English Language Learning

One student I just began to work with asked me bluntly, “How long does it take to become fluent in English”? I paused a moment and tried to explain that unlike a lot of things in life, which have fixed prices and times, i.e. it takes $42,860 to buy a new 2014 LEXUS convertible or a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle is 2.5 hours, language learning/mastery has no set timetable, mainly due to the fact that each person is different and varies in the way they learn (learning styles). Many language companies, i.e. Rosetta Stone, Pimsler, try to tell you otherwise promising clear results after a set amount of time working with their courses.

I compare language learning to climbing a challenging mountain. You need the right tools, equipment and lots of endurance to get you through the crucial times where it’s do or die. The trick to language learning is to never ever give up and to keep going until you reach the summit. However, unlike an actual mountain, the “summit of language learning” can be hard to distinguish, as there are always a series of other new peaks to try and scale.

I know this journey rather well as I have studied Russian for 25 years! There’ve been times, where I feel like I’ve reached the summit, only to find I haven’t even come close to base camp. And, then there are the times where I feel as if I’ve walked straight into a fierce blizzard. One aspect of language that likely makes every language learner feel as if they’ve walked head into a blizzard is slang and double meaning. One perfect example of double meaning is the verb, “to put up”. To put up usually means something like, “to put up a sign, or put up the curtains”, but when you add the simple preposition “with”, it becomes as we say in America, “a whole new ballgame” (meaning a completely different situation) and means, “to tolerate” something unpleasant, like “she barely put up with her son’s poor behavior”.

One of the cold harsh realities of second language acquisition is, age. It’s been proven many times that those who begin studying language as adults normally cannot reach near or at a native speaking level like children can. I have noticed this with a lot of the students I teach. The ones who are younger and have been learning English since childhood usually exemplify a much better grasp than those who are older and had only a few years of formal English study.

For example, I have one student who is 16 and has only four years of English study, yet speaks nearly impeccable English. Her level is so high that I find it difficult to develop material that will challenge her. On the other end of the spectrum I have an older student who studied English all through school and university, but has real difficulty with understanding and speaking.

In my opinion one of the keys to teaching language and facilitating a student’s acquisition and success in a foreign language is using the communicative approach, which I’ve found to really be the best method of teaching. In a nutshell, this concept believes language is best learned when there is equal interaction between student and teacher. I prefer to see my role with the student, not so much as a teacher, but more of a facilitator, helping students discover the ideas and concepts of foreign language on their own.

I feel this is where many nations have gone wrong in teaching. When teaching is a one sided matter, i.e. the teacher lectures, students listens and students complete monotonous, mind numbing written exercises, only to repeat endlessly the student gets bored and loses interest therefore losing the motivation to achieve a higher level. Whenever I begin teaching a new student I always prefer to know their history with English. Since I mainly teach Russians, I hear the same story, over and over again, they studied English in school and then university where the emphasis was almost entirely focused on learning grammar, grammar rules, spelling, etc. with little or no speaking, therefore leaving them at an extreme disadvantage.

Before I started teaching Russians I noticed nearly the same pattern when I taught Asian students, but even worse! At least with Russians they would actually speak, many times incorrectly, but nonetheless they spoke. With Asian students it was PAINFUL, as if pulling teeth without Novocain! I would ask them a question and they would sit there silently or would talk with a very, very QUIET voice.

Recently I asked a Russian friend how she learned English best. I expected her to name the usual methods, books, dialogs, conversation, etc… but to my surprise she told me she found watching ads as a helpful tool to her success. I had never thought of this, sure I had heard of the urban legends of people learning English by watching soap operas or specific movies, but this was a new one!

So, as we speak I am trying this experimental tool with some of my more advanced students, those who can speak in full sentences and understand main ideas in a conversation. By no means is this the magical solution to being able to master a language, but nonetheless it’s worth a try. I feel this should be a great learning tool, since ads usually are only 30-60 seconds long, use every day American English/slang and always have a specific point, to convince the consumer to buy their product. Ads can also help the student get down the rhythm, tone and flow of the language. Plus, many are quite entertaining, funny and can really keep the student’s attention, which cannot help but beat the old (as us language teachers say), “drill and kill” method.

As I grow older and wiser, I am starting to understand that I will never know everything there is to know in the Russian language and that language learning, just like life, is a never ending learning process. However, many times this is cold comfort when I’m conversing with someone in Russian and I totally miss the meaning of the conversation and end up having to ask them what exactly they meant. I suppose patience (hard to have in this digital age of everything being instant) is the most important key to success in language learning. So in other words, I would say patience is the most important trait to have when learning a new language.