How Languages Are Meant to Be Learned

traditional Language Education has failed

Traditional language education is widely ineffective because it takes an academic, easily assessable,
and easily testable approach. It traditionally focuses on teaching grammar first and then vocabu-
lary—for the most part ignoring pronunciation and intonation. Students prepare to take tests that
don’t assess their ability to use and apply language concepts. Instead, it tests their understanding of
grammar concepts and vocabulary. Students often are unable to speak fluidly worrying about us-
ing correct grammar. They also speak with strong accents
because they never learned proper pronunciation. This
Writing causes the students to have little confidence in speaking
the language they learned.
Reading
Learning Languages Naturally

Speaking The methods I have developed are based on my experi-

ence learning three foreign languages, including Chinese,
and teaching ESL and Chinese. It is based on natural
Listening learning methods or, in other words, how children learn
their native language. Children learn first by listening and
imitating the sounds they hear. It starts as baby talk and
slowly develops into real words. It is only later that a child learns to read and write. As we grow and
learn more, then our understanding of language becomes deeper, and we are able to speak, read,
and write fluidly.

So in my program, I teach pronunciation and intonation first using actual words to model correct
pronunciation and intonation. This builds a good foundation for learning vocabulary words. Vo-
cabulary words are likewise modeled in sentences thus
building a foundation for sentence structures and gram-
mar. As pronunciation grows, so will vocabulary, and as Grammar
vocabulary grows, so will grammar till the student mas-
ters the language. Sentence Structure

The program starts with listening skills and then speak-

ing. The speaking is modeled by first listening to correct Vocabulary
speech and pronunciation. Reading and writing is taught
so students can read the language they are learning and
Pronunciation
write the characters. This is especially important with
Chinese because it has a complex writing system.
Recognizing characters is the first step and also
learning radicals and the pictures contained in the
characters. As the st udents start to master char-
acter recognition, stroke order and writing will be
taught.
Creating a Foreign Language
Environment (Immersion)
Material in the lessons is learned
best through the students’ ears be-
cause the students are able to retain
the information better when the lan-
guage is listened to. In addition, it
teaches better listening comprehen-
sion and pronunciation. By listening
to sentence and grammar structures
often, students are able to recognize
whether something sounds “right”
rather than having to understand lots
of rules to know what is correct. So
the class will provide a lot of audio
material so students can learn effectively.
The best way to learn a language is by living in a ticed, they will be used in a different way so that
country where that language is spoken and being students are not only forced to review them, but
immersed by it. But as that is not possible, the
students will be required to immerse themselves of how they fit into the language overall.
in the language by speaking it in class and listen-
ing to audio recordings daily.
Practice Makes Perfect
Much like sports, when language skills are
taught, they must be practiced not just once but
over and over until mastered. Because of this,
students will be required to do exercises daily
during and after class. These exercises will re-
quire them to practice grammar, sentence struc-
tures, vocabulary, and even pronunciation.
Line Upon Line
In learning a new language, review
and repetition are essential. So that
students retain new concepts and vo-
cabulary, they will not only be intro-
duced once, tested on, and then for-
gotten. Instead, after a new concept or
vocabulary list is introduced, it will be
reviewed multiple times. Then as new
items are added to the lessons, these
old items will continue to be included
so that students do not forget them.
Each time old items are reintroduced and prac-
the students will also gain a better understanding
Written by Jeremy Scott Peters
Edited and Designed by Jillena O’Brien