by Jeff Martin
This approach results in little to no comprehension of the language when spoken by natives, little to no verbal fluency, and a noticeable or even horrible accent. Although the student may become proficient in reading and writing, the lack of focus on listening and speaking leads to the common proclamation, "I can read it better than I can speak it."
Most self-study language courses follow a similar approach, in that the learner is exposed to the written language from day one. However, in this case there is no live instructor. Probably the only advantage the classroom setting has over self-study is the human interaction and correction from the instructor, provided the instructor sounds like a native speaker.
Compare the average beginner language student to a 5-year-old native speaker. Who is more prepared to start kindergarten? After all, this common classroom approach to foreign language instruction is almost like a second kindergarten, only in a foreign language. What is the difference in experiences between a toddler and an adult learner? The toddler is learning from a different source; native speakers. If we consider that the toddler sleeps an average of 10 hours per day, 5 years equates to 25,500 waking hours spent mostly around other people, who spend much of their time communicating with other native speakers. Therefore, the 5-year-old's main advantage is the massive exposure to the language as it is spoken naturally by natives. They have received language coaching consistently throughout their life to this point and are therefore quite proficient. Additionally, their curiosity about life in general causes an endless supply of questions to ask, and be answered in kind, perpetuating their learning of life concepts and the language with which to describe them.
The beginner foreign language student, however, does not have any of the aforementioned advantages. Therefore, it is unfair to expect them to be able to perform at any level of proficiency no matter how many classes they take.
If the currently accepted approach to language learning is inadvertently yet inevitably designed for you to fail, how then, can you expect to really learn a new language? I believe the answer is simple. You've done it once before. Let's do it again.
02 Bridging the Gap
If the current system of foreign language instruction is failing, producing almost zero bilingual individuals, what options do you have as a foreign language learner? In my opinion, the first thing to understand is that traditional as well as most modern methods are not incorrect in their approach to language instruction; rather, they are simply misplaced. As I hopefully have established by now, foreign language classes and most courses are set up sort of like an advanced adult kindergarten, yet in a foreign language. It is simply absurd to start at that point, skipping the foundational skills that we learned before we entered school.
The pivotal point in our journey to master our native language is when we learn how to read and write. Our literacy skills usually begin to develop in kindergarten and continue to develop for the next 12-16+ years of school. But why do we begin in kindergarten? Before entering grade school, a child must possess certain social, motor, language, as well as other skills. Linguistically speaking, most 5-year-olds are basically fluent in their native language, possessing a limited vocabulary of around 5,000 words, and a basic understanding of grammar. They may not speak perfectly, but they can get their point across. It took about five years of work to get to the point of qualifying to learn how to read and write.
As a beginner, your focus should be to acquire similar language skills as those of a 5-year-old before you learn to read or write in the foreign language. What does this mean? Do you have to spend five years learning a language from natives before learning to read? Would an adult learn faster or slower than a native toddler?
Five thousand words may seem like a lot to learn, but it took the average kindergartener around five years to do so. As an adult, learning five thousand words over a span of five years would seem quite slow, learning at a rate of about two to three words per day. The reason it took so long for the average five-year-old to learn this amount of vocabulary was because they spent those five years simultaneously learning all about the world around them, developing mentally, physically, and just beginning to develop emotionally, all while learning to speak his or her native language to be able to communicate.
On the other hand, the adult learner is simply assigning new sounds to existing concepts, since he or she is already fully developed and experienced in the matters of daily life. Therefore, the process of learning a new word can be much quicker rather than learning a whole new concept, including the vocabulary to describe it. For example, as a toddler learns the word couch, what takes place? First, they must have an experience or set of experiences that involve multiple senses, connecting as much sensory information as possible to the sound and meaning of the word to fully identify this object. A toddler has a lot of different yet intimate experiences with a couch. Chances are the parents and or siblings spend a great amount of time sitting on the couch, provoking the toddler to approach the couch to communicate with whoever is on it, not to mention the time spent sitting on the couch with family. After some time, this toddler knows what the couch looks like, feels like, smells like, and even sounds like when being utilized. Perhaps they have been to other homes and have seen all different types of couches, or even visited a furniture store where there is an endless ocean of couches, monumental in daily life, since a considerable amount of family time is spent in the living room. To the toddler, this concept is called couch. It has deep meaning in their life.
Yet as an adult, if you learn the word "couch" in a foreign language, the process is much simpler. You hear and perceive the word, connect it with your personal concept of a couch in your mind, and you learn to produce the sounds that make up the word. Or perhaps you learn how to speak the word before you learn it’s meaning. Either way, you pull up the memory, perhaps subconsciously, of the concept of a couch in your mind. Most of the work was done years ago. This is simply a new way to describe your experience. So, the adult has an obvious speed advantage. Yet, most adults hinder their learning curve by starting at the wrong point, reading before speaking.
The question probably lingering in your mind at this point is how can you become “kindergarten ready” in a foreign language without learning how to read or write? To me, the answer is simple; observe how we learned our first language and repeat the process as closely as possible. To recap the process discussed in chapter one, here is a list of the steps you probably took to master your native language:
1. You became aware of sounds emanating from your mouth and the mouths of others and spent lots of time listening.
2. You gradually developed the ability of mimicry.
3. Mimicry produced responses in others, which helped you begin to identify the people and objects in your daily life.
4. You progressed by listening, repeating, and connecting sounds with objects, actions, and your basic needs.
5. You began to combine words into groups to further express yourself.
6. With time and practice, listening, and helpful coaching, you began to sound like a native speaker.
7. This process continued until you were fluent enough to begin kindergarten.
8. You were taught to "draw sounds" (reading and writing) as well as grammar basics.
9. Through years of study you eventually achieved mastery of your native tongue.
Obviously, you can’t be reborn into another culture, but you can still approach learning a new language in a similar way if you understand the process. First you listened, then you learned to mimic. You connected words with meaning. You gradually built your vocabulary while being coached by natives. After some time, you qualified to learn to read and write.
As a foreign language learner, do you need to have learned 5,000 words before learning to read and write? Probably not. It would be better to set a short-term goal of around 500 words. If at that point you have mastered your accent and pronunciation, then go for it. Learn to read and write. On the other hand, if you
still struggle with your accent and pronunciation, wait until you have learned closer to 1,000 words. The key is to be honest with yourself about how you sound. As will be repeated several times in this book, it’s important to record yourself speaking the foreign language. Ask yourself if you sound like a native speaker.
But how do you go about learning your first 500-1000 words without using the written language? Good question. A better question is, why weren’t you given a manual at birth explaining how to learn your native language? Simply put, you didn’t need one. You had the source of the language readily available - native speakers.
Language is something we initially learned from other people. Why should that change when it comes to learning a foreign language?
03 Clean Slate
Step One – Listening
—Where did you learn our language?
— I listened!
The 13th Warrior
I remember a scene from the movie listed above as one of the first impactful moments in my life, as far as language is concerned. Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan had been immersed in a group of Vikings who spoke a language that was foreign to him. I watched intently as the scenes depicted Ahmed listening to every word spoken by his new colleagues. As the scenes progressed, an occasional word would be spoken that Ahmed understood. This happened repeatedly until one day, while they were sitting around a campfire, one of the Vikings made an insulting comment about Ahmed’s mother, to which he responded in their language, defending his mother’s honor. The Vikings were astonished, as was I.
I was only a young boy when I watched this movie. I remember wondering if it were possible to learn a language in such a way - simply being around native speakers, listening closely to their words and trying to understand their meaning from context. Ironically, what I failed to realize at the time is that is how I learned my first language.
When I learned English, I first listened to the sounds I heard. I listened a lot. If we consider the fact that most children start speaking between the ages of nine and fourteen months, I probably spent approximately 5,000 waking hours mostly listening. During those months, I experimented with those sounds until I was able to say my first word. As a baby, my mind was a clean slate, completely open to absorb language sounds like a sponge. During the several months that preceded my ability to mimic, the sounds of my native language were being inscribed on my mental “slate.” I listened, babbled, and tried desperately to mimic the sounds of my native language until I was eventually able to speak.
During those early years of my life, I was building a database of language sounds in my mind. By the time I was five, I probably knew about 5,000 words. By 8 years old, I knew around 10,000, and by the time I was an adult, I had a vocabulary of between 20,000 and 30,000 words. Since then, my vocabulary has not stopped increasing.
Because of the immensity of our mental native language database, I believe that most people perceive foreign language sounds through what I call “listening veils.” They aren’t really perceiving the true sounds at first. They hear them, sure, but only partially.
When our senses intake information, such as foreign language sounds, our minds need to identify what is being perceived. The quickest way for us to identify this information is to check our database to see if we are already familiar with it. This causes us to perceive new information, including sounds, from a biased perspective, constantly comparing new information to old.
This works similarly for all our senses. Imagine seeing an exotic animal for the first time. How would you describe it? The easiest way would be to compare it to another animal that you are familiar with. “It looked kind of like a dog, but with shorter legs, and a snout like a pig.” What about describing foods? “It tastes kind of like lemon meringue pie, but milky like vanilla ice cream.”
When we listen to a language that we are unfamiliar with, the true sounds of the language are covered by a series of veils which are mere comparisons to known sounds. It takes time to fully unveil the raw sounds of a language as spoken by natives, especially if those sounds differ from our own language sounds. The more times we listen attentively, the more veils are removed, and the closer we can get to hearing the true sounds of the language.
I used to listen to quite a bit of Brazilian music to help me learn Portuguese. One of the words in a song I learned was razão, which means reason. However, I was singing the word ração, which means ration. The phrase in the song was, “You’re the reason I sing,” but I was singing, “You’re the ration that I sing.” I didn’t know this until several months after I had “learned” the song, when I was corrected by a Portuguese speaking person.
I had many such experiences in Portuguese. I have confused the word sky with bosom, which was quite embarrassing. During my first trip to Brazil, instead of saying “nice to meet you”, I would say “big bra.” Apparently, I wasn’t paying enough attention to the actual sounds of the words.
I remember similar experiences in Spanish, many of them. One word I had trouble with was ahorita, which means “right now” in certain Spanish-speaking countries. Since Spanish is spoken rather quickly, I was hearing arrita, which isn’t even Spanish! I said it this way for several months, without anyone correcting me, until someone finally had the compassion to tell me I was saying it wrong. I couldn’t believe it! I unknowingly had been saying it incorrectly for such a long time!
Such occurrences are common among foreigners who are learning English. Take, for example, the word “something.” Many foreigners fail to distinguish the “m” sound and mispronounce the word by saying “sonthing.” This is due to the fact that they haven’t really honed their listening awareness enough to hear the “m” sound in the middle of the stream of sounds that composes the word. Another common mispronunciation of this word is mistaking the “th” sound for the “z” sound, thus producing the word “somezing.”
Training your ear on one specific vowel or consonant sound hidden in the midst of several letters is a considerably difficult task. It can be compared to listening to music. Think of any song that has a melody you know. If a certain part of the song that you never focused on was isolated, you probably wouldn’t recognize it as part of the song. If you never listened to the bass part before, you wouldn’t know what the bass part sounded like. Think of the song again. Do you know how many times the drummer is hitting the high hat in the first measure of the chorus? Is he playing it at all?
It’s like this with language as well. When listening to a native speaker say a word or phrase, are you fully aware of how the vowels are being enunciated? How about the intonation? Where is the native speaker placing the tongue? How open is the speaker’s throat? Is the sound being directed more out of the nose than the mouth? To what degree is your awareness focused on the sounds being spoken?
So how can we increase our awareness to perceive the true language sounds? This requires saturation - massive exposure to the spoken language, similar to our first experience. In this day and age, it is fairly easy to find audio tracks of almost any widely spoken language. We can use audiobooks, audio course materials, television shows, movies, radio, podcasts, music, and more. The key is to gain access to as many sources as possible, and subject yourself to those sounds as often as possible. Turn your car into an immersion machine. Listen to audiobooks in the foreign language while you’re driving. Listen to audio tracks while working out, cooking, cleaning, or walking in the park. It’s not important that you understand what is being said at first. It won’t take long before your brain starts to recognize patterns. After you begin to go through your language courses, you’ll begin to pick out words that you know while listening to your audio tracks. The main purpose of this type of exposure is to accustom the ear to the sounds of your new language.
One important skill to learn is the quieting of the mind - turning off your mental voice. Instead of biasly superimposing previously learned sounds over the incoming unfamiliar sounds, you should listen with a clean slate, allowing the sounds to paint a s
onic mosaic in your mind. Focusing on any certain characteristic of the sound of the native speaker’s voice, such as pitch, timbre, or intonation can distract your conscious mind, allowing you to absorb the sounds instead of creating your own version of what you perceive to be the true sounds of the language. Another helpful thing to do while listening to the foreign language, particularly the audios from a language course, is to picture a native speaker saying the words.