Hypnosis And Adult Language Acquisition

[Bobcat]

I have been living in Thailand for 5 years. I have been studying Thai the entire time, albeit only for 3 hours per week. I now thik that I have a good foundation in the language and can function quite well in both spoken and written Thai. I have felt for quite some time that I need to push myself to the next level - as I have felt that I haven't really improved much over the last 12 months or so. I was talking to a friend of mine who is a professor of linguistics specializing in adult acquisition of second languages. He mentioned to me that recently people have been looking at the possibility of accessing the language learning functionality of the brain through hypnosis and auto-suggestion. The language learner is put under hypnosis and suggestions are made about the way in which the subject will retain and use the target language. It appears that new words are retained much more easiliy and are able to be used more accurately following these hypnosis sessions.

Has anyone ever heard about anthing like this before? Of course, there is no substitution for immersion in a language, but anything that may push me along is of great interest.

Cheers,

Bob

[et33.com]

what yea mean

the next level

try listening to local broadcast all day long

100 percent sure to get """hippotised"""

[sabaijai]

There are various theories on this, even a full-fledged method (Suggestopedia) at one time. If you google 'hypnosis' and 'second language acquisition' you'll find plenty of writings about it. I don't think it has been well-studied, that is, I don't think there have been many, if any, empirical studies checking the reliability and validity of hypnosis in such a context.

But worth a try, I'd say, as long as it's not a costly experiment.

I have been living in Thailand for 5 years.  I have been studying Thai the entire time, albeit only for 3 hours per week.  I now thik that I have a good foundation in the language and can function quite well in both spoken and written Thai.  I have felt for quite some time that I need to push myself to the next level - as I have felt that I haven't really improved much over the last 12 months or so.  I was talking to a friend of mine who is a professor of linguistics specializing in adult acquisition of second languages.  He mentioned to me that recently people have been looking at the possibility of accessing the language learning functionality of the brain through hypnosis and auto-suggestion.  The language learner is put under hypnosis and suggestions are made about the way in which the subject will retain and use the target language.  It appears that new words are retained much more easiliy and are able to be used more accurately following these hypnosis sessions.

Has anyone ever heard about anthing like this before?  Of course, there is no substitution for immersion in a language, but anything that may push me along is of great interest.

Cheers,

Bob

Edited December 1, 2004 by sabaijai