{"id":5622,"date":"2017-05-24T07:31:21","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T11:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/?p=5622"},"modified":"2020-10-01T12:46:38","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T16:46:38","slug":"temptation-bundling-for-when-motivation-falls-short-in-language-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2017\/05\/24\/temptation-bundling-for-when-motivation-falls-short-in-language-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Temptation Bundling: For When Motivation Falls Short in Language Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes willpower and motivation alone are not enough.<\/p>\n

\"temptation

Tempted? Use that to your advantage.<\/p><\/div>\n

More and more, we find ourselves working with people for whom learning a language is not optional. They need it to do their job well. But even for those motivated individuals, learning a language is an arduous journey. So how does the average learner\u2014whose job isn\u2019t on the line\u2014find the willpower to keep learning when it gets tough?<\/p>\n

Allow us to introduce <\/strong>temptation bundling<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong> Pioneered by Wharton professor Katy Milkman, the idea is that \u201cyou can make it easier to perform a behavior that is good for you in the long-run by combining it with a behavior that feels good in the short-run.\u201d For Milkman, this meant that she could only read for pleasure (a treasured hobby) while at the gym. After finding that this worked for her, Milkman and her colleagues expanded her experiment<\/a> to 226 students, faculty, and staff at University of Pennsylvania. Those taught about temptation bundling were \u201c29 percent to 51 percent more likely to exercise when compared to the control group.\u201d<\/p>\n

This tactic is critical for tasks like learning a language, which requires sustained practice but may never seem particularly pressing. Author James Clear poses a good question: \u201cConsider how many tasks are important to our progress, but not urgent in our daily lives.\u201d Studying for 15-20 minutes each day will never feel like the most important thing on your to-do list, but daily commitment over time will bring fluency<\/strong> (the cognitive<\/a> and career<\/a> benefits of which we all know well by now.)<\/p>\n

The key to success temptation bundling is to link certain \u201cwants\u201d with certain \u201cshoulds.\u201d But what might those \u201clinks\u201d look like for serious language learners?<\/p>\n