Questionnaire 3 tells you if you use left-brain processing or right-brain processing more. The brain is divided into two parts. The left brain is like the zoom lens. It is logical, analytical, and mathematical. The right brain is like the wide-angle lens. It is better at remembering social, emotional, and artistic experiences. Left-brain and right-brain processing involve a whole set of style differences.

Very young children tend to use their right brain more. Then, as they grow older, the left brain develops. As an adult, people use one side or the other side most. Do you remember reading in the last chapter about reflective and impulsive styles? Left-brain and right-brain preferences work the same way as styles: you probably use one side of your brain more than the other.

Your brain processing preference was measured in Questionnaire 3. This is what your score means:

Interpret your score from the questionnaire using the following chart.

Balancing your Brain

So what does all this mean to you and your English study? According to some research studies, people who learn foreign languages outside the classroom use the right brain more in the beginning than when they are at advanced levels. People may naturally use wide-angle lenses when they are beginning a language and use zoom lenses more when they reach a higher ability. But many English language classes do just the opposite! They teach the details of English grammar at the beginning. Much later in the process, students are expected to get a "feel" for the language. This means that many students are being taught to learn English backwards. It is better to get general meanings with the right brain early in the course and to focus on grammar and vocabulary and so on later.

In your English classes, you may have been using your left brain by focusing on the details instead of being more relaxed and childlike. You might become a better learner by using more of your right brain.

H. Douglas Brown, Strategies for Success: A Practical Guide to Learning English (White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, 2002.) Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education.