Sunday, May 24, 2015

Fluent Forever Book Reflection 1

Today my Amazon order of Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner came in and is already changing the way I teach language. (Amazon link to book). Before jumping into what I have done to use this research to inform my practices, let's review Wyner's 5 principles of memory and a brief summary of each.

  1. Make memories memorable. Hebb's Law states that neurons that fire together, wire together so we MUST use all 4 levels of processing (structure, sound, concept & personal connection) to maximize memory. 
  2. Maximize laziness. Extra repetition only helps retain information for a short period of time and we only "overlearn" to do well on a test. This is not for languages. Bye bye drill & kill. 
  3. Don't review. Recall. Don't waste your time re-reading a word list for class, use the extra 5 minutes to write down on a blank sheet of paper all the words you recall from the list. Doing this 3 times is proven to be more effective than extra study time OR by doing it once. This recall helps your brain release dopamine and fosters a chemical love for learning languages :) 
  4. Wait, wait! Don't tell me!  If you test yourself everyday, you will have great short term memory of language but if you test yourself right before you forget, you will increase your ability to remember something. 
  5. Rewrite the past. When we see a word or phrase for the second time, we connect it to the first time we saw it and essentially re-write our 1st experience to now be linked to the 2nd and vice versa. 
To make sure we satisfy all these objectives, Wyner argues that we must used an SRS or Spaced Repetition System in which we are asked to recall only the words that we are about to forget so that we remained challenged and get that lovely dose of dopamine from the AHA! moments. This is not, however, a system which we can create for our students as they must make personal connections to the system. Hence why they MUST create their own decks and these decks are non-transferable. Wyner affirms this need on page 45, stating "One of the reasons why language programs and classes fail is that no one can give you a language; you have to take it for yourself. You are rewiring your own brain. To success, you need to actively participate." This quote is particularly useful to share with students as it fosters a growth mindset in which the students drive their learning not an IQ assigned to them before entering your classroom. It also reminds them that they must participate in class to succeed.

To create these, Wyner gives a detailed account of how to create them by hand in the appendix of "Fluent Forever" but advises you to try the online website: http://ankisrs.net :) I am going to work on my italiano and have my kids do this the first weeks of school next year. Thoughts? comments? 

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