Not all ways of speaking and learning English are the same.
Think about this for a moment: There is listening to a song in English on the radio. And then there is singing along with the lyrics to that same song.
One is having contact with the song and another is engaging with the song.
But does it matter which one you are doing? Isn’t all contact with English the same? In this blog post, I will walk you through exactly what involved learning means and looks like and get you started doing it today. If you’re ready to take language action, keep reading!
Speaking and learning English in an involved way
Going back to our example of listening to a song versus singing a song with lyrics, let’s break that down into even more options because, of course, there aren’t only two choices for how to learn with songs.
There is also singing along to the song. Maybe you mumble over the words you don’t know and continue on with your day. At that point, you haven’t learned the words you mumbled over earlier. The next time the song comes on, you might understand more words or you might continue to misunderstand those lyrics.
Now imagine that you decide to spend 30 seconds looking for the lyrics. After you find them, you skim them until you locate the words you didn’t know. Aha! There they are. You repeat each unknown lyric one by one. Now you have a better chance of remembering those words next time you hear the song.
You could take it further and write some lyrics in a notebook. Which lyrics were hard to remember? Did you have trouble understanding any of them? Write those down. Which lyrics were your favorite? Write those down.
Even still, you could take an extra 2 minutes and go find the song online and listen to it again and sing along with the lyrics. No mumbling over unknown words this time!
Little by little, you have taken different steps to become more or less involved with using a song to enhance your English learning.
Why this matters when you’re speaking and learning English: detached VS involved learning
Using our song example, detached learning is hearing a song in English playing on the radio.
You don’t need to put effort into doing it. It simply happens.
And if you’re still wondering what detached learning is, perhaps you’ve seen it called passive learning. Either way, it’s when you have contact with the language you’re learning without engaging with it. Basically, you’re hanging out with the language like any fluent user would.
So, you are spending time with the language. A song comes on the radio as you’re washing dishes and you hear it in the background. You are getting used to hearing the language, seeing it, being around it, and making it part of your regular life.
All of that is a super important part of language learning and connecting with the language, but it can’t be all you do when you are still working on becoming more fluent. It’s not enough to reach your English fluency goals.
Detached learning is for maintaining. It’s valuable, so keep doing it, just be cautious that it’s not the only thing you do.
Involved learning, on the other hand, is using the song lyrics to sing along.
You do it with intention. You engage with the language word by word. Above all, you take concrete action.
Involved learning is where English fluency progress happens.
This one you might also know as active learning and the big difference between involved learning and detached learning is your level of engagement.
When you’re involved with your English learning, you’re looking up words, writing down words, and using those words. It’s not simply being around it. You are using the language.
Becoming involved in your learning is what turns forgotten vocabulary into memorized terms or a repeated error into a solid correction. Involved learning provides you with the essential elements that help you improve your English fluency.
Can you turn ¼ of your weekly contact with English into involved learning?
I’m making the assumption that you have contact with English 4 times a week. 😏 Contact can be as simple as writing your grocery list in English and as in-depth as watching all 3 hours of Avatar 2.
There are many ways to quickly and easily add involved learning into the regular contact you have with English. Be creative and have fun with it!
Let the ideas below inspire even more ideas that will fit your personality, time constraints, and overall lifestyle.
Literature
- Detached learning: Reading a book in English.
- Involved learning: Take a line from the book and dissect it. What grammar did they use? Can you think of any synonyms or antonyms for any terms in the line you selected?
Movies and TV
- Detached learning: Watching a movie in English.
- Involved learning: Keep a notebook beside you as you watch and write down appealing terms. Be sure to use them later! If you like creative ways to engage your listening and grow your English Fluency, check out Listen, Read, Speak.
Writing
- Detached learning: Sending a typed message to an English-speaking pal.
- Involved learning: Rereading your message and rewriting it to add an idiom, more complex grammar, or a new expression you recently learned.
Let’s brainstorm more ideas!
General Games
- Detached learning: Playing the party game Taboo.
- Involved learning: Keep the cards with the vocabulary terms you want to remember in a pile next to you so you can write them down to use again in the future.
Listening
- Detached learning: Going for a walk and listening to a podcast.
- Involved learning: Send yourself voice notes connected to what was said in the podcast.
My favorite, speaking!
- Detached learning: Speak English with someone.
- Involved learning: Repeat the conversation in a voice note to yourself later and relisten to it.
Culinary
- Detached learning: Following a recipe in English.
- Involved learning: Tell me how you would turn this into a more involved learning experience in the comments! I can’t wait to hear what ideas you have to share.
Final Thoughts
Every bit of contact you make with English is worthwhile, whether it’s detached or involved. When you are looking to make more progress, test out adding more involved learning and see how it goes.
Learning takes time, and the more balance you have of both detached and involved learning in your weekly language learning, you’ll gradually achieve the English fluency you’re working toward.
