Do we need a teacher when learning a new language?
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Steve Kaufmann
LingQ
Steve Kaufmann
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Dec 1, 2015
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The Limits of Language Teaching
Do we need a teacher when learning a new language?
Language needs to be discovered. It cannot be taught to an unmotivated learner. Becoming a linguist depends on you, not on schools or teachers. Language teachers are dedicated to helping you improve, but they cannot make you fluent. You have to acquire the language yourself. The teacher can stimulate, explain, and provide the best possible language resources.
After that, you must take charge and pursue your own learning, according to your own interests and nature. If you do that you will learn, naturally and without stress.
The language classroom is too often an artificial environment where the emphasis is on teaching the language according to a timetable imposed by the curriculum. The expectation is that the teacher will impart language knowledge or skills in a certain order. As long as the textbook is covered in the prescribed time period and test scores are positive, the assumption is that the language has been learned. Unfortunately the results in terms of fluency are mostly disappointing. The language classroom can be stressful. The learners often dislike having the teacher correct them in front of others, and are frequently frustrated at their own inability to speak properly. There is an underlying expectation that the students should perform correctly, rather than just communicate. The students alternately feel threatened or annoyed by their fellow students, depending on whether their classmates are more or less proficient at learning the new language than they are themselves.
In the most effective classrooms it is not the language that is studied, but some other subject of interest to the students. In studying another subject the learners absorb the language, and are less self-conscious about their own language difficulties in their enthusiasm to communicate about something of interest to them. After the learners are exposed to a sufficient amount of interesting content by listening and reading in the language, they gradually become aware of the need for correct structure and word use. Then they are motivated to work on these aspects of the language.
It is best if the learners ask for help as they need it, rather than having to respond to the timetable of the teacher. The teacher is able to correct the students privately or on written content and to offer relevant grammatical explanations as required. The classroom can be a useful learning environment if it is used in a flexible way which puts the learner and not the teacher in control.
Another way in which the teachers, rather than the learners, control conventional language teaching is through the frequent use of tests to evaluate learners. For a variety of reasons, educational authorities find it necessary to try to objectively assess the language competence of non-native speakers. For English, there are standardized tests which go by names like TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) and similar acronyms.
These tests may be a necessary evil for university entrance, or for job interviews, but in my opinion results in these tests are not a reliable indicator of language fluency. They should not become an obsession, and must never become the goal of language learning. The best judge of your language competence is you, the learner. You know if you can read more easily, if you can understand more of what you hear, or if you are having an easier time expressing yourself. Paradoxically you will score better on these tests by acquiring a balanced ability in the new language rather than by just studying to pass these tests.
Too many language learners focus on doing well on these tests rather than on learning how to communicate comfortably. In preparation for tests, especially for the major standardized tests, students will study word lists which are isolated from any content. They will spend countless hours reviewing specialized books with grammar rules, lists of verbs, phrases, idioms and sample questions. They study the techniques for getting high scores on these tests. In this way they pursue study methods that are inefficient and stressful. In the long run, an undue emphasis on getting a high TOEFL or TOEIC score can divert you from the real goal of achieving fluency in the language. The test is only an interim goal on your way to academic and professional success.
If you focus on test results without really learning the language, you are only fooling yourself. In the end you will not be able to use the language effectively.
There are no shortcuts. To be comfortable in answering most TOEFL and TOEIC questions, you need to become familiar with the natural flow of the language in many different contexts. This can best be acquired through intensive listening and reading of a wide variety of interesting material while using a program that helps you remember new words and especially the most common phrases. This kind of exposure to the new language in real situations, not studying grammar and word lists, is the fastest and most enjoyable way to learn.
In some countries, especially in East Asia, fierce competition exists for entry into prestigious schools and universities. Foreign language ability is an important subject and school children are put through high pressure study programs to achieve good marks on national tests. There are cram schools with classes of fifty to seventy people. It is impossible to learn to communicate in these situations. Teachers devote themselves to revealing how to get high marks in this examination hell. I can well understand that this kind of teaching will discourage a learner’s interest in a new language.
Public school systems everywhere have been widely unsuccessful in teaching second languages. This has had a negative influence on language learning. Many potential linguists are conditioned to think that language is a tedious subject that has to be taught in schools.
In my own case, I found studying theoretical explanations of grammar uninteresting and not an effective way to learn languages. I resisted doing exercises and answering questions that tested my knowledge of grammar. After I left high school I discovered that I learned faster through systematic exposure to the language than if I relied on formal teaching in a classroom environment. Sentence structures that were strange and difficult at first eventually felt natural if I encountered them often enough in my reading and listening.
Occasionally I would consult grammar books to answer questions that I had about the language. Sometimes the explanations helped and at other times they did not. Much like when I looked words up in a dictionary, I would usually remember grammar rules or explanations (if I understood them) only for a short period of time and then forget them. In the end it was only through enough exposure to the language that my grammar improved.
I was prepared to devote considerable effort away from class to listening and reading on subjects of interest to me. This was the natural and enjoyable way to discover the language. I developed my own systems for expanding my usable vocabulary, to ensure that I was able to retain words and phrases rather than immediately forget them if I did not see them again for a few days. These methods helped me develop study programs for The Linguist.
There are undoubtedly learners who are happiest in the structured environment of a conventional language classroom and who are comfortable studying grammar and preparing for tests. Even those learners can benefit from a self-directed learning system like LingQ. By customizing the learning process to suit their needs and interests, learners will find that their classroom language experience will be more effective. In this way they will also make it possible for themselves to continue progressing in the language after the formal classes are ended.
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Steve Kaufmann
LingQ
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Steve Kaufmann speaks 16 languages and is the co-founder of LingQ www.lingq.com, a web and app language learning resource.
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