Learning Science
How the brain learns — and how to apply it to language and life.
The articles in this section are written and synthesised by AI from published research in the fields of learning science and linguistics.
The sources for each article are listed at the end of the piece — do read them, both for a fuller grounding and to satisfy yourself as to their reliability.
Where your first language helps, and where it gets in the way
People talk about the mother tongue interfering with a new language. The reality is more interesting: Vietnamese hands y...
The affective filter: what emotion really does to language learning
You understand the passage at home, and in front of the class your mind goes blank. Stephen Krashen called it the affect...
Fossilization: Why Some Errors Stop Improving — and How to Get Unstuck
Why do certain errors survive years of practice untouched? Selinker called it fossilization — the point where an interla...
How Much Does Your Mother Tongue Matter for Learning a Foreign Language?
A foreign language is not built on empty ground but on the foundation of the one you already speak. How literacy, concep...
Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing: What Order Should Children and Adults Learn Them In?
The four skills have a natural order — the one every child follows: listening, speaking, reading, writing, built on the...
When to Start a Child on a Foreign Language — and Why It Should Be Play, Not Study
When should a child begin a second language, and how? Earlier is better for accent — but the early years call for playin...
Why AI and Language Teachers Each Have Their Own Beauty, According to the Science of Learning
App or teacher, AI or human? The science of learning dissolves the rivalry. Learning is half cognition and half heart —...
The Hardest Parts of Chinese for Vietnamese Learners
Vietnamese speakers start Chinese with deep advantages — but not a free pass. The genuine hard points: the characters, r...
The Hardest Parts of English for Vietnamese Learners
English trips Vietnamese speakers at predictable points — exactly where the two languages are built differently. The har...