Language Learning Glossary
Human language is the greatest technology ever invented. It’s what makes us different from other animals. We can use sounds to express ideas in our minds and it allows us to share discoveries and inventions with people across the world and through time. It is the only formal language that has acoustic representation, and the only animal language that is built out of cultural symbols.
Language acquisition is also special. Every parent watching their children grow wonders how they are capable of learning such a complex thing without any instruction in such a short time. But the same parents sometimes struggle becoming even conversational in a foreign language.
Despite being a million years old, 200 years of serious research, the demand and the developments in technology and AI, people nowadays still struggle with learning languages.
On this page you find information about how language evolved and what we currently really understand about learning in general, language learning and language acquisition.
The success of language learning lies in the way you learn. In order to be successful you have to take language learning into your own hands and use the methods that work. Understanding the history and science of language and learning will help understand what is really going on in language learning, so you can make better decisions and become a better language learner.
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The Grammar translation method: the first official learning method: (1880)
Late in the nineteenth century, around 1880, the first language learning methodology was formally described and named the “Grammar Translation Method”, which was essentially formalization of the Classical Method. Studying…