Letter from Boston
Language-Learning Tapes
By MASAKO YAMADA
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語学学習テープ
以前から、いろいろなハイテク学習機器に興味を持っていた雅子さん。ある日、「わずか数ヵ月で語学がぺらぺらに」という宣伝文句に引かれ、ロシア語の教材テープを買い込みました。普通の語学学習テープと、一工夫された学習増強テープがセットになっているこの教材、果たして効果はあったのでしょうか。
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I was absentmindedly flipping through an airline mail-order catalog when a
certain advertisement caught my eye. It was for a set of special language
tapes. The blurb claimed that the tapes incorporated some special learning
technique developed by an Eastern European psychologist who wrote a famous
book on "Super Learning."
I had been wanting to learn Russian for some time and I was attracted by the
claim that one could achieve fluency after a couple of months. I knew that
I wanted those tapes and I even bought a Walkman just so that I could listen
to them.
I've always been intrigued by the advertisements for high-tech learning
gadgets that I've seen in the backs of magazines. One gadget was shaped like
a pillow and had a tape recorder inside it. I believe it was designed for
study during sleep. Another gadget requires one to place one's fingers on a
sensor and try to manipulate one's own brainwaves.
This machine was apparently designed to help put people in a receptive
frame of mind. I've never bought any of these machines, but that didn't
prevent me from wondering whether there was any scientific basis to the
claims.
It's true that I've used some tried-and-true study techniques in order to
improve my memory skills. For instance, I memorized the meaning for the word
"hirsute" by saying, "Her suit is hirsute," while imagining a woman in a
furry suit. I've also tried memorizing facts by pretending that each fact
is located in a different part of a room. However, these well-known tricks
don't really change one's underlying psychological state, and this is really
what has always interested me.
I find it hard to believe that listening to Mozart or Gregorian chants truly
enhances learning ability (many people claim that it works), but perhaps
there is something to be said for this kind of seemingly irrational
claim.
I have a friend who is pursuing a doctorate in the study of "flow." This
is commonly known as "the zone." Being able to achieve flow or the zone is
the goal of many athletes, artists and academics. Basically, it is a state
in which one is simultaneously relaxed and focused.
Michael Jordan is considered to be a person who knows how to put himself in
the zone, but even kids who can easily memorize lists of baseball statistics
or pop song lyrics are considered to be in this state. My friend is able
to describe what being in the zone is supposed to be like, but he hasn't been
able to tell me what I can do to reach this state.
My hope in ordering the tapes was that I'd be able to learn Russian while in
the zone. I've listened to the tapes for about a month now and I do think that
they are an excellent learning tool.
Half of the tapes are standard tapes of the kind that are played in college
language labs. The more interesting ones are the extra tapes that incorporate
enhanced learning techniques. They randomly incorporate vocabulary lists,
songs, dialogues, jokes and stories that start out in English but in which
more and more Russian words are gradually thrown in (so that one can guess
the meaning of new words by the context).
These exercises are interspersed throughout the tapes, so things never get
boring. However, the tapes are not quite the new-fangled
relaxation/concentration tapes that I had hoped for. They don't seem to be
designed to help put one in a more receptive psychological state. For
instance, they don't have the kind of hypnotic background music that I've
heard super learners prefer. On the other hand, the tapes aren't set up to
model the way children naturally pick up languages, either.
Textbooks accompany the tapes and the books include conventional language
instruction that cover basics such as grammar, pronunciation and spelling.
The interesting thing is, I'm glad that the textbook is there. Book-based
learning may not be the most modern or the most organic way of learning a
language, but I find that I understand the passages on the tape much more
quickly when I read the explanation first. It makes me think that since I am
an adult, perhaps it's better for me to learn using good materials targeted
for adults, rather than attempt to learn like a child — much less hope to
become an academic Michael Jordan.
Shukan ST: April 30, 1999
(C) All rights reserved
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