Transcription
You, probably, have noticed, you learn words, remember them for a day or two, and then that's it, the brain clears memory. Why is that? Because our brain is not designed to memorize individual words. It remembers phrases: "Ready-made pieces of speech." And today I will show that this is not just advice from a teacher, but a scientifically proven fact. My name is Denis. I am an English tutor. And today we will talk about how to memorize words so that you never forget them. In cognitive psychology, there is a term called chunking, that is, dividing into pieces. Scientists Nick Ellis and John Bybee proved: "Our brain remembers language not as a set of individual words, but as ready-made blocks." For example, Ellis in his book Handbook of Second Language Acquisition writes on the second page: "Chunks are a way by which the brain learns language patterns by remembering sequences of words." Simply put, the more ready-made phrases you learn, the faster you start to understand the structure of the language automatically. And here's what John Bybee writes on this topic in her book Language Usage and Cognition. In the third chapter, she notes that when words frequently occur together, the brain begins to perceive them as a whole, rather than as individual words. So, let's summarize. Learn words in chunks. For example, take a shower, have breakfast, go to work. When you learn exactly these ready-made expressions, the brain immediately sees the meaning, structure, and context. This speeds up speech perception and makes your speech more natural. And here is another study conducted by David Wood. In the experiment, Wood taught a Japanese student formulaic sequences. He did this for 6 weeks with an emphasis on naturalizing speech formulas. Wood showed the student ready-made phrases such as: "I guess, the thing is on the other hand." She repeated them, used them in exercises, and tried to insert them into her speech. The results showed a significant increase in fluency, an increase in speech rate, and the pronunciation of longer and more natural phrases without constant pauses. After a few weeks, she spoke faster, made fewer pauses, her speech sounded more natural like native speakers, and she could speak in long chunks without stumbling on every word. This happened because the ready-made phrases turned into automatic blocks that the brain no longer assembled word by word. That is, she stopped thinking about every little thing and just started speaking. In his book, Wood states that if formulaic units are proceduralized or automatized, it facilitates speech planning. Also, his doctoral dissertation indicates that with the growth of repertoires of formulaic sequences, the speaking of the language we are learning became faster, with fewer pauses, and formulas appeared more often in long stretches between pauses. So, the conclusion. Yes, repeated repetition and practical reinforcement of formulaic phrases truly contribute to their automatization, which increases speech fluency. When you say "I don't know" many times, "you know what I mean?", "I'm not sure." You no longer translate in your head, you just speak. This is fluency, that is, fluent speech. The brain stops assembling words one by one and starts using ready-made pieces. Like with songs. First, you think about the words, and then you just sing. By repeating ready-made phrases, you train your brain to speak faster and smoother. Phrases start to come out automatically, and this sharply increases fluency. Roughly speaking, if you learn words separately, you think for a long time. If you learn phrases, you speak automatically. So forget about lists of a thousand words a week. It's better to learn five phrases, but use them every day. For example, "I wake up at 6 a.m." I wake up at 6:00 AM. "I go to work by bus." I get to work by bus. "I have lunch with my friends." I have lunch with my friends. "I get home at 7 pm." I get home at 7 PM. "I go to bed at 11." I go to bed at 11:00. And if you liked this format, I have a gift for you. I released a seven-day quiz on Instagram, where every day we learn useful phrases from real life. Briefly with examples and emotions. Follow the link in the description and boost your English in 7 days. And, of course, don't forget to subscribe and give this video a like for my efforts. See you soon in a new video. M.