HOW LANGUAGES ARE LEARNED? : Widespread beliefs among parents, educators and students.

At school, everyday I have the chance to interact with the people involved in the children education: parents, teachers and, of course, the students themselves. Last week I asked some of them “how a language is learned?” and in the next lines you can read the answers given.

First, I ask to three STUDENTS. The first two were primary students and the third a secondary one.

The pupil of 4^th grade answered me “studying, thinking, singing and reading” and the 2^nd grade child gave me a simple, but correct one “I go to Kids & Us and I listen stories on a CD player”.

The 3^rd of ESO student said “studying it, practicing the grammar, the spelling, the speaking. You start with the basic stuff and then your level goes higher. The first years you learn vocabulary, then the rules. Also a good idea is to travel to UK to practise. Ahh! Playing games!”.

Then, I needed the opinion of three TEACHERS; two of them are not language learning specialists and one is a speech therapist.

Non specialists told me “using the language, speaking it” and  “ speaking it, listening it, with no grammar and watching TV series. My son has learned a lot seeing TV series and movies in original version”.

The speech therapist spoke a little bit more and summing up “ in the case of a second or third language , you learn it with the imitation. It’s easier learning languages during the first years or your life”.

 My last targets were the PARENTS of the students, concretely two mothers. One of them said “listening it. The listening part is very important .Studying grammar. A good way to learn grammar structures is reading in English”. The other applied “studying grammar and listening a lot of English”.

Reading the commentaries of the people I could find three myths of beliefs:

-          “Watching movies can improve your English”: the teacher told me and I think that it’s true. Watching movies, or other things, listening English songs ,etc  is a good training for your ears, but you have to complement that with a grammar study and speaking activities.

-          “It’s easier learning languages during the first years of your life”: again it has a part  of truth . Yes, the way in what the children learn a language is more natural the first years than when you are older, but also it’s true that they have less skills. With the help of a good teacher, though, they will have no problems in their language learning process.

-          “Studying a lot of grammar”:  Again a half truth. Of course they need some structures to know how to speak, and how to write, but I think that grammar exercises are overrated at schools. They can learned grammar structures reading easy texts, or with drama plays in the classroom.

-          “Is he speaking English ?:  Any of the people interviewed said this, but is also question that sometimes some parents ask me. They think that listening the L3 a few hours a week is going to make their children an English speaker. Then I have to explain them that this is a long term process and in the kindergarten is only the start.