In this workshop, Dr. Natalia Parker examines language learning through the eyes of cognitive psychology. The workshop helps us view how we learn from a slightly different perspective, and answers some of the questions that  language learners tend to ask themselves when wrestling with the challenge of how to use the knowledge they acquired in their lessons in their practice when they tried to speak or write in another language.

Natalia researches cognitive aspects of second language acquisition and pedagogy, but also has over 20 years of teaching experience. She will illustrate how our processing of learning material can be optimised, and suggest strategies of how to make language learning more effective. We will examine how our brains process, store, and retrieve information and how some recent findings in neuroscience, psychology, and pedagogy could be applied to real learning situations.

Natalia’s recent research project was funded by UK Research and Innovation, and has developed and tested a new innovative approach to language learning. Natalia teaches Russian in the UK, but her research is considered applicable to other European languages as well.