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Mousetower
Full Member
Joined: 22 Apr 2008
Posts: 277
Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:16 pm
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| Hypnosis and language learning |
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I am an English teacher living in Hungary (although I am British myself), and I am interested in the possibility of using hypnosis to help my students improve their language skills. Well, alright, I’m hoping to open a revolutionary new language school and retire at 40, but I’m sure that my students will benefit along the way!
I am well aware that the learning process is largely an active one and that a student needs to expend a certain amount of effort in order to master a second language. I am also aware, as Frank so kindly pointed out in the ‘introduce yourself’ section of the site, that it is unlikely that hypnosis would implant the rules of grammar and punctuation into their heads. The situation in Hungary, however, is somewhat unusual.
All children study a language (usually English) at school, but they learn a kind of theoretical version of it, so that at the end of their studies, the more gifted students have a good vocabulary, a knowledge of grammar that would put most of us to shame, and the ability to read and write quite adequately. What they lack is the ability to speak. Hungarian students are simply not encouraged to speak their target language. Strange but true.
So, here’s the question. Do you think that it would be possible to coax their strong passive knowledge of the English language into becoming an active knowledge through hypnosis?
As far as I can see, many of my students have a mental block on speaking, and when they do speak, they trip themselves up all the time by over-thinking what they are doing. I base this observation on the fact that most of them can speak much more fluently when they are drunk. Of course, when they are drunk, they talk utter nonsense, but it’s fluent nonsense in English. If it were possible to eliminate the element of drunkenness, I feel certain that they would be well on their way to possessing some useful language skills, and that I would be on my way to sipping cocktails by the pool.
What do you think? (Be gentle with me, I’m quite new to this!) |
HarryLime
Junior Member
Joined: 10 Apr 2008
Posts: 27
Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:58 pm
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Hi Mousetower,
apart from hypnosis, my guess is, that they have to stop thinking about what is right and correct. If you are always thinking about what you are doing and if it's right you'll lose all the fun.
I would encourage them to speak without thinking, let go of all the inner boundaries and self-limitations we believe are so important. If we put the fun and the game-factor back into learning, we would learn so much faster. |
Mousetower
Full Member
Joined: 22 Apr 2008
Posts: 277
Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:24 pm
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Absolutely, I couldn’t agree more. The difficulty is that the education system here doesn’t make a connection between learning and fun. It also fails to make the differentiation between paper qualifications and ability. The upshot is that people hold a view of education that suggests that tedious rote learning, uncluttered by understanding, is the best way forward. Believe me, I have worked with many students who simply don’t believe that anything fun can be in any way beneficial in a learning environment.
This is why I am looking for a way to get them to, as you say, ‘speak without thinking’. I am hoping that hypnosis may provide an answer. |
HarryLime
Junior Member
Joined: 10 Apr 2008
Posts: 27
Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:51 pm
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It's really interesting, what we all believe to be true when in fact it's the complete opposite. Everyone of us has learned so much as a child by just playing, all of us have learned at least one language without ever having attended school and yet when in school we struggle for years to remember a few words in a different language.
My guess is, we need to change the style of learning and find, how much fun it really is to learn something new and important. (Is this hypnotic language?) 
So maybe that would be a way of teaching, using hypnotic language, without officially hypnotising them, but reminding them, of how easy it was for them as a child to learn so many things every single day, without ever thinking about it consciously.
What does it matter, if we fail? It's a sign of not being there yet. So do it again and again until it works. Easy.
If something is not working, do something else. I can imagine you being very successful with this approach. |
FrankMurphy
Preferred Member
Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 478
Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:15 pm
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Hi Mousetower,
Why are you teaching students who are drunk?!!
We all think when we speak, the difference between people who are fluent in a language and those who are not is that the thinking in a fluent persons mind is done by their sub-conscious.
It's the same with most things, but take driving for example;
When we start to learn, we are consciously incompetent, we are paying conscious attention to what we are doing, but are still incompetent.-We pay attention to pressing the clutch in time but still stall the engine.
After a while, we become subconsciously incompetent, we do things more naturally without conscious thought, but are still incompetent.We press the clutch at the right time without even thinking, but still stall.
After this stage, when we are able, we become unconsciously competent, we don't have to consciously think about what we are doing and can do it automatically. We press the clutch and maintain control.
It is the same with most things, at the moment your students are consciously incompetent, because they haven't repeated the action often enough. And until they get, and are given the confidence to try they will remain consciously incompetent.
You need to find a way of getting them to the stage where they will talk with you or each other, without paying so much conscious attention to what they are saying, regardless of whether it makes perfect sense,-that can come later.
I think the best way to get them used to speaking in the language they are being taught is to stop ALL conversation in their mother tongue from the second they step into your classroom. Take the emphasis off learning, -play games, word searches, scrabble, hangman etc. have fun, but in English.
That's the way you learned to speak your language,-it was present in every communication with your parents, family etc, and through the repitition you picked it up bit by bit.
You eventually got to a point where you were unconsciously competent, even though you didn't make an ounce of sense, you didn't feel conscious of talking. Aim for that with your pupils, the rest will come!
Hows about doing an 'experiment' with them at the beggining of the lesson? Do a magnetic hands or heavy hand light hand routine with them, and whilst talking tell them how much less self conscious they will feel in your room, how much they will consciously remember of your lesson etc, don't have to say it's hypnosis!
Have you heard of brain gym?
Sorry for droning on!!
Frank  [/b] |
Mousetower
Full Member
Joined: 22 Apr 2008
Posts: 277
Thu Apr 24, 2008 10:26 am
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Thanks guys!
Just to clear something up though, I am not talking about using hypnosis with my existing children, rather using it as a fresh approach with new students who will come to me specifically for that purpose. The idea is to advertise a new approach to learning to speak English.
As I said before, I meet many many people who have a strong passive knowledge of the langugae (that is they have a great deal of knowledge stored in such a way that they are unable to access it). The problem is that they find the whole idea of speaking it, and being seen (or heard, I suppose) to make mistakes, that they keep on tripping themselves up and therefore tend not to speak it unless they are absolutely forced to do so.
If the fear of making a mistake was reduced in some way and the students felt enabled to concentrate more on communicating than being gramatically perfect, I think that they would progress with their studies much better. I am looking for a hypnotic way of aiding this transition.
Having taught in various positions for the last 8 years, I am well versed in how the learning process occurs. My question is whether or not hypnosis could be the key to breaking down the barriers and helping people to convert their passive knowledge of the langugae into an active one?
Being pretty new to hypnosis, I thought I would put the question to you guys and see what you came up with. |
FrankMurphy
Preferred Member
Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 478
Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
Fri Apr 25, 2008 6:44 pm
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Good Idea Ant....but he wont achieve his goal of getting them speaking English as quickly!!
Frank |
satanstoystore
MVP
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 7637
Location: seattle
Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:06 pm
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I like ants suggestion. Also, when I was studying Japanese I trained my internal dialogue to speak in Japanese instead. And to use funny sentences to retain grammar structure. |
Mousetower
Full Member
Joined: 22 Apr 2008
Posts: 277
Sun Apr 27, 2008 10:31 am
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Thanks for all the input guys. I've recently found a fairly dubious volunteer for my language learning experiments, so I will let you know what happens when I finally persuade him to actually take part, rather than just saying yes and then postponing.
Living where I do, in a small village just off the Romanian and Ukrainian borders, people tend to look at this sort of thing with a little suspicion. This is great on on hand, in that I can become a local legend by performing a few magic tricks in the local pub, but no so great when I want to get anyone involved in anything that's a bit more hands on. Does anyone have any ideas about how I can reduce the 'scary' aspect without diminishing expectations?
One last point is that if you ever find yourselves in Hungary, telling everyone that they are French will most likely see you (or at least part of you) hanging from the nearest tree!! 
Again, thanks for your input. |
jklunder
New Member
Joined: 30 Apr 2008
Posts: 1
Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:05 pm
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In "Rapid Inductions: Read and Post Here"
satanstoystore
Senior Member
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 5665
Location: seattle
"is a pre-talk necessary to dispel someone’s fears about hypnosis?"
I think it's a good idea b/c even if they say they aren't afraid- they might have misconceptions. So you can say, "well I am glad you're confident hypnosis now can only be good for you. so you must already know that there's no way you'd give up any secrets, or do anything against your ethics/morals etc...knowing that certainly makes one feel much more relaxed. Now, here's a nice comfotrable chair, please sit all the way down into a trance..." |
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