At this phase of the process we need to start very learning activities. We have text, it is already known text „indexed“ by us using our native language. And we have of course an audio version of that text /actually it is vice versa – we have the transcript of that audio – with that audio will work more / I would prefer a material narrated by a native speaker(s) (to learn a proper English). It could be for example some audio book, part of some movie, interesting lecture or a program… it is up to you. It should be something you like, you are interested in or something you need for your job or school anyway... Shortly something which has meaning for you. The amount of it (the length) depends on your knowledge. If you are a beginner, 1 or 2 minutes or even less could be enough, if you are already advanced – it could be 1 hour or more! So, you have the „training“ material and you are already familiar with that material because of the preparation you have done (see part 1. I call it here „indexing“). Now you will need to make it the part of your integral knowledge, the part of your brain. How to do it? Do not read it over or over again, or even worse: do not try to learn unknown words directly (=classical approach)! It is not effective and it will lead you (in most cases) only to losing interest in learning the language after very short period of time:-( You need to LISTEN and your mother tongue written (indexed) will be your helper. This is the phase, where your mother language will help you. Listen and at the same time read - read YOUR MOTHER TONGUE „indexed“ above the foreign text. You can stop your MP3 player from time to time to be able to keep with it. At the same time IMAGIN the meaning of what you are listening. Use your so called RIGHT hemisphere of the brain. Do it several times. This phase needs from you focus and attention. You need to be fully engaged. It is slightly strange to read a text in your mother tongue (but in order of the foreign one=even stranger) and at the same time listening its foreign equivalent. This is the fist part of all the process. After while you will not need to read anymore and you will understand well anyway. Still use your imagination. You are learning to understand INSTANTLY, no need for internal translation. And now you can go to the second stage – now you will need to FIX that new acquired knowledge into your subconscious mind. How to do it? You need to listen it over and over again, for hours and hours! Children do it the same way to learn from their parents. It is the natural way (although from our perspective it does not look like that) We are using modern technologies to simulate that process for ourselves and to accelerate it using already achieved knowledge. Yes, it needs time and we do not have to much spare time in our culture today! And I tell you: it will not take any time from you. You only need to create a new HABIT for yourself = to be able to listen while doing other activities (watching TV, washing up dishes, working, exercising, driving, commuting … whatsoever-gradually you would be able to do even more complex and intellectually demanding activities). You do not need to pay attention to the listening at all. Actually this phase needs your „non attentiveness“! In this phase you need to „teach“ your subconscious mind from which you will gather these information later. Your conscious mind was engaged in the 1. phase. So, record your material into MP3 player, use 1 head-phone only (not to be cut off the real life) and you can listen nonstop over and over again. It should be rather silent! During this process you will find that in some moments you perceive the language you are listening, sometimes you will forget about it completely. And it is fine! /both/ During day you can use this 2. phase and later at home (for example) you can do the 1. phase of conscious learning. The ratio between them could be 1:5 till 1:10 Gradually you can stop reading that „indexed“ text in 1. conscious phase (if you are advanced, you can stop already in early stages). How long to do it all? You will need to do these processes for a few days or even weeks to get a solid foundation for your new „language house“ you are building. The goal here is to understand this material (and be able to imagine what you are hearing) the same way as if it were your mother tongue. If you reach this level, you can transfer to the next phase which I am going to describe the next time :-)
So, to be continued ...
So, to be continued ...
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