Speech is silver, Silence is golden.
When learning a language, we want to be exposed as much as possible to the target language. As learners we want to listen to podcasts and lessons, read books, watch movies, … and thanks to the different methods available we have the opportunity to learn French fast. When learning a language, immersion seems to be the best thing to do to be efficient but contrary to this, being silent and stop studying is also a good way to improve. I’ll try to explain this here.
Like dreams, your brain needs time to organize inputs of the day. Silence is essential so that your brain can work unconsciously by itself. It’s not only powerful, but it’s also absolutely necessary to use the silent in the learning process.
Silence is not only the opposite of noise, but it’s also the time we spend between learning sessions, time without being in contact with the target language.
If you stored enough of the target language within a specific time, when you stop studying the silence will create noise. Not a random noise but a noise in the target language. That’s a very powerful way to start creating and stop being passive.
You need to trick your brain to create an habit and then stop it. Brain and body are clever but if you know how they work you can trick them. When you stop a habit, the brain or body wants to keep having it. That’s exactly the same process when you start a diet or stop smoking but using it backwards. You want your body and brain to be addicted to the language and to the habit of hearing it so when you stop it, your brain will create sentences in French by itself.
I’m not talking about studying silently or mouth closed (you must do the opposite!), but to have a break in your studies filled with silence of French language. No French language allowed in input.
That’s also why I think studying early in the morning can help to start a good day and have some French words or French sentences still sounding in your head along the day!
Adding to that, it’s important to get the feeling of something new to stay fresh and motivated in the learning process. Stop yourself to hurry on learning French and take a step back, it will aslo feel better when coming back at it!
French speech is silver, silence is golden. Chuuuuuut!