★A Few Reminders at the Beginning #
◇About “Essence” #
First, remember that language is not “learned” through conscious study, but is “acquired” naturally through use and immersion. It is not static knowledge, but dynamic practice. In the process of language learning, there is no absolute “know” or “don’t know”—only ever-deepening understanding and application.
The optimal solution for language learning is to spend most of your time engaging with language content, understanding and trying to express, and only a small portion of time on memorizing words and grammar.
◇About “Traps” #
A common pitfall in language learning: staying with beginner resources for too long and fearing to enter the real language environment, thinking you should “be ready” before practicing.
However, language learning is like climbing a mountain: just weaving ropes (studying theory) won’t get you to the summit; only actual climbing (practical use) leads to mastery. Early exposure to real contexts enables you to adapt and improve your comprehension quickly.
◇About “Immersion” #
The breadth and complexity of language far exceed what classrooms or apps can teach. These methods often try to teach language using formulas like “X equals Y” or “X is used for Y,” but this is not enough for learners to reach a high level.
Therefore, the core of language learning is “immersion”—that is, as much reading of native content and listening to native speakers as possible.
Language acquisition is essentially the process of subconsciously remembering language patterns through comprehensible input. When you encounter understandable content during immersion, your brain automatically stores these patterns for future retrieval and use.
Technically, this is called “input,” but I prefer the term “immersion.”
When you are familiar enough with a language, all of this becomes almost effortless. You not only understand the meaning of words, but also the logical relationships between sentences, and can even sense the tone and formality of an article—all thanks to your brain continually storing and recalling language patterns encountered in your reading.
Notice, I did not mention “mastering grammar” or “memorizing vocabulary.” Because using a language does not depend on consciously analyzing grammar rules, but on extensive immersion and intuitive response. Many non-native speakers may have studied grammar, but when they encounter the language in daily life, their understanding does not rely on actively recalling rules, but on the natural cognitive patterns formed through long-term accumulation.
★Three Core Skills of Language Comprehension #
◇Phoneme Discrimination (Bottom-Up) #
Different languages have very different sound systems. For example, English speakers learning Chinese may find it hard to distinguish “yīng” (eagle) and “yīn” (sound). Even if they have learned the theory, their brains still struggle to distinguish these subtle differences in real conversations. This shows that knowledge and ability are two different things; just learning pronunciation rules does not enable the brain to automatically recognize phonemes—this skill must be developed through extensive listening practice.
◇Adapting to Connected Speech and Phonological Changes (Bottom-Up) #
In natural conversation, words are not pronounced as clearly as in writing. For example, in spoken English, “don’t + you” often becomes “don-chew,” and “want + to” becomes “wanna.” Similar phenomena are common in French, Spanish, and other languages. If learners do not get enough listening input, their brains will still expect words to appear in standard written form, leading to difficulty understanding speech.
⚠️Note:
By “bottom-up,” I mean starting from the sounds you notice, then putting them together to see what word they form.
/k/ + /æ/ + /t/ → cat
But because spoken language is often very ambiguous… bottom-up processing alone is usually not enough to identify the words being spoken.
◇Using Context to Infer Meaning (Top-Down) #
Phonological ambiguity means that multiple words or phrases have the same pronunciation. For example, in English, “bat” might mean a baseball bat or a flying mammal, and “I got a letter” and “I let her go” can sound similar in connected speech. Learners need to rely on context to infer the correct meaning, and this inferencing ability can only be developed through extensive listening in real situations.
★How to Effectively Improve Language Comprehension #
- Extensive listening input: Practice listening to your target language for hours every day, even if you don’t understand at first.
- Listen to native conversations: Choose original podcasts, movies, TV series, etc. without subtitles to train your brain to adapt to real speech.
- Imitate native pronunciation: Use shadowing and similar methods to improve your recognition and pronunciation skills.
- Infer meaning from context: Avoid translating word for word; instead, try to understand the overall meaning of sentences.