ELT

Approaches and
Methods
Assignment 01
ELT/21/B2/24-T.M.F.Zeenath
DELL
7/22/2022
 HOW POLYGLOTS LEARN
LANGUAGES?
Polyglots are normal people like us who happen to have mastered 5 or
more foreign languages. Without possessing any kind of magical
talent for languages or struggling in a language school. How is that
possible? The whole “magic” is in the way polyglots learn which is so
different from the traditional system used in schools and language
courses. This is something passionate because so many people
blaming themselves for not progressing with their language skills. As
a result they get frustrated, lose hope and give up. They love it so
much that they like to learn a new language.
Let me introduce a few well-known polyglots and their strategies to
see the differences in their approach to learning languages and the
methods they use.

 Benny Lewis
At first, Benny collects a few words and phrases from the language he
wants to learn from a travel phrasebook. Then he goes to the country
where the language is used and starts speaking with people there,
making thousands of mistakes in one day. He simply gathers more
vocabulary as he practices over and over again. And he doesn’t need
to travel a lot today as he can easily have conversations with native
speakers from the living room using websites.

 Lucas
He had a really interesting method to learn Russian. He simply added
a hundred random Russian speakers on Skype as friends had
conversation with each other and started learning. Lucas’ method is
all about 500 most frequent words in the language that he learns with
example sentences. Using those words and sentences he can express
basic ideas and communicate with ease. Then he continues to learn
different vocabulary.

 Gabriel Wyner 
Gabriel doesn’t use translation at all but instead he uses pictures of
things or he uses a word missing in a sentence when he wants to
practice grammar.

 Robin McPherson

Robin takes a short video (from YouTube for example) with subtitles
and he dissects it into very small chunks. Then he puts the phrases
into Memories and keeps learning them over and over. 

 David James

David writes lists of vocabulary and rewrites them every two weeks in
order to distill the words he has stored in his long-term memory and
repeats the ones he hasn’t yet. 

This is how that every polyglot has a different system; however, they

all get to the same result – fluency in a language. Another polyglot
who always start by imitating sounds of the language, and others who
always learn the 500 most frequent words of the language and yet
others who always starts by reading about the grammar.
Everybody seems to have a unique way. The one thing polyglots have
in common is that they simply found ways to enjoy the language-
learning process. They were taking it as a great fun, using colorful
grammar charts, and their handmade flashcards, their statistics about
learning vocabulary using apps and even how they love to cook based
on recipes in a foreign language.
All of them using different methods but they always make sure it’s
something that they personally enjoy. Lydia Machova a language
mentor when she was learning Spanish, she was bored with text in the
textbook, so she read Harry Potter instead because it was her favorite
book as a child and she got the Spanish translation of Harry Potter and
started reading it. She didn’t understand anything at the beginning but
kept reading because she loved the book. And by the end of the day
she was able to follow anything in the book. She watched her favorite
movie ‘Friends’ in German.
They all simply found the ways of how to enjoy the process. How to
turn language learning from a boring school subject into a pleasant
activity which you don’t mind doing every day.
Most classes in schools or language courses focus on reading,
learning vocabulary, and grammar which keeps students in their
comfort zone. But nothing in your language learning will help you
progress faster than speaking. Even when you make lots of mistakes
at the beginning.
A regular student feels terrified when they’re about to say something
in a foreign language. They’re simply afraid they will get it wrong.
Polyglots on the other hand put themselves out there and make many
mistakes. And remain relaxed about it.
Lydia Machova learned 9 languages by herself, and she usually add
a new one every two years. As a language mentor she’s helped
thousands of people to learn languages by themselves, in
ways different from traditional classroom methods, and with much
better and faster results. She is a TED and TEDx speaker and a former
organizer of the Polyglot Gathering, one of the biggest world events
for polyglots.
She says that if we don’t like writing words down on a paper instead
we can always type them in an app. If we don’t like listening to
boring text book material, we can find interesting content on you tube
or podcasts for any language. And if a person is more introverted can
apply the method of self- talk. We can talk to our self in the comfort
of our room, describing our plans for the weekend or how our day has
been or even take a random picture and describe it to an imaginary
friend.
There are three important principles you need to apply if you want to
achieve fluency in a foreign language.

1. Enjoyment
As said earlier the secret of polyglot people who speak a lot of
language is simple they love learning languages. They enjoy learning
with different methods.

2. Method
We need effective methods. If you want to keep words in long term
memory, you need to revise the word repeatedly. You can use apps
which are based on this system such as Anki or Memrise, or you can
write words in a note book using Goldlist method.

3. System
To create a system in your learning you have to create the time. Like
waking up earlier than normal to revise some vocabulary or listen to
your podcast on your way to work. Without planning extra time we
can’t do this.
And finally there should be patient. It’s not possible to learn in two
months but it’s definitely possible to make a visible improvement in
two months if you learn in small chunks every day in a way that you
enjoy. And find effective methods which you can use systematically
over the period of some time in a way which you enjoy.