How do you master a language?

“The bear gives birth to a duck”, “The engineer is in the refrigerator” or how about: “The onion eats the girl.” All these are real examples of sentences for translation exercises from Duolingo, one of the world’s most popular platforms for language learning. It’s striking that under the sleek, gamified surface it relies on the most old school of methods: the grammar translation method. This approach, useful for training translators, was already popular in the Middle Ages.

We know that language acquisition doesn’t work well this way. Language acquisition is a subconscious process. It happens when we understand messages. The traditional, ineffective approach, still the method of choice for most schools and platforms, is slow and ineffective because the focus is on form rather than content. The emphasis is on “how”, not on “what”, on structure and grammar rather than on meaning, interesting ideas and valuable information.

That’s how you end up with “The onion eats a girl” and all the other bizarre examples. This is not to say that a form based approach doesn’t work at all. For beginners, almost every approach works to a certain extent. This includes the grammar translation method, which is frowned upon in the language classroom these days, but has seen a renaissance in the digital sphere.

Don’t learn, acquire

Before I talk about how to apply this knowledge to master a language, let’s clarify the distinction between language learning and language acquisition. Language learning is the conscious effort associated with the language classroom. Grammar exercises and vocabulary practice but also role plays and fluency practice of all kinds.

Language acquisition is the way children learn their native language. It’s also the way the grown-ups master a language. It’s what happens when we get the message in the target language, when we focus on the “what” rather than the “how”. It is the subconscious process of acquiring vocabulary and structure.

The distinction is crucial for a variety of reasons: it’s possible to learn a bit of language in many different ways. But it’s only possible to master a language through the subconscious process of acquisition. To provide some perspective, let’s look at the word count of the English language: Webster’s Third New International Dictionary includes some 470,000 entries. This number is on the conservative side, there are other estimates that include regional dialects, slang and professional jargon which come up to a million words.

Too much to learn

Nobody knows or uses all of these words, of course. Tests show that native speakers know and use between 20 000 and 35 000 thousand words. Let’s set a conservative goal for a second language speaker who wants to master English: 20 000 words. Memorizing the 20 000 items would be just one goal the language learner has to reach: she would also have to master the appropriate use of the words, understand the differences in register, formal or informal, for example.

When is it appropriate to say “concur” rather than “agree”? What is the right word to use if you would like to use the expression ironically? Not to mention grammar, spelling and punctuation, the differences between British and American English, the cultural references and so on and so forth. It is simply impossible for the average person to consciously learn all of this. And nobody ever does.

If people do master a language to a high level of proficiency, it is because they have successfully acquired over an extended period of time. They heard and read plenty of stuff that in the target language that they understood, that they were able to make sense of. Or, to use the technical jargon: they were exposed to a high volume of “comprehensible input” over an extended period of time.

Recognizing pornography

What then, is comprehensible input? There is a long standing debate in applied linguistics what exactly constitutes comprehensible input which need not concern us here. We’ll stick with the famous definition a British judge supposedly provided for pornography: you’ll know it when you see it. To give an example: if you are at the B 2 level, a scientific paper about psychology that you will have a hard time understanding in your native language does not qualify as comprehensible input. A well written, clear popular science book about the same topic does.

But don’t you learn a language by speaking it? No, you don’t. What you learn by speaking the target language is making the right sounds, you get accustomed to producing the language and most importantly: you get used to the feeling of expressing yourself in a foreign language. For most people, that feeling is uncomfortable and produces the unpleasant sensation of self-consciousness. The degree of intensity of this feeling differs greatly between individuals and ironically, it is especially challenging for the most ambitious types, for the strivers and the perfectionists.

Drinking to talk

Don’t believe me? Try speaking foreign language after what consuming what constitutes a moderate of alcohol for you. Again, definitions will vary greatly between individuals. You will find that your performance will improve after a few drinks. Why? Because alcohol lowers inhibitions, it lowers self-consciousness. That’s why we drink it and call it a social lubricant. It goes without saying that large amount of alcohol will have the opposite effect.

What is the point? The point is that the main problem with actually using a foreign language has more to do with psychology than linguistics. The more perfectionist you are, the more you are invested in getting it right, in avoiding mistakes, the harder it will be for you to actually to become a fluent in a foreign language.

This is where learning another language can render an additional benefit of personal growth, beyond the obvious one of broadening your circle of communication. It can help you to face your fear, the fear of the rejection that lies at the bottom of perfectionism. It can help you to come to terms with your simple human fallibility. Psychologists call this “imperfection tolerance”, a truly valuable trait to acquire.

Three Simple Steps

So, what should you be doing to master a language?

1) Leave the beginner stage behind you as quickly as possible. If you actually want or have to master a foreign language, make the time to take intensive courses. Three to six months full time should do the trick for most people. When you choose a language school, ask to participate in a trial day. If the lessons are very grammar heavy and the teacher does most of the talking, go elsewhere.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that this pain will pay off in the end. It won’t. You need to get used to making the sounds as soon as possible. Likewise, if the teacher refuses to explain anything, wants to elicit everything from the students and obsessively puts the group into pairs, go elsewhere. The “communicative method” is the current dogma of language teaching. It is useful and should be part of every language course, but many teachers have had too much of the Kool-Aid and overdo it.

There should be a balance between interaction, pair work, practice and straight forward explanation and structural overview. Make sure that the school has arrived in the 21st century and uses authentic video and audio material, not just CD players, textbooks and photocopies.

If you can’t attend an intensive course for some reason, use the ubiquitous once a week, 90 minutes format. Supplement it with plenty of simple video, audio and reading that you can understand. Don’t be a snob. Watch children stories, cartoons, read books and comics for children. Do it a lot and do it regularly. Don’t think 10 minutes a day is enough. It isn’t. Acquisition is no silver bullet; you need as much as exposure as you can get without torturing yourself.

2) Once you have reached the B1 level, seek out all kinds of comprehensible input. At the B1 level, short TED presentations, comic books, graphic novels, graded readers, simple explanatory videos and stories on YouTube are the way to go. Try movies and shows on Netflix, too, just make sure that you have subtitles in the target language. Don’t use subtitles in your native language.

If you understand everything, the material is too easy. Find a ratio of known and unknown vocab that you feel comfortable with. This will differ between individuals, but in general, you need to train your ability to figure out words from context and be less teacher and dictionary dependent.

Seek out every-day interactions with native speakers or tandems, too, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that this is the most important part of your language acquisition. It will help you to become more comfortable in the language and it will build imperfection tolerance. At the B1 level, however, interactions with native speakers will turn overwhelming and frustrating quickly.

Don’t get discouraged. You are acquiring the language, by yourself, at your own pace, away from the stress of having to perform in the situation. Trust the process. Assuming they are available for your target language, take one of the assessment tests language schools provide online to check your progress. Here’s a link to our assessment test:

https://www.language-and-skills.com/home/placement/

3) Once you have reached the B 2 level, turn to more interesting, challenging material. As a general rule, stay away from dedicated language learning material. Most of it is watered down, boring and hides the focus on form behind impressive sounding brand names like “Financial Times” or the “Economist”. Don’t be fooled. It’s the same old gap fill, grammar tidbit and comprehension question approach with a fancy label. There is a lot more you can do beyond the obvious Netflix and movie watching.

By all means do that, but know that in order to retain vocab well, you need what cognitive scientists call “depth of processing”. The more alert you are, the more the material makes you think and challenges what you thought you knew, the better you will remember it.

If your target language is English, you certainly live in the best of times. There are thousands of hours of free or cheaply available high- quality material to be found online. Start with the TED presentations, find a topic that you are intrinsically interested and research it in the target language.

If a TED speaker is trying to sell you a book and you like the topic, buy the book. If at all possible, read it too. But don’t stop there: there are plenty of other great platforms to acquire language through content. Check out “Coursera”, “edX” and all the others Massive Open Online Courses.

The Power of MOOCs

MOOCs might have not fulfilled their promise in revolutionizing education, the guided discussion in a classroom will most likely stay with us, if only because learning something together is a beautiful experience, but they are immensely useful for mastering a language. Many people recommend novels but on the whole, I’d say that they will only work well if you are a literature buff.

Novels are linguistic works of art, they are not written to be easily understood. For many adult learners, popular science works better. Many of our clients like “Behavioral Economics”, especially the books by Dan Ariely. Check out the “Master Class” series, especially if one your favourite celebrity teaches one of them. Find a newspaper in your target language and make a habit of reading one article a day. I will provide a list of links to books, courses, videos and TV shows underneath this article.

Increase your interaction with native speakers, seek out situations where you are actually talking about something and use the language as a tool rather than an end in itself. That’s why I’m not a huge believer in tandems; they often get boring very quickly, apart from the fact that there seem to be quite a few creepy guys who see them as a way to get laid. If your target language is English, check out “Inter Nations”, www.internations.org and take part in some of the dedicated activity groups.

Theoretically, you can master a language by yourself, just like you can get into shape without a gym and a personal trainer. The main problem, both with getting in shape and mastering a language is compliance. Working with a good language school helps, because the regular sessions and the relationship with the trainer will boost compliance.

Acquisition works. The best language schools base their method on this insight and good trainers do more than just have a pleasant chat and correct your grammar once a week. Good trainers will point you toward interesting material and discuss it with you. They will broaden your horizon and be eager to learn from you. If you are looking for a good trainer, visit us under www.language-and-skills.eu

Useful Links for Level B 2 and above

Academy of Ideas: Philosophy/Psychology -Short Videos-

https://www.youtube.com/user/academyofideas

Science / Psychology / Digitalisation -Short Videos –

https://www.youtube.com/user/bigthink

Talks at Google : Authors / Broad Range of Topics -Long Videos-

https://www.youtube.com/user/AtGoogleTalks

World of Work / Psychology -Short Animated Videos-

https://www.youtube.com/user/theRSAorg

American Politics / News -Short Videos-

https://www.youtube.com/user/SecularTalk

School of Life : Philosophy /Psychology