Five Arrows Language Classes & Resources – Blog

Here it is. A summary of my views on language learning and language acquisition i.e. speaking to learn.

I’ve been teaching languages for many years since I oroiginally wrote some of the material here, and in the series of posts called ”A better approach to language learning.”  I am more convinced than ever that Continue Reading…

When you speak to learn, you get most of your practice in informal settings. You talk to your neighbour. You chat with friends. You try out your growing skills on the cashier in the grocery store. You talk with native speakers whenever you can. You look for opportunities to be outnumbered by people who speak better than you. Continue Reading…

You have to hear and speak a language to acquire it. That’s not always required in language classes, as Heather Iglesias found out. She teaches Spanish in East Texas now, and told me about an experience she had when she was still a student teacher. Continue Reading…

There are people who pick up languages quickly and effortlessly all the time outside traditional classrooms. Admirers say they have a “gift”, or that they were born with “an ear for languages”. These so-called gifted people don’t know much about grammar in their own language or any other, yet they progress faster than students who rely on learning rather than language acquisition i.e., speaking to learn. Most irritating of all to the language learners, they don’t seem to study much. These people are Continue Reading…

When you’re acquiring a new language — which I refer to as speaking to learn — grammatical structures are not the only factor in determining your course outline. The sequence of study is guided by your immediate requirements for communication. Continue Reading…

One of the reasons that learning, in contrast with language acquisition, fails to produce the ability to communicate is that the focus of instruction is set, not on speaking and understanding, but on mastering linguistic structures. Continue Reading…

In many language learning programs, the instructor uses grammar exercises to demonstrate and reinforce the concept-of-the-day. For example, the concept-of-the-day might be “masculine and feminine nouns”. You’re given a list of words which must be categorized as either masculine or feminine. You’re graded on your ability to apply the concept-of-the-day to the exercise Continue Reading…