"Almost every day we find new ways to study languages. We examine methods of words remembering, grammar explanation and so on. Many professional teachers of different languages nowadays tall us about importance of having a complex view on the language. One of the ways is using mind maps for studying."

By Jane Smorodnikova

If you need to know several languages or you just like it – you will find out many different study methods. But one of the main things is to learn thinking linguistically. This article is about mind mapping as a tool for support understanding languages’ structure.

What means thinking linguistically?

If you want to study languages easily, you should understand connections between them.

Comparing two languages (for example, your native and foreign) can help you in studying other languages – because you will understand the main thing – language structure, methods of naming objects and different ways of sentence forming.

For example, almost all languages can be divided on analytic languages and synthetic languages. First variant means that word meaning is created by word combination, word order in a sentence, using secondary words (like articles in English). Second variant allows changing word value by changing the word itself (using declensional and other endings).

Example:

English: “The young cook has cooked the tasty porridge.”

German: “Der junge Koch hat den schmackhaften Brei gekocht.”

Let’s analyze these sentences:

How can we understand – what noun is a subject?

In German subject (“der Koch”) is in subjective case. Object («der Brei») is in accusative case.

But there are no cases in English! So, how can we be sure, that “the cook” is the subject? Because of the word order. So, German is a synthetic language in defining the subject and English – analytic. But in defining predicate – both of these languages are analytic. Interesting, isn’t it? For example, Russian – is a completely synthetic language. There are no articles in Russian; you do not need to remember about word order, there are no compound verbs. But such languages are very difficult for studying, because most of grammar phenomena in Russian can not be explained and only wide experience can help you speak Russian correctly.

How to use mind mapping for learning?

We have found out that understanding language’ structure is one of the most important things in learning. So, how can you do this easier?  Create a mind map using special software, like a Mind Pad. Main topic is your language. Then create several branches like words order, time organization, and word forms. Fill out your map while learning new grammar structures. For example, it is word position in a sentence (see an example upper) – how to recognize a subject? Then explain how it happens in your native language and in your new language. Example map branches will look like this:

1.      Main topic – German

2.      Next level – German->words order, German->times, German->words forms… etc.

3.      Words order -> subject

4.      Subject->Subject in German (“der Koch” is in subjective case), Subject->Subject in English – “cook” is on the first place in the sentence.

If you use Mind Pad – you can create comments for each topic – with examples.

While studying language, do not forget to fill your map, add comments (you can specify – is this particular grammar method - analytic or synthetic), examples of illustrative sentences.

Don’t be afraid of rebuilding your map, changing lines and branches, reconfiguring it. After full grammar course you will have a system of language studying. Understanding connections between native and foreign languages, differences and analogies will help you in finding more easy way for learning any language you want.

Creating language mind map with Mind Pad

For language mind mapping Mind Pad is most comfortable softtool for using. Mind Pad 2.0 suggest new techniques for managing frames and links. So you can easily change the grammar structure as you see it. Frames 'Hot Linking' is now available. Instead of moving single frames you can now move whole branches and link it to another frame by just drag-and-dropping.

Also it allows writing text on links and you can specify, what is this example about and so on. Just double click on link between two frames and put some comments into the text box.

The main tip is – try to create a common map, find connections and explore internal structure of the language you learn. After you have understood the methods of sentence generation on the basic of your native language, you will need just word remembering and talking practice.