Nikolaj Baer wrote:
I would put more emphasis on the fear of embarrassment. Lots of people
who are attempting to learn a new language at an older age have to get
over the big step of speaking without the fear of native speakers
laughing at the inevitable mistakes.
Which is where Andrew's call for praise comes in. In essence, he said,
"If only adults were praised for minor milestones as much as children are.".
But as a child, I was on the receiving end of some ridicule from other
kids. Kids are cruel. (Exceptions abound.) It is while we are yet
kids that we learn to fear ridicule. Only jerks (kid or adult)
ridicule. But it's not unnatural to be humored by something peculiar.
On 6/28/07, Andrew Lentvorski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Bob La Quey wrote:
> The real issues are IMHO cognitive and may well get wired
> pretty early on (Mother Duck Syndrome.) For an example see
>
>
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/dn10689-what-you-speak-may-affect-what-you-hear.html
>
>
> BobLQ "My problem with Spanish is a I do not hear it well."
Ooooo, this is one of my favorite topics.
I'm in the school that our brains are more plastic than we give them
credit for.
My opinion is that we hurt the ability of our brains to learn new things
because we change the mechanisms for reinforcements.
In terms of reinforcements, we give small children *huge* amounts of
external reinforcement for even the smallest achievements. A couple
incomprehensible words, scribbles on paper, etc.
This is a good thing. So why do we make things so hard for adults?
An adult learning a new language or drawing skills or anything else has
a *HUGE* step function from internalized motivation until external
praise occurs. We're talking the need to get through *years* of what a
child would go through before even the first peep of praise.
That is hugely demotivating to 99% of the people on the planet.
We, on this list, have *very* high internal motivation and reward
systems.
I'm not a fan of "self-esteem" praise. However, a little acknowledgment
to people for how much they have improved would probably go a long way.
Several of the best teachers of dance and music I have had all did the
same thing with their students, they *recorded* them at the beginning
and at regular intervals. When they reviewed these, it was important to
*watch an old one first*.
Maybe it's all about psychological framing, but the first time I had
that done to me it had a *huge* impact. It's *palpable* how much you
improved. The teacher gets to sit down and catalogue everything that
improved in a fairly objective way.
The reinforcement is amazing. Suddenly, all the hard work becomes
concrete.
-a
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
