A good memory is a component of many factors. Unfortunately, human memory does not always work optimally. There are indeed many factors that can affect memory, which can reduce your performance and slow down or even block your development in language learning.
Concentration and attentiveness
Focusing attention on the information we are trying to remember is key. Distractions can lead to difficulty remembering. When studying, create an environment that will support your focus. For example, don’t study in front of a TV that will tempt you with a series to watch. Also, turn off, or mute, your phone to avoid external distractions. Interestingly, studies show that a small detail like changing the place where you study has a beneficial effect on memorization. So next time, instead of sitting at home, try going to your favorite coffee shop and repeating the material there.
Stress
High levels of stress can negatively affect concentration, as well as the ability to remember. Psychology and medicine have for years highlighted the disastrous effects of long-term stress on the body, as well as its impact on cognitive abilities. Relaxation and techniques to help manage stress can help improve memory ability. So if you’re feeling tense before you sit down to study, go for a short walk or practice mindful breathing methods.
Emotions
If a piece of information is associated with strong emotions and experiences, remembering it is usually easier. If you’re learning vocabulary that means nothing to you, you may have more difficulty remembering than, for example, when you learn vocabulary related to a topic you’re passionate about, or phrases you might use on an upcoming trip you’ve been looking forward to for a long time.
Age
As you age, your ability to remember things can deteriorate. This doesn’t mean that older people can’t have a good memory; however, they need to work on it by exercising and taking care of their brains. It’s also worth remembering that while memorization in general may become more difficult with age, and thus learning a language will be more challenging, there are elements of memory that work better with age. Learn more about this topic by reading the article “Is it possible to learn a language at any age?“.
Sleep and overall health
Your lifestyle, including an adequate amount of sleep, a healthy diet and regular physical activity, has a huge impact on brain function and memory capacity. Take advantage of this consciously: for example, after learning new material, make sure you devote enough time to sleep. This will give your brain time to process the information and transfer it from short-term to long-term memory.
Context
Putting information in context makes it easier to remember. If you understand the meaning of the information, it will be easier for you to remember it. In Taalhammer you have the option to create your own collections of sentences and words. This is a very simple thing that gives you incredible results.
If you have experienced something exciting, enter a few sentences about it in our application. In Taalhammer we offer you a specially designed Creator, which we power by AI, which will make it easy to create any examples, even complicated ones. With repetition in the next lesson with the teacher, you will be able to use these sentences fluently and talk about the whole situation. The emotional context will make remembering these phrases much easier and the transfer to long-term memory much shorter. Before you know it you will have a whole set of such stories, which you will tell over and over again to different people, expanding, nuancing and adding more and more details. In this way, you’ll be learning the language in the context you particularly need.