Learning how to iron a shirt

How do you learn how to iron a shirt? In some cases, someone may show you how to do it, giving explanations as they are doing so. That is to say, language is involved. But even if there is no one around, you will probably use language in order to learn it. The most obvious case would be your reading the instruction sheet. But even if you do not do this, language will be involved. You may remember a family member doing it, and these memories may be visual, but they are almost certainly also accompanied by words which help to fix the experience in our minds. Even without talking or writing, we often process our action through words in the mind, which help us to understand what we are doing and remember it. We may also profit from something we have read about ironing in the past. (Roz, Ivanič: “Languages and Literacies in Education”, in: Culpeper, Jonathan, Katamba, Francis, et. al. (eds): English Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009: 625-6)