Welcome to Foreign Language Mastery! If this is your first time here, please make sure to check the Start Here section once you’re done with this article.

Listen to the Podcast

I went ahead and recorded an audio version of this post for those who want to listen on the go, and for English learners wanting to use it as listening input.

Just click the red arrow…

_

Read the Article

Here is a run down of the top 10 things NOT to do when learning a foreign language.  While what works may differ somewhat from person to person, the following should be avoided for ALL language learners:

One: Do NOT spend more than 5% of your study time on grammar, translation, vocabulary lists or any other overt information about the language.  Languages are “acquired,” not learned.  And acquisition by its very definition happens subconsciously over time given proper input.  Which leads us to number 2.

_

Two: Do NOT spend time on materials that are too difficult or don’t interest you.  Motivation is one of the greatest keys to success in foreign language learning, and motivation’s favorite fuel is interest.  There is a wealth of free language learning content available today; you need simply look for it (see the Learning Tools & Materials section for suggested resources.)

_

Three: Do NOT study in long, infrequent sessions.  Behind motivation, consistency is the most important factor in language learning.  If you are strapped for time (and who isn’t?), it is far better to study a little bit everyday than doing marathon study sessions a few times a month.  For example, if you only have 2 hours free per week to commit to language studies, it is far better to do 20 minutes per day, 6 days a week than doing the whole 2 hours on one day.

_

Four: Do NOT worry about speaking too soon.  Although oral fluency is certainly the goal of most language learners, it takes the brain some time to assimilate enough input to be able to produce meaningful output.  Babies listen actively to the language around them for up to 2 years before uttering a single meaningful word.  Adults can get to the output stage much earlier if they follow the advice on Foreign Language Mastery, but they should not force themselves (or let themselves be forced) to speak before they are ready.  This is perhaps the single greatest problem with formal language instruction: students are expected to speak long before they are ready, creating a great deal of anxiety and diminishing the student’s motivation and interest.

_

Five: Do NOT memorize vocabulary out of context.   To have any chance of retaining or using new words, they must be heard or read (preferably the former) many, many times within a meaningful situation.  “Narrow reading” is a good way to increase the repetition of key words in a meaningful way.

_

Six: Do NOT try to learn new words, alphabets, ideographic characters or spelling using “rote” memory. We have 5 senses at our disposal: use them!  Integrate taste, touch, smell, sound and movement as much as possible.  Use “imaginative memory” to visualize connections, stories, objects, etc.  The crazier the story, the easier it will be to imprint it in long term memory.

_

Seven: Do NOT overly rely on the written word.  Whenever possible, try to listen to a piece first before reading it.  This trains you to rely on your ears first, and better follows the natural order of acquisition (remember: you learned to speak your first language long before you learned to read it!)

_

Eight: Do NOT look up words before making at least one full pass through each reading or listening material (or each section for longer pieces.)  Only once you have gone through once or even twice, then go back and look up words you don’t know.  When you don’t interrupt the “semantic flow,” it’s easier to get a feel for the big picture.  And this prevents us word-nerds from getting lost in unrelated vocabulary and new linguistic connections.

_

Nine: Do NOT let the “affective filter” put a damper on your language learning.  The affective filter is a fancy word for a simple and intuitive concept: your emotions and psychological state significantly affect your performance in a foreign language (or any skill-based act for that matter.)  If you are nervous, angry, hungry, tired, or preoccupied with the fight you had last night with your significant other, your ability to speak well in a foreign language will go down faster than the current stock market.   On the other hand, I am sure you have noticed that a few brewskies can significantly improve your ability to converse in a foreign tongue.  Why? Because booze (like meditation, exercise, and experience) helps lower inhibitions and boost social skills like verbal communication.  If your teacher makes you feel nervous or stupid, fire their ass.  If your language partner does not see the logic in your incorrect, but nevertheless intelligent errors, replace them.  You will never make any real progress if you are afraid to speak and are not free to make all the wonderfully logical—albeit incorrect—utterances that define both infant and adult language acquisition.

_

Ten: Do NOT forget to have some fun!  Language learning takes time, but it needn’t be difficult.  If you follow the tips listed above and throughout Foreign Language Mastery, and approach language learning with a smile instead of a grimace, you too WILL succeed!

_

Presentation Version

And last but not least, here is a Keynote version I created for sharing on SlideShare.net. Feel free to share, embed and download the presentation as you like.

]]> http://l2mastery.com/featured-articles/not-to-do-list/feed 36 http://l2mastery.com/featured-articles/language-learning-presentation http://l2mastery.com/featured-articles/language-learning-presentation#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:04:20 +0000 John Fotheringham http://l2mastery.com/?p=356 This is a hard-hitting look at why most language learners fail despite years of effort, and how you can learn foreign languages effectively with the right method, materials and attitude.

Enjoy!

____

More and more, it is becoming extremely beneficial to know a foreign language in today’s tough job market. Any kind of edge helps now more than ever in this economy, and one of the most sought-after and respected skills that can give you the upper hand is knowing a foreign language. Having expertise in another language only opens up more doors and opportunities — and offers more perks at those jobs. If you need more convincing, read on for these reasons why a second language will positively impact your career. When you’re ready to start learning, check out these free online classes for foreign languages and linguistics (Note from John: it appears some of the MIT links are broken; just do a search for the  course name on the MIT site and you should be able to find the courses).

• Foreign languages are in demand. The world is becoming a smaller place, and as such, it is important for companies to be able to communicate with clients or constituents in their native languages. For people looking into business-oriented endeavors, Chinese and Japanese are highly sought after, and for those working in social services, being able to speak Spanish will give them a huge leg up.
• It shows ambition and aptitude. Even if you are not applying for a position that will require you to use your language skills, it still looks excellent on a resume. It proves you had the ambition to undertake such an intense, time-consuming endeavor, and have the aptitude to learn something that is so difficult for many people. Plus, there is still the beneficial stigma that people who speak foreign languages are more intellectual and better educated than those who do not, so that certainly won’t hurt either.
• Face less competition. In a tough economy, successfully finding work is often all about having skills others don’t and being able to fill niches others can’t because of a lack of skill and experience. With a foreign language under your belt, you’l be able to fill niches the majority of jobseekers will not, and so will have less competition to face and better chances at landing a position as a translator, teacher, copywriter, or any other of a multitude of jobs that require expertise in a given language.
• Open up new doors. Conversely, just as the competition will thin out, the number of positions you will be able to fill will only grow exponentially as you will be able to apply for the positions you did not have the required language skills for previously. When looking for work, it is essential not to limit your opportunities so as to give yourself the best chance to find enjoyable (and good paying) work. Broaden your horizons and your career opportunites by learning a new language.
• Be an essential team member. While working as part of any team within your new position, you will be an integral and respected member as your language skills will be necessary to success. Relish being a key player at work and having an essential helping hand in all projects you are involved in.
• Increase travel opportunities. If your company needs to send someone to meet with clients in a foreign country but no one speaks the language well except you, who do you think they are going to send? With a foreign language under your belt, particularly one in high demand areas like Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese, you will increase your chances of having your company pay for you to visit the places you have always dreamed of visiting. Hopefully you’ll be able to sneak away a minute or two to see the sights and practice your language skills with the locals.

Joseph Gustav is a guest blogger for Pounding the Pavement and a writer on call center management for Guide to Career Education.

As a language learning addict, I follow lots (and I mean lots) of polyglot blogs and podcasts. It is always interesting to see what has worked (and what hasn’t worked) for successful language learners. While most fluent foreign language speakers tend to agree on the vast majority of language learning DOs and DON’Ts, there is one area that always seems to cause heated debate, shouting, name calling, and occasional mud/poo flinging: the importance of language input (i.e. listening and reading) versus language output (i.e. speaking and writing).

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, you need to first go through a “silent period” where your brain gets used to the patterns and phonology of the language. 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 for a tea party to put into practice what you have assimilated (and no, I am not promoting that kind of “tea party” as I am a bleeding-heart liberal…)

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 don’t have to wear diapers) gives adults a major leg up on babies learning their first language.

To this end, 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. My personal favorite transcript-equipped podcasts are produced by Praxis Language (ChinesePod, SpanishPod, FrenchPod, ItalianPod and EnglishPod) and LingQ (English, French, Russian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Swedish). I can’t stand the overly stilted, monotonous dialogues found on most textbook companion CDs and suggest you avoid them like the plague.

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

Once you have gone through your silent period (which will be input-centric by definition), try to spend an equal amount of time on input activities (listening to podcasts, reading blogs, etc.) and output activities (speaking with friends or tutors, writing a blog post in the foreign language, etc.). It may be nerdy, but I literally use the stop-watch feature on my iPod touch to time my input and output activities each day…

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.

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 is ready. 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.

OK. Everyone knows that quote by Woody Allen or whoever about showing up. You know, “70% of winning is showing up”. Well, Woody Allen, that daughter-dating scoundrel, lied to you. The truth is “70% of winning is showing up” is a bunch of bull…

…Because, in fact, 100% OF WINNING IS SHOWING UP. I mean it. That’s all you have to do. Show up. Be there. And it will take care of itself. Have you ever noticed that people at the top of their respective fields are often the most prolific? Do you think this is an accident? Chief, this is not a coincidence. Sure, there are exceptions. But take TEDZUKA Osamu/手塚治虫, one of the most prolific manga creators in history. Ask yourself, was he prolific because he was good or good because he was prolific? I say the latter. Shakespeare wrote quite a bit of noss, too. Michael Jordan and Larry Bird practiced like absolute fiends — we shouldn’t insult them by attributing their skill to race, height (MJ was below NBA average, by the way) or even talent until we’ve spent at least as much productive court time as them. Let me put it this way — assuming you are able-bodied, if you worked as hard as an NBA player for as long as an NBA player on basketball, you would be an NBA player, but only if you worked as hard. That Pavlina chap has like a kajillion articles on his blog: he didn’t make it off one post. More on topic, the best group of Japanese speakers on the planet, a group many call “the Japanese”, just happen to spend more time hearing and reading Japanese than any other group. They’ve “shown up” to Japanese as if it were their…job or national pastime or something. But there’s nothing special about this group of people; when a Japanese person speaks Japanese to you, what she is demonstrating is nothing more than the result of dedication, albeit often unwitting dedication. Whether you are Japanese by default (born and raised in Japan) or by choice, it doesn’t matter, your path and your task are essentially the same: show up.

I’m from Kenya. Sure, we have a snow-capped mountain, but we don’t have real snow or ice or anything. Yet I learned to ice-skate last year. Do I have some talent for ice-skating? No. But I read up on Wayne Gretzky and how he had ice-skated every day (4-5 hours a day), how his dad had made him a home rink and everything. Apparently, he even had his skates on while eating dinner (he’d wolf down that Canadian food they fed him, and then he’d go back outside; he skated for hours every day, and went pro at about 17). I’m not an ice-hockey expert, but it seems quite clear to me that Gretzky made himself a great hockey player purely through ice time; that man showed up on ice for more hours than any of his peers. So I tried to model the man in my own small way, and ice-skated almost every day (4 days/week minimum, 2 hours per day — sometimes 3 hours, sometimes 90 minutes) for two straight months (November and December). Now I can ice-skate. It wasn’t magic. The combination of being on the ice all the time and the people who saw me on the ice all the time and decided to give me some pointers, and this burning desire to not be out-skated by 6-year-olds (freaking toddlers giving me lip and having the skill to get away with it…over my dead body, man, over-my-dead-body), all that combined to make me a competent skater. No one who sees me knows it’s been less than a year since I actually learned to skate. I can barely even remember what it was like when I used to walk around that rink holding onto the wall for dear life. (For the record, the first time I touched the ice was in August 2002 at a mall in Houston, Texas. The second time was in December 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah. In both cases, I didn’t actually know how to skate, and nothing carried over to my ice-skating project that started in November 2006). Anyway, the point is, after being on the rink all that time on a daily basis, Greztky or no Gretzky, it would be hard not to learn how to skate. When you show up, it’s hard not to succeed. With all the time I spent hardcoring on Japanese, it would be a struggle not to be fluent.

Today, all over Japan, Greater China and the world, kids are being born. OK, admittedly not that many kids (haha…gotta love that population shrinkage humor! *wink* *nudge*), but they are being born. Those kids are going to know Japanese/Mandarin/Cantonese. But not because of parenting or genetics as such, but because they’re going to show up. They’re going to be surrounded by Japanese/Chinese 24/7/365.24219878. Are you going to let them beat you? Babies? Freaking BABIES? Beat YOU? Are you going to take that? You, a human being with a marvellous working brain capable of learning whatever is given it? And you’re going to let babbling, drooling half-wits (sorry, babies…don’t take it personally) beat you? If not, then get up off your rear and start doing all [language] all the time!

I’m going to take a leap here and tell you what I really think: I don’t believe in prodigies. I do not believe that any person holds a significant advantage over you; I do not deny the possibility that some people may have an advantage over you, but I absolutely reject the idea that that advantage is significant. I explained this in “You can have do or be ANYthing, but you can’t have do or be EVERYthing”. I think people invented the idea of prodigies in order to excuse themselves and their own children while seeming to congratulate the receiver of the title “prodigy”. It’s much easier on everyone’s egos to say “I or my child cannot do thing T like person P because person P has some semi-magical genetic superpower” than to say “I or my child cannot yet do T like P because I have not yet worked as hard W as P”. This is why Buddhism, which started off as a personal development movement, metamorphosed into a religion. Why be like Mike or Siddharta, when you can just sit back and worship them? Why work on your jumps, when you can watch the fruits of Michael’s work on his? Why free your own mind, when you can look up to someone who’s already freed his? It’s a very aristocratic idea that has no place in a true meritocracy, but the very people who are screwed over by it (regular folk like us) are at the same time very much in love with it: If there are prodigies, no one will call us out for not trying because they’re not trying either, and because we have created a condition that can only be fulfilled by accident of birth, our excuse is airtight: we can go about being mediocre for the rest of our lives, blameless.

Gretzky, Jordan, these people worked harder at their sports than you and I. So they started working earlier than you, this doesn’t make them prodigies, child or otherwise, this just makes them people who started earlier (and not even that early, Jordan famously got cut from his HS basketball team). To admit that they were not prodigies, to admit that they busted their little behinds to get where they were (no matter their age), does not make them less. To me, it only makes them more; it makes them greater. These were not superhumans. These were normal humans who made themselves super; they were not given a legacy like a Betty Crocker cookie mix that just needed eggs and milk, they made one from scratch. And that, to me, is something (someone) infinitely greater.

Bruce Lee is reported to have said:

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

A lot of times, we judge people (including ourselves), we call them (ourselves) “normal”, “prodigy” or “challenged” based on their first try. On their FREAKING first try. Don’t EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER judge yourself on your first try. At least wait until your 10,000th.

Don’t buy into all this kafuffin about how you have to start golf or violin or a language in the womb if you ever hope to be good. The only real reasons that there aren’t many late bloomers are money and flexibility. Money to buy equipment and time to practice, and flexibility of the mind — a willingness to learn and grow, to accept change and, yes, even to accept sucking for a while.

Adults have this competence fetish; they cling desperately to their dignity like a little boy to his security blanket; they want to be good at everything they do, and (they think) everyone expects them to be good at anything they do if they are to do it at all — adults are meant to be dignified and able; adults aren’t allowed to show ignorance or confusion. Well, forget that crap. Let go of your pride: you will suck at anything you are new at and little kids will be better than you. It’s okay, that’s how it’s supposed to be — those kids used to suck, too. Sucking is always the first step on the path to greatness; it’s not a question of how many times the earth has made a full rotation around the sun since you were born; it’s a question of what you’ve done during those rotations. As my gamer friends might say — all who pwn must first be pwned. And the time to be pwned is at the beginning. You are a noob, accept it; it’s not a death sentence, it’s just a rank — you can win yourself a promotion.

The fact is, you are a human. Compared to other animals, you can’t run very fast, you can’t jump very high, you aren’t very big or strong. But you have this thing called a brain. And it’s purpose is to learn to do things — new things, things that it didn’t know before. This brain is, of course, connected to the rest of your body so your whole body can join in the fun of learning new things; your body itself is constantly growing and changing. You’re not like a statue, motionless and set in stone, unless you choose to be. You’re not “too old”, it’s not “too late” — who even gave you the right to decide what time was right? I never got that memo! Who died and made you the god of When It Is No Longer The Right Time To Do Something?! Are you going to let your life be ruled by stupid old wives’ tales and stale folk wisdom? Are you going to fit yourself to bad research results? Are you going to be guided by how things are usually done? Are you going to be a little worker ant and live inside that cruddy little box of mediocrity that the world would draw for you if you would let it? Are you going to just read history or are you going to make it? Are you going to spend your whole life Monday-morning-quarterbacking yourself, talking about what you would do if you were younger? Are you going to live out your own little Greek tragedy, fulfilling everyone else’s lowest expectations of you? I think you know the answers to those questions. So, stop whining, and start doing. Whatever it is. Do it. And keep doing it. As long as you keep moving, you’re always getting closer to your destination.

Nap Hill said it best:

“Do not wait; the time will never be “just right.” Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.”

This article is copyright (©) 2007 Khatzumoto/AJATT.com and reprinted with permission | May 18, 2010

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 learn 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 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 then massive amounts of speaking when you’re ready.  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.

As Steve Kaufmann so eloquently states:

“In language learning, it is attitude, not aptitude, that determines success.”

Most language learners fail because they hold onto one of the following detrimental attitudes:

1. Everyone speaks English, so why should I bother learning a foreign language?
2. Language learning is difficult
3. The language I am learning (e.g. Chinese, Arabic, Russian, etc.) is particularly difficult
4. I have no chance to use the language in my daily life so I can never learn it effectively

Please allow me to now thoroughly rip each of these beliefs to shreds:

1) It may be true that literally billions of people are learning English as a Foreign Language, but it does not follow that all these people can actually speak the language well enough to communicate.  Most English students spend years sitting in classrooms, taking tests, and memorizing explicit information about English, not the tacit knowledge needed to actually use the language.  And even if your foreign interlocutor can speak English, think of all the advantages that come with speaking their language: improved negotiations, ease of travel, ease of mind, making friends, and on and on…

2) Language learning can be difficult, but not in the way most people think.  Traditionally speaking, the “hard” parts of learning a language include: 1) memorizing and applying grammar rules, 2) memorizing vocabulary and conjugation lists, spelling rules, new alphabets, etc., and 3) trying to understand and pronounce unfamiliar sounds.  The good news is that NONE of these tasks are necessary to learn a language and are in fact the reasons why most people fail!  Language is not an academic subject that can be learned consciously; it is a physical skill that can only be acquired through lots of input in the beginning, and lots of output when you are ready.  Think about it: ALL healthy babies learn their first language perfectly without ever reading a grammar book.  Adults can do the same.  The hard part then is for adults to become language babies.  This means putting up with lots of ambiguity and uncertainty, getting used to being misunderstood or not understood at all, and being willing to make heaps of mistakes!

3) Foreign language difficulty is usually rated by how similar a given language is to one’s native language.  On the surface, this may seem like a logical idea, but it makes the same false assumption that leads to the misconception discussed under 2): that languages are learning consciously.  If one goes about foreign language learning in a conscious, explicit fashion, then yes, the grammatical similarity between the two will make one’s task less difficult.  But if one simply surrounds themselves with as much interesting, comprehensible input as possible, it will matter little how close the language is to their native tongue.

4) As Steve Kaufmann mentions in our interview, living where the language is spoken is advantageous, but it is not a condition.  He also adds that you don’t learn to speak a language by speaking it.  This is  likely a very conterintuitive statement to most people, but I fully endorse it, as do most  linguists.  The key task in language learning is listening, not speaking.  And the good news is that you can listen to your target language just about anytime, anywhere using an iPod or your media player of choice.  And there is an ever growing mountain of free, high-quality content available to fill up your device.  For the first time in history, geography is no longer a barrier to learning foreign languages effectively.

]]> http://l2mastery.com/featured-articles/attitude-is-everything/feed 2 http://l2mastery.com/featured-articles/motivation http://l2mastery.com/featured-articles/motivation#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 16:05:43 +0000 John Fotheringham http://l2mastery.com/?p=249

by John Fotheringham

Most language learners fail because they lack the motivation to put in the time and consistency needed to succeed.   But this is not simply a matter of laziness.  I have seen even the most driven, self-disciplined people fail in foreign language learning.  While discipline is certainly important (I will be writing a post on this soon), I believe that most people are unmotivated (and ultimately fail) for 3 main reasons:

1. A Lack of Comprehensible & Interesting Input
2. A Lack of Connection to the Culture
3. A Lack of Positive Reinforcement

Comprehensible & Interesting Input

“The best methods are those that supply comprehensible input in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear.”

~ Stephen Krashen

Read just about any book, blog or well-written bathroom stall scribble on the subject of foreign language learning and you’re bound to hear the term “comprehensible input.”  One of Stephen Krashen’s key theories, the Input Hypothesis goes as follows: a learner will “acquire” a language (which is to be distinguished from the conscious and rather unproductive process of “learning”) only when listening or reading input is just above their level of comprehension.

So if you are new to Japanese, for example, watching the nightly news or reading the Asahi Shimbun is probably not going to provide very much comprehensible input and will do little for your progress in the language.  On the flip side, newspapers may in fact be below one’s level of comprehension for more advanced learners.  To continue one’s progress, such learners should seek out materials that include more advanced vocabulary.

The second (and I would argue more important) half is getting interesting input.  Even if you understand the basic gist of an article, new words and structures are less likely to stick if the content bores you to tears.  Our brains are amazingly efficient at filtering out information that we are uninterested in.

With the plethora of content available today online, there is simply no excuse for listening to or reading content that doesn’t float your boat.  I personally find podcasts to be the best medium because there are just so darn many of them on so many different topics.  Blogs are a close second for the same reason, but you should try to listen more than you read.

When it comes to choosing topics, always ask yourself this question:

“Would I read or listen to this in my native language?”

If the answer is no, find something else.

When you use content that is not overly easy or difficult for you  (and covers topics that are of interest), you are much more likely to spend sufficient time with the language and the culture that speaks it.  Which brings us to…

Cultural Connection

Most people set out to learn a foreign language so that they can communicate with the culture who speaks it.  Yet I am often surprised at how many people learn foreign languages in a cultural vacuum.

If you want to converse freely with native speakers, you need to know what makes them tick.

Many language books do mention some interesting tid-bits of culture (eating customs, how and when to bow, kiss or shake hands, etc.), but few ever dig deeper into the culture’s psyche.

Since words only account for 7% of meaning in human communication (on average), it is essential to learn how a culture expresses the other 93%.  This is especially true in “high-context” cultures like China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea that rely more on non-verbal cues than low-context cultures like Germany, England and the U.S.  Consider this: when someone says yes in Japan, for example, do they really mean “Ok, I agree to do that” or is it simply a culturally conditioned way of saying “Hell no” without causing offense?

Learning about a culture doesn’t just mean figuring out whether to bow or shake hands; it means finding out the historical, moral and emotional fibers that make the culture unique.  And yes, different cultures are in fact different.  Don’t fall into the trap of believing that just because a culture laughs, cries and gets angry that they do so  for the same reasons (and in the same circumstances) as you.

Positive Reinforcement

“I’m good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”

~Stuart Smalley (Al Frankin)

One of the most potent fuels in foreign language learning, or any complex physical/psychological skill is positive reinforcement.

This can be internal (the quiet but intense satisfaction you get when you can effectively communicate an idea, request or need to a native speaker in their language) or it can be overt (getting compliments on how well you speak the language, pronounce certain words, or use “difficult” idioms, vocabulary or structures.) Both kinds are important, but keep in mind that many cultures (especially Japan and Taiwan) often compliment people on their language ability as a matter of course.

There are four main sources of potential positive or negative feedback:

1) Feedback from Your Better Half: If you are dating (or married to) someone from the target language group, make sure to communicate clearly with them about how (and WHEN!) you like to be corrected.  Most native speakers have absolutely NO IDEA how to learn or teach their native language and don’t have a good sense of what will be hard for you and why.

2) Teachers & Tutors: Find a tutor who is patient and positive, and waits until after you have finished speaking to make corrections.  If you are living in an immersion environment, find local native speakers who are studying another foreign language (perhaps your native tongue) so that they will be more patient and empathetic with your mistakes.  I am not saying that you should not seek correction of you mistakes (I think you should), but it needs to be done so in a nurturing way that does not raise the “affective filter” (see the Linguistionary) and discourage future output.

3) Yourself: Another excellent way to get positive reinforcement is to provide it yourself!  While looking in the mirror like Stuart Smalley may help, it  has the nasty side-effect of scaring off friends and lovers.  Instead, I recommend making video and audio recordings every 3 months or so.  This allows you to really see the progress you have made in the language.  Progress happens so steadily that it is often hard to notice improvements in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc.  Recordings take out the guesswork.

4) Strangers: Interestingly, feedback from people you don’t know can often have the biggest impact (for better or worse).  In countries like Japan and Taiwan, you will often be praised for speaking the language (no matter how little you know.)  In the early stages, this can help provide motivation to continue learning.  But in these same countries, people will often assume you can’t speak the language and begin listening for English words even when you are speaking their language.  This happens less and less the more your pronunciation improves, but don’t underestimate the power of assumption.  When this inevitably does happen, try not to take it personally.  It happens even to highly fluent individuals from time to time…

Take Action

1. Find foreign language content that is matched to your level and interests.  Again, I think podcasts are your best bet.  Download iTunes  if you don’t have it already.  It’s free and easy to use.
2. Make friends with native speakers of the language you are learning.  Become a tutor or join clubs or activities that will put you in contact with new people from the desired language background.

by John Fotheringham

There is an immense and highly under-appreciated difference between being “efficient” and being “effective.” This is perhaps more true in foreign language learning than any other endeavor!

Timothy Ferriss, author of the best-selling (and life changing!) book The 4-Hour Workweek (himself a very accomplished language learner), illustrates the point best:

“Effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals.  Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible.  Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe.”

~ Timothy Ferriss

Obviously it is preferable to be both efficient and effective in language learning.  But what is the current situation in language classrooms and materials?  A quick look around reveals that despite a fair amount of efficiency, only a very small percentage of learners, teachers or materials could be called effective. Consider the performance of 1,500 French language students in New Brunswick.  After 12 years of daily French instruction,  only 0.68 percent (that’s not a typo) could meet the province’s intermediate proficiency requirements!  (Thanks go to Steve Kaufmann of LingQ.com for turning me onto this revealing study). I have seen the same results among nearly all English learners in Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan, and foreign language students in the states.

Yet despite all the evidence, people continue to pump time, effort and money into foreign language programs, cram schools, textbooks, and now, online programs that just repackage old methods in new media.  It is time that people face up to the facts: traditional, formal language instruction is not effective for the vast majority of learners no matter how efficient or hard-working they may be.

The good news is that there are effective (and simple!) language learning methods, it’s just that very few people actually use them.

Here’s the tried and trued formula that is reiterated again and again by the vast majority of successful language learners:

Maximize Input

Get as much meaningful and interesting input as possible.  “Meaningful” here means that is just an itsy-bitsy bit above your level of comprehension.  And the more interesting the material, the more likely you are to continue listening or reading (and repeating the process again and again and again…)

Use Narrow Listening & Reading

“Narrow” here means that you listen to or read a variety of articles on the same topic.  This allows for sufficient repetition without boring yourself to tears.  If you have access to native speakers of the language, you can conduct a simple interview with a few different people.  Chances are they will all use a similar set of vocabulary again and again since the context is constrained by the questions you ask.

Get a Private Tutor When You are Ready to Speak

Once you have gotten enough meaningful exposure to the language through listening and reading, it’s time to start talking.  The good news is that it no longer matters where you live in the world.  Services such as LingQ provide excellent one-on-one tutoring services as do many other sites (see my recommendations in Learning Tools & Materials).  Also, most cities have volunteer English tutoring programs in which you can make potential conversation partners in your target language.  If you are a university student, volunteer to tutor foreign exchange students learning English.

You’ll notice that nowhere in this formula does it require sitting in a classroom or forcing oneself through a bland textbook.  All you need is quality language input, which is now widely available for free (or at least very cheaply) online and can be carried around using a portable media player.

But one last thing.  To make this formula effective, the adult learner must put aside a few counter-productive tendencies:

• The desire to know everything right now. To be an effective language learner, you must get used to dealing with lots of ambiguity and uncertainty.  I think this is why many, though certainly not all, travelers and expats have more success in language learning.  By traveling to or living in a foreign land, they get used to (and sometimes learn to enjoy) not understanding the surrounding environment or language.
• The desire to be perfect. Perfectionists make poor language learners for 2 reasons.  First, they refuse to speak or write anything that they don’t think is perfect.  While you should indeed wait to speak until you have received sufficient input (the “silent period” as its called by linguists), you need to start talking long before you have mastered the language.  Speaking with a native speaker shows you where the holes are in your L2 cheese, and the buzz from communicating ideas, feelings and menu choices in a foreign language can give you the extra fuel you need to keep learning.  Second, perfectionists have such an aversion to making mistakes that doing so greatly increases their anxiety and decreases their motivation  to continue learning (what Stephen Krashen refers to as as “raising the affective filter.” See the Linguistionary).
• The desire to think one’s way through the language. Most adults spend too much time thinking about the language.  This includes translating back and forth between the L1 and L2, trying to remember and apply grammar rules or vocabulary, and self-correcting mistakes (Stephen Krashen refers to this is as the “Monitor Hypothesis;” see the Linguistionary).  Children, on the other hand, do not not consciously monitor their first language, nor could they even if they wanted to.  And despite the lack of advanced cognitive abilities, they all master their first language.  Why?  Because you don’t have to explain how a car works to know how to drive!

Take Action!

• Buy a portable media player if you don’t have one.  The ROI makes it well worth the minimal investment.  I will do some product reviews soon on popular models.
• Find online content you find interesting.  With well over 100,000 free audio and video podcasts, iTunes is a good place to start.  If you don’t have iTunes yet, go here to download it for free.
• Read The 4-Hour Workweek to learn more about being both effective and efficient in all aspects of life, and learn how to generate much more of all three life currencies: time, money and mobility.