The Internet has blessed modern language learners with unprecedented access to foreign language tools, materials, and native speakers. Assuming they can get online, even a farmhand in rural Kansas can learn Japanese for free using Skype, YouTube, and Lang-8. But language learning luddites and technophobes scoff at these modern miracles. Like Charleton Heston clutching his proverbial rifle, they desperately cling to tradition for tradition’s sake, criticizing these modern tools—and the modern methods they enable—from their offline hideouts. Communicating via messenger pigeon and smoke signals no doubt…

“Technology is for for lazy learners!” they exclaim. “Real language learners”, they insist, use the classroom-based, textbook-driven, rote-memory-laden techniques of old.

I call bullshit.

Given how ineffective these traditional methods and materials tend to be for most learners, I can only assume supporters do so from a place of masochism, not efficacy. Perhaps they feel that the more difficult their task, the more bad-ass they become if they manage to succeed despite less-than-optimal methods, materials, and tools.

These voices seem to be loudest in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese language learning circles, which should come as no surprise since these two languages are often considered “extremely difficult” and teachers of these languages tend to be most stuck in tradition and unwilling to embrace change. Personally, I don’t consider any languages difficult per se. Just different. This may be mere semantics, but one’s attitude toward a language plays a major role in one’s ability to stick with it long enough to reach fluency. Think about it: even supposedly “difficult” languages like Japanese, for example, pose many advantages for native speakers of English, including:

• A massive head start in vocabulary acquisition. Japanese contains a mother load of English loan words. When in doubt, just pronounce an English word with Japanese pronunciation and changes are good you will be understood. If that fails, just write down the English word on a piece of paper and they are likely to recognize it. Why? Throughout middle school, high school, and university, Japanese students must memorize thousands of English words, but the focus is on reading and spelling, not spoken English. So most folks can recognize English words when written down but probably won’t register the same word spoken aloud. Yet another reason why traditional language education approaches fail…

• Few new sounds & one-to-one pronunciation. English speakers already know how to make nearly all the sounds in Japanese. You just have to learn the Japanese ‘r’ and ‘ts’ sounds. Also, each kana in Japanese can only be read one way, unlike English letters—for example, English’s notorious ‘e’—that can represent numerous sounds.

• No need to change verbs based on the subject. Unlike most European languages, Japanese does not inflect verbs to agree with the subject pronoun. “I go”, “You go”, “We go”, “They go”, “He goes”, and “She goes” are all ikimasu (行きます・いきます).

But the linguistic masochists of the world don’t want to talk about such advantages because it threatens their egos and their “I study hard therefore I am” ethos.

There’s nothing wrong with studying your butt off. But make sure your efforts are applied to methods that actually work like spaced repetition systems, imaginative memory, mnemonics, and pegging, and materials you truly enjoy like podcasts, YouTube, blogs, anime, and manga. Why cling to expensive, outdated methods when free, modern options exist?

Fortunately, there are three guaranteed, certifiable, kid-tested, mother-approved ways to improve how fast you learn, how much new information you retain, and how well you perform in a foreign language: 1) get adequate sleep, 2) eat right, and 3) exercise regularly. “Gee thanks Captain Obvious.” Yah, I know, nothing groundbreaking here. But as I’ve researched and experimented with what exactly constitutes high quality sleep, good nutrition, and healthy exercise, I’ve been amazed how wrong (and even dangerous) most mainstream health advice tends to be. Case in point:

• Saturated fat does not cause heart disease and is in fact one of the most important fatty acids. Guess what? Butter is health food!

• Dietary cholesterol has little impact on serum levels so avoiding cholesterol rich foods is idiotic even if you buy into the highly flawed “lipid hypothesis” of heart disease.

• Vascular inflammation is the real issue in heart disease; high cholesterol is but a symptom. As Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions, puts it:
  

  “Just as a large police force is needed in a locality where crime occurs frequently, so cholesterol is needed in a poorly nourished body to protect the individual from a tendency to heart disease and cancer. Blaming coronary heart disease on cholesterol is like blaming the police for murder and theft in a high crime area.”

• More cancer is caused by under exposure to the sun than over exposure. Vitamin D deficiency is an extremely widespread health problem, made even worse by our indoor lifestyles and overuse of sunscreen (which often contains known carcinogens and prevents the skin’s vitamin D production system from kicking in).

Okay, enough ranting. Back to the language-health connection.

Get Enough Sleep

Most modern humans are severely sleep deprived, both in terms of quantity and quality. Instead of going to sleep when it’s dark and waking up when it’s light as we evolved to do, our natural circadian rhythms have been reset by high-stress lifestyles, artificial lighting (especially the blue light of TV and computer screens), alarm clocks, and regular over-consumption of sugar, starches, and alcohol.

In addition to hurting our ability to learn (our brains encode and store new information while we’re conked out during the night), sleep deprivation also hurts our performance while we’re awake, including our performance in skill-based endeavors like language. As John Medina shares in his excellent book Brain Rules (quoting a study on the performance of soldiers):

“One night’s loss of sleep resulted in about a 30 percent loss in overall cognitive skill, with a subsequent drop in performance. Bump that up to two nights’ loss, and the figure becomes 60 percent.”

And the negative effects of sleep loss are not just from pulling all-nighters:

“When sleep was restricted to six hours or less per night for just five nights, for example, cognitive performance matched that of a person suffering from 48 hours of continual sleep deprivations.”

So obviously sleep matters a great deal in learning and performing in a language. And yes, foreign languages are a performance. So what can we do to get more sleep and improve the quality of whatever hours we do get?

Eat Right and Exercise Enough (But Not Too Much)

Duh, right? Well, it may be obvious that we should eat right and exercise to stay in shape, but did you know that what you eat and how much you exercise also significantly impacts your ability to fall asleep (and stay asleep)? To ensure a smooth trip to La La Land, avoid consuming caffeine, sugary foods, and alcohol in the evening (or better yet, altogether). And contrary to popular belief, alcohol actually hurts the quality of your sleep. Try caffeine-free hot tea instead of booze for your night cap.

We’ll discuss exercise more in a minute, but I want to briefly mention it here given its effect on sleep. If you’re having trouble falling asleep at night, one surefire solution is to engage in some short, high-intensitity exercise a few times a week such as sprints and weight training.

Don’t watch TV right before bed

I know, I know. Everyone likes to enjoy their favorite shows before turning in for the night. But beware that the blue light from your television, computer, mobile device or iPad actually tricks your brain into thinking it’s daytime. Combine this with the emotional impact of the programming itself, and it can become difficult to doze off even after pushing the off button.

Take Naps

Most of us get a bad case of “the sleepies” in the mid afternoon. We usually write this off as a product of our heavy lunch (and food does definitely play a part in energy levels), but the afternoon yawn is actually caused by the temporary stalemate between “two armies” as John Medina puts it, the body’s “Process C” (the “circadian arousal system” which wakes us up and keeps us awake) and “Process S” (the “homeostatic sleep drive” which puts us to sleep and keeps us under). If you want to have peak performance throughout your day, don’t fight the urge for an afternoon siesta.

Eat What You’re Evolved to Eat

About the worst thing you can do for your brain performance and overall health is consume foods you are not evolved to eat. And in today’s world of ubiquitous sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, processed and packaged foods with ingredients we can’t pronounce, feedlot raised animals fed diets even worse than ours, mass-marketed “health” foods that are anything but healthy, and a propensity for eating all these wannabe foods while on the run, it can be quite a challenge to consistently put the right kind of fuels in your body.

With a little research, planning, and discipline, however, it is very possible to eat well day in and day out. But I warn you now: proper nutrition will require changing some common misconceptions about what is actually “healthy”. Here is a quick list of what to avoid:

Sugars, Starches & Alcohol

As a general rule of thumb, try to avoid all white-colored foods and food ingredients (white sugar, white flour, white tubers, etc.) as they spike your insulin and signal your body to store energy in fat cells instead of burning the fuel you eat or carry in your love handles.

In addition to weight gain, high blood glucose levels also negatively effect the performance of the hippocampus, the brain’s center for retention and recall. I love gummy worms as much as you, but they aren’t exactly brain food.

And speaking of brain food, you may have heard that we have to eat carbs because the brain burns glucose. It’s true that our gray matter can use glucose as fuel, but it actually runs better on ketones, which our bodies naturally produce on lower carb, higher fat diets (which, by the way, is what our ice-age evolved species has survived and thrived on for the vast majority of our history). Moreover, our livers can create all the glucose we need from protein through a nifty process called gluconeogenesis.

Grains

Although grains, especially the “whole grain” variety, have been touted for decades as “healthy”, they are anything but good for us. Not only are they high in insulin-spiking carbohydrates, but they they also contain heaps of harmful anti-nutrients like gluten, gliadin, lectins (a sugar-binding protein that wreaks havoc on the gastrointestinal tract), and phytates. If you are consuming grains for their fiber, you can easily get the same (if not greater) benefit from just eating leafy green vegetables, especially considering the damage grain fiber does to intestinal microvilli (the little hair-like structures in the intestines that allow healthy individuals to absorb nutrients). We have only been consuming grains for roughly 10,000 years (the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms) and are most of us are not evolved to process them efficiently as fuel. Read Mark Sisson’s article Why Grains Are Unhealthy for more on this highly under-appreciated topic.

So if these yummy ingredients are off the table, what should we eat? It’s pretty simple: eat the two things humans are evolved to eat: plants and animals. Or to call on Mark Sisson again:

“Plants (vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and herbs and spices) and animals (meat, fish, fowl, and eggs) should represent the entire composition of your diet.”

For maximum health benefits and brain function, choose the following kinds of plants and animals whenever possible. They may cost more in the short-term but the long term health benefits will be well worth it!

Organic, Local-Grown Fruits & Vegetables

Buying organic helps ensure that you will not be consuming toxins harmful to your body and brain. This is especially important for fruits and vegetables that are consumed whole, skin and all like berries, apples, lettuce, bell peppers, celery, broccoli, etc. Buying local minimizes the impact on the environment and actually creates healthier, more nutrient-dense foods since they ripen on the stem, not in air-conditioned, chemical laden trucks, ships, or airplanes.

Wild-Caught Fish

We all know by now the importance of omega-3 fats, and that salmon and other fish are excellent sources of the stuff. But not all fish are created equal! Most fish you see in the grocery store have been farm raised, reducing the quantity of omega-3s and lowering the overall nutritional value of the fish. Add to this the many ways that farm fishing harms wild fish populations and the choice becomes clear.

100% Grass-Fed Beef

If you don’t eat meat for spiritual or moral reasons, then I won’t push the point any further. But if you are avoiding the stuff on health grounds, you need to update your knowledge. Beef can actually be a very healthy addition to your diet, but it needs to be the right kind of beef. Just as humans get fat when they eat the wrong things, so do cows. When fed a diet of corn and soy instead of the wild grasses they are evolved to eat, a cow’s omega-3 to omega-6 body fat ratio becomes skewed in the wrong direction, producing higher concentrations of omega-6s, exactly the kind of fat you want to avoid. Grass-fed beef on the other hand has much higher percentages of our hero, omega-3, giving you a similar health benefit to eating salmon!

Pasture-Raised Poultry & Eggs

Our little feathered friends are evolved to eat insect-centric omnivorous diets, not the vegetarian diet of corn, soy, and grain they are usually fed today. Feeding them this way leads to the wrong ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats in meat and eggs, not too mention the cruel living conditions that go with it. Whenever possible, try to find “pasture raised” chickens and turkeys that are free to eat worms, bugs, and other slimy creatures they are meant to eat. Their bodies, and by extension, your’s, will be all the healthier for it. And before you raise your hand in protest about the fat and cholesterol in eggs, here is Mark Sisson again to the rescue, quoting the Framingham Heart Study, the longest and most comprehensive epidemiological study of all time:

“There is no correlation between dietary cholesterol intake and blood cholesterol levels. Framingham residents who ate the most cholesterol, saturated fat, and total calories actually weighed the least and were the most physically active.”

Exercise = More Blood to Your Brain

Along with eating right and getting enough sleep, exercise completes the brain health trinity. Sadly, most modern humans fall into one of two extreme camps: zero exercise or chronic exercise. Neither of these are good for us, and both will negatively effect your brain health. I don’t think anyone needs much convincing that some exercise is good for us, but for those who don’t believe there is such a thing as “too much exercise”, I highly suggest reading Mark Sisson’s article Why You Shouldn’t Burn More Than 4,000 Calories a Week Through Exercise.

Here now are but a few of the many brain benefits reaped through regular physical activity:

Increased Blood Flow to and Within the Brain

More blood means more oxygen for hungry brain cells and reduced damage from “free radicals”. This all adds up to improved memory and overall cognitive function.

Increased Neuron Creation

Studies show that exercise, not just exposure to new information as you would expect, increases brain cell production.

Increased production of BDNF

In addition to being a freakishly long word, “Brain-derived neurotrophic factor”, is one of the key chemicals involved in the formation and preservation of brain cells.

Increased Brain Stem Cell Activity

Research at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine shows that exercise moderates the activity of bone-morphogenetic protein (BMP), which reduces stem cell responsiveness in the brain. Within a weeks’ time, BMP levels were halved in lab mice that ran on a wheel, and an opposing protein aptly called “noggin” increased. As a result, the mice displayed remarkable adeptness in cognitive tests.

Improved Mood

Exercise increases the production of endorphins, helping you feel good no matter what may be happening around you, and improves the brain’s ability to produce and process dopamine, so you feel good longer.

Improved Discipline

Every time you exercise despite really not feelin’ like it, you strengthen your self-discipline, meaning you are more likely to spend time that day on working your foreign language muscles, and perhaps even physical muscles, too.

So there you have it. Sleep. Eat. Move. Three simple (though not necessarily easy) steps to improve your brain fitness and supercharge your foreign language learning endeavors. Vroom, vroom!

However, language schools can also be a major impediment to the very goal you go there to achieve: learning a foreign language as quickly and efficiently as possible. This may come as a shock to those who have been conditioned to believe that classrooms are the only place, or at least the best place, to learn a language.

Here are the top ten disadvantages of formal, classroom-based language learning (at least in my view):

1. You don’t need a teacher or school to learn a foreign language

There is an important distinction to be made between learning and schooling. Those who believe they need formal training in a language are making the false assumption that the two are one and the same. To reach fluency in a language, you need to acquire a great deal of tacit knowledge, that special kind of internalized, experience-based information that you may not be conscious of. The sad truth is that most teachers focus on explicit knowledge (e.g. facts about the language such as grammar rules), which has very little to do with one’s ability to speak a language. Explicit knowledge is easier to teach and test, however, which probably explains why it makes up the bulk of school curricula.

2. You don’t need to “study” grammar rules

At some point in history, the education establishment convinced society that they needed to be “taught” languages. This was quite an amazing feat considering that all human beings are endowed by evolution (or God if you prefer) with the ability to automatically acquire any language they hear in adequate quantities. The problem for most learners (and the reason they buy into the “I need more schooling!” mentality) is that they never get an adequate quantity of language input. The irony is that this input deficiency is often caused by the very classes that are supposed to provide it. With a focus on memorizing grammar rules, most learners end up spending the vast majority of their time learning about a language instead of actually learning the language itself.

3. Tests and grades do more harm than good

Ideally, formalized testing and grading systems motivate students by providing competition and objective feedback. In reality, however, most grading is far from objective (teachers tend to reward students they like and penalize those they don’t), and tests do little more than demonstrate one’s ability to memorize facts. Feedback is important, but it needn’t be in the form of traditional testing or grades. Ask your teachers to evaluate your performance by giving specific examples of things you said right or wrong, not with multiple choice tests.

4. Classes go as fast as the slowest person

The bigger the class, the wider the range of abilities, and the slower the class will have to go. Schools know that students are more likely to stick with something too easy but will quickly throw in the towel if something is too difficult. And despite placement tests and numerous class levels, it can be very difficult to appropriately group students by their actual skill in the language. With finite time slots mutually convenient for all students in a given group, some students will inevitably be placed in classes that are above or below their actual ability level. Also, placement tests come with the same problems mentioned in # 3: they test one’s memory and knowledge (especially of the written word).

5. Reading out loud does not improve your pronunciation or speaking ability

Teachers often have students read out loud to allegedly “practice pronunciation.” The truth is that your pronunciation improves only from massive amounts of listening input and speaking output. Reading aloud does little more than show what words you are unfamiliar with and often reinforces mispronunciations instead of fixing them. While some teachers genuinely believe in the read aloud method, others just use it as a zero prep activity to count down the clock.

6. Oral drills do not help you learn how to speak; they only demonstrate your ability to do so

Just as reading aloud does not improve your pronunciation or reading skills, oral drills do little for your speaking fluency. We improve our speaking ability through increasing the quantity and quality of listening input (e.g. podcasts about your favorite topics), and then applying what we have heard in natural, contextualized conversations.

7. You will be encouraged to move up to the next level even if you aren’t ready

This is all about business. Schools make more money when you buy new books, take level tests and re-enroll in more classes.

8. Your progress reports are meaningless

Teachers hate writing progress reports. They are usually an exercise in creative writing, not meaningful feedback on your actual performance and progress in the language. Not knowing what to say (and not wanting to waste time on a task they don’t get paid for!), many teachers will just cut and paste canned comments, or come up with general, vague statements and overly technical descriptions of your grammar and pronunciation problems.

9. You should be the one who chooses the material

Despite being widely used, standardized textbooks are bad tools for a number of reasons. They build on the myth that schooling equals learning, as discussed in # 1 above. They lull students into a false sense of accomplishment, where completion of chapters is confused with actual internalization of the content. And with content written not to entertain but to avoid offending anyone, they are typically boring and sterile. Interest in the material is essential for effective language learning, so make sure to choose schools or teachers that allow you to choose materials that float your boat.

10. It doesn’t take years to learn a foreign language well if you do it right

If you like the language you are learning, believe you can learn it, and get as much listening and reading input as possible, you will learn the language well enough to communicate in a matter of 6 months to a year. Most students, however, end up paying tuition for years and years despite a lack of progress. Students blame themselves (backed up by the bogus comments found in their progress reports), not realizing that the problem lies not in them, but with their school’s materials and methodologies.

I have sat quietly on the sidelines for some time now, politely listening to both sides of the argument. But it’s time to blow my referee whistle because both teams are “offsides” (Okay John, enough sports analogies already!)

The Argument is Flawed to Begin With…

The problem with the whole argument is that input and output are not mutually exclusive components of language learning. You need both. The key is order and balance.

1. Listen first, then speak

When just starting out in a language, it is important to get as much listening input as possible. Just like when you learned your first language, your brain needs time to get used to the patterns and phonology of the language. But unlike little babies, adults can also rely on reading input to back up what we listen to. This difference (along with the fact we already have fully developed brains and don’t have to wear diapers) gives adults a major leg up on babies learning their first language. For more on the many advantages adult learners have over children, read this excellent article by Benny the Irish Polyglot.

Once you have filled your teapot up with enough listening input, language will naturally want to start pouring out. That’s when it’s time to start speaking; and speaking a lot. But be careful with the “I’ll wait until I’m ready” approach, especially if you are a shy perfectionist. If you fall into this category, years or even decades may pass before you feel “ready”. Depending on your temperament and how many hours you spend a day with the language, a few months, weeks, or even days should arm you with enough exposure to start communicating.

And by all means, if you want to start speaking day one, go for it! Just don’t feel obligated to do so, and don’t let yourself be forced by a tutor or teacher as this often leads to a fear of speaking later on and negative feelings toward the very language you aim to learn.

To get started in a language, try to find short, simple dialogues of actual native speakers with transcripts. Then listen and read, listen and read, and listen and read again as many times as your schedule and sanity allow. Read the dialogues out loud if you want to get your mouth used to the sounds, but keep in mind that you will be mispronouncing things for a while until both your ears and mouth get used to the language.

And I suggest avoiding textbook companion CDs as they tend to offer overly stilted, monotonous dialogues that aim to teach a particular grammar point at the expense of natural communication.

2. Take equal doses of your input and output medicine.

Once you have gone through a few days, weeks, or months of listening and reading this way, start mixing in equal amount of output activities (speaking with friends or tutors, writing a blog post in the foreign language, etc.). It may be nerdy, but it’s a good idea to literally use the stop-watch feature on your iPod touch or phone to time your input and output activities each day. As Peter Drucker says, “What gets measured gets managed.”

If you follow the above regimen, your foreign language skills will progress quickly, efficiently, and most importantly, enjoyably. However, if you follow the advice of the extremists on either side of the input-output debate, you are in for heaps of problems and a world of pain. Here’s why:

Output Only Problems

Proponents of the “Output is awesome; input is lame” philosophy suggest that learners just “get out there and start communicating with native speakers”. This approach, while certainly sexier than what I prescribe above, has a number of problems:

1. Nasty mispronunciation habits.

Bad pronunciation habits develop when you pronounce things how you think they should be pronounced based on your overly limited listening exposure to the language, and your logical, but nonetheless incorrect, assumptions based on how words are spelled but not pronounced.

2. You’ll be that annoying guy at the bar.

Because you have a limited vocabulary and only understand little of what is said to you, you will likely attempt to control conversations by keeping them on topics you are familiar with, using phrases and vocabulary you have memorized. All but the most patient interlocutors will get bored or annoyed by such one-sided conversations. Don’t be that guy. But by the same token, don’t miss chances to speak with natives speakers out of fear you won’t be able to communicate. You’d be amazed how much you can communicate with a few words, body language, drawings on a napkin and animated gesticulation…

3. You probably won’t enjoy the process and give up early.

Many would-be language learners give up because they simply don’t enjoy the process. Much of the angst, tedium and phobias stem from having to speak before one has a chance of performing in the language (and yes, language is a performance). Language teachers are the worst perpetrators, presenting you with new words or phrases one minute, and then expecting you to actually use them the next. Well-meaning friends or language partners are no better, trying to “teach” you new words and phrases and expecting that you can actually use them right away. Assimilation takes time and repetition, so don’t beat yourself up if it takes a few times (or a few hundred times) of hearing or reading a new word or phrase before you can actually use it.

Input Only Problems

If, however, you spend months and months diligently listening to your iPod and reading online newspapers, but never actually speaking with native speakers (by design or chance), you will understand quite a bit of what goes on around you but will struggle to actually verbalize your thoughts well or have natural exchanges with native speakers. This happens because:

1. Proper pronunciation is a physical feat.

You can’t think your way through pronunciation (believe me, most introverts have tried and failed!). Good pronunciation requires that your ears first get used to the new language (i.e. through getting lots and lots of listening input), and then also getting your lips, tongue and larynx used to new sounds not found in your native tongue, which of course takes lots and lots of talkin’ the talk.

2. Speaking and writing identifies your learning gaps.

Until you actually try to say or write something, you won’t know what you really know. While you may passively recognize certain words, phrases, idioms or Chinese characters, you may still struggle to say or write them. This is even true for your native language (as I found out when I first started teaching English and was confronted with such conundrums up at the white board as “Wait a second…How in the hell do you spell “misspelled”?)

The more you speak and write, the more you know where the “holes” are in your language cheese, and the easier it will be to fill them with focused study and review.

Conclusion

So as in all things, the extremists tend to be just that: extreme. They tend to get more attention, but the efficacy of their advice tends to be an inverse proportion to their popularity…

To become fluent in a language, just consume a balanced diet, rich in listening and speaking, with plenty of reading and writing sprinkled in for flavor.

I believe that grammar based language instruction underpins why so many people hate language learning, and fail to reach fluency despite years of concerted effort.

But I can hear the language “prescriptionists” yelling:

“If people don’t study grammar, how then will they ever learn to speak and write properly!?”

I have a one word answer for them, and I will say it in the Spelling Bee style they tend to love:

“Input. I-N-P-U-T. Input.”

So why is natural input the key to languages and not explicit study of grammar? Again, the answer is strikingly simple:

“Language ability cannot be taught; it can only be learned.”

Most schools, educators, and parents have come to believe that they have to “teach” children both native and foreign languages. This reveals a basic misconception about language, which has been thoroughly debunked by researchers far smarter than I, including Steven Pinker of Harvard, and Stephen Krashen of the University of Southern California. In a nutshell, their research shows that human language is an innate physical skill akin to walking. You were not “taught” how to walk; you figured it out through trial and error. Your ability to speak your native language is the same. Native English speakers learn to string sentences together through listening input (which starts in the womb by the way!), not because parents or teachers taught them about “subjects” and “predicates”, the meaning of Latin or Greek word roots, or English case inflections.

Ok, I hear the grammar mavens shouting again:

“So if the grammar-based approach to language learning is so ineffective, why has it survived so long?”

There are many reason for this, including ignorance, arrogance, and tendency to stick to tradition. But perhaps the biggest reason is good old fashioned greed. There is a lot of money to be made selling books, training teachers, running conferences, preparing students for tests, and selling cram school tuitions. (You’ll notice that many of the pro-grammar blogs make affiliate income through links to grammar books, test prep courses, etc.)

Oh, now I hear language teachers shouting (a group of which I am a member):

“Then what are we to teach our students?”

The main tasks of an effective language teacher include:

1. Getting students fired up about the language.
2. Providing a cultural context for the language.
3. Giving suggestions for high quality input resources that fits your student’s interests, ability level and professional or academic needs.
4. Learning your student’s native language (this shows that you are interested in their culture and that it is indeed possible to learn a foreign language well using this approach.
5. Limited explanations about grammar and vocabulary

“Wait a second, grammar explanations!? You hypocrite!”

I include #5 not because it will help students learn the language, but because:

• Most students (and employers!) demand it
• Some people find it interesting (and interest trumps all)
• Many students (especially in East Asia) must pass grammar-based university entrance examinations. Even though it’s an unjust war, you still need to prepare them for battle.