I recently had the pleasure of visiting Shanghai, Hangzhou and Taipei. My impressions of the three cities are quite different. In Shanghai one is carried away with the sense of rapid economic development and frenzied construction. In Hangzhou, one notices that the city has managed to accommodate modern development and yet maintain its original beauty and comfort. Taipei, on the other hand, is a cultural centre with pleasant restaurants, cafes, all night bookstores and a high general level of politeness and orderliness.
Much of my time was spent discussing language learning with students and teachers at some of the leading universities in Eastern China. I also attended the English Teachers Association of Taiwan conference in Taipei, which drew some famous international names in language teaching such as Steven Krashen, Paul Nation and others. Whether meeting with enthusiastic students of linguistics and language in China, or listening to leading authorities at the conference in Taipei, I was able to confirm that the learning principles of The Linguist system are broadly accepted as the most effective.
Krashen pointed out that according to the latest research, teaching grammar in a classroom will not bring about fluency or even accuracy of expression. Research has also shown that vocabulary learned from lists is difficult to remember. This is especially so if the lists are grouped by category, as in trying to learn the colours at once, or the parts of the body, or technical terms of one category. Yet we do need to work on vocabulary study as Nation pointed out, but we have to do it the right way, and that is what we have designed into our Linguist system.
The role of language teaching, according to Krashen, is to develop autonomous learners. You cannot learn in a classroom. You have to learn the language on your own, once you are motivated and know how to do so. The fastest and best way to learn a language is to absorb lots of largely comprehensible and interesting input: reading and listening. This has always been my experience, whether I attended a language school or not; whether I lived in the country where the language was spoken or not, I always had to learn on my own.
But it is important to interact with the content; and that is why in The Linguist we want you to choose your own content. The Linguist system will help you find content at your vocabulary level, but you choose. The Linguist system trains you to look for new words and phrases to save into your expanding learning database, and then it trains you in how to use them. Writing is an excellent way to do this for people who do not live where the language they are learning is spoken. Our Linguist writing correction system lets you use what you have learned and identify problems that still need to be worked on.
All in all, my visit was a great success. I met many nice people and enjoyed excellent Chinese cuisine in three different and fascinating cities; and I talked about a subject that I love: language learning.
