the most common way of learning a foreign language is to follow language courses or take individual lessons with a tutor. Which method is more convenient and effective?
First of all, you need to decide on how much time you will be able to dedicate to language learning. It’s a shame to drop your lessons in the middle when after a few months, your enthusiasm will run dry because you will get tired of rushing across the city three times a week after work…
Before getting signed up for a language course, all students take a test to determine their level of language proficiency. If you want to know how to learn a foreign language quickly, a good idea would be to ask the teacher to sign you up for a higher-level group, even if your knowledge is clearly not enough.
The intensity of language learning plays a very important role in its effectiveness. You will have to quickly improve your level, and experts say that it’s much more effective to take an intensive language course than to follow lessons for a few years at a more relaxed pace.
If you set a goal to learn a foreign language, you will have to put maximum effort into it. Try not to miss your classes or lessons with your tutor, do your homework on time, and do additional exercises and tasks.
Even if you put enormous effort into learning a foreign language, never neglect an opportunity to improve your knowledge. Especially in the case of language learning, the more you practice, the better results you can achieve.
In order to learn a foreign language, you have to actively expand your vocabulary, which means that you need to memorize a large number of new words daily.
And the last one. Before you start learning a foreign language, understand that it’s not a goal but a means that will help you make your dreams a reality.