If you already speak but your conjugations aren't great or you need to quickly increase your store of vocabulary about a specific topic, then by all means study. Need to pass a test in school? Sure, study for it. When the goal is to pass a test or improve your grasp on something specific, then study is the way to go. But if you don't speak the language confidently right now, then it's time someone broke this news to you: studying is not the way to get this confidence! When you study, you acquire vocabulary, you improve your grammar and you do exercises.
Logically enough, your level improves. With time, your potential increases and you can understand more and you can theoretically join in on a wider scope of conversations. Not today though — maybe you just need to study a little bit more.
The academic system seems to have drilled into us that studying is the way to speak a language. Some artificial ways are quite useful , but they are still artificial. When you look at a language the same way you look at geography or history or other subjects in school that can be tested , then you simply don't know what a language actually is.
Stop looking at conversations with human beings as a test that you have to pass so, every time you make a mistake you get a big red X and if you make a certain amount of them, then you fail. It doesn't work like that!! A language is a means of communication. It's not a table of grammar rules in some dusty old book, or a piece of paper that you have to spread ink across in the right way for your teacher to be happy.
German isn't a rough sounding collection of Datives and Accusatives, it's families sharing what they did that day. Czech isn't a frustrating collection of consonant clusters, it's young couples flirting with one another and someone buying his morning bread. These are not things that you can put under a microscope. They are people living their lives and sharing experiences with one another. That is what a language is for. When you are locked away in your room you are avoiding this contact and that's why so many people never speak.
They still think about everything they don't know and see the world that speaks their target language as one big test that they are doomed to fail. So, if studying isn't how you learn to speak a language, then what is? I'll tell you, and it's going to blow your mind. What are you paying money for in the classroom that you couldn't get on your own?
Well, for one thing, in the lesson I'll get to speak Spanish with a native speaker! You can't get that from a textbook. How many students are there in the class? And how much of the time are you talking to your teacher? Well, there are 10 of us in the class, and we spend lots of time speaking in groups.
So it's great — I'm speaking lots of Spanish during the class! Well, we're all beginners, so of course our Spanish is not very good yet! We all make quite a few mistakes! So then, how much time are you actually speaking with a native Spanish speaker in class? Well, not much, I guess. And to be honest, the teacher actually explains things in English half the time. Look, I know I could — I should — probably study by myself. It's near my house, and quite convenient to get to.
All right. That makes sense. But since we've already established that you don't spend any time speaking in class with a native speaker, what exactly are you paying for? Sure, it's not cheap actually, it costs a lot , but it means I do actually go, I do learn things each week, and I do go off and do the homework that the teacher gives me.
So taking classes is a way to get started basically? I understand. You want to learn Spanish, but you don't know how. You want to take classes because you want some direction. And that's absolutely fine! I mean, language learning is nothing if not hard! Yes, that's it. I'm really committed to learning to speak Spanish fluently, and I'm really not a talented language learner. That's why I'm investing in classes. Now, forgive me, but I'm going to dig a little deeper on this point.
But I question if these two things are in fact equally beneficial, and therefore whether you're making an informed choice. Let me ask you this. If you believe that you yourself are not a talented language learner, and you wouldn't be able to learn on your own , then what makes you so sure that you'll be successful with your new teacher?
Look, Olly, she's a native Spanish speaker and a qualified teacher. Are you really going to tell me that she's no good? You haven't even met her! What this is really about is a question of fundamental beliefs about how languages are learnt or taught. Specifically, I believe that a language cannot be taught , it can only be learnt. So, yes, language classes can help support you in your journey of becoming fluent, but they are absolutely not a replacement or a solution in and of themselves.
This is a generalisation, to be sure, but a pretty accurate one I know, because I've observed hundreds of teachers in different countries. In other words, by attending language classes, you will learn about some of the unique elements of Spanish. But the fact that the teacher has chosen to teach something does not mean that it's either useful or possible for you to learn it right now.
My point is that systematically learning about the Spanish language is not directly addressing the actual issue of learning to speak it. You can go through all the textbooks under the sun, become a genuine expert in Spanish, but not actually be able to speak it naturally in conversation with a native speaker. Now, compare this to an organic process of learning whereby you read books, listen to music, go out there and speak, decide for yourself what you need to learn next based on evidence , and then learn it …and you hopefully start to see where I'm coming from in my critique of relying on language classes.
So, when I ask you whether your Spanish teacher can really help you, I'm not questioning her ability to teach you all about Spanish and how it works. I'm sure she's great at that. She can choose appropriate exercises from the textbook, ask you to complete them, and correct them.
She can also get you to try out your Spanish with your non-Spanish-speaking classmates. How exactly are your classes benefiting you that justifies the high cost and your faith that you will learn to speak Spanish by attending them?
You wouldn't expect to learn to speak fluently by using a textbook. So is it rational to expect the same outcome from your classes? Right, I suppose I see what you're saying. You mean that there's more to learning Spanish than just following a textbook…whether you're learning by yourself or from a teacher. You're saying that you need to direct your own learning, and the only way of doing that is by actually using the language out in the real world — reading, speaking, whatever — and that a language class is not the right place to do that.
And now we're getting into an area that is often misunderstood, and yet gets to the core of what I think it means to learn a language successfully or not. Look, you can learn a language bit by bit over time , enjoy the process, have it as a hobby, and that's absolutely fine.
I think what you really want is to learn to speak Spanish. Not just a passing appreciation or general understanding of the language.
You want to be able to use it for real purposes and with real people. And you want to do it quickly — you don't want to still be a beginner one year from now.
For you to learn Spanish well, you need to take responsibility for the process yourself. You need to direct your own learning, explore the language by yourself, at your own speed, noticing things that interest you along the way. You need to read , learn , listen , speak , all the time noticing what your strengths and weaknesses are and taking steps to fix them as you go.
The biggest danger in taking language classes is that you're abdicating responsibility for your learning … whether you know it or not. As I said earlier, our common sense tells us that first we need to study the language, and this will then translate into an ability to speak it.
But it's not that simple. Your proficiency in a language is a result of practical knowledge acquired as a result of the experience of using it , not of being taught how it works in theory. But you will never know how meaningful any of what you learn is until you've gone out there, tried it out for yourself and seen if you sink or swim. And in order to establish all of this, you need to be putting yourself out there and speaking Spanish a lot.
Not once or twice. Not from time to time, or whenever the opportunity arises. A lot. And it's this necessity to be spending large amounts of time in the company of native speakers that is exceedingly difficult for the language class environment to replicate by itself. Alex Paul, a German teacher in Pennsylvania, also commented on his experience with foreign language.
As a Spanish teacher at BHS, as well as an Ethnic Studies and Social Living teacher for the Multilingual Department, Samantha Borg creates curriculum to avoid the memorization heavy and textbook dependent side of learning a foreign language. Borg makes a conscious effort to incorporate culture in her teaching. Borg identified American ideology as a factor preventing the US from placing more emphasis on foreign language.
According to Borg, this mentality extends into the value we place on different classes. She noted that world language is constantly pushed off as not as important as the core subjects.
Reidenbaugh also commented on the role that American mindsets have on the lack of emphasis on foreign language.
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