Booster Overview

At this point in the ETB Roadmap, you have a strong understanding of the language learning methodology and gathered some of the important materials and content necessary to progress.

So far, we haven't built much of a study routine yet. In the Daily English Study Guide section of the Chapter 2 Action Plan, I told you to just have fun with English content. But now, we're going to start creating a robust study plan that fits your goals.

We'll begin creating that study plan by adding Boosters. In this lesson, we'll talk about what Boosters are and why they're important.

Dual-Coding Theory

We'll come back to talking about Boosters in a bit. First, we have to take a detour to explain Dual-Coding Theory. This principle states that you learn something better and more thoroughly when you learn it in two (or more) ways.

The highly successful polyglot, Kato Lomb, said in her book:

For example, imagine learning the English word, "apple".

You see the word "apple" in this article, and you don't know what it means, so you translate it. If French is your native language, you'd think "Oh okay, apple = pomme".

Later, you are working on your Apple computer. You see the logo and remember that apple = pomme. Another day, you're watching a TV show and you hear a character use the word "apple" in a sentence. Then, you read an article about apples on a forum like Reddit. Then, you order an apple pie at an American restaurant.

If you had never seen or heard the word apple before, you've now practiced it in five different ways. You heard it and read it a couple of times and in different places and in different contexts.

This is what Kato Lomb calls "besieging a castle from all directions", or, simply, Dual-Coding!

By learning in this way, your brain forms a really strong and accurate understanding of that English word. When you only learn from one source like reading blog posts, for example, your brain only forms weak connections to new words.

Reading blog posts is a great way to study! But it's not enough. However, when you combine reading blog posts with watching TV shows, listening to music, reading novels, reading forums, using language apps, tutoring, and textbooks, you will learn the same things multiple times in slightly different ways. That's an excellent way to learn.

The reason we need language learning Boosters is for the purpose of Dual-Coding.

What are Boosters?

Boosters are study activities that will help you boost or accelerate your English learning. They allow you to dual-code the things that you've learned, but they're not the most important activities.

The most important activities are Reading and Listening, which we'll discuss in detail in Chapter 4, Adding Input. In the section below, I'll explain why we're talking about Boosters before Input.

You can think of Boosters as the side dishes in a meal. Input is a big bowl of spaghetti and Boosters are a little salad, a piece of bread, and a cold drink on the side. Boosters contribute to the meal, but they're not the most important parts.

In the category of Boosters, we would include the following language-learning activities:

• Game-based Language Apps (like Duolingo)
• English Textbooks
• Spaced Repetition Systems (like Anki, we'll talk about this later in the chapter)
• English Tutoring
• In-Person English Classes
• Studying Grammar
• Memorizing pre-made phrases (e.g. Where is the bathroom?)

On their own, none of these things will teach you English. Even if you studied only Boosters for 10 hours every day for 100 years, you still won't know the language.

Don't make the mistake of thinking these are useless though. Some of them are extremely useful, like SRS tools! But more importantly, don't make the mistake that most people make when they try and fail to learn a language—Boosters are just helpers, they're not going to teach you English on their own. That's the difference between Boosters and the most important activities, Input activities (Reading and Listening).

Why are we talking about Boosters before the important stuff?

It's a fair question and I can give a couple of strong answers.

First, the main reason the Boosters chapter comes before the Input chapter is that Input is difficult and overwhelming, especially for beginners. To study with Input effectively, you'll need a lot of guidance. It's easy to get started with Boosters. I can quickly explain how to use them effectively and you can go start practicing them.

Second, progress is slow and difficult to notice when beginning Input. It is often frustrating and boring because you won't understand the content at first. There's no score number increasing when you've watched a video. You don't get points, exciting graphics, or sound effects for reading a book. You'll just have to trust in the process.

As your language guide, I don't want to scare you away by giving you a task that you might be unprepared to handle. That's why we're talking about Boosters before Input.

Conclusion

To quickly summarize, Dual-Coding Theory states that we learn better when we learn the same thing from multiple sources. Boosters are tools that help us learn a language faster by dual-coding, but they're not the most important study activities.

In the next lesson, I'll explain Spaced Repetition Systems. Out of all the Boosters, this is the most complex but also the most useful. Because of its importance, we'll follow that lesson with multiple lessons explaining the most popular Spaced Repetition System, called Anki. One lesson will be dedicated to using the other Boosters effectively. Finally, we'll wrap up the chapter with an Action Plan to explain how to fit Boosters into your daily study routine.