Can Hypnosis Help in Learning a Foreign Language?

The answer is yes.

Hypnosis works on the unconscious mind through deep physical and mental relaxation. In this trance state, the mind enters an Alpha-Theta brain wave level making it more receptive to new information where learning becomes accelerated and easy.

Young children easily learn a new language by copying, rather than slaving through verb tables and grammar. We have all seen how young children live in a more or less permanent state of daydream and fantasy, often totally engrossed in whatever they are doing although still consciously “present”. In this state, they are able to soak up new languages, even two or three at the same time. By being less concerned with grammar and spelling rules, children learn to speak a new language within a matter of months. New neural pathways are quickly made at a young age making language learning effortless. I personally started learning French at age four and speak without accent. I fail to understand why language learning starts at age 10-12 in so many countries

Likewise under hypnosis, an adult can absorb a new language easily and effortlessly when the relaxed state is anchored to learning.

As an adult, one can only learn a foreign language by study and some form of structure. Hypnosis assists the study by leading the person into a state of highly focused attention which is a good definition of hypnosis itself. By utilizing the "learning trance state" we can place ourselves in the optimum state for receiving information and so maximise our chances of picking up new knowledge. Words and phrases come back to you without having to think and you learn without realizing you are learning.

The theory behind how hypnosis helps someone to learn a foreign language is also the same approach which helps people to pass exams, improve memory and concentration without anxiety. By bypassing the critical conscious mind, hypnosis works with the unconscious mind where all change and learning takes place.

Hypnopaedia is learning during sleep
When I lived in Southern Spain, a language school offered a course in Spanish under hypnosis, the idea being that someone would absorb the language easily and without distraction in this deep relaxation state where the unconscious is more receptive to new information and suggestion. Apparently, the method was successful. Studies on sleep learning do indicate a significant increase in recall of target words.

• Listening to a loop of words or phrases in your target language will significantly improve your pronunciation, whether asleep or awake. In order to be able to repeat sounds in a foreign language, you need to hear these sounds over and over again.
• Listening to a loop of sounds might disturb your sleep if you listen at night so listening during a nap is the ideal, as it is not critical sleep and you achieve the same if not better results.
• Sleep learning does help, but as a supplement to active learning, ie testing, retesting and drilling.
• Study words 20 minutes before you fall asleep and for 10 minutes when you wake up review the list. Memory solidification occurs during sleep.
• As you are drifting to sleep in your mind review the words you learned that day.

Download Hypnosis Mp3
While personalized therapy with a qualified hypnotherapist is always the best route to follow, if this is not practical, a download hypnosis mp3 to aid language learning through hypnosis is available as well as a professional hypnotherapy script for language learning to use as a basis for personalized therapy.

IMPROVEMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE PRONUNCIATION UNDER HYPNOSIS: A PRELIMINARY STUDY ABSTRACT
This paper reports an experiment which was designed to determine whether foreign language pronunciation could be improved through hypnosis. Twenty subjects were first given the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotizability to familiarize them with the state of hypnosis. In the second session each subject was individually tested on his/her ability to pronounce Thai words under three conditions: Baseline, Hypnosis, and Post-Hypnosis. For each experimental condition the subjects heard and repeated the stimulus items on one of three lists of 15 Thai words. The subjects' responses were later evaluated by a native Thai linguist. The results indicate that deeply hypnotized subjects (as defined by self-reported depth) performed significantly better than less well hypnotized subjects.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119614993/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

© Antonia Harrison 2009 is the English Hypnotherapist & NLP Practitioner in Belgium and recommends Download Hypnosis Mp3 for immediate, affordable hypnosis Mp3s to improve your life.