It Is Easy to Master a Second Language

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• Publié par: teachdude42
• Publié le: 23 août 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• Licence : En savoir +
  Paternité, partage des conditions initiales à l'identique
• Langue: English

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you can learn a 2nd The other day I typed in "Language Schools" into Google and came across a whopping 95 million hits. After placing my eyeballs back into my head, I wondered how many universities, public schools and junior colleges are offering 2nd language learning opportunities in America. That must be a similarly mind-boggling yet mysterious figure. The biggest mystery in all this is really why, with all the opportunities to learn a foreign language, are very few Americans bilingual? The truth is that about 9% of americans have a good bilingual capability. Yet, there are a lot of private and public schools providing foreign language instruction not to mention the booming business in the foreign countries offering Americans the chance of bilingual. With all these opportunities, americans remain at approximately 9% when Europeans at a 52% bilingual rate. Ever wondered why? I have. For the past 5 years, I've been approaching my 2nd language-learning odyssey by using non traditional ways. I did not begin with grammar classes first . You know what those are. If you took any type of foreign language classes back in school, such as Greek or Latin, you began studying the language with a grammar book. Where this effort got you? If you followed this course you've acquired and ability to translate written texts. The common experience of students who begin their second language learning venture using the grammar-first method is that when they need to speak the language, or perhaps go overseas for a year abroad, all they can say is: "I'll take a cheese sandwich and I need to go to the bathroom." The way in which all of us, no matter our country of origin, learned how to speak our native language is the same way in which we should approach a foreign language acquisition. Please note I said, acquisition, and not learning the second language. There is a big difference and therein lies the rub when it comes to selecting a course of study where you will first acquire a high degree of spoken fluency before learning the grammar . Let me go out on a limb here: If you do not approach the studying of a second language first with 2nd language acquisition, instead of a grammar-first approach, you'll not learn how to speak the language. And, is that not what we are talking about-spoken fluency? One approach achieves one thing while the other one gives you something you don't necessarily want. I'm a long way from being able to read and discuss physics in Spanish. However,, I can talk about simple news events or do almost anything I require to do in Spanish. I would like to grow linguistically until I have the ability to discuss topics that are far more complex. Right now, I'm still in the child stage of Spanish acquisition and that's fine. Please bare in mind I

didn't get to this level by taking a grammar-first course. I can do what most for and five years old Spanish native speakers can do. Let's face it: Most Americans would kill to achieve this level of spoken fluency. So, how did I actually did it? I used exactly the same method I unknowingly used learning my first language, English. I am learning Spanish using the same approach all Spanish-fluent native speakers used in learning Spanish as children. I am engaging in 2nd language acquisition first, and second language learning second. Just as the horse comes before the cart, language acquisition must come before language learning. That's what you should seek first.Visit This Site