Synergy Part 5 - Writing

Expanding on Synergy, this post is about the role that writing plays in the language learning plan.


I admit that I’m a newbie to writing. I have always done a reasonable amount of writing out single words and characters, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. The kind of writing I’m talking about is a fixed component of my learning plan, preferably extensive and fluid. The reason I waited so long to make writing a component is that I wasn’t really interested in it as a skill. I want to be able to converse, read and understand media well, but I don’t care much about writing. There are several things that helped change my mind about incorporating writing.

In my post about maintaining languages, I mentioned that the concept of synergy presented itself to me as a result of my experimenting with writing. I noticed improvements, started wondering if adding it as a component made sense, and worked backwards on the assumption that it does. The reasoning went something like the following. “It makes sense, so that means it’s more efficient to have a writing component than not. Even though becoming a writer isn’t a goal of mine, using the skill as a tool to learn a language will result in me obtaining my other goals faster. And I’m not talking about adding extra hours – I’m talking about using the same number of hours, but a percentage of them will be devoted to writing.” I could only see one way that was possible. The whole is more than the sum of the parts. Synergy.

Ok, I just got through saying I started by assuming that adding a component of writing was more efficient. So at that point I was just assuming synergy existed. Then I started to look for evidence to back it up. The effects that adding listening, and later reading, had on my efficiency were strong support, I felt. Now I look at everything through Synergy eyes and many aspects of language learning make more sense.

I didn’t mean for this to be a post about the synergy epiphany. I mention it here because this new state of mind helped make me brave enough to start writing in earnest. But since we’re on the topic of synergy, let me mention how I think writing reinforces the other skills. First, the process of handwriting seems to have a positive effect on my memory. I’ve been taking advantage of this for years by actually writing out vocabulary lists by hand. I believe something about it’s kinesthetic nature helps me. And typing will do this for me too, but differently somehow. Sometimes I actually visualize writing or typing a word when trying to think of it’s pronunciation during conversation. It’s a little bizarre, and I’m certainly not suggesting you should try this as a memory aid, but I think it shows some connections are there, and the more connections the better. Second, it reinforces all the other skills. Writing utilizes pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, and using these will have a beneficial effect on speaking, listening and reading.

Now I want to talk about the biggest single factor that influenced me to add writing. I think it may be the silver bullet that will kill isolated vocabulary study. Let me explain. I took Spanish languages classes from the age of 11. I have always had problems remembering vocabulary in class. I finished above average in my classes because I was a diligent student. But I was below average whenever we were required to produce vocabulary that we had learned that same day. In fact, I was often the worst. I look back on that now, and know at least some of it was nerves. I think I’ve overcome all my nervous problems I had as a child, but the vocabulary problem persists. By that I mean if I don’t memorize a word in isolation at some point, I will rarely if ever assimilate it. In contrast, there seem to be a pretty good percentage of learners who never do isolated vocabulary studies, and have decent success with languages.

I’ve tried all sorts of methods without isolated vocabulary studies, but in the end, I resorted back to my SRS because that was the only thing that worked. My SRS sessions are long, 30-60 min, and they are one of the most difficult things I do. It would be wonderful to stop doing them completely. I’ve paid attention to most of the YouTube top polyglots, and practically none of them do isolated vocabulary studies. So what is the one thing in common that most of them have with each other but not with me? They write. It’s not always a big part of their studies, but it’s usually a fixed component. So I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that writing will set me free from flashcards.

Even if it doesn’t set me free from flashcards, there is one more thing that’s really helpful about writing. It’s the ability to do slow, thoughtful production. Unlike normal conversation, or even talking to yourself, you can pause, look things up, check your grammar, make corrections, and take all the time you like to create a correct sentence. High pressure is sometimes good and even necessary in language learning, but so is low pressure. Writing is a great way to experience low pressure. I believe writing, more than any other skill, has the potential to help me work the kinks out of my grammar.

I just returned home from a trip, and one of my main goals on that trip was to do a lot of writing during my active phases in each language and see how I like it. During my trip I went to three target countries. First stop was Ukraine. I was learning Russian there for about a month. I was only able to write for about 10 of my 30 days. I wrote a page each time. I felt good about my writing, and saw some improvement while I was there. Next was Taiwan. I wrote traditional Chinese for the first time. I wrote 10 lines for 10 of the 25 days I was there. I skipped every other line to allow room for correction – Chinese text is so dense. It was a great feeling writing Chinese, maybe because the characters are so complicated. It made me feel very well rounded. My last stop was Thailand. I wrote a page for 50 of the 90 days I was there. Once again, I skipped every other line, because Thai frequently has things like tone marks and vowels far above and below the line of text. I felt like writing Thai really reinforced the language. Not only did it help raise my language to it’s highest level ever, it also improved my pronunciation.

So I’m sold on writing. I’m finished experimenting, and ready to implement. I have already included it in Synergy. When I finish writing these posts, I will modify my own learning and maintenance plans to match Synergy and include writing. Now let’s expand on how I treat writing in Synergy.


In step 1 of Synergy you have to learn orthography and pronunciation of isolated words. When you are learning the alphabet, write out each character, while pronouncing it’s name. (Reminder - make sure you are using the correct pronunciation; you should have heard native recordings of the sounds several times before speaking.) At the word level, write out the words that you are using to learn pronunciation. Even though it’s repetitive at this point, try to get 10 minutes of writing words and letters every day.


In step 2 of Synergy you will be using Pimsleur, or some other material with sentences. Get in 10 minutes a day of writing sentences. There are many ways to do this. For example, if you’re doing L1 to L2 flashcards, you can speak your answer, then write it out. Another idea is to create a transcript for your Pimsleur lesson. Listen to the question, answer, stop the recording and write it out. Or don’t stop the recording, and write really fast. (Reminder – Pimsleur is to be done without stops. So if you stop the recording frequently to make a transcript, repeat the lesson the next day without stopping it. More on how to use Pimsleur in a later post.)


In steps 3 and 4 of Synergy you will add extensive writing as a regular component of your learning plan. I recommend both handwriting and typing. I’ve found handwriting to be the most beneficial in reinforcing the other skills through pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. However, typing is much more convenient as a skill. I recommend learning how to touch type, and there are many free programs online to teach that. Text chatting online and posting in forums, blogs, etc are very handy skills to have. It’s much easier to get natives to correct text on the computer too. For example, Lang-8 is set up for computer text. You can request special help to get a jpeg corrected, for example, but it will take longer. And to some extent translation tools, such as Google Translate, are beneficial. Typing a sentence in L1, and then fixing the sentence that comes out in L2 requires some effort, so there is some value there. Here is how I rank the methods in the order of most beneficial:

1. Handwriting
2. Typing on the computer
3. Using translation tools on the computer

You bet. And I totally agree about starting with baby steps. The important thing is to get that part of your brain helping you, and maybe you'll discover that baby steps are enough

Very nicely put; I fix my repetition often when I write, but rarely when I talk. Another thing I strive for is to say exactly what I want to say it, in the exact way I intend to say it. When I talk I tend to dance around difficult grammar, sometimes giving unintended nuances to my meaning.