We all learn differently. Not all of us have the same capacity to absorb certain topics, or be focused the same way. And when it comes to learning a second language it is even harder!
I am talking from an adult perspective here. However, it seems that if we exercise maybe, just maybe we can make the learning of a second language easier than if we did not!
So …yes you guessed it…a new study says working out during a language class amplifies people’s ability to memorise, retain and understand new vocabulary.
In recent years, studies have shown that we learn differently if we also exercise.
Students, for example, are shown to perform better on academic tests if they take part in some kind of physical activity during the school day.
Many scientists suspect that exercise alters the biology of the brain in ways that make it more malleable and receptive to new information, a process that scientists refer to as plasticity.
But many questions have remained unanswered about movement and learning, including whether exercise is most beneficial before, during or after instruction and how much and what types of exercise might be best.
A new study published in the world’s first multidisciplinary Open Access journal, PLOS ONE, which accepts scientifically rigorous research, regardless of novelty, shows exercise does help.
As young children, almost all of us pick up our first language easily. We do not have to be formally taught; we simply absorb words and concepts.
But by early adulthood, the brain generally begins to lose some of its innate language capability. It displays less plasticity in areas of the brain related to language. As a result, for most of us, it becomes harder to learn a second language after childhood.
To see what effects exercise might have on this process, researchers from China and Italy, first recruited 40 college-age Chinese men and women who were trying to learn English. The students had some facility with this second language, but were far from proficient.
The researchers then divided the students into two groups. Those in one group would continue to learn English as they had before, primarily while seated in rote vocabulary-memorisation sessions.
The others would supplement these sessions with exercise.
Specifically, the students would ride exercise bikes at a gentle pace (about 60 per cent of their maximum aerobic capacity) beginning 20 minutes before the start of the lessons and continuing throughout the 15 minutes or so of instruction.
Both groups learned their new vocabulary by watching words projected onto large screens, together with comparable pictures.
The students then rested briefly and then completed a vocabulary quiz, using computer keys to note as quickly as possible whether a word was with its correct picture.
The students completed eight vocabulary sessions over the course of two months.
And at the end of each lesson, the students who had ridden bikes performed better on the subsequent vocabulary tests than did the students who sat still.
They also became more proficient at recognising proper sentences than the sedentary students, although that difference did not emerge until after several weeks of instruction.
Perhaps most interesting, the gains in vocabulary and comprehension lingered longest for the cyclists. When the researchers asked the students to return to the lab for a final round of testing a month after the lessons — without practicing in the meantime — the cyclists remembered words and understood them in sentences more accurately than did the students who had not moved.
“The results suggest that physical activity during learning improves learning,” says Simone Sulpizio, a professor of psychology and linguistics at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, Italy and a study co-author.
“Instruction should be flanked by physical activity. Sitting for hours and hours without moving is not the best way to learn.”