Have you ever wondered why most of the language lessons for adults are based on learning grammar? Couldn’t adults learn (or acquire) a language in a more natural way, like children?
When adults learn a new language, they usually try to find their way through a myriad of grammar rules and patterns, and most of them would sign up for traditional language lessons. Some of them drop out of language lessons because it is too conceptional, too time consuming and out of touch with reality, i.e. not practice-oriented enough.
Children and adults have of course important cognitive and developmental differences, but this does not imply that language should be presented to adults as a rigid set of rules and patterns that are essential to master, preferably to a very high level of fluency before even attempting to speak it. It surely doesn’t help when adults raise the bar unrealistically high when it comes to learning additional languages.
English: illustration from Leech’s comic latin grammar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I know by my own experience, that we can acquire a language in a very child-like way. I acquired Swiss-German and Dutch in my 20ies and late 30ies, the same way I acquired German and Italian as a child: in a very natural way, by listening and trying to imitate what was said.
I acquired Dutch alongside my son (who was then 2.5 years old), by repeating short sentences, singing songs with him, talking – and making many mistakes!
Of course, I already knew other languages’ grammar and rules that made the acquisition process more systematic: for example I would compare the use of adjectives or articles to similar languages I already had in my repertoire. The ability to read helped me to understand the phonetic rules on another cognitive level than a child that doesn’t read yet.
The whole acquisition process took place in a spontaneous way, which means that I would acquire the vocabulary of what I read and I talked about it with locals. I copied the way people greet each other, what they say when leaving: I observed locals very attentively, i.e. not only what they said but also how they said it and their non-verbal communication.
I studied the folders at the supermarket and offices, read all the posters, signs and children books I could find, trying to figure out how to pronounce the words and what they meant. Swiss-German was helpful at times. It is not a written language, and I also learned it by repeating what others said. So, for both languages, Swiss-German and Dutch, I heavily relied on real life interactions, songs, TV and radio.
The importance of comprehensible input
There is one aspect that plays a major role in language acquisition “the children’s way”, and that is comprehensible input. If we can not make sense of what is said, because we don’t understand the context, the learning process is arduous if not impossible. Have a look at Prof. Stephen Krashen’s video about this:
–We also interviewed him about this topic at Raising Multilinguals LIVE.
Fact is that adults can acquire languages like children if they focus on comprehensible input, on contexts they need and are interested in. In addition they have the time and the courage to make mistakes are surely necessary to achieve good results.
For me, personally, a merely grammar based approach to learning a language has proven to be very ineffective and discouraging. Even when learning dead languages like Latin, Old Provençal and Old French: what worked best for me was to understand and like (!) the topic of the text, and to make sense of the rules that came with learning these languages.
I am a linguist, a philologist to be precise, and I teach languages since more than 30 years, to adults and teenagers. I have never had any problem of making someone speak or “utter words”, understand words and concepts, because I used Kashen’s approach. I teach privately which means that I can choose how and with what tools I teach the languages (German, Italian and French): I only choose tools that are interesting for my students, that they can understand and put in relation with what they know in the other languages they already speak.
Getting through the process of acquiring and learning multiple languages myself, learning about the language acquisition and learning process on a cognitive and neurological level, but also on a phonetic level (how to pronounce certain sounds), makes me focus on the speaking, on the communication first.
A way one can acquire a language as an adult is explained in this inspiring video:
At the moment (2020) I am trying to acquire Korean by watching series and exploring the language education feature on Netflix. I also try to decode the language with the help of some apps and youtube videos. I have not the opportunity to live in Korea and enjoy full immersion in the language, which certainly would accelerate the language acquisition and learning process, but by merely listening to the language on a regular basis I have reached a decent level of understanding.
– How do you managed to speak all your languages?
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