“You know what they say about assuming…”

When it comes to learning a foreign language, you’ve almost certainly heard some of these opinions: 

“Get them started learning young! Kids learn languages so much more easily than adults.” 

“You’re lucky that you grew up bilingual, it makes it easier for you to learn other languages now.” 

“The best way to learn a foreign language is to travel to a foreign country so that you can learn through immersion.” 

“In the Spanish class, you should only speak Spanish!” (or “English in the English class”, “French in the French class”, etc.) 

Statements like these are based in some widely-accepted assumptions about learning foreign languages which we can break down into two categories:

1. some people are better at learning languages because ….
2. the best way to learn a foreign language is ….

Let’s look more closely at these assumptions. 

Some people are better at learning foreign languages because …

“…. because they are young” or “… because they grew up speaking more than one language”. These beliefs are often repeated with an unspoken subtext: “I’m too old to learn a foreign language” or “I’m bad at learning foreign languages because I grew up monolingual”. The good news is that such assumptions are not supported by research. The age and background of the learner does not give special advantages or disadvantages when learning a foreign language, although it may influence which kind of learning techniques are most effective for the specific individual. (Read more about what the US Department of Education has reported on this topic here [Language Learning Advisor, 2024]).

As the professional polyglot Steve Kauffman encourages us, anyone can learn a language as long as they believe in themselves and like what they’re doing. “Learning is more important than remembering”, so if you put in the effort and follow some basic language learning techniques, there’s no reason why you can’t learn a language no matter your background (Lingosteve, 2012).

The best way to learn a foreign language is …

“…. is through immersion (therefore, we should only speak our target language in the foreign language class)”. This assumption is a bit more tricky. “Children learn through immersion”, the logic goes, “So if we just spend enough time surrounded by the language we want to learn, we’ll get it, too.” Unfortunately, it’s not so simple as that.

First of all, adult brains don’t work the same as children’s, so it’s not reasonable to expect everyone to learn through exposure like we did when we were still wearing diapers.

Second of all, this belief may actually be quite limiting. We all have a wide and individualized “linguistic repertoire” (Cogo, 2016), and the best way to learn should recruit that as a foundation to help us understand new grammar, guess the meanings of new vocabulary, and use context to achieve communicative objectives.

Think of it this way: it’s much easier for a child to learn to ride a bicycle with the assistance of training wheels. The training wheels aren’t “cheating”, they are just a supportive stage that helps the rider learn how to achieve an objective. Simply setting the child on a two-wheeled bicycle and pushing them down a hill is not likely to be an effective learning method any more than simply expecting to learn a language “through immersion” is likely to be effective without appropriate strategy and support. 

Listen to instinct, not assumptions

Like most of us, when I started my career in foreign language education, I came in with exactly those assumptions. But despite the assumptions, it quickly became obvious what worked in the real world (and in my real classrooms).

For example, I always had the assumption that we should “Speak English only in English class”, but it was obvious that if I spoke a bit of my student’s first language (Arabic, in that case), it helped me build connections with them. I could highlight differences and similarities in the grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary of their first language and foreign language. Of course, it also helped me build a rapport with the classroom. Students feel much more friendly and engaged when they know that language learning is a two-way street between themselves and the instructor. 

Furthermore, I noticed students instinctively shifted between languages depending on the context. I once observed a Lebanese student chat with his friends in English, answer the phone and talk to his mother in French, and then curse at someone in Arabic. Fast-forward to today when I’ve learned that there are loads of academic theories to explain and take advantage of this phenomenon: bilingual/multilingual pedagogies, plurilingualism, interlanguage theory, and translanguaging are some of the most prominent. However we label it, one thing is certain: a strict monolingual environment is unnatural in the context of learning a foreign language, and strictly enforcing a monolingual standard does more harm than good to the students. 

Conclusion: pedagogical advantages and social advantages

If we take some time to un-learn these assumptions about the best way to learn a foreign language, we’ll unlock some real advantages.

The pedagogical advantages are obvious – it seems there are just more modern and more effective methods to learn a foreign language than the old “language immersion” method most of us grew up with.

But the nuanced social advantages are perhaps more exciting. We’re unlearning limiting assumptions like “I’m too old to learn a new language”, and we’re creating a more equitable learning environment when we tell students that their linguistic background shouldn’t be suppressed, but rather respected and recruited. 

It’s an exciting time to be teaching and learning foreign languages. 

References

Cogo, A. (2016). Conceptualizing elf as a translanguaging phenomenon. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/74246313.pdf.

Kaufmann, S. – lingosteve (2012). Language learning – Does age matter? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLz9-jlJ-fA

Learning Language Advisor. (2024). Age and language learning. Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics Washington DC. http://www.language-learning-advisor.com/age-and-language-learning.html