Biologists have been keenly aware of the natural rhythmic patterns of living creatures. Circadian rhythms – biological processes that display a regular cycle lasting approximately twenty-four hours – affect how humans sleep, eat and behave. Our studying time and choices are affected by the time of day.
Is your daily schedule of studying Mandarin determined largely by external influences like most learners? What are your considerations when you are scheduling your class, practice, or test? Even if you don’t have total control when it comes to picking the time the classes are offered, it is essential to understand more about your optimal biological schedule and to get most out of your studying.
What did researchers discover about human beings’ emotional and learning cycles?
A 2011 study, published in the journal Science, examined the idea that people’s emotional discontent varied throughout the day. They found Twitter users were typically more positive in the early morning hours, more negative in the early afternoon and then reached a peak “positivity” level towards the later evening hours. Another study “Day Reconstruction Method”, which allows research subjects to reconstruct their day, came with a similar result: by early afternoon people are enjoying themselves less with the mood decline reversing around 3-4pm. Self-reported moods are generally the highest in the early evening hours.
While it might be interesting to know the cyclic nature of moods, numerous studies have revealed how people’s ability to learn is also affected by the time of day. As early as 1900’s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted experiments showing people learned and remembered strings of nonsense syllables more effectively in the morning than at night. Multiple research studies conducted over past decades have confirmed the variable daily nature of cognitive abilities. Over the roughly sixteen hours of a day that people are awake, their ability to solve problems, be creative and evaluate situations changes with the time of day.
However, people don’t all experience a day in precisely the same way. Daniel Pinks in his book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, tells the idea of biological chronotypes. A person’s chronotype is determined, at least in part, by genetics. By examining people’s emotional states, learning ability and chronotype, researchers realized every person would have their own ideal timeline for effectively completing a variety of tasks. Some people seem to naturally be ‘morning’ people, exhibiting a cheerful demeanor from the moment they wake up, and others seem to be more natural ‘night owls’, content to stay awake very late.
Studying Mandarin is affected by your own daily emotional and learning cycles as well. Since your moods, productivity, and cognitive abilities vary throughout the day, you need to carefully choose when to study and study what.
For example, if you are a morning person, you may want to use your optimal time to figure out difficult grammar and memorize new vocabulary, even if you have only five minutes. In the early afternoon hours, typically not only our least productive hours but also when we are at our moodiest, you may find watching a Chinese video really relaxing. Some other choices could be listening to a Chinese song or have a casual conversation with your Chinese-speaking friend, roommate, colleague, or even a stranger. You should avoid scheduling an important class in your moody hours.
Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are four connected but individual skills. For example, your good listening skill may help you understand what people say, but it won’t automatically make you a good speaker. The only way to improve your speaking skill is to speak. Each of the four skills needs particularand targetedexercises. You don’t have to wait very long before you notice how your Chinese language skills seem to improve faster and easier if you could practice the four skills during the right times.
If you have any question about how to schedule your study time, please contact us and let us help you.
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