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English is not a knowledge set to be memorized; rather it is a skill to be trained. Use of passive learning of separate language components is less efficient than modern active learning of all components concurrently.
Let’s consider why the common belief about no shortcuts has penetrated the belief system of teachers and educators. All traditional methods of teaching English consider language as information to be remembered. They dissect the language into individual components and teach reading, writing, pronunciation, speaking, and grammar separately. In this environment of passive learning, a learner needs to spend four or five years of hard work to speak fluently.
We spend years in school learning a lot of subjects. Schools teach most subjects using textbooks, lectures, notes, memorization, and tests. The only problem is that language skills cannot be learned in this way, any more than you can learn to play the guitar or drive a car by reading or even memorizing the instruction manuals. That is why after learning English for three-plus years, you are still not able to communicate in it fluently. English is not a knowledge set to be memorized; rather it is a skill to be acquired by practicing under guided instruction or by using mobile application with the new pedagogy of active learning. The problem is that active learning was invented only recently and is unknown to teachers or educators. Google contains only eight references on “active learning of English skills,” and they all point to the Language Bridge Technology.
According to the Learning Pyramid, we remember about 20% of what we hear. Speaking more, by itself, will not improve your vocabulary and grammar; actually, it can make things worse. To acquire language patterns and intuitive grammar - it is not enough to speak because you are just practicing what you already know. Some teachers think that because their learners spend 80% of class time speaking in English, they use active learning method. However, in reality, only one person speaks at a time, and the rest of the class passively listens to the peers speaking in broken English.
The learning becomes active when each learner spends 80% of class time speaking in English. It seems that we have reached a dead end. How on earth could you have all learners to speak all the time? No conventional method allows for that.
However, the unconventional method called the Language Bridge Technology (LBT) allows exactly this — active training of English skills. To learn English effectively, it is not enough to read or listen or write or speak – all those skills should be practiced concurrently while a learner understands the context and is emotionally involved in it. LBT achieves this objective by using android application that introduces speech shadowing of lessons and drills that all learners wearing headsets perform at the same time. This allows the brain to remember language patterns and intuitive grammar, and prepare it for thinking and speaking in English. Each learner, using the LBT application, speaks 80% of the time in class about familiar situations and concepts they understand. The application provides support in Mandarin when the learner needs it, but the main experience is in English.
The application lets learners share recorded sessions with friends or with a teacher. Three types of texts are used in every lesson:
Pre-recorded lessons on various topics and drills, which ensure training of language skills instead of memorizing vocabulary lists or grammar rules.
Lessons added by a learner or a teacher, thus making the application interactive and suited for vocational training.
Inspirational poem recorded by a native speaker, which allows learners to re-enact an understandable situation in English.
