About the Author

Hilary P. https://adeptenglish.com/authors/hilary/ is a professional psychotherapist and has

practised in the United Kingdom for over 20 years. Hilary has a keen interest in language learning,
with a classical language educational background. Hilary's particular interests & experience is in
psychology, education & learning, especially online learning and language acquisition.

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adeptenglish.com, you can also read a collection of free articles https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/ ,
sign up for a range of free newsletters and receive exclusive discounts and offers from Adept English
https://adeptenglish.com/language-courses/free-7-rules-of-adept-english/ .

Transcript For Learn English Article 398

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What Happens In Your Brain When You Learn A Second
Language
A Conversation In English About Learning Language Through
Listening
Well, it has been a busy start to 2021, we’ve received a lot of emails with lots of questions. I thought
one of the more interesting ones was a question from Han in China, who asked why does listening
and learning a new language like you learned your first language work? Why is it better than other
approaches to learning to speak English, or any language, fluently?

Now there is **no easy one line answer to this** as there is a lot of research
https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/conversations-in-english-6/ and science behind the answer
https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/conversations-in-english-5/ . It’s tempting to say **"well it just
works!"**, I know I wouldn’t be happy with that answer. So in today’s podcast English lesson, which
is a conversation in English you can just sit back and listen to, I’ve produced a whole podcast to help
answer this relatively simple question.

It’s an interesting question, tho, isn’t it? `"Why is this way of learning the English language better
than another?"`, we rarely ask ourselves as we learn, *is this the best way of learning*? We just copy
what the other students do and assume that the teacher knows best.

Sometimes, a more discerning student might look around and see the results of others leaning
using a particular approach, and if we like what we see, then they accept that this way of learning
works. But we can never be sure that we are using the most efficient learning approach, or that
another approach might be more optimal for our particular learning needs. Often we don’t get a
choice, for example, as a child we just get sent to a school, and we are told how to learn, without
questioning the system.

But now you’re here, engaging with Adept English, and we will try our hardest to explain how our
approach to learning to speak English works. We do this in this podcast, on our website we explain
our learning system https://adeptenglish.com/company/learning-system/ and of course we also
explain why our approach works in the 7 rules of Adept English https://adeptenglish.com/language-
courses/free-7-rules-of-adept-english/ . You can also read what others who are learning this way

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have to say about the approach here
https://adeptenglish.com/testimonials/email-testimonials/#egor-h3 .

Transcript: What Happens In Your Brain When You Learn A

Second Language
Hi there and welcome to this latest podcast
https://open.spotify.com/show/7ixeOS7ezPTZSaISIx2TTw from Adept English.

Adept English is here to help you as ever, to learn English language. But I thought this might be a
good time in today’s podcast to talk some more about how that works. To talk again about those
mechanics of language learning – what you need to do to learn English language and become fluent
– and what part Adept English can play in that.

I’m also responding to a question we had from Han by email. Han was asking about how our listen &
learn method of learning English works. How to get away from translating and move towards being
fluent, understanding and speaking English automatically? And of course, this is what most of you
want to know also. So thankyou, Han for your question. I’m also going to include a bit of
neuroscience https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/conversations-in-english-5/ , as I know many of you
like that too!

Learning a language changes your brain

So there is evidence from neuroscience that learning a second language (or a third, or a fourth!)
means changes in the brain. So the left half of the brain – the left hemisphere of the brain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broca%27s_area , is seen as the part which deals with speech and
language, so this is of course the side which grows more connections when you learn a language.
And in particular, there are areas of the brain which understand language and areas which are used
when you speak.

So Wernicke’s area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernicke%27s_area is associated with

understanding and Broca’s area https://www.neuroscientificallychallenged.com/blog/know-your-
brain-brocas-area is associated with speaking. These are the areas of the brain which are rewiring,
which are growing, when you listen to English language being spoken, like this. ‘Receptive’ language
learning – that means coming from ‘input’, listening and reading. And ‘expressive’ language learning
is when you speak or write – so that’s your ‘output’ in the new language. So it’s called ‘receptive’

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from the verb ‘to receive’ – you’re ‘receiving’ the new language through your ears or eyes. And
‘expressive’ from the verb ‘to express’ – so if you are ‘expressing yourself’, you’re speaking or writing.

There’s a lot going on when you’re ‘receiving’ language input. All of those little phonetic noises, the
‘t’ and the ‘c’, the ‘oo’ and the ‘ah’ sounds all have to be decoded into words. Then you have to
recognise those words and their meaning and put them together in a sentence, so the whole
sentence means something in your head! And then when you want to speak the process is reversed.

So you have an idea of what you want to say, you translate that into words in your head, and then
those words need to be made into all the little sounds that your mouth and your voice have to
make, the phonetics, so that you can speak the necessary words in the new language. So there’s a
lot going on in there and it has to happen really quickly, in the moment! And automatically, as we
say.

Receptive’ language learning and ‘expressive’ language learning

But these two processes – the receptive language learning and the expressive language learning
aren’t entirely separate. There is new evidence that even when you’re listening to language being
spoken, the areas of your brain which are about language expression – or speaking – are also being
activated, as you listen.

For a long time, it was thought that Broca’s area was concerned only with speech, but we now know
that this part of the brain is active when we’re listening too. So listening is benefiting your
understanding and your speaking. Listening usually has the effect of making you want to repeat
words and sentences.

And of course, as I’ve said previously, once your English language understanding is really good, you
just need to find someone or somewhere to practice speaking English with], to form a bridge
between the understanding and speaking. So initially more of your time needs to be spent in
understanding – in receptive language learning. And expressive language learning comes after.

‘Receptive’ language learning responds best to ‘immersion’

The University of Illinois in Chicago https://hip.uic.edu/research-groups/cogsla/ , has a language
learning laboratory, where language learning is studied. One professor at this university, Kara
Morgan-Short, uses electrophysiology – scanning techniques to look at what happens in the brain of
language learners https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X16300050 . And she

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did an experiment where half the people in the experiment learned language through explanation
and rule learning – learning in the way that you do, when you first start a language from the
beginning - and when you learn English grammar. And half the people in the experiment
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/04/what-happens-to-the-brain-language-
learning learned language instead by being ‘immersed’ or by full ‘immersion’.

The verb ‘to immerse’, I-M-M-E-R-S-E or the noun ‘immersion’, I-M-M-E-R-S-I-ON – means in this
context, to hear only the language you’re learning, nothing else. So that’s lots of receptive learning.
So in this experiment, half the people learned through grammar lessons and rules and half the
people were immersed in the language.

They found that everyone learned, but those people who learned from immersion, had brain
processes which were closer to native speakers of the language, so they were more fluent – and six
months after the experiment, these people remembered what they’d learned, without any further
input!

Adults do not have the time for full immersion

So immersive language experience is what we need, when we are adults learning a new language.
This is because our brains https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/conversations-in-english-6/ are wired,
are designed already to learn in this way. This is the way we learned our own language, when we
were children. However, this isn’t all that we need as adults learning language. Our brains can still
do this learning – but they can’t do it exactly as we learned as a child.

We don’t have the same amount of time, the same everyday, every hour, every minute, exclusive
exposure to the language that children have, learning their first language. ‘Exposure’ means ‘being
exposed to it’, experiencing it, hearing it – all the time. Most of us just cannot have that same level of
exposure, the same level of experience of hearing the language all the time.

But Adept English is designed to get you as close as possible to that. We don’t often make videos
https://www.youtube.com/c/adeptenglish – because video means you have to sit in front of your
screen and watch. And this takes your time because you have to give it your whole attention. It
needs your eyes as well as your ears. The beauty of Adept English being primarily audio, is that you
spend more time working on your English, because we require only your ears, not your eyes. You
don’t have to sit and watch, or be in a particular place.

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You can be anywhere - you just have to be able to listen! So you can do your English language
learning while you do other activities. And this means you can find time to do your English, to do
hours of English language listening much more easily. This is more like immersive learning. And you
have more hours of increasing the density of the neurons in Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas in your
brain!

Don’t forget The Seven Rules of Adept English – it’ll help your neurons
Before I go further, just a reminder to sign up for our free course, the Seven Rules of Adept English
https://adeptenglish.com/language-courses/free-7-rules-of-adept-english/. This course is where I
explain our method, our rationale for learning English – and why it works better than traditional
ways of learning language.

So if you want to find out more about immersive language learning – and other ways in which you
can speed up your language learning, this course is really valuable. Go to our website at
adeptenglish.com to find this course https://adeptenglish.com/language-courses/free-7-rules-of-
adept-english/.

Adult learnings have learning strategies to make up for less plasticity

The other difference between adult and child language learners is that our brains, our older brains
are not quite as plastic, our brains are not quite as able to learn and change as adults. Not quite –
there’s an optimal period in a child’s life for language learning. But as adults, we can get close, it’s
nearly the same.

So perhaps 75% of learning a second language as an adult happens through listening. But while we
don’t have quite the plasticity in our brains that a baby or young child has, we do have other
advantages. We’re experienced learners, we have cognitive learning strategies that we didn’t have as
babies or young children.

We’ve all been to school, since we learned our first language. We’ve all learned how to learn – and
we have our strategies, our techniques that we’ve acquired to help us to learn. So most of our
learning a language as an adult comes from listening – but we can also top up by using our good
study skills, what we’ve learned about learning.

So we can take short cuts, help ourselves. Sometimes it’s good to look at the written words as we
listen. Occasionally, we use our adult intelligence to look words up for their meaning because we’ve

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been wondering ‘What does that word mean. I keep hearing it – and I don’t know and it’s holding
me back?’. So looking up a word can unblock us – we go ‘Ahh – that makes sense! I can carry on with
my listening, now I understand that word’.

Using a little of our capacity to learn form and structure, to support a lot of immersive language
learning is the best combination for adult learners. So this is why we always give you a transcript, we
always supply the written words – and why we also do Rule Six – the helping hand of Adept English.
So for example, in last Monday’s podcast, I put together the idea that all the adjectives which end in
‘-able’ in English have something in common. And once you understand that, it’s a short cut and a
large number of English adjectives are easier.

That’s not something a baby or a child will do – that’s using your adult learning capacity to
advantage. And bit by bit, you build up your knowledge. A language is thousands and thousands of
moving parts – so a lot of listening and a little bit of ‘taking a short cut’ to understand is what works
best. #And actually older children do receive this type of input too – in school!!]

Einstein said ‘Learning is experience. Everything else is just

information’
Einstein said ‘Learning is experience. Everything else is just information’. So what we also aim to do
in the podcast, is give you an experience, to link your language learning to. So although I do
podcasts on what I call ‘the mechanics of language’ – like the ‘adjectives ending in -able’, I also do a
lot of podcasts, where I share my thoughts, my experiences.

Where, although I don’t know you personally, I invite you in to my view of the world. I range wide in
the topics I cover – you get to know about my garden, what I like to cook, my feelings, all about the
pandemic in the UK, what’s amused me or something I noticed in the news or the world around me
that I find strange or enlightening or funny. You share my experience and I get to paint pictures in
your head.

So you then think your own thoughts, have your own responses to what I talk about. So you can
build your English language understanding around your experience of listening. It’s got some
experience to be associated with. You react, you feel and you think as you listen. So I’m really happy
to be your teacher, with you, on your English language learning journey – it’s a privilege.

And hopefully I can give you learning experiences, thoughts and feelings that link to your English

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language and make it easier to remember and bring it alive. So you can learn English
https://7rules.adeptenglish.com/ language online with Adept English to give you that immersive
language learning experience and you don’t need to feel that you’re on your own while you do it.

Goodbye
Anyway, I hope that answers your question, Han. And provides some explanation of our method.
Don’t forget to listen to this podcast a number of times, until you understand all the words.

Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.

Links
* University of Illinois in Chicago, language learning laboratory https://hip.uic.edu/research-groups/
cogsla/

* Neuroimaging of the bilingual brain

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X16300050

* The Swedish MRI study https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/04/what-happens-to-

the-brain-language-learning

* Wernicke's area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernicke%27s_area

* Frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broca%27s_area

* Broca's area https://www.neuroscientificallychallenged.com/blog/know-your-brain-brocas-area

* Another English lesson on neuroscience https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/conversations-in-

english-5/

* Similar article about your brains way of learning https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/conversations-

in-english-6/

* Listen & Learn https://adeptenglish.com/company/learning-system/

* 7 Rules Of Adept English https://adeptenglish.com/language-courses/free-7-rules-of-adept-

english/

* What people say about this way of learning https://adeptenglish.com/testimonials/email-

testimonials/#egor-h3

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* Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7ixeOS7ezPTZSaISIx2TTw

* YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/adeptenglish

* FREE English language course https://7rules.adeptenglish.com/

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First published: January 2021

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