Natural Learning Process

Natural Learning Process    (日本語)

KidsWow.com is fun
KidsWow.com is fun

The natural learning process follows a simple order:

Listening  –  Speaking  – Reading – Writing

Children learn by hearing the same thing over and over. They learn when they are having fun and their attention is activated.

Input, Input, input ….repeat the same thing every day and you learn without thinking about it.

Children learn by listening repetitively, without thinking about trying to remember.

Children learn best when their Mom and Dad are excited about what they are learning.  We must not separate the parents from the English language learning process.

Children listen to their family members speak to them for two years before they begin to speak themselves. (This becomes a 3000-6000 hours of listening practice base.) Then they begin to copy whatever they hear being said.  Adults tend to repeat the same thing many times for small children.  The child memorizes, and becomes completely fluent in a small amount of the language, around 100-300 words at first, and then 600-1000 words at about four to five years of age.  This is nucleation or building a firm foundation. It creates fluency from the beginning.cavemancook

Goal:
Become fluent in what you know.
You’ll never forget it, and you’ll never regret it.

Very quickly this base becomes a handful of simple sentences, which can be used with all the words the child has learned.  After this, multiplication becomes explosive.  Three hundred words and ten sentence patterns quickly produce hundreds of sentence combinations.   All the time new words and sentences are being added.  But with the addition of each word and sentence pattern there is a multiplication effect by combining the previously memorized words and phrases.  See the graph below.

Explosive growth expansion happens in the third year and beyond.  There is no substitute for building the firm foundation base.

This is the Power of the Natural Learning Process.  Many people think the normal classroom style of studying English is still the best.  But if it is working so well, why are there so few people in Japan who speak English even to the first 1000 word level?

Kidswow fun

5 Steps to Natural Learning

one) Parent or teacher says the word, phrase, or sentence and the child listens.

two) Parent or teacher says the word, phrase, or sentence and the child repeats.

three) Parent or teacher says the word, phrase, or sentence and the child recognizes and responses by pointing, touching, or doing an action.

*At this point the child knows enough to recognize and respond, but still doesn’t really know the word, phrase, or sentence for themselves. So we continue.

four) Parent or teacher shows the picture (flash card) of the word, phrase or sentence and the child says the word, phase or sentence from memory.

If the child can not do this step quickly, back up to step two, for review and then try step four again.

five) Child says the word, phrase, or sentence from memory at will.
                     (Looking at pictures and flash cards are fine.)

At times these five steps will go quickly, within minutes. But sometimes the child gets stuck at some point, especially between step three and four. They know the word or sentence when they hear it but they can’t remember it on their own. This is not a problem, it simply means we need more practice. We have to go all the way to step five, where the child freely remembers the word, phrase, or sentence on their own.

KidsWow DVDs are prepared so the first two steps can be done by the child alone, with only a little encouragement and help from a parent or family member.

Step three, four and five can also be done at home if you down load flashcard -sheet materials for that lesson.

Never embarrass or pressure a child to speak. Give them the answer freely until they want to show you what they know.

Building confidence and the desire to learn are keys to eventually learning any language.

Children learn the best by watching their parents. In a few years your child will become just like you. If you really want them to learn English, the best way is to learn a little English with them. They want to do whatever you do. If it is important to you, it will be important to them. Learning together will build a relationship that you will share for a life time.

one ) Parent or teacher says the word, phrase, or sentence. (or watch the DVD)
*the child listens.

two) Parent or teacher says the word, phrase, or sentence. (or watch the DVD)
*the child repeats

three) Parent or teacher says the word, phrase, or sentence. (using flashcard sheet)
*the child recognizes and responses by pointing, touching, or marking

four) Parent or teacher shows the picture or flashcard, saying, “What is this?”
*the child says the word, phase or sentence from memory.

five) Child says the word, phrase, or sentence from memory at will.
(looking pictures and flash cards are find)

These five steps used over and over, are the best way I know to learn quickly and easily. Eventually the child themselves are able to do the five steps themselves as they begin to learn on their own.