The Recipe for Success: 6 of 10

How to create an optimal environment for language learning

(1) Emotions and thoughts

(2) Patterns

(3) Practice Makes Permanent

(4) The Brain Seeks Novelty

(5) First and Last in a Sequence

(6) Auditory Input

Students can attend to auditory input for only a short time… roughly ½ their age in minutes. This means 7 minutes for a 14-year-old. While adults are able to have an attention span for auditory input for approximately 20 minutes.

Implications:

Oral explanations and listening activities should be kept brief.

Complex topics should be broken down into smaller segments:

oral presentation // processing activity // then present the second/next segment

Next:

(7) Retention of Material

(8) Processing Time

(9) Learning Differences

(10) Language is Social

Source:

101 Best Strategies for Teaching World Languages (Bureau of Education & Research)