How multitasking inhibits learning

In today’s tech, social media, & smartphone dominated world, multitasking is often believed to make us more productive. However, research suggests that this modern-day “skill” may be more harmful than helpful, particularly when it comes to learning. From impaired focus to decreased memory retention, the effects of multitasking can undermine our ability to process & therefore understand & remember information. This article explains how multitasking inhibits learning across various contexts, including language acquisition & more general academic performance, emphasising the importance of single-task focus for achieving better learning outcomes.

Multitasking is often praised as a skill, but it’s actually a myth. Just as computers slow down when asked to run too many tasks, our brains struggle when juggling multiple tasks at once. Linguistic tasks, i.e. reading, listening, speaking, & writing, are particularly cognitively demanding for us. As cognitive behavioural scientists frequently warn us, rather than doing two tasks well, we end up doing both poorly & even small interruptions, like checking an email, can disrupt our concentration. Switching tasks creates mental “residue,” lasting several seconds or even minutes, that makes it harder to concentrate, increases errors, & leaves us less productive overall.

Additionally, research shows that frequent multitaskers aren’t any better at focusing or switching tasks. In fact, they’re worse at ignoring distractions, inhibiting extraneous information, & organising their thoughts. Despite evidence showing its inefficiency, many people still overestimate their ability to multitask & persist in doing it.

Effects on language learning

The effects are particularly concerning for learners. For example, studies show that media multitasking, such as watching TV or using a smartphone while studying, leads to poorer memory & difficulty concentrating; even the expectation of social media alerts from smartphones limits learners’ ability to focus on cognitively demanding tasks.

Of course, the detrimental effects of multitasking also extend to second & foreign language learning. Trying to multitask while studying a new language can significantly impede comprehension & retention. Language development requires sustained focus, & dividing attention between lesson tasks & other activities inhibits learners’ ability to process new information sufficiently deeply to make it memorable. Interestingly, bilingual individuals, who already manage two languages, may have cognitive advantages that enhance task-switching. However, these benefits are more evident in proficient bilinguals rather than language learners. For the vast majority of language learners, multitasking is counterproductive.

The constant distraction of smartphones & social media alerts is also reshaping how learners interact & learn. Many learners spend more time focused on their devices than the world around them, leading to what researchers call “inattentional blindness.” Whether or not they attend to an alert, the effect is the same; a momentary drift of concentration that takes time to recover from. This means they miss important details & struggle with deeper thinking & learning. Inattentional blindness & difficulty with deeper thinking, both linked to multitasking, further undermine language learning.

Inattentional blindness occurs when learners focus on one task, such as checking their phones, & fail to notice critical details in whatever they should be attending to, for example reading or listening or engaging in conversation practice. This can result in missing meanings & their associated language features, which make the form-meaning pairings that are essential for language development. Additionally, struggling with deeper thinking means that learners may find it harder to connect new language concepts to existing knowledge, reducing their ability to better understand & use the language & therefore form strong, easily retrievable memories; much of what may have been learned may have faded from memory by the end of the lesson or study session. At the next lesson or study session it’s as if they’d never seen the target language before.

What should we do about it?

If even the expectation of being distracted by the silent buzz of social media notifications in learners’ pockets inhibits learning, we need classroom policies that account for this. In my case, I require my students to turn off their smartphones or at least put them on silent mode & put them in their bags, rather than their pockets, where they won’t be so easily distracted by them.

Even in lessons where I teach students how to use AI translators & other tools constructively, I frequently see them distracted by inevitable social media notifications. I see that momentary drift of attention from the lesson task at hand that takes them seconds or even minutes to recover from & I see them slowly regain the necessary concentration for effective language development. To counter this effect, I find it more productive to provide ready-made translations in order to eliminate this source of distraction & only provide enough training in translator use so that they can do it constructively & independently when engaged in self-study sessions. I also advise students to be aware of how these distractions can undo their study efforts if they allow them to. Hopefully, some of them may even heed my advice!

While smartphones are particularly distracting (by design!), we should also be conscious of, & minimise as far as possible, other distractions in our study environments, which can have equally detrimental effects.

Ultimately, multitasking is a drain on learners’ energy & attention. Our brains evolved to focus on one cognitively demanding task at a time, & splitting that focus is inefficient & counterproductive. For language learning, staying focused on one task at a time & avoiding distractions is key to learners making optimal progress.