Noticing: the key to speed up the process of learning a language (with tips and exercises)

In the thirty years that I have been teaching English, I have watched thousands of students triumph, flourish, and fail in their quests to learn English. I have learned both from professional experience and from research, that language learning can be a beautiful, yet frustrating process. It is true that us humans are naturally programmed to learn languages. It is also true that if we immerse ourselves in a language, we are likely to pick it up over time.

However, investing the time needed for the natural acquisition of a new language is not an option for most of us. We therefore need to speed up the process, or at least make the process of learning a language more time efficient. One of the ways we can do this is by noticing.

noticing as key to speed up learning english

Imagine you are visiting London for the first time and your accommodation is on a busy street with lots of different buildings. The first time you visit the street it is new. It might take you a few times walking down the street to become familiar with it.  Within a couple of days however, you are very confident where your hotel is. You would recognize a photograph of the street if someone showed it to you.

However, if someone asked you to describe all the buildings on the street in detail, would you be able to do it? Most of us wouldn’t. This is because we haven’t paid special attention to the buildings. We haven’t taken time to notice them.

In the 1990s, Richard Schmidt, a linguist from the university of Hawaii coined a term which he called ‘the noticing hypothesis’. He said that to learn a foreign language, especially as adults, we need to consciously notice – or become consciously aware – of the form, meaning or use of new language features so that we can learn them. Basically, if we are not paying conscious attention to what the buildings look like on the street, we will not be able to describe them. He claimed that we need to pay attention to language for it to become part of our working knowledge.

I call this being a language detective. Looking at language, not just for the meaning, but instead focusing on the form and use.

What does noticing look like?

Imagine you watch an episode of The Crown on a streaming service. The first time you watch it, you watch it in English with subtitles. The second time you watch it, you are not watching it to know about the plot, but instead you decide to focus on question forms. You make a decision to pay attention to every single question that is asked during the episode. In this case you are listening in a different way, just like a detective.

You might decide to write the questions down. You might decide to stop and repeat the questions and focus not just on the form but also the pronunciation. Whatever you decide, you are paying conscious attention to the language. Studies show that this specific focus on the features of a language helps us to improve our working knowledge of a foreign language.

Here are some ideas of how you can start noticing:

1. Grammar Rules
   When reading a story in a foreign language, you notice the use of the past tense. You see verbs like "went" and "saw" and realize these forms are used to describe actions that happened in the past. You highlight all the uses of past simple in the text.
2. Vocabulary
   While watching a movie in the target language, you repeatedly hear the word "lovely" in different contexts. You begin to notice how and when it is used and start to incorporate it into your own speech.
3. Pronunciation
   When you are watching a series, you notice the past simple pronunciation of regular verbs like ‘walk’ and ‘talk’ and ‘watch’ do not have extra syllables. You practise this pronunciation.
4. Collocations
   When reading an article, you notice that certain words often appear together, such as "make a decision" or "take a break." This helps you understand common collocations and use them correctly in your own writing and speaking.
5. Cultural Nuances
   In a conversation with native speakers, you notice the use of formal and informal greetings depending on the context. This helps you understand and appropriately use cultural norms in communication.

Can we learn a language even if we don’t take the time to notice?

The answer is “Yes!”, it is just that it will take longer. Our brains are naturally wired to learn languages, we just need to make sure that they are well-fed. I am sure if I ask you to describe all the buildings on the street where you live, you would be able to do it just because you have lived there for so long.

Asking you to pay attention to the buildings, however, would mean that you could do it quicker without having to live there for years. My advice is, feed your brain with as much ‘language food’ as you can by watching, reading and listening to English as much as you can in your day-to-day life. In addition, now and again, spend some time doing some detective work. Focus on the building blocks that make up the language. If you do both these things, you are sure to improve.

Vocabulary: complete the sentences with one of the words from the list

1.      To help improve your English, pay __________ to different aspects of the language.

2.      It is important to read, listen to or speak English __________.

3.      We can __________ up the learning process with ‘noticing’.

4.      Richard Schmidt had a __________ about the best way to learn a foreign language.

5.      Our brains are naturally __________ to learn languages.

6.      By noticing, you are paying __________ attention to a language feature.

7.      I recommend watching an English-speaking series with the __________ in English.

8.      A collocation describes words that often __________ together.

9.      How you greet someone __________ on the context.

10.   When you are reading a text in English, you could __________ all the prepositions.