Ability to Focus

Ability to Focus May 4, 2015

If someone tells you that today’s students, perhaps because of video games, simply cannot focus the way students could in the past, don’t believe them.

Halo Reach players spent five years trying to accomplish something in the game that seemed impossible: getting into…an empty room, one that was otherwise inaccessible, referred to as the “Banshee Room.” Here are the details of how it is done:

The amount of focus, concentration, and repetition that is involved in figuring out something like this is no different than what is required for learning a language, or anything else that is difficult.

All that is needed is to persuade students that the ability to speak a new language is worth the same kind of effort that they are willing to devote to whatever else they spend their time on.

In some instances, at least in theory, that should not be a hard sell.

If anyone reading this sees the light and decides that time they have been spending playing video games (or doing something else that earns only virtual rewards) could be better spent learning a language, let me recommend the Pimsleur language courses. They are fantastic, and if you put them on in the car or some other commute, you actually won’t have to choose between learning a language and Halo.


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