Conversation Based Chunking™: A 4-Step Method to Avoid Brain Fossilization and Have Fluent Sentences Roll Off the Tongue in ANY Language
No word lists or grammar rules required
Conversation-Focused Language Learning For Serious Students
Speaking a language fluently is about knowing how to communicate in a conversation, not cramming words and abstract grammar rules. In fact, cramming words and grammar rules causes brain fossilization, which prevents you from EVER speaking Spanish fluently.
Conversation Based Chunking™ focuses on helping you absorb the patterns and word chunks native speakers use while communicating with each other, so you can start using them yourself in conversations. Without even needing to KNOW the grammar rules. And without translating in your head.
Not Just Language Education - Skills for Life
The traditional way of teaching languages is broken (and can actually harm your brain), so we came up with our own. Instead of treating language learning as an “invention game” where you blindly learn word lists and a set of grammar rules to build crooked, unnatural sentences, we see language learning as an “observation and assimilation” exercise that allows you to speak with the exact same patterns native speakers use — and also get the cultural awareness to know exactly what to talk about to native speakers to blend in and live your life through a new language with confidence .
This is for people who don’t see language learning as just a smartphone game, but something that can impact their whole life.
Rule-Based “Invention Education” (old)
Most language courses, apps and schools focus on teaching you lists of words and grammar concepts in an artificial, pre-defined sequence (the textbook curriculum).
This gives you the wrong idea of what it takes to speak a foreign language (“If I know and apply all grammar rules, I’ll be able to create natural-sounding sentences”).
This approach makes you feel slow and clumsy. You feel unable apply the grammar rules in real-time during conversations… You’ll always keep translating in your head… And you’ll lack the cultural awareness and context that goes beyond mere words and rules and that’s so important to communicate effectively with native speakers.
Mistakes you make by translating word-for-word in your head also tend to “fossilize in your brain“, which means you’ll keep making them forever.
Interaction-Based “Observation Education” (new)
How Conversation Based Chunking™ Works
With Conversation Based Chunking™, you focus on observing real-life conversations, absorbing the high-frequency patterns (chunks) native speakers use, and letting you discover grammar concepts after you’re already using them correctly, so the structure of the language emerges naturally in your brain.
Step 1: Observe (conversations between) native speakers
Dialogues show exactly how native speakers speak. A transcript helps you understand the small details and exact word combinations people use. AND you’re getting better at understanding native speakers!
This is where you learn what a sentence in a foreign language looks and sounds like and also what native speakers find important to talk about (something word lists and grammar rules just can’t show you).
Step 2: Discover the exact word combinations native speakers use to communicate (we call them “chunks”)
Look for the patterns and high-frequency word combinations (“word chunks”) native speakers are using, how they react to each other, how they express anger, surprise, happiness, sorrow,…
These are prefabricated units that your brain absorbs as a whole, so they bypass grammar rules and will make you sound exactly like a native speaker!
Step 3: Imprint prefabricated word chunks on your brain so they become readily available when you need them… in a conversation!
Memorizing chunks becomes easy because you have the context and story from the original conversation you’ve observed.
Repeated exposure to chunks in conversation, combined with Targeted Spaced Repetition for the most important chunks ensures that when the time for you to speak comes, you’ll have your chunks readily available to be used in sentences.
Step 4: Use chunks yourself while participating in a conversation… and have fluent sentences roll off the tongue!
Participate in conversations and use the chunks that you’ve observed before.
You’ll speak with pre-fabricated chunks without worrying about grammar rules and without translating in your head. You’ll have the confidence that you speak just like native speakers do — after all, you’ve already heard native speakers use the exact same chunks!
You’ll also know how to react in the conversation, keep it flowing, and have the cultural awareness necessary to hold a respectful conversation with a native speaker.
As you keep observing, listening and reading more, you’ll identify more and more word chunks, until you speak fluently and naturally like a native speaker on any topic. Without ever having to cram tedious word lists and grammar rules!
Could It Really Be THAT Simple To Learn A Foreign Language?
Turns out it really can be!
BEWARE: It’s simple, but you’ll still need to put in the work. And some grammar explanations along the road will satisfy your curiosity and help cement the the structure of your target language in your brain, but you won’t have to remember them while speaking.
If you’re really serious about speaking a foreign language fluently, this is the fastest way to get there. By cutting away the fluff and abstract rules and focusing on actual conversations instead, you’ll be speaking your target language in no time.
... And Thousands Of Students Have Used Conversation Based Chunking To Learn Fluent Spanish, German, French, Italian, and other languages
On our Spring Spanish YouTube Channel, we publish 5 videos a week with 5 teachers helping you learn Spanish through Conversation Based Chunking™ (more languages coming soon):
And in the Spring Languages Academy, we engineered the optimal environment to acquire real-world conversation skills, so you don't just speak a new language, but can also "live it".
You’re not a child anymore, so you shouldn’t be satisfied with the random ‘immersive environment’ a child has to navigate to learn their mother tongue.
Conversation Based Chunking™ works best if used in a controlled environment where you listen to targeted conversations in a foreign language that you’ll come across in your own life, and where you’re guided through the process of identifying and imprinting word chunks.
We’ve spent years refining the optimal environment for language students to be successful, taking into account the “full learning stack”. The result? Our Spring Languages Academy:
1. World-class conversational learning materials, built for real-life application.
- Native-speed audio (because you don’t learn how to understand native speakers from listening to slowed-down audio).
- A transcript with parallel translation in English, so you can compare phrases and chunks with your mother tongue.
- Lesson notes that explain grammar concepts AFTER you’ve already assimilated them and are using them correctly, so you merely discover them instead of having to force them onto your brain.
- Flashcards that reinforce the most important chunks in context, so you have them readily available to use yourself in full sentences during a conversation.
2. Ultra-simple curriculum design makes repetition and memorization inevitable
Repetition is the key for your brain to absorb and imprint chunks in a foreign language.
Most language courses and apps don’t allow for the necessary amount of repetition because they give you brand-new lessons daily. Be honest: would you still revise lesson 1 if you’re in lesson 7 already?
We’ve built different types of repetition into our courses to achieve “memorization by design”:
- Students get ONE Unit with one or two long-form conversations a week. There are more than enough chunks and grammar patterns in there to keep you busy for a week, AND there are no new lessons every day to distract you from mastering this one unit.
- We overlay this natural exposure with targeted, spaced repetition exercises for the most important word chunks in the conversations.
With these two types of repetition, you’re basically imprinting the language on your brain.
3. “Relentless Followup”: we take co-ownership of your language AND life success
A language cannot be taught, it can only be learned. It’s your brain that needs to absorb it.
But all that gets easier if you have someone by your side to guide you, answer all your questions and most of all: keeps you on track.
In our courses, we’ve put all the conditions in place to make it inevitable for you to do the work so you can build your conversation skills and let them flourish in real-world conversations.
- A 24/7 online learning portal that contains all your learning materials (you can download/print them as well) so you can study wherever and whenever you want
- A dedicated accountability coach who will make sure you actually use the learning portal 🙂
- Setting up an immersive environment based on the principles of inevitability thinking, so you just can’t help but be exposed to your target language every single day.
- “Cultural awareness” training, so you know what makes native speakers around you tick, what they talk about, value, and how you can find your own place within your new environment.
- A community with language experts and tutors to answer all your questions and keep you on track
- Live sessions to practice your speaking skills
In short:
We know you’re serious about getting fluent in your target language so you can use it to communicate with native speakers in your daily life, otherwise, you’d still be fiddling around with Duolingo instead of reading this page. In return, we show that we’re serious about getting you to fluency, and together with you, we’ll do everything we can to make that happen.
