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Hello, I said I'd post again once I reread that book, but then I was ill for a bit, and then things went completely apeshit (the good kind of apeshit) on me yesterday, and I haven't had time til now, so my apologies.
The book i was referring to was called 'Acellerated learning' by Colin Rose, which is, apparently, largely based on the work of a guy called Georgi Lozanov, who wrote about it in a book called 'Super Learning'. (which I've not read, and therefore can't comment on). The claim is, at least, that it can increase speed/effectiveness by between 3 and ten times.
Their system relies on 6 steps, as follows:
1. Desuggest limited learning ability. Here the idea is basically that our current education system has convinced us that it's impossible to learn at these kinds of rates, and that it's necessary to convince ourselves that this sort of thing is actually possible...
2. Relaxation. I think this involved trying to get into a alpha-brainwave state, in which the mind os more receptive to new information and suchforth.
3. A mental map of the stuff being learned is made, so people actually know what it is they're learning- generally some form of diagram, using colours and pictures where appropriate..
4. This step is called the 'active concert' which consists of ' reading dramatically over baroque music'. The idcea being that the music helps utilise both sides of the brain, and that reading some form of story in the language being learned, along with all sorts, while reading the text of it, with the english version in the peripheral vision, so its's seen but not conciously read.
5. After a break, they listen to the reading/music again, this time with the reading quite quiet, (called the 'receptive concert' so that it reinforces the understanding of the language in question.
6. The next day (after a period of sleep, which is apparently necessary to help the brain get a handle on the info) they do a series of 'activations', which are basically games and so forth played in the foreign language. For example on consists of throwing a ball at someone while asking them a question in the foreign language, which distracts them from thinking about the question too conciously, and answering it, although theres lots of other stuff, like singing songs and stuff, all of which is about using the foreign language entirely, and in it's natural context, and generally reinforcing their knowledge of said language.
They also claim, interestingly, that having used this technique improves your memory in a more general sense, thereby improving your ability to learn other stuff. It also increases the amount of REM sleep you have, apparently...
I've possibly not explained it well enough in this brief summary, but it definitely sounds promising, and they say that these techniques are slowly being taken up by governments, businesses and various countries education systems.
It might also be useful to read some of Tony Buzan's stuff on learning and memory as well.... |
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