{"id":20110,"date":"2024-10-23T14:10:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T06:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/?p=20110"},"modified":"2024-10-23T14:10:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T06:10:05","slug":"the-impact-of-immersive-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/2024\/10\/the-impact-of-immersive-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"The Impact of Immersive Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does it surprise you to know that only around a third of British people speak a second language? This, combined with the fact that a third of Brits actually grow up in bilingual households, should give you an idea of how good native English speakers are at learning languages. <\/span><\/p>\n

Most British students do learn a language at school, but they start late (typically at age 11) and stop quickly (only half of students take a language GCSE at 16). I started French classes in primary school, but a couple of hours a week learning words I didn\u2019t practise at any other time didn\u2019t have much impact. At secondary school, I studied German, and though I got an A* at GCSE, I could never confidently communicate, and I forgot the language almost immediately. <\/span><\/p>\n

As an adult, I\u2019ve spent extended periods of time in Italy, Madagascar, and Hong Kong, but my Italian, Malagasy and Cantonese are all at very different levels. In fact, the language I spent the longest in contact with (Cantonese), is the one I know the least. I lived in Hong Kong for eight years, but I can just about direct a taxi, order food, and count small numbers of things. Although I only spent eight months in Madagascar, I learned more of that language than I have of any other. The reason for this is that in Hong Kong, I was surrounded by English, while in Madagascar, the local language was my only option.<\/span><\/p>\n

Immersive language learning is a great way to get out of your comfort zone. In Hong Kong, I could always find someone to help me in English, so I had no incentive to learn the tones and characters needed to communicate. However, in Madagascar, I quickly bought a dictionary and carried it along on every shopping trip. Taking half an hour to point and check words with shopkeepers wasn\u2019t fun at all, so I was pushed to learn words, then sentences, then enough language to have a meaningful conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few years after my time in Madagascar, I took a sabbatical in Italy. I\u2019d done a tour of the big cities while at university, and the tourist trail had barely given me any opportunity to practise the few words of Italian I knew. However, on my sabbatical, I would be staying in tiny villages, where locals were unlikely to speak English fluently. My experience with immersive language learning in Madagascar gave me a confidence my school experience never had. I studied before my Italian adventure, and I made the effort to speak with my kind, elderly neighbour there every single day. Though she didn\u2019t know a word of English, we were able to chat a little, and I was eager to keep learning in order to communicate with her. <\/span><\/p>\n

In my experiences with immersive learning, I not only improved my language skills, but also my enthusiasm. Practising words from a book, even when there were exam grades on the line, wasn\u2019t nearly as effective as the authentic experience of immersive learning. <\/span><\/p>\n

Each summer, i-Learner students can take part in immersive study experiences in the UK, either in an Oxford college or a traditional British boarding school. Details on the courses and applications are <\/span><\/i>here<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does it surprise you to know that only around a third of British people speak a second language? This, combined with the fact that a third of Brits actually grow up in bilingual households, should give you an idea of how good native English speakers are at learning languages. Most British students do learn a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":20111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[772,922],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20110"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20113,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20110\/revisions\/20113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i-learner.edu.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}