Crystal mentioned many things in her article that intrigued the way I think about language and language learning. Something I never really thought about was the difference between sense and reference when it comes to learning a new language or new words. Crystal refers to the meaning of the actual word while reference is what the speaker or learner refers to in the real world. I think this concept is not complicated to conceptualize, but we don’t think about it enough. One fact that I found interesting was the fact that the left hemisphere is dominant for learning language for 95% of right-handed people.
After these readings, (with my poor memory) I think a good strategy I should use is to learn new words or concepts by making real-life references. Based on my past experiences, I tend to forget about the meanings of words since it’s such a new concept. However, associating it with a real-life experience or a sentence could help contain it in my system.
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