Why You Should Be Watching (Or Listening To) Your Language Game Film 

Without proper self-evaluation, failure is inevitable.

Coach John Wooden

⏱ Reading time: 3 minutes

Learning a language is like training for an athletic event or performance. Like an athlete or performer, a language learner needs to be able to receive specific, targeted feedback in order to make a noticeable improvement.  But how can you get this kind of feedback if you don’t currently have a great coach or don’t live abroad or aren’t surrounded by native speaking friends (who aren’t always great at giving the kind of feedback one needs)? 

One strategy used by high level athletes is recording themselves. During practice and competition, many athletes film themselves and watch it later to analyze their performance. They do this to weed out big mistakes as well as file away even the tiniest flaws in their routine.

Now, let’s be honest– it’s not usually comfortable to record ourselves. Even high-powered athletes don’t enjoy watching themselves make a mistake they know they can avoid. Yet they still record and watch themselves over and over. Why? Because performers and athletes (much like language learners) don’t have time to let little mistakes hurt their performance for months if they can get rid of them today!  So, no matter how they feel about it, they record and watch themselves anyway.  

As a language learner, you don’t need to have a teacher or native speaker at your side every minute of the day to give you feedback. You also don’t need to invest in any high-speed filming equipment to critique your form. You can give yourself fantastic feedback if you’re simply willing to record your voice with your phone.  You can record yourself giving a presentation, reading an article, talking to a friend (with their permission), or practicing a common interaction. Then, choose a small chunk of your recording, just a minute or two, and listen carefully. It won’t take long to find plenty of things that you’d like to work on. But then, watch what happens next. You’ll probably feel embarrassed! You might feel surprised to hear yourself make a mistake that you thought you had fixed months ago. 

Whatever your feelings are, be mindful of them, notice them, and let them pass. When they do, pause and consider choosing to be grateful that you noticed an error that would have otherwise continued to interfere with your communication. After you listen to your first recording, congratulate yourself! Be proud of yourself for choosing to engage in something difficult and maybe a bit painful. Then, do it again the next day. And the next. And the next. Recording yourself can become an invaluable part of the process of becoming much better. It’s true, recording yourself is not easy. But consider the singer who practices with earplugs. No matter how much she practices, she may never know how she should improve until she can really listen to herself. In some ways, recording yourself is like taking out your earplugs.

After a few days of recording, you may be tempted to avoid it. But don’t! Keep your earplugs out!  Consider Matt’s story. He was the first BYU Arabic major to certify as a Superior-level speaker on the ACTFL scale, and he attributes beginning to record and listen to himself as the pivotal moment when his journey to Superior took off.  

One of my first experiences with sharpening came in the middle of an intensive Arabic study abroad program in Amman, Jordan. I was in my third year of studies and felt like I was making good progress…. My mornings were filled with classes and appointments at a local language institute, and I had to carefully plan out the rest of the day to prepare for the next day. One assignment was to prepare a short formal speech on a given topic and present it alone to one of the teachers, who would provide feedback so that I could present an improved version later that week. I remember feeling particularly proud of one presentation that I had rewritten multiple times, and the teacher— a native speaker— also spoke highly of my performance.

It just so happened that our program director, Dilworth Parkinson, had issued an invitation to our cohort of students to make an appointment with him to review a written or spoken presentation that we felt was our best work. ‘Time to shine!’ I thought to myself. After all, I was one of the stronger students and had come a long way in the first half of the program. I was confident that my carefully crafted creation was approaching perfection and that it would impress Dil. Just in case, I reviewed, revised, and recorded the presentation one last time before coming to him for feedback.

Our appointment probably took no more than 20 minutes, but it changed how I spoke Arabic forever. After listening to the recording of my presentation one time through, we listened again with Dil pausing the recording to give me pointers. By the end of the recording he had given me half a dozen skills to work on— some that had apparently plagued my speech since Arabic 101. Fortunately, I was open to his feedback and took his suggestions to heart right then and there. He gave me the opportunity to repeat chunks of the presentation, this time with improved intonation and flow. He confirmed that I was getting it and invited me to come back and ask more questions as needed. I left a humbled, grateful, and stronger student of Arabic.

Matt had the benefit of an expert. You should seek out such, but if you don’t currently have someone like this to work with, try working with a native model. For example, to work on your pronunciation, find a book on tape or use an electronic tool to transcribe a sample of speech you would like to use as a model. Compare your recording to the native speaker’s, identify areas you need to improve, re-record and compare again. Repeat this process as long as you find benefit and joy in doing so.