LEARNING THROUGH THE PASSIONS

Camila de Souza Lopes

The knowledge of languages is considered one of the keys to success. In the globalized world, this kind of knowledge has become very important, especially in the business market. In a job interview, the fluent speaker of a foreign language will probably be the preferable choice for the vacancy. But, although it is important to learn more and more about languages, it is not easy. It requires time and motivation of the learners to practice. Unfortunately, both are quite difficult to obtain and maintain. One of the most effective solutions can be using the learner’s passions as a vehicle.      

A learner who studies according to his or her passion becomes motivated to study as much as possible. Dörnyei (2005) alleges that motivation is one of the most basic aspects of the human mind and the experts divide motivation into the two categories of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. For example, an extrinsic motivation may be represented by the business world forcing people who want to enter in the job market to know languages. But intrinsic motivation occurs when the student really wants to learn. It is something from deep inside of him or her. In this case, there is large possibility of the learner absorbing more information because it is something pleasurable to study. This is what happens with the learner’s passions.

Besides motivation, the learner’s passion increases the student’s autonomy. According to Benson (2003), learning autonomy occurs when the learner decides how he or she will study, what subject, what kind of materials will be used and the way the student will assess the learning process. Through hobbies, the student will learn researching and exploring, improving from the less complex language to the most complex language related to their hobbies. An example is the student who learns through TV series. In the beginning the student starts to watch episodes in the target language with subtitles in mother language and later the student will probably watch them with subtitles in the target language or with no subtitles. The results, of course, will depend only on the learner and the amount of time that he or she dedicates.

Another significant advantage of this way of learning is efficiency because “time is money”. The student can appropriate their free time to do something useful and save time. If the student loves to read, the book can be in the target language. If the student likes to watch films, the film can be also in the target language. If the student listens to music, the songs can be in a foreign language. In this case, the use of technology in the students favor is also important. The portable devices can be used to carry books, songs and even films in many different languages. The learners can share the media with each other in a few minutes and the knowledge will be spread with no difficulties.

In conclusion, the use of a learner’s passions as a vehicle is one of the solutions to learning a foreign language while improving the usage of student’s time and skills.  With motivation, autonomy and accessibility to the material, the learning process will be more pleasurable. As Benjamin Franklin said “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”