Lessons from Neuroscience for Language Learners - Xaver Funk

Lessons from Neuroscience for Language Learners - Xaver Funk | PGO 2020

Рет қаралды 3,648

3 жыл бұрын

Language happens in the brain, learning happens in the brain. Neuroscience is the science of the brain and sits in the middle of the Venn diagram connecting biology, psychology, computer science, math, medicine and linguistics. Therefore, language learners can and should take advantage of this massive, expanding field, as it relates to their studies and understanding of languages. In this talk, we will look at several well and lesser known topics of neuroscience that can either improve your effectiveness of learning, serve as brain-candy for your curious minds, or both. In the end, we will dive a little deeper into recent research that specifically discusses polyglot brains and what makes them special.
Xaver Funk is a prospective neuroscientist and passionate language learner, occasionally vagabond and hitchhiker. An awkward language barrier experienced at a picnic in 2014 and intercultural living conditions (he has lived with people from every continent) threw him into a probably lifelong language-learning journey. Since then, he has become proficient and has been living in several European languages. Currently, Xaver is learning Chinese and Mongolian.
This video was recorded at the Polyglot Gathering Online 2020 (www.polyglotgathering.com/).

Пікірлер: 13

@AceFormations 12 күн бұрын

Thank you for this conference it was interesting, very informative and give some fresh air to the language learning processes

@bichtran2008 3 жыл бұрын

this is the best logical explaination in how to learn language better that I have come across so far. Thank you for sharing.

@torond6908 3 жыл бұрын

This should be mandatory for language learners. Thanks a lot!

@janlamprecht9229 2 жыл бұрын

I was hooked from the beginning all the way to the end, thank you very much Xaver!

@BlazinNSoul 3 жыл бұрын

I became more interested in this after watching an episode of crowd science on the BBC. It was the focus of how our brain overtime loses its elasticity. In addition to why our brain becomes more difficult to learn certain tasks as we grow older. Come to find out when we were younger we have a lot more neurons then we need apparently. As a child you're literally a sponge absorbing all this constantly. As time goes on those neurons are basically gotten rid of to increase efficiency. That doesn't mean new connections can't be made however. Why is it certain muscle memory can be remembered while others not so much? 🤔 Turns out our brain is kind of like a hard drive of sorts. Parts of it get fragmented and misplaced in other areas. The trick is to defragging our brain while recovering lost vectors stored away somewhere. From a neuroscience aspect randomized learning was also found to be more effective method then rote learning. Try one set of language issues then go to another and then return back to it. This allows your brain time to reconstruct the scenario and provide a pathway or neuron to that remembered aspect or source code. I never thought of language-learning in this sense. Maybe there is hope for me after all lol. :b

@NelliArtienwicz Жыл бұрын

A very interesting lecture! Thanks

@YogaBlissDance 2 жыл бұрын

Wonderful info, thank you. But work on our intonation or cadence, it sounds very Germanic even in English, too staccato. Also sound was fuzzy n took a lot of work to listen to.

@pardieupopper339 3 жыл бұрын

My question concerns subtitles and what Xaver addresses in the first third of his presentation when he discusses aphasia. A friend of mine suffered two kinds of aphasia, one retarding his ability to think, and the other retarding his ability to express his thoughts. The second aphasia was called expressive aphasia, but I can t remember the specific name of the first aphasia. One of the upshots of these disabilities was that he could not process films or videos with subtitles. I mean, if he could not understand the dialogue, he couldn't process the subtitles either. That's all he was able to tell me. I did some searching on line for clarification, but came up empty handed. The diagnosis of the aphasias, by the way, came from a very reputable clinic, though I may have screwed up the details. I know that I can process film with subtitles, but it is impossible for me to process the subtitles and the spoken dialogue at the same time. I wonder if there is a relationship between this impossibility and the aphasias.