How do people learn?
As children we learn, step by step. We are spoon-fed. Which makes sense. Learning is an experience as we grow up.
But we reach a point where learning isn't an experience. It becomes a mass of information. We've reached a stage where learning becomes an exercise in organization. We read concepts, we filter, we sort, and finally we re-gurgitate. Analyze and then synthesize.
How does this apply to language learning? I hate learning by memory. It's terribly slow. I prefer getting all of my concepts all at once. And then begin to break down the constituent components until I can surmise the function of a component from it's position to the rest of the components. Architecture is king. Why learn piece-meal when you can get a blueprint?
Why is a blueprint more valuable than the experiential approach? Because a blueprint is a model which we can understand at-a-glance, we can re-use learning techniques (from one analogy to another), breadth-first-search (when the entire map is unknown) is an exponential algorithm whereas depth-first-search (with knowledge of the entire map) is more efficient. Hmmm, ... learning a language isn't a search algorithm.
I did a search for "comprehensible input". Dr. Krashen's theory on second-language learning. Below is a link with a great deal more advice as to language learning. The information provided is very useful.
http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/languagelearning/essaysonfieldlanguagelearning/langglrnnginthrlwrldfrnnbgnnrs/LanggLrnngInThRlWrldFrNnBgnnrs.htm
