It is not possible to exaggerate the importance of the attitude of the learner. It is the deciding factor. Do you like the language? Do you think you can succeed? Can you see yourself as a speaker of the new language? Are you an independent-minded learner? These are the most important considerations in language learning success.
Some people learn faster than others. Some people pronounce better than others. Why is this? I am more and more convinced that it is a matter of attitude rather than talent. There is something that good language learners have in common. They can let themselves go. They are not afraid. They achieve that independence from their mother tongue. They do not ask questions about why the new language is this way or that way.
I do not know if you can you teach this attitude. I think that a teacher can inspire this attitude. It happened to me. Once the switch is turned on, everything else becomes easier. Of course it is stil important to learn in an efficient way.
Stephen Krashen, who has had a major influence on my approach to language learning, once said that the main goal of a language teacher is to create the conditions whereby the student can become an autonomous learner. The more independent the learner, the better he or she wil realize that freedom is key!
Freedom can mean many things. First the learner must strive to be as independent as possible of the teacher, of any explanations the teacher might have to provide, independent of the textbook and independent of the classroom. Of course the teacher has a role, as a guide, for feedback, for encouragement, for the occasional explanation etc.. But that role should be as smal as possible.
The learner should be free to choose content to learn from, to choose words and phrases to learn, and to choose the kind of learning activity that suits his or her mood.
The learner needs to be free of prejudice. I remember when I started learning Chinese, I had another Canadian learning with me. When he discovered that in Chinese the structure for saying 'Are you going?' is 'You go not go?'. His reaction was 'that is sil y.' Yesterday I bought some Russian books and chatted with the Russian owner of the bookstore. He said that he gets mad at English because it is so il ogical. In Russian 'This book' is enough, in English we need to say 'This is a book.' This makes him mad.
We need to be free of the assumption that there is anything universal y logical about grammar, nor anything superior about the structures of our own language. Every language has its own 'logic', or way of saying things. Double negatives work in some languages and not in others. Some languages require the constant use of pronouns and articles, and others do not, etc.
Learning techniques that provide the maximum freedom for the learner are the most effective. These techniques are reading and listening. The book and the MP3 player are smal and amazingly powerful language learning tools. We can carry them and use them anywhere.
We are not dependent on finding native speakers to talk to. Even if we have native speakers around us, they may or may not be interested in talking to us and therefore we are dependent on them. If we can talk to native speakers and enjoy it, fine, but it is not necessary. It is not always available to us. Not so with our books and MP3 players. We can choose what to read and listen to, when to read and listen, and even re-read and re-listen. This immersion in the words, phrases, and sounds of the language are always available to us. It makes us free.
Who is good at languages?
? People who are motivated to learn languages.
? People who put enough time into learning languages.
? People who are not afraid to make mistakes.
? People who are good at simplifying tasks.
? People who are wil ing to imitate the behaviour of another culture.
? People who do not resist the new language and just accept it.
I often see people who feel they have to learn a language, for work or for a test. Somehow these people often have trouble. They run into a wal . They stagnate. They just seem unable to achieve the kind of fluency they want or need.
People who enjoy the language do better. They do not even have to be surrounded by the language. These are people who enjoy listening and reading, who enjoy exploring the language, the history, the culture and the romance of the language. These people do wel , no matter where they live.
I remember one French company we approached about using our language system. They wil only pay for English language instruction for those employees who have demonstrated an ability and wil ingness to study English on their own, using some self-study method. Should we not expect the same of any language student, whether corporate, immigrant or university student, in other words whenever the cost of study is being covered by someone else?
Someone once said that to ensure that a person shows up to study, you either have to pay them or make them pay. That is not always true. The intrinsic motivation of a personal interest is the strongest of al , but sometimes we need to see the proof!
There is a lot of money spent on English training in large and smal corporations. From what I can gather it can consist of a limited amount of contact with an English language instructor, often a native English speaker. This contact can be as seldom as once a week and often in a group. In the period between these English learning sessions the employee-students often do very little, because they are either too busy or not very interested. I suspect that people who are interested manage to find the time.
To be a successful language learner you have to deal with uncertainty. You have to accept that there wil always be words that you do not understand, and words that you pronounce wrong. There wil always be times when you do not real y get your meaning across as clearly or elegantly as you would like. You may meet someone or phone someone and the communication is more difficult than you would like. There can even be rejection.
Once you accept this as part of the adventure of language learning you are on your way. If you can actual y enjoy the experience, the chal enge of overcoming these difficulties and seeing them gradual y become smal er, then you wil enjoy learning. If you enjoy learning you wil improve.
Language improvement is so gradual and so uneven that it is easy to get discouraged.
Therefore, especial y for adult learners, it is important to just enjoy the process. The more you can learn from interesting and meaningful content, the more enjoyable the experience can be.
The less you are forced to be accurate or correct, the better.
So I always say. Do not expect perfection from yourself, but constantly work to improve.
And learn to accept uncertainty—it is one of the charms of language learning.
