Category — How to learn a new language

Is learning grammar necessary for picking up a new language? Take any language course and one of the first things you’ll be taught, in addition to basics like counting to ten, or how to say hello, is grammar. Learning tables of verb conjugations, and countless grammar rules are usually considered the core of any language learning class, without which a student would be completely lost. However, a language acquisition theory from Dr. Stephen Krashen, a renowned linguistics professor, suggests picking up a new language doesn’t require any conscious knowledge of grammar; instead, the best and most effective methods of acquiring a new language occur through regular and useful conversation.

Dr. Krashen actually separates the way people learn languages into two separate categories: the “acquired system” and the “learned system”. The acquired points to learning a new language in an almost subconscious manner, mostly through regular communication and interaction using the target language. The learned system, on the other hand, points to the traditional method of learning that many of us are used to, in which we learn conjugations, grammar rules, tenses, etc. The most important conclusion of Krashen’s hypothesis, however, is that the “acquired system” is more effective and indeed better than the “learned system” used by most language schools worldwide.

From a basic perspective, the theory definitely makes sense, as a language student living in foreign country surrounded by native speakers of their target language would obviously learn faster and more effectively than someone just memorizing grammar tables in class. Of course, not everyone has the privilege to study abroad, although Dr. Krashen insists there are “acquired system” techniques which can be employed in the classroom as well.  The debate is definitely an interesting one and continues with heated arguments from both sides to this day.

If you’re a language teacher or a linguistics expert, I’d love to hear your view on this. Drop me a line here.

“Second language acquisition research” studies the psychology and sociology of the learning process. Because of second language acquisition research, the field of language training has grown and developed.

A few days ago, I wrote about the Silent Way developed by Caleb Gattegno, a model that promotes the independence of the learner. This learning method is almost similar to the case method of learning at top business schools, such as Harvard, where the role of the teacher is not to impart knowledge to the learner, but to facilitate learning.

Schumann’s “Acculturation model” is another interesting model. Schumann’s model contends that learners will succeed in second language acquisition only to the extent they acculturate into the group that speaks the target language natively. That’s why language immersion is the most effective way to learn a language. Living in the country where the language is natively spoken enables the learner to “acculturate” into the locals and accelerates acquisition of the target language.

Meanwhile, Krashen’s “Monitor model” focuses on the inputs that the student is receiving and how it affects the whole learning process. However, for the Monitor to be successfully used, three conditions must be met:

1. The acquirer/learner must know the rule
   This is a very difficult condition to meet because it means that the speaker must have had explicit instruction on the language form that he or she is trying to produce.
2. The acquirer must be focused on correctness
   He or she must be thinking about form, and it is difficult to focus on meaning and form at the same time.
3. The acquirer/learner must have time to use the monitor
   Using the monitor requires the speaker to slow down and focus on form.

These three models of second language acquisition have helped more and more researchers understand the field of language acquisition. However, in spite of the rich second language acquisition research available, there is no model that has become widely accepted because of the nature and complexity of the topic. Experts agree that this might continue to be the case even in the foreseeable future.

Today, one of my readers asked me about The Silent Way approach to language learning, a method developed by Caleb Gattegno in the 1960’s. The Silent Way is such an interesting approach, as it trains the learner to become independent.

The Silent Way: A learner-friendly approach to language learning

The name Silent Way highlights the fact that the teacher remains silent (as much as possible) during the entire language training course. The teacher is not there to impart knowledge or to provide answers, but is there to facilitate discovery and awareness.

Based on prior skills, abilities and experiences of the students, teachers therefore strive to ensure that students can encounter discoveries, become aware of the facts of language, establish criteria for correctness, acquire the know-how, and above all, become independent in their learning.

Though silent most of the time, the teacher plays a crucial role. The teacher is there at every moment, speaking only when necessary but listening very intently. The teacher acts as the guarantor, safeguarding the accuracy of the language (pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax).

For the students, it is helpful that they are expected to develop a certain degree of self-awareness and that they can discover the language on their own — with very little help from the teacher — from testing things and making use of the materials provided by the teacher.

The Silent Way: Using materials as playful as they are powerful

If you’re a teacher thinking about trying out the Silent Way, here are some materials you can use inside the classroom:

• A sound / color chart consisting of rectangles of different colors, with each color corresponding to a sound (view examples).
• Word charts that contain the most critical 500 words of the language. The words are written in different colors. The use of color allows the student to correctly pronounce the language, especially character languages such as Chinese, Japanese or Russian.
• The Fidel table that helps students learn to read. It displays all possible spellings of each sound. Spellings are then grouped and color coded to indicate their pronunciation. The Fidel is particularly useful when the target language is problematic spelling, such as French and English.
• Strips of different colors used to create situations that will help the students understand how a particular concept is expressed in the language.
• Images (similar size to paintings) depicting scenes of everyday life. They invite learners to use their imagination. They thus serve to introduce everyday vocabulary and may encourage story-telling or generate discussion.

The Silent Way: In practice

A beginner level course or a basic course can start by working on the basic elements of the language: sounds, vocabulary, sentence construction. The materials described above are frequently used. In the first classes, teachers create situations in which students will work, but soon the students themselves will invent new situations by using the strips, or things that happen in class, or even their own lives (both personal and professional).

In an advanced course, students can be encouraged to discuss a topic of their choice. The work will then be on correcting their errors. The teacher does not correct errors but will help students to do that themselves, encouraging them to discuss the problem and to look for similar examples.

By giving the students the opportunity to explore their errors and difficulties, they can work on both the language and their own behavior  as a learner. In addition, it builds the learner’s self-confidence. This is an interesting experience in itself, as evidenced by the intense involvement of students in a course delivered using the Silent Way.

The pleasure that the students derive from the class are then not dependent on activities “imported” into the language, such as songs, role-playing, and other games, but on the discovery of oneself through the deployment of mental ability in learning the language.

For the teacher, it is extremely important to always be “on alert” to ensure that the students always have a linguistic challenge in front of them.

Advantages and disadvantages of The Silent Way

Throughout this article, we’ve talked about the Silent Way in a positive light. The use of the Silent Way fosters a very high degree of interaction between the teacher and the students as well as among the students themselves and  raises the participation of the students in class. The students cooperate and help each other out in class and, in this way, the social aspect of learning is supported.

While the Silent Way offers a lot of advantages, there are also disadvantages to this method. The Silent Way is a very abstract method to learn a language, very different from the commonly used methods of language learning. As a result, the learners have to engage themselves with the artificiality of the approach. The whole concept of the method and atmosphere in class may seem too abstract, so that learners may have difficulties to derive any benefit from it.

Furthermore, the Silent Way does not lend itself to having a large number of learners in one group. It is unlikely that a larger number of learners will be able to participate in class unless the teacher has provided them a really large number of materials.

If you’re a teacher or a student who has experienced the Silent Way, drop a comment below — I’d love to hear from you.

The first stage of second language acquisition

The first stage is the “silent period” – it involves imitation and responding to visual cues, but not yet conversing. Listening to a person speaking, preferably a friend who is a native speaker, will help a lot. Watching your favourite movies in foreign language is another tremendous help during this stage. For example, to learn German, I spent a lot of time with my German-speaking friends and insisted that they speak German to each other instead of being polite and speaking in English just so I could understand their conversation. I also purchased the German version of my favourite movie Sex and the City and watched it over and over and over. By the time I finished the movie, I was able to understand how to pronounce the words properly.

The second stage of second language acquisition

The next stage will take longer than the first and may take up to six months, depending on your commitment and the intensity of your learning. This is the stage where you familiarize yourself with around 1,000 words. By the end of this stage, you will be able to say phrases and chunks of words.

The third stage of second language acquisition

By the time you reach the third stage, you will have learned a vocabulary of around 3,000 words. He or she can form sentences and even have a decent dialogue with their teacher.

The fourth stage of second language acquisition

The fourth stage will give the student a vocabulary of 6,000 words as he or she can already form complex sentences with the language.

These are just a few stages when a person begins to learn a new language. Understanding second language acquisition is crucial to one’s success in learning the language fast.

The final stage of second language acquisition

It takes students from 4-10 years to achieve cognitive academic language proficiency in a second language. Student at this stage will be near-native in their ability to perform in content area learning. Most ELLs at this stage have been exited from ESL and other support programs. At the beginning of this stage, however, they will need continued support from classroom teachers especially in content areas such as history/social studies and in writing.

The best way to learn a new language is to go to the country, where the language is spoken. There are obviously language schools that will teach you, but that can get quite expensive with board and tuition. So how do you afford to get going?

One option could be to teach your native language in the country where you want to go. That way you will get paid for living in an exotic country, although you should not expect to become rich. When you search the internet, it is amazing how many schools teach languages, and native speakers are always in high demand because they will teach the students perfect pronunciation, have a more varied vocabulary and great intonation.

However, how do you get started? Some schools will require you to have a teacher’s certificate or have taken courses in teaching. Others will train you in the workplace. Some countries will also require you to gain a work visa. To get an idea about the requirements, it is a good idea to read a number of job advertisements. There are so many out there, that I would suggest looking at a page, that has fewer suggestion. Here Mark’s ESL Job Postings is a good place to start. ESL is short for English as a Second Language.

Although you will be teaching your own language, living in a foreign country is a great way of learning the local language especially if you know just enough to get by. By immersing yourself you will not only improve your language but get amazing experiences, local friends and not least get the local culture under your skin.

Language learners often ask, how long does it take to learn a language? There is no simple answer to this question. There are a few factors that determine how long it will take you to learn a language:

1. Your language learning goal: First, you need to determine your language learning goal. Do you want to be able to simply converse with the locals or become fluent in the language? If you just want to understand a few basic phrases and read the street signs while you are travelling, several days may be enough. But if you’d like to become proficient in the language, researchers of second language acquisition have estimated that it takes between 5 to 7 years for an ESL student to be at the same level as his or her native-speaking peers.
2. Your commitment: You also need to ask yourself how dedicated you are in learning the language. How much time will you devote in learning it? Will you attend a regular class session? Will you study on your own through books and online references? Will you regularly watch movies in the language you are learning? Will you spend a few months in the country where the language is spoken natively? 40 years of research shows that language immersion is the best way to gain proficiency in any language. So if you have the opportunity to participate in a language immersion program abroad and live with a host family while you’re there, consider it.
3. The language: If you already speak Spanish, it will be (relatively) easy to pick up Portuguese. If you already know another Romance language, you can learn Italian at 80% off the price by taking advantage of the strong similarities in grammar and vocabulary with Spanish, French and Portuguese. If you speak Chinese, it will be much easier for you to learn Japanese.

All these things can significantly affect the duration of learning a language. If you’re still asking “how long does it take to learn a new language?” I’ve added a graph below that shows the number of weeks it takes to advance from one level to another. The orange area assumes a student pursues a standard language course consisting of 20 class-hours per week, while the green area assumes a student pursues an intensive language course and studies a language 30 hours weekly.

Learning a new language is a lot of fun, but certainly not easy. If you want to know how to learn a new language quickly, here are a few simple tips.

1. Start with basic words and phrases. First learn some simple greetings and introductory phrases. This way, you will be able to converse even just a little bit. My favorite language learning resource for beginners is BBC Languages – it’s free to use and offers interactive instruction for 36 languages. It’s definitely one of the best sites out there – I’ve found it even more effective than expensive paid software products such as Rosetta Stone.
2. Watch movies in the new language you are trying to learn. Without a doubt, this is the fastest way to learn a language – without living in the country where the language is natively spoken. By watching movies, you’ll learn colloquial expressions and you’ll become familiar with how the words are pronounced. If you are committed to learning the language fast, consider transcribing each and every line in the movie. From my own experience learning German through watching Sex and the City, I guarantee, you’ll retain more and learn faster if you transcribe the movie.
3. Read online news sites in foreign language. Alexa has a list of the most popular websites in different countries around world. One of the top sites in the list is usually a news site. If you encounter new words and phrases, try keeping a record that you can go back to and review. Of course, having a dictionary by your side will come in handy for this exercise. I am personally not a fan of books, so I often use Google Translate. I also save money that way, since Google Translate is free to use.
4. Practice speaking. Until you feel comfortable conversing in a foreign language, you haven’t really learned it yet. The hard part is, if you don’t live in the country where the language is spoken every day, it is tough to find opportunities to practice speaking. But there are solutions. For example, you can download Skype, find a language partner, and practice speaking with a native speakers. Most foreigners are excited by the opportunity to speak with a native English speaker, so you’ll find a partner very easily.

These are just a few things that you should keep in mind if you want to know how to learn a new language.