Opinion: We can all learn another language!

By Andrew Weiler

Many people at some point consider learning another language. However, given the abysmally low success rates, learning languages has to be arguably one of the worst taught/learned skills going. Despite the fact that all of us were successful in learning our first language, most people struggle learning a second. So what puts us off our game and how can we turn that around?

As we have proved we can learn languages by doing it in our first few years, why in later years do we struggle so much?  Well there are a few reasons but at the heart of it all is the fact that we are taught languages in schools with ineffective methods, such as the grammar translation model, which is still used though it has been sugar coated with communicative type activities.

At an impressionable age we are taught languages by such poor methods, with the obvious results, and hence for the rest of our lives we tend to believe that this is the way to learn languages, even though we may have struggled. When it doesn’t work, as it invariably doesn’t for the vast majority, most come to believe the reason for that is our ineptitude, our lack of latent and/or our poor memory.

The reality is that we all developed the capacities to learn languages by learning our first. Of course there are other factors that come into play as we grow up, but fundamentally those abilities have not somehow vanished. They are there for anyone who wants to access them. The ones who are successful, for the most part are the ones who tap into those powers.

So what are the kinds of language learning that we used and that we can implement and use in later years? Before I list a few, we need to acknowledge that as adults we need to be at least prepared to take on the belief that we have the ability to learn languages to high levels! Without such a belief, we sabotage our efforts. As Henry Ford said: “Whether we believe we can or whether we believe we can’t, we are right.”

• An important understanding that we need to come to is that the learning needs to be learner driven. Teaching or texts that continually determine what we do and don’t do is flawed, as learners tend to become subservient to the instruction, instead of actively looking for what will take them forward.
  Learners need to be active in deciding various aspects of their learning, and learn to discern whether they are learning, or have indeed learned anything.
• Language is an expression of a perceived reality. So when learning language, the reality needs to be clear, not an intellectual construct. So grammar exercises, as an example, that have no foundation in a reality one is trying to express are awkward ways to learn a language.  As an alternative, consider walking around your house, describing what you are doing. “I am walking into my bedroom to get changed”. This is a great way of practicing the present continuous.
• Translation is a necessary and useful tool when you are learning a new language BUT when used excessively prevents the development of language learning skills like reasoned guessing. This kind of skill rests upon focused and sustained attention on what is going on around or what you are reading. It is a necessary skill that we all have the capacity for but we can let it slide. If we keep rushing to a bilingual dictionary, or indeed any dictionary.
• Listening is a KEY ability if you wish to learn to speak in another language. Without actively developing that ability in all areas, including listening for grammar, pronunciation and meaning, your ability to master that language will be severely impeded. Here is where personal character issues can impede. If are not a good listener in your first language, because you like to be heard J, your ability to master another language will be limited unless you learn to be more attentive to what others say, as well as what you say.

So if you are on the point of setting out to learn a language or you are somewhere along the path, you would do yourself a favour by taking a bit of time to carefully choose how you wish to learn, knowing that you have all that it takes to get there, you just need to find the right tools and strategies.

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