Jeremiah: 0:04

Welcome, everybody, to another episode of How to Language, a podcast about language learning and everything that entails. I'm your host, Jeremiah, and with me is my co host, Marina. Say hi, Marina.

Marina: 0:13

Hi!

Jeremiah: 0:14

In this episode, we're going to be getting into some questions that are fundamental to the whole project of language learning. In particular, the main question we're looking at is, can you learn a language by yourself? As with most things that we talk about, the answer isn't as simple as you might think. Marina, to kick off this topic, let's start with a related question. Can you talk about your experiences with language learning by yourself, and how that compares with learning a language as part of a group?

Marina: 0:47

I think the first thing that comes to mind for me is the fact that when you're learning a language by yourself, you not only have to do the learning yourself, but you also have to kind of fill the role of the teacher and the curriculum designer and the discipliner. You take on a lot of roles that a teacher or an instructor or a peer mentor teacher would take on. And that can be difficult, depending on how much you know about the language. It's kind of like... the saying that's like, you don't know how much you don't know. And so, unless you maybe buy a textbook that guides you very, closely, it can be difficult to figure out where to start sometimes. That's been my experience. Even just knowing which textbook to get, that alone can be a difficult decision. Finding resources on your own. Understanding your own learning style. Those are all things that, you know, you're taking on more responsibilities, I guess, when you're learning a language on your own. You have to know a lot about yourself.

Jeremiah: 1:53

Absolutely. One way to look at it maybe is that, you know, when you're learning a language as part of a class or some other structure where somebody handles all of that for you, in that case, you just have one job, which is to learn the language and to do the homework, whatever. But, when you're learning by yourself, just like you just said, you have to be the learner but also the teacher in the sense that now you have two jobs. You're doing, you're doing the teacher's whole job of teaching you yourself, but you're also doing, still doing the learner's whole job, which is to learn the language. And so in that sense, you're kind of taking on, I don't know, maybe twice, maybe twice as much of the labor. And so maybe that's certainly not the only reason that people who try to learn a language by themselves don't always stick with it, but that might be part of the reason. It's just a lot more work.

Marina: 2:44

Right. You just show up to class when you're taking a class and you just kind of take it all in as much as you can.

Jeremiah: 2:50

Exactly. Somebody else creates the learning opportunities for you, at least in the class they do. They know what you don't know. Not just in the sense that they have knowledge that you don't, but they are aware of your gaps and they're aware of your level, whereas just, you know, yourself, yeah, it's hard to know what you don't know. That's kind of the whole problem. And a book can help with that, but even then it's hard to know how important different topics are. It's hard to know how difficult something is going to be before you've learned it. And so you're kind of learning, you know, blind. even if you do have a textbook, you can see what's coming, but you don't really know, you can't really grasp what it's gonna be the experience of learning it until you actually do it.

Marina: 3:33

Right. What about you? You've had quite a lot of experience with self directed learning. Do you have any takes?

Jeremiah: 3:41

hard to stick with it for kind of the reason that I said because you have to put in twice as much labor but it's also hard because like you mentioned you have to be a self discipliner and as much as you might be invested, as much as you might be motivated, it's very easy to just let yourself off the hook and be like,"well, I'll do this later. Or"I've earned a day off," even though you've just taken three day offs consecutively. It's, it's, yeah, it's easy to give yourself a pass, it's easy to say, well,"I don't feel like working on this right now, this part's a little extra hard, so I'm going to do something I find fun. Like, I find, oh, I find the grammar drills fun, so I'll just do a couple more grammar drills. I'm still studying, I'm still doing work, it's still good, I'm still learning," but, you know, if you're learning by yourself, you're not necessarily forcing yourself into uncomfortable situations, and it's in uncomfortable situations that we do our best learning, as we'll talk about.

Marina: 4:35

So... As interesting as this is, it doesn't feel like we're any closer to actually answering the question that's the title of this episode. Um, which is like, can you learn a language by yourself?

Jeremiah: 4:47

Yeah, I think, yeah, to answer that question, we're probably going to have to turn to our old friend, Theory, friend of the show, Theory, and to do that, I'll go ahead and introduce sort of the main theorist that we're going to be referring to in this episode, educational-- or child psychologist rather, by the name of Lev Vygotsky. Lev Vygotsky was a Soviet child psychologist. He was born in 1896. He lived through the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, which he was very inspired by.

Marina: 5:23

Wait, what? He was inspired by the October Revolution?

Jeremiah: 5:26

He was! As a matter of fact. Post revolutionary Russia was a time of tremendous upheaval because this empire that had been around for hundreds of years had now been overthrown, not to mention the fact that there was a lot of chaos immediately after the revolution for various reasons, that I would love to get into.[both chuckle] But it was a major era of change on every conceivable level. New ideas were being embraced and one of the important points of the October Revolution, as with many such revolutions, is a huge, huge emphasis on education, on educating people about their circumstances and just everything to do with education. Because before the Russian Revolution, most people weren't literate, and it's been the, it's been that way in many revolutions. And after the revolution, there are huge literacy campaigns, and that was the case in the October Revolution. And so, Yeah, Vygotsky was hugely, uh, inspired by this atmosphere of change and this atmosphere of emphasis on education. Vygotsky himself sort of redefined learning, in a way that wasn't just relevant to the Soviet context, but really has had a ripple effect across the entire world. He challenged ideas of solitary learning that had been dominant up to that point. The ideas that Vygotsky had about learning were, you could kind of see how they came out of the October Revolution because Vygotsky really saw that learning was more of a collective process than anything, which really fit with the collective spirit of the time of the October Revolution. And he really applied sort of a revolutionary spirit to learning. So he was more than just a product of his time, he was kind of a visionary.

Marina: 7:17

I did not know any of that. I mean, I know the name Vygotsky. He's... If you've ever taken any education class, he's like one of the first names that you learn as like a major theorist of the 20th century. But I didn't know all that background. That's really interesting.

Jeremiah: 7:32

Yeah, and as a matter of fact, that's kind of by design, because Vygotsky had a lot of really revolutionary ideas and a lot of really great ideas, that were hugely inspiring for educators all over the world. But the thing is, he also came from this milieu of actual, actual revolution, and he was a revolutionary theorist in the most realist sense of the word. And that has been, he's been sort of separated from that. He's been sort of whitewashed in that respect, for...for reasons. But, uh, I think to really understand Vygotsky, you have to understand that context. So yeah, to transition to what exactly Vygotsky's theories consisted of, why they're relevant to language learning, and also how they help answer the question, can you learn a language by yourself, I think the first thing to talk about is sociocultural theory. We won't spend a ton of time on sociocultural theory because it was really...well, it's relevant to language learning, especially in the sense that we'll talk about it later. But for Vygotsky, sociocultural theory was really a theory of how children develop. So, it's partially relevant to us, but also partially not. So we'll kind of, uh, skim over it. So as I said, sociocultural theory originally described cognitive development in children and it contrasts very sharply with individualistic theories which as I said had been pretty dominant up until that point. Learning and development, uh, in Vygotsky's view, are collective processes. They don't just happen inside the individual brain. You might say it's the system or paradigm that conditions Vygotskian approaches to teaching and learning to this day. This idea that, yes, as a matter of fact, learning and development are highly, highly social, cultural, collective processes. They don't just happen in a vacuum. So sociocultural theory says that social interaction and cultural context have a central role in shaping cognitive development. They're not just sort of happening around. They're not just interesting. They are central to how development happens in children, but also in other ways. They're central to that, and they're central to what development even means, what it looks like. Interaction with peers and adults isn't just about getting support the way that it's often sort of framed. It's like, oh, you know, you can get support, like if you're learning something new, yeah, it's good to have a support network. People who, you know, keep you accountable and support you. Vygotsky says"no, there's more to it than that." It's not just support, learning requires that. That is a fundamental aspect of learning. Learning isn't the same if you don't have others to not just support your learning, but be a part of your learning. Vygotsky really contrasts with another psychologist of the era that you'll hear a lot about in Psych 101 classes, uh, Jean Piaget. He was a contemporary of Vygotsky and he thought that children develop cognitively in predetermined stages. And that their learning follows those stages. Vygotsky said,"well, no, it's the opposite. Through social interaction, children learn how to be socially in their particular context and their cognitive development follows their learning." So for Piaget, learning follows development, for Vygotsky, development follows learning. It's maybe a little bit of a simplification, but that's just cognitive development in children. And you might be wondering,"what relevance does that have for language learners?" And really what we're talking about is language learning. It's about how children learn their first languages, which is why Vygotsky still gets talked about, especially in applied linguistics, circles, especially in the context of first language acquisition. Piaget thought that as children's brains developed, their language learning would follow that. So, for example, for a child to use words like"bigger" and"more," their brains would have to have developed to a point where they can comprehend that, where they can comprehend the concepts of"bigger" and"more." So a child couldn't learn"bigger" until their brain is at a stage where"bigger" is a thing that they can visualize and conceive of. Vygotsky argued that when children are in a supportive and interactive environment, they can advance to higher levels of language proficiency than they otherwise would. So, as a matter of fact, there are actual cases of people who were starved of interaction during childhood. And, as such, their language development was stunted. And I think this shows that language proficiency isn't just a question of brain development. Your brain can develop as fast as it wants, as much as it wants, but if you don't have that social context and that cultural context, then your linguistic powers will be stunted.

Marina: 12:09

Right, and correct me if I'm wrong, but this is why it's recommended to parents of young children to talk to their kids as much as possible, even when they're preverbal. Because, you know, talking to them, reading to them, is what helps them acquire their first language. Not just, oh, once they're like at the right age, when they're like three months old and two days,[laughs] they'll suddenly be able to start saying what well, you know what I mean.

Jeremiah: 12:39

Oh yeah, exactly. So ok, so first of all, we're not child psychologists.[laughs]

Marina: 12:50

Right, that's not really our area.

Jeremiah: 12:50

Not really our area. So I'm not gonna go ahead and say,"Oh, what determines when a child becomes verbal is how their sociocultural interaction goes. I'm not gonna say that because I don't know that, but, um, I think that there's some evidence to say, well, maybe that's a big part of it.

Marina: 12:59

Mmhmm.

Jeremiah: 13:00

And yeah, I think exactly you're right. That is why that's recommended, so, yes. So sociocultural theory sets the stage for understanding the real concept that is the whole point of this episode, which is called the Zone of Proximal Development. And this is really one of Vygotsky's most well known concepts, and I think this will help us answer the question, definitively, can you learn a language by yourself?

Marina: 13:24

We should add in the Twilight Zone theme song when you say Zone of Proximal Development. I always think of that when I...[chuckles]

Jeremiah: 13:31

That's funny.

Marina: 13:31

--When I talk about this.

Jeremiah: 13:32

I forget how that introduction goes. It's like, what does he say?

Marina: 13:36

I don't know.[laughs]

Jeremiah: 13:37

But it's like, yeah, the theme music. And he is like--

Marina: 13:39

Well it's something different every time.

Jeremiah: 13:40

Oh. It's like,[in a Rod Serling voice]"you're entering the Twilight Zone." Mm-hmm Yeah."You're entering the Zone of Proximal Development."

Marina: 13:47

Yep.

Jeremiah: 13:48

So, sociocultural theory is to the Zone of Proximal Development, or ZPD. That's how we'll refer to it going forward. Sociocultural theory is to the ZPD what the principles of thermodynamics are to the internal combustion engine. To use an analogy. I love using analogies.

Marina: 14:06

And one that I don't understand.

Jeremiah: 14:08

Well, okay, so, well, let me explain.[both laugh] What do, yeah, what do I mean by that? Sociocultural theory is the theoretical basis, but by itself it doesn't explain in concrete terms how or where learning happens. Zone of proximal development, or ZPD, is the mechanism of learning. The concrete approach that accepting sociocultural theory leads you to. So you could go back in time and teach a cave person thermodynamics, and they could, they could understand it, you know, perfectly. You could teach it to them until they're an expert on thermodynamics, but are they going to be able to build a car? No, because, yeah, because, yeah, the internal combustion engine is thermodynamics applied in a practical way. Vygotsky defined the zone of proximal development as, and I'm quoting here,"the distance between the actual developmental level of the learner as determined by independent problem solving, and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers."

Marina: 15:14

Phew!

Jeremiah: 15:15

Yeah. End quote. In simple terms, this is the distance between what you can accomplish on your own and what you can accomplish with a more capable peer or with a teacher. And according to Vygotsky, and I am inclined to agree, this is where the best learning happens. You can kind of think of it as, um, learning in the construction zone. That's a, a fun, a fun formulation because you have what you can already do by yourself, right? Stuff that you're so good at it that you don't even need help to do it. And so doing it, when you're already good enough at it that you don't need help doing it, you're not going to learn that much because you already know how to do it. You don't learn that much from doing stuff you already know how to do. And then there's stuff that you can't do unless you have somebody to help you. And so if you're by yourself, you can't do those things. And the zone between those two points, what you can do by yourself, and what you can do only when you have guidance from a more capable peer, is the construction zone. That's where you're constructing new learning. You're learning in the construction zone.

Marina: 16:18

So... Vygotsky's formulation of the ZPD says that you learn in the space between what you can do on your own and what you can do with the help of a more capable peer, or most cases a teacher. So, does that mean that the only way you can learn is if it's with people who know more than you?

Jeremiah: 16:39

That's a good question, and I. If you were to ask Vygotsky that question, uh, he would probably say yes, but since Vygotsky's time, the concept of the zone of proximal Development has been expanded. There are a number of researchers who have added different types of interactions that all allow the learner to work in the Zone of proximal Development. One such interaction is between equal peers, right? So not a more capable peer, but a peer who is about at your level. And it says that even two peers who are at relatively equal levels of knowledge can create Zones of Proximal Development for each other because, for example, maybe one peer really gets the past tense and the other has a strong command of language chunks. But, the first one maybe isn't so good at language chunks. The second one maybe isn't so good at the past tense. Even if they're both in the same class, and even if they're both ostensibly at the same level, technically, we know that what we call proficiency is actually much more nuanced than that. So, in different respects, they're more capable peers for each other.

Marina: 17:47

Interesting. It's like they're compatible. They complete each other.

Jeremiah: 17:50

Exactly. And it's always going to be like that, right? Because proficiency develops unevenly. And there are things that people are really good at, things that people aren't so good at, and it's just the way it is. You can even build your Zone of Proximal Development with less capable peers. So, Marina, we are both teachers. When you teach a class, do you find that you don't really learn anything because you already know everything? Or do you yourself find that you learn in the process of teaching?

Marina: 18:16

I definitely learn every single time Yeah. If there's were a teacher who says that they don't ever learn anything in their job, then they're not doing teaching right. I learn a lot from the process of teaching. And just like the analogy that we did a while ago with, like, grabbing the cat's tail.

Jeremiah: 18:36

Yeah.

Marina: 18:36

There's things that you learn when you teach that you can't learn in any other way. I also am constantly learning from my students. Oh yeah, it's, it's never ending.

Jeremiah: 18:46

Yeah. I've definitely had the same experience, because when you're teaching, you know, I think not only did I learn about teaching from teaching, because that's just the way it is, right? You learn what you do.

Marina: 18:57

You learn by doing.

Jeremiah: 18:57

You learn by doing. Not only that, but I learned a lot about the topics that I was teaching about. Yeah. Because I already knew a pretty decent amount about those topics. I kind of, you know, in general I had to to get the teaching jobs. But, there are always gaps. There are always things that are kind of fuzzy. And... I think that's the, that's the great part about being a teacher, but that's also part of what being a good teacher looks like, not to, you know, blow on my own trumpet, but, uh, it's treating your students not just as vessels that you're trying to fill up, but as peers, I guess, in the sense that you're learning together. And, I don't, that's not just, that's, I'm not just saying that in kind of the trendy sense of like, Oh, I'm just a facilitator and whatever, like, lifelong learners, like, that's cool and all, but no, what I'm talking about is actually, like, you're the teacher, they're the student, that's the relationship, but it's not a one way relationship.

Marina: 19:55

Some researchers have even suggested that you can work within your ZPD, even when you're alone, by using learning strategies, inner speech, which is basically talking to yourself in your head, resources in your environment, and experimentation that you've internalized. However, it's worth noting that to get these things, you still have to have that sociocultural element. So working alone in your ZPD should be seen as supplemental, but I don't know how consistently you can do it if it's all you're doing.

Jeremiah: 20:29

Yeah, so I was just gonna ask do you think that that last point kind of invalidates, or not invalidates, but, sort of inversely answers the question of can you learn a language by yourself? Like, do you think that last point is saying, well, yeah, you can learn a language by yourself, or is there more to it?

Marina: 20:44

I think you definitely can. It's not like it's impossible, but I think it's a lot harder.

Jeremiah: 20:49

Definitely a lot harder. I think you made, you made a good point there too, that, uh, to be working in your Zone of Proximal Development when you're by yourself, it's not that you don't need a teacher, you don't need a more capable peer or just a peer, it's just that you can do some of the, you can do some of the learning in the construction zone by yourself, but, to make the construction zone, you still need somebody. And that's why it's supplemental.

Marina: 21:14

The ZPD also reminds us that learning is about practice. And by that we don't just mean repetition, but actual problem solving.

Jeremiah: 21:24

When we say problem solving, what we're really talking about, if you think about it, is changing the world, and not just in big ways. seeing learning as a question of practice really just means that the only way to learn about something is to engage in the work of changing it.

Marina: 21:40

...What?[laughs incredulously]

Jeremiah: 21:41

How do you learn what a pear tastes like?

Marina: 21:43

You eat it.

Jeremiah: 21:46

You change it by eating it. And this helps explain why it's not enough to study grammar and memorize vocabulary. Those things are important, but I would argue that they're not the same as learning. Remember, that language is a tool for accomplishing social action, as much as a hammer is a tool for hammering nails. Learning grammar and memorizing vocab is kind of like building your own hammer. You're building the tool. You can shape it, polish it, make it the most beautiful hammer in existence, but none of that actually teaches you how to hammer nails. The only way to learn how to use a hammer is through changing a nail by hammering it into wood. Just so, the only way to learn to use a language is to try and use it to change something in your social surroundings, otherwise known as social action.

Marina: 22:37

Interesting, because I know that this is--so, like, I'm familiar with the Japanese context just because that's where I studied and that's where a lot of my research was focused. And so I know that in Japan, a common complaint about language education there is that they teach the test. They teach students who are learning English to take the test to get into college or to get into high school or whatever. And they do really well on these tests. But when it actually comes to using the language, their proficiency is a lot lower than what you might expect from their test scores. That's exactly what you're talking about, where you study the grammar, you memorize the vocabulary, but that is not to say that they learned the language, if that's the case.

Jeremiah: 23:24

Exactly. And they learned how to do something.

Marina: 23:26

They learned how to take the

Jeremiah: 23:27

They learned how--exactly--they learned how to take the test, they learned how to fill in the bubbles, they learned what to look out for, and this is like a whole different debate. But... Yeah, when you teach to the test, you are teaching how to take a specific test.

Marina: 23:40

So, let's look to the theory again for an explanation of why this

Jeremiah: 23:43

A non pear based explanation.

Marina: 23:46

Oh, thank god.[laughs] So there's been a lot of research in this area, but one particular article that I found is called"The Zone of Proximal Development, an Affirmative Perspective in Teaching ELLs/MLLs." ELL stands for English Language Learner, and MLL stands for Multilingual Language Learners. Essentially the same thing, except the ELL is more specific to people who are learning English, obviously. this article is by Elsa Billings and Aida Waqui. Apologies. Even though that this is... sort of directed towards teachers, I think it's still relevant for learners as it gives you a glimpse into how language is taught, which is a perspective that learners don't often get to see. So here's a quote from this article. It's long, so bear with me."Too often, ELLs and MLLs are removed from heterogeneous classrooms and isolated in English as a Second Language or English Language Development courses, rendering students devoid of contact and interaction with ELLs and MLLs who have better command of English or native English speaking peers. As a result, they are provided very narrowly focused education, in which grammar and vocabulary, not content, are the focus and where language is curricularized. However, what Vygotsky's and other researchers work shows us is that by identifying the skills, knowledge, and practices that are on the edge of development, i. e. the ZPD, teachers can provide targeted support, or scaffolds, for students to reach the desired level of skill and knowledge and thus move towards autonomy in that area. It is in this space that a teacher's role is to recognize and integrate the exact pedagogical scaffolds that support students ripening of linguistic, conceptual, and/or academic potential. For ELLs and MLLs, to reach their potential, it is essential that we provide them access to content, as well as regular and consistent opportunities to engage with their peers in a heterogeneous classroom setting."[sigh of relief]

Jeremiah: 26:08

End quote.

Marina: 26:08

End quote.[laughs]

Jeremiah: 26:10

Earlier I talked about practice and learning as a process of trying to change reality. In applied linguistics, this has a different name. It's generally called problem solving. So to summarize all of that, the ZPD shows how the best learning happens when you are solving problems with the help of a peer or a teacher. All this is pretty neatly summed up in a saying that I think most people know: two heads are better than one. And ZPD explains why that is.

Marina: 26:40

is. Sidenote. Another consequence of understanding learning in sociocultural terms is understanding that language learning doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's affected by our sociocultural context, which includes political and economic systems.

Jeremiah: 26:56

Put really simply, not everyone has the same access to language learning resources. We won't tell you to just take a class because that's not an option for many people. So language learning is not a purely meritocratic process. Why are we saying this? Well, because we don't want you to come away from this episode and think,"Oh gosh, I got to enroll in a class," because, and I hope we've shown, that the ZPD is something that you construct with a peer. And they don't have to be a teacher at a university. It's literally just somebody else who can allow you to accomplish more with them than you can all by yourself. That's really all it takes. So for you, in your language learning, to bring it back to you the listener, to reiterate, learning doesn't happen in a vacuum. So if you are embarking on a quest of learning a language, this is something that's really important to remember, is that yeah you can do a lot by yourself. You can do a lot with Duolingo. You can do a lot with Memrise. You can do a lot with a textbook. You can achieve some, some pretty great things. You can become very knowledgeable, you can become proficient in a lot of things and all of that is really invaluable, right? Another thing is that learning, according to Vygotsky, is a profoundly social activity, and whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or an advanced language learner or language user, there's a limit to what you can accomplish on your own. illustrate the Zone of Proximal Development in action, let me just give you an example or a scenario. Imagine that you're cleaning your apartment your dorm, your house, whatever, and you decide to use that as an opportunity to talk to yourself in the language that you're learning. That's a pretty good little habit to get into it's a good way to get a little extra production. So you're narrating what you're doing, but oh no, you can't remember the word for vacuum cleaner. It's in your brain somewhere, but for the life of you, you can't recall what it is. You've bumped up against a barrier that you're not equipped to surmount. Later in the week, you're talking to your friend who is a highly competent speaker of the language you're learning. You decide to take this opportunity to practice your speaking skills, so you start to tell them about your week how, you cleaned your apartment. But again, you can't recall the word for vacuum cleaner. So you pause think and maybe you make a vacuum gesture and go vrrrr vrrr vrrrrr. And your friend immediately supplies the word for you. Alone, you weren't capable of surmounting that barrier and yet with a more competent peer you were. And according to Vygotsky, the space between those two points, the Zone of Proximal Development, that's where learning takes place.

Marina: 29:36

So for you, as a learner, this means a few things. One, it means you actually have to talk to people.[Jeremiah gasps dramatically] I know, I'm sorry to be the break this to you. This shouldn't surprise you, as we've talked about it before, but it bears repeating. What talking to people looks like for you will vary depending on your goals, and the resources you have access to, and your learning preferences, among other things. So, we're not saying that if you don't go out and talk to random strangers in the street, then that means you're not going to learn anything. Not at all. What we are saying is what we've said before. You learn to speak by speaking. And that's hard to do all by your lonesome.

Jeremiah: 30:22

Yeah, and two, it means that you have to find or create situations there will be people for you to talk to. Uh, just to name a few possibilities: this could be a language exchange. It could be collaborative learning activities. It could be working with a tutor. It could be a traditional classroom. Some of these are things that are gatekept by, expense. Some of them kinda aren't. Some of them, well, all of them require a little bit of time from you. But if you're learning another language, then you've probably set aside a little bit of time in which to do so. Online language exchange sites, like Tandem and HelloTalk, are also completely valid for this, by the way. You don't have to be in the same room with somebody for Zone of Proximal Development to count. This isn't a, uh,"phone bad" type situation.

Marina: 31:08

Now, some learners might feel apprehensive about speaking to strangers, or even people they know, and making mistakes, sounding ungrammatical, things like that. And that is 100 percent valid. But one thing that might help and bring you some comfort is that ZPD understands that learners are inherently capable. You are a capable language learner. You might be a different level than your peers, you might be a different level than your tutor, or your teacher, or your language exchange partner, or your classmate, whoever you're talking to. But ZPD rejects the stagist notion that a person's potential is limited to their current development. It also rejects the individualism that says that your development is fixed or somehow predetermined. So, making mistakes, means that you are learning. It doesn't mean that you are incompetent. You, the learner, are inherently capable.

Jeremiah: 32:13

Yeah. And I think we'll leave you with that because it really doesn't, uh, it really doesn't get any better than that. That's just the bottom line. You, the learner, are inherently capable. That is the basis of ZPD. And to get into the space where that capability grows, that's the Zone of Proximal Development. And to get there, uh, you can't do it on your own.

Marina: 32:36

Use the buddy system. Thanks for tuning in to How to Language. We hope this episode on the science of learning a language by yourself helped you to appreciate the opportunities and limitations for self-directed learning. To keep up to date on announcements and get your weekly dose of language memes, you can follow us on X and Instagram at@howtolang. See you next time!

Jeremiah: 33:09

Later days!