Friday 16 July 2021

writing (by hand!) helps you pick up a language

Liz Granirer writes in the E L Gazette: 

Want your students to learn quickly? Ditch the computers and give them a pencil and paper.

Pencil sharpeners at the ready | E L Gazette

Here's the original research she refers to:

The Effects of Handwriting Experience on Literacy Learning - Robert W. Wiley, Brenda Rapp, 2021

And here's a longer piece on the Science Alert website:

Handwriting Is Better Than Typing When Learning a New Language, Study Finds

DAVID NIELD

10 JULY 2021

In our daily lives, we spend a lot more time tapping at a screen and typing on a keyboard than writing with pencil and pen, so does handwriting tuition still offer anything useful? Absolutely, according to a new study.

Researchers tasked 42 adult volunteers with learning the Arabic alphabet from scratch: some through writing it out on paper, some through typing it out on a keyboard, and some through watching and responding to video instructions.

Those in the handwriting group not only learned the unfamiliar letters more quickly, but they were also better able to apply their new knowledge in other areas – by using the letters to make new words and to recognize words they hadn't seen before, for example.

"The question out there for parents and educators is why should our kids spend any time doing handwriting," says cognitive scientist Brenda Rapp from Johns Hopkins University. "The real question is: Are there other benefits to handwriting that have to do with reading and spelling and understanding? We find there most definitely are."

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