Handwriting Helps Learn Languages Better Compared To Typing, Study Shows

When learning a new language, writing it by hand is more effective than typing on a keyboard, says a new study conducted by researchers at John Hopkins University.

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Reported first by ScienceAlert, for this, they asked 42 adult volunteers to learn the Arabic alphabet from scratch. Some were asked to learn it by typing, some were asked to learn while watching video instructions and some were asked to scribble like the old school way.

Researchers found that students who were in the handwriting group didn't just learn unfamiliar letters faster than others, they were also more responsive in applying their knowledge in other areas by using the letters to make new words and recognise words they had never come across before.

Researchers then tried to understand how the learning could be generalised. In every follow-up test, using skills they hadn¡¯t been trained on, the writing group performed the best. The research highlighted that the benefits of teaching through writing don¡¯t just result in better handwriting. In fact, it felt as if the knowledge of the language was better embedded into the learner¡¯s mind through writing.

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It goes without saying that 42 isn¡¯t a large sample size, however looking at the trends revealed in the study, pen and paper are still here to stay and they bring something a lot more crucial to the table in terms of learning, despite dynamic digital formats.

Cognitive scientist Brenda Rapp from Johns Hopkins University explains, "The question out there for parents and educators is why should our kids spend any time doing handwriting. Obviously, you're going to be a better hand-writer if you practice it. But since people are handwriting less, then maybe who cares? The real question is: Are there other benefits to handwriting that have to do with reading and spelling and understanding? We find there most definitely are."

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Robert Wiley, another researcher from the University of Carolina who conducted the research stated, "The main lesson is that even though they were all good at recognizing letters, the writing training was the best at every other measure. And they required less time to get there. With writing, you're getting a stronger representation in your mind that lets you scaffold toward these other types of tasks that don't in any way involve handwriting."

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