Are you going around in circles on a plateau with your learning?

Do you get ‘brain freeze’ when you’re trying to have conversations in French. 

Now, don’t worry -  It’s understandably hard to work out how to get off a learning plateau, so today, we’ll dive into a closer look at how some decent feedback can shift you off it:

🇫🇷 What effective feedback looks like

🇫🇷 The effect it has on your confidence and therefore how you speak French

🇫🇷 How to get off that learning plateau

About that plateau. You’re not alone - it happens to everyone in one way or another. So, one great way is to apply what you learn and then get creative with it. Easier said than done. 

One way is by doing an Immersive Homestay, which can really help you bust through the learning and confidence plateau. So, I made you a bunch of essential questions to ask when considering doing one. After all, you want to get off that plateau, don’t you?

Why instant feedback is essential in your learning:

Now, about that feedback.

Getting valuable, instant feedback can make a massive difference to your learning. Not only does it stop you from creating bad grammar and pronunciation habits, but it also guides you forwards faster with your French conversations.

Learning is not enough.

Learning is not just about memorising, though, as plateau people sometimes seem to think: it needs multiple methods of input to consolidate it. If we just cram, then we forget what we are trying to memorise.  And then, just when you get the chance to speak to a French person, your mind goes blank, your brain freezes and there’s no way you’re going to get the instant recall you’ve been craving for. 

Learning is an active process.

Take a peek at Bloom’s Taxonomy, for example, which was originally published in 1956, and revised as late as 2001 to help us shift our understanding of how learning is an active process and not just a simple process of memorising.

I have adapted it, by changing it to a ‘speak’onomy, since I like to focus on speaking French confidently. It’s where I derive the energy to take new vocabulary and actually work out what to DO with it, rather than just fill my head with STUFF that somehow, does NOT help me in spontaneous conversations. 

I mean, do you make big lists of vocabulary and try to learn them, only to get super frustrated when you forget them in spontaneous conversations.  That slow recall can really eat into your confidence, especially given the amount of time you’ve spent stuffing those words into your head in the first place.  

Context is essential to memorise. 

So, remembering is important, but you have to process the words, in context, to start making them stick.  Looking at Bloom’s here, well, it’s pretty obvious you have to remember and understand your words. I’ll forgive you for first doing what we all do, and that’s translating new words, but we then have to use them somewhere. Yet if you’re constantly translating, you’re actually slowing yourself down. 

How do you learn?

Take a look at HOW you’re learning and you’re analysing how you’re learning, What got you here though, might well not get you speaking more fluently, and a tiny tweak in how you learn might just help those words pop out when you want them. 

How? Well, it’s important to analyse and evaluate how you learn, and I would like to highlight the two words - applying and creating. 

These two actions can take the heavy lifting out of that laborious memorising circle you’re in. 

How you apply depends on what you like to do. But also take yourself slightly out of your comfort zone as well, so that your brain pays attention to it. Too easy and you’ll not make a difference: you’ll forget again. 

I say, make a fuss of it somehow.  Create yourself some sentences that make sense to you in your life. Something you’d like to say.  And FEEL it, feel it strongly.  No banal stuff that will slip through your interest filter. Make it juicy and enjoy it.

Get feedback as soon as possible to progress.

Then . . . we finally get to where we started . . . GET SOME FEEDBACK and the sooner the better. 

The longer you leave things between creating sentences, the more you are consolidating, possibly incorrect learning. So you need to know, you need to have the conversation about how it all works. You need synonyms and their opposites. You need to set it into context and play with the tenses and the people who are saying the words. 

And then you really need to know if you’re right. 

This is really easy if you’re on an Immersive Homestay with your teacher, who is going to help you apply your new knowledge. You’ll make great strides ahead and get to use those words with greater frequency throughout the week. 

Tips to learn on your own.

But in general, you’re on your own.  What do you do? 

So, I suggest you run your creations by a French neighbour, a friend, a teacher or native French people in a Facebook group, for example. People really love to help. Don’t worry about the frequency of it - your learning becomes the learning for others too, and the array of answers will only serve to get you thinking about what you are doing - back to the analysis again.  

All this seeming ‘fuss’ helps it stick in your head. You’ll agree with people, see people disagreeing and form your own opinions. But at least, the process helps deepen your knowledge. It’s like working in a different way - a more spontaneous voyage of discovery than just repeating the same thing over and over again. 

That said, instant feedback also gives you a chance to be corrected and to work out how to say things correctly - you’ll get help with pronunciation, intonation and how the whole phrase will sound in context. You’ll be using a different part of your brain instead of your English brain and be practising your best French accent on local people too. 

You’ll not embed any errors and be able to shift it up a learning notch as you adapt to what you are creating and evolve in the light of the support in front of you. 

Why constructive feedback matters.

But what actually is ‘effective feedback’? 

It’s when you feel comfortable enough to have a go and try out something new, and you’re encouraged to keep going.  And when you do, you know you’re making progress. It doesn’t matter how fast, you just keep practising and getting to know where you’re right or where you can improve. This positivity is a virtuous circle of confidence-building positivity. You’ll enjoy your learning and remember far more easily. You’ll also learn in context. And if on an Immersive Homestay, then in situ as well. 

Why The Real © Method

Now that’s far more fun than trying to cram! Especially if what you’re creating is REAL - Rewarding, Effective and Adventurous learning - use these words in the context of your own life. Visualise yourself using them for real. And enjoy them popping up in subsequent conversations. 

Why How to avoid “brain freeze”.

In the book “The Rules of Revision”, Liam Porritt explains that to avoid what I call this ‘brain freeze’ you need to be rehearsed enough to be able to recall things automatically, and yet also quick enough to be able to do something with it under fast demand. He knows that you want to succeed so badly, yet unless you are rehearsed, then it won’t come out. I add that you also have to be rehearsed in spontaneity, which is why instant feedback is going to make a huge difference. Get that instant feedback on your creative applications from somewhere! 

3 Creative ways to help you off the plateau:

So take the heavy lifting out of your vocabulary learning and shift into being creative. Think of that Bloom’s taxonomy of learning and make sure you get instant recall by shifting off that bottom level there. 

1. Use pertinent feedback to make fast progression; 
2. Use Immersive experiences to increase the frequency of your conversations; 
3. Use Immersive Homestays to have a week of you in the spotlight to become comfortable with what you are creating, confident to say it and to get that all valuable instant feedback. 

A quick reminder - I made you a bunch of essential questions to ask when considering doing one. After all, you want to get off that plateau, don’t you? Help yourself by clicking Immersive Homestay in the description. It’s packed with things to think about!

Should you have any questions about the topic or about the homestay experience, feel free to contact me - it would be my pleasure to help you !