Do it like children!

[breezemsa]

Learning Languages Like Children
By Dr. J. Marvin Brown
a new approach to
teach the Thai language. The method is called ‘The Listening Approach’. In more recent years it’s
become known as ‘Automatic Language Growth’.
The method says that any attempt to speak (or even think about language), before automatic
speaking comes, will cause damage and limit final results! In other words, the method uses a
very long "silent period".
During the "silent period", students focus only on listening. After 6 - 12 months of intensive listening,
students begin to speak spontaneously and naturally-- without effort and without thinking!
ONE - THE CHILD’S SECRET
Everyone knows that when people move to a new country the children will eventually speak the
language natively and the adults won’t. The normal explanation is that children have a special
‘talent’ that they lose as they grow up.
Teachers said that for adults, languages should be taught and studied instead of learned naturally

THE UNASKED QUESTION – What would happen if an adult were to just listen for a year without
speaking?
OUR ANSWER – Both adults and children can do it right, but only adults can do it wrong.
Imagine a 4 year-old child and an adult reacting to somebody talking to them in a foreign language.
The child most often just listens, while the adult usually tries to talk back.
Now imagine that ‘not trying to speak’ was the child’s secret. It makes sense that listening to
things that are always right would build the language right, while saying things that are always wrong
would build it wrong.


What would happen if adults were to do the same thing children do, (that is, just listen for a year
without trying to say anything).
In 1984, the AUA language center in Bangkok started doing exactly this in its Thai classes. The
students just listened for as much as a year without speaking at all. We found that adults get
almost the same results that children do. If adults understand natural talk, in real situations, without
trying to say anything, for a whole year, then fluent speaking with clear pronunciation will
come automatically
Adults talk too much.
The formula is this: ‘Listen’, ‘Don’t speak’, and ‘Be patient’. And now it appears that this is not
only the child’s secret. It’s everybody’s secret. And while children do it more faithfully, adults can
do it faster.
TWO - HOW ALG WORKS
Most language teachers are constantly telling their students to try to speak as much as they can,
and to think carefully before they say anything, so they’ll get it right. And now I’m saying that this
kind of speaking and thinking is the exact thing that prevents adults from learning languages well.
THREE – PUTTING ALG IN THE CLASSROOM
We look at children who have moved to a new country, and we see them ‘listen, laugh, and stare’.
The child’s secret; ears open, mouths shut, no tests. They become near-native within two years.
Then we look into language classrooms around the world, and we see just the opposite; ears
practically closed (the students use their eyes instead), mouths open, and a lot of tests. Very
few of these students become near-native.

[GLINT]I HOPE YOU BENEFITE FROM ABOVE WORDS[/GLINT]

[الواثقة بالله]

thanks alot

amazing words

[breezemsa]

welcome ..dear

[postgraduate]

Breezemsa

Thanks alot . Nice words

[breezemsa]

THANKS....