New research shows adults learn languages as easily as kids—here are ideas on making language learning part of your family’s routine.
Scientists have long known that learning a new language is good for a child’s brain development. By rearranging and creating new connections in the brain, language learning can help kids focus more easily and resist distractions, deal better with tasks that require switching from one activity to another, and perform better in school.
Learning a new language has benefits for an adult’s brain, too—plus new research suggests that it’s not as difficult as experts previously thought for adults to pick up a new language. And immersing yourself in a new language as a family might just be one of the most effective—and easiest—ways to learn a new language.
“You’re constantly communicating with your family at home already,” says Christine Jernigan, author of Family Language Learning: Learn Another Language, Raise Bilingual Children. “All you have to do is switch to your new language and you have built-in conversation partners to practice with whenever you want—no commute or classroom needed.”
So learning a new language together? Tons of brain benefits—and maybe getting them even faster. Here are some ideas for making learning a new language your family’s newest favourite activity.
The brain benefits of learning a language
The human brain contains grey matter areas that process different kinds of information as well as white-matter tracts, which connect to the grey matter areas. Neuroscientist John Grundy has this analogy: Think about the grey matter like little cities, and the white-matter tracts as the highways that connect them.
Grundy, who specialises in the study of bilingualism, says that when a child learns a new language, it’s sort of like they’re building highways from one part of their brain to “cities” in their noodle that they haven’t connected to before.
“The more white-matter tracts, or brain highways, you have, the more cities, or gray-matter areas of the brain, you can connect to,” Grundy says. The good news? More connections between white matter and grey matter lead to benefits such as improved memory skills, increased focus, and better self-control in kids.
Even better news? Adults can get similar cognitive benefits by learning a new language as well. A 2018 study by Grundy and colleagues found that learning a new language can improve white-matter connections in adults, too.
“It's not true that adult brains no longer develop new connections,” Grundy says.
And for parents who think that it’s impossible for adults to learn new languages, allow researchers at the University of Kansas to disagree with you. In a recent study measuring brain activity in adult Spanish language learners as they processed grammar, the scientists found brain responses similar to what a native speaker would show.
“So adults can draw on the parts of their brains that already know one language well to learn another,” says neurolinguistics professor Robert Fiorentino, who co-authored the study.
How to learn a new language as a family
According to Jernigan, adults likely struggle with new languages because they don’t have the same opportunities to immerse themselves as kids do when they’re in school. But a study published in the Journal of Child Language found that when children and adults have the same learning experiences—whether in a classroom or another communal setting—the rate at which they develop their language skills is relatively equal.
So it makes sense that when kids and adults learn a new language together—as a family—they can learn it faster. For instance, Jernigan points out that constantly speaking and hearing a language is essential to learning. Who better to do that with than the people you’re constantly around?
She adds that language learners need to be brave and willing to make mistakes, which is easier to do with your family than a class full of strangers.
So how do you incorporate language learning into your family’s everyday life? Here are some ideas for making learning a second language an ongoing family experience.
Keep it real. “People learn languages better when they use the language in ways that relate to their lives,” says Alison Gabriele, professor of second-language acquisition and co-author of the University of Kansas study. Mulry’s family loves cooking together, so they started by learning words and phrases for foods and kitchen tasks, and they make grocery lists in their target language.
If your family’s big on gardening, make fun labels for your plants and tools in your target language. Into hiking, or even neighbourhood walks? Name the animals and nature elements you see while on your family journey. Try to speak only your target language during the activity.
Make friends. Lyn Wright, a professor at the University of Memphis specialising in language learning and bilingualism, points out that one of the best ways to learn a new language is to practice speaking it with others, whether they’re native speakers or novices. To find groups, check out your local college or university. Many have language clubs that plan regular lunches or get-togethers for people practicing a new language—and often are happy to include children. Cultural festivals and concerts are another opportunity to meet other families that speak your target language.
Take notes. Language isn’t just speaking; it’s reading and writing, too. Encourage your family to text each other in your target language. You could also surprise each other with notes on pillows, bathroom mirrors, inside dresser drawers—any place your family will find them.
Game the language. You could play games, such as Bingo or Go Fish, using vocabulary from their target language. You can even do this with games that don't require much speaking—board games like chess or Monopoly, for example. You can announce your moves ("I’m moving three spaces ...") or say whose turn it is in your target language.
Your family can also try playing board or card games that are popular in cultures that speak your target language. Wright suggests doing some research online to discover what those games might be.
Plan a movie night. Watching movies in your target language can help you get a feel for the language as it’s used by real speakers. Make things fun by having a weekly movie night with a film spoken in your target language. Wright recommends setting the subtitles to the target language, so you can see the words you’re hearing as you watch.
You can also seek out TV shows in a foreign language or rewatch your favourite TV shows with the foreign language subtitles of dubbing turned on.
Let's talk: Is it easier to learn languages in the same family? What is the best language learning method?
Best Language Learning Methods
1. Know your motivation
This may sound silly, but if your motivation for learning Japanese is to impress your mono-lingual friend group during a night out, you probably won’t get very far. Knowing your motivation gives you a specific, tangible objective to work towards, and will help keep you on track once the honeymoon period of language learning is over and the idea of having to grapple with the pluperfect tense again is enough to make you start pulling your hair out. If you don’t have a clear motivation, spend some time coming up with one.
2. Break down your goal
Research shows that people who break down large goals into smaller tasks are more successful in the long run. In one study, a group of people who were given six pages of math problems per session over seven sessions completed the pages faster and more accurately than a second group, which was given forty-two pages from the start. So instead of leaving your 2019 New Year’s resolution at ‘learn German,’ break it down into something tangible and achievable, like ‘practice German for an hour a day.’
3. Find a partner
Setting your language goals with a friend will not only give you a healthy sense of accountability, but it will provide you with someone with whom to regularly practice speaking in your target language, the importance of which cannot be stressed enough. Not to mention, adding a dose of competition to the language-learning game may help you bump those twenty-minutes of daily flashcard review up to twenty-five.
4. Tailor your learning to your language
Once you’ve got your goals set and someone to study with, do some research on your target language. Languages are not all built the same way and thus, there is no one-size-fits-all in terms of learning methodology. How phonetic is your language? If it’s highly phonetic, meaning that each letter equates to only one sound, as in Turkish or Spanish, go ahead and opt for a traditional learning method that teaches pronunciation and spelling together. If your target language is not very phonetic, like French or English (yes, English speakers, our language is not phonetic – that’s why words like ‘air’ and ‘heir,’ or ‘ceiling’ and ‘sealing’ are spelled differently but sound the same), you may want to try an audio-based learning approach. Audio-based approaches teach learners the pronunciation of words before showing them how those words are written, which helps to avoid issues that arise when learners attempt to divulge a word’s pronunciation from its (often illogical) spelling.
5. Tailor your learning to your level and your goals
Be sure to find a program that allows you to start learning from the level that you’re at. If you already know a decent amount of French vocabulary and grammar, being forced into a beginner’s class is a good way to bore you into quitting. In general, programs that allow for a high level of customization are going to be the most effective. At ALTA, for example, language training includes an initial evaluation of student levels, and each student or group’s course of study is customized to their language-learning goals, including the level of fluency that they are looking to attain, and the area of study in which they would most like to focus, whether it be spoken fluency, or proficiency in reading and writing.
6. Language exchange
You can do all the language study you want, but if you’re not working to build fluency outside of repetition drills or singing along with your favorite Reggaeton song, you’re just never going to get there. Luckily, over the last few years, free language exchange meetup groups have become staple events in cities all over the world. And they’re the perfect places for you to let all of your fears of making mistakes fall by the wayside – everybody at these events is a language learner making mistakes, so they get it. It’s also a good idea to look for language programs that include regular opportunities for conversing with native speakers.
7. Watch others speak
This might sound strange, but watching the way people’s mouths move can help you both with comprehension and pronunciation. Different languages make different demands on the lips, tongue, and vocal chords, and just watching people’s mouth movements is one of the best ways to start tuning into these differences. In fact, one study showed that infants in bilingual households tend to spend more time focused on speakers’ mouths versus their eyes, differing from infants in monolingual households. If you don’t know any native-speakers, TV and movies can serve as a good substitute on this one.
8. Spaced repetition is your friend
The best way to retain material is to go back over it periodically, even when you feel like you’ve moved so far beyond it that it seems too basic for review. It is totally possible to become so fluent in a language that you know medical and legal terminology but can’t remember the word for step-mother!
9. Flood your brain with natural content
Although you might not know it, your brain is already a great vocabulary builder. When you read or listen to something, your brain is not actually taking every word at face value. Instead, it’s constantly analyzing the frequency with which certain words appear together so that it can anticipate what’s coming next and process speech more quickly and effectively. Neuroscientists have discovered that different parts of the brain light up depending on whether a word makes sense in context or not. So while there shouldn’t be a lot of alarm bells going off if you hear the words ‘coffee’ and ‘cream’ together in a sentence, ‘coffee’ and ‘chromosome’ might make you think you’ve misheard something. In language learners, the frequency and accuracy with which those alarm bells go off changes based on proficiency. The better you are at speaking a language, the closer your patterns of alarm look to a native speaker’s. And the best way to get good at recognizing which words tend to appear together in your target language? Flooding your brain with natural content. That means reading books, magazines, advertisements, etc., etc., and watching lots of TV and movies with the subtitles (in your target language) turned on!