Can Peer Support Reduce Language Learning Fatigue?

A lot of us spend time studying alone and while that can be fine, sometimes having a friend around can help us, especially when it comes to trying to reducing learning fatigue.

Studying with a friend can make a difference, but only up to a certain point. Some friends can actually make things worse, but really this is something you will need to experiment with and decide what works best for you.  

I will go through some of the ways your friends can help to reduce language learning fatigue, or not.

Friends Can Motivate You To Keep Studying A Language

Friends can keep you going when you are learning a language, which is exactly what you need at times.

When you are studying alone you can find that fatigue can sneak up on you and really sucks away your desire to keep learning. You can easily walk away from your studies and not get a lot done when this happens.

When you have a friend sat opposite you, this isn’t going to happen so easily. You will sit there and keep studying until you have finished what you need to do.

They can keep you motivated and keep you feeling fresh and full of energy for longer. 

(You can read more about – How Long Does Language Learning Fatigue Last?)

Friends Can Keep Your Language Studies Fun and Engaging

Studying with a friend is going to be more fun than studying on your own, and when you have fun it doesn’t feel like learning.

This is extremely important for language fatigue as it means you are less likely to suffer from it. You may still be focusing a lot, so it can drain you of your energy, but the fact that you are having fun will allow you to counteract any fatigue you may be suffering.

This means you can end up studying for longer without feeling fatigued due to being engaged with the language in a more fun way.      

Being With Friends Can Allow You To Study In Different Ways

You will usually find that you study slightly differently when you are with your friends. You are probably going to have a more of a casual type study session and it may be more just chatting and asking each other questions. (Which is why it is more fun and engaging, as discussed above)

It is probably not going to be as focused and intense, such as sitting and quietly reading a text book non-stop for an hour.

This more casual approach is going to mean that you do not get fatigued as quickly, and so you can spend longer studying.

This all ties into it being fun, as sitting and chatting with a friend in a new language or even just talking about the language is going to be a lot more fun and engaging than studying on your own, which as I’ve already covered means you will feel less fatigued overall.

Friends Help You Keep A Better Study Pace

You will probably notice that you study at a difference pace when you are with friends. I guess this depends on who you are studying with, as it can either slow things down, or speed things up, but really you can only go as fast as the slowest person in the group.

You can see this as being an advantage in two different ways.

If you friends are a little slower than you, then you will need to slow down to match their pace, which means you can kind of relax a little and enjoy things and basically you will not get as fatigued as quickly as you are not working at your normal capacity.

However, if your friends can work a little faster than you, this is going to be tough. You are going to be pushed a little harder than normal and while this may mean you get fatigued a little faster than normal; you will still get a lot from studying with people like this.

The extra intensity can be too much at the time, and you may feel like you are struggling to keep up, but you will walk away from this study session feeling like you gained a lot. You will have been pushed out of your comfort zone and while this will drain you, you will learn a lot from studying like this.  

Fatigue Is Still Going To Happen

I think it is also important to remember that it doesn’t matter if you are alone or not, your brain is going to get tired eventually and fatigue is going to set in.

I also think it’s really important to be able to recognise that you are becoming fatigued, and more importantly you need to tell your friend that this is happening.

If you start struggling you are not only affecting yourself, but you are now going to be slowing down your friend too.

You will probably want to keep going, as not to let them down, but the reality is that once you start to struggle, you are just going to get worse and worse as fatigue sets in. You need to tell your friend that you need to stop for a break.

If they still feel fine, they can study on their own while you try and recover.

If you do try and carry on, they will notice your decline in performance. They will notice you are making more mistakes, or taking longer to think and they will probably ask if you are okay.

Just be honest and say you are tired and need a rest. They should not be upset about this.

(You can read more about – Is Language Learning Fatigue Normal?)

You May Be Pushing Yourself In Areas You Are Not Used To With Friends

While studying with friends can be beneficial, it can also be intense and actually cause fatigue due to the fact that you are doing something you would not normally do.

There is a large chance that you are going to be studying in a way that you are not used to and this can mean you end up getting fatigued a lot faster.

A classic example of this is speaking. Usually we do not speak a lot if we study on our own, so actually having someone in front of us will make us want to actually talk.

While this is great, if you are not used to speaking for a long period of time you will find that you can quickly get fatigued by this.

You might have only spoken for a few minutes at most before, now you are sat talking to someone for a solid hour. This is a big difference in intensity and you will feel the fatigue from this.

Pushing Yourself Can Be Worth It

While it can feel awful to push yourself to fatigue, I would argue it is worth it at times.

In order to get good at something, you need to do more of it and if that means getting fatigued, I think that is a fair exchange. In the above example, I would happily talk for that hour and drain my brain of all its power. You need a friend for this type of study, so I would take full advantage of that situation. 

Maybe it’s a little intense and you could go about achieving this in a more sensible way, maybe you could build up how long you are talking for over a number of sessions …but maybe this is the only opportunity you have to do this.  

If you want to get good at speaking in your new language, you simply need to do more speaking in your new language …and if you have the chance to talk to someone for an hour, I would take that chance, regardless of how fatigued it is going to make me.

Friends Can Distract You From Studying

You need to pick your study partners wisely, as some friends may be more easily side tracked and actually prevent you from studying.

I would say that fact that you are both studying for fun means you are probably actually going to focus on the language. You will be a little more committed than school kids, who probably have no interest in what they are studying and who would rather mess around or talk about other things.

However, some friends may just be excited to be with you and they may get a little sidetracked and want to talk about everything else in life.

I guess talking about things away from the language can help prevent fatigue, but it’s not exactly going to help you progress with your studies, so it’s probably best to avoid working with these types of friends. 

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see the positive and negatives of studying with your friend. I think overall it can be a positive experience and think it will in general it will help lower your fatigue levels, which is what you want.

You are probably not going to able study like this every day, but it can be a good change. It can make things more engaging and you will go at a slightly different pace than when you are alone, so this can all help with how fatigued you are feeling.

You should give it a try and see how it makes you feel and hopefully you will find it beneficial and not too tiring.

(You can read more about – How Can I Avoid Language Learning Fatigue?)