| In my newly released book, YOU CAN LEARN | | | | they listen intensely to what is being said to them |
| SPANISH or Any Language No Matter Your Age | | | | and especially to things that interest them. |
| or Disposition, I discuss how most, if not all, | | | | From his stroller in the park, the child sees a dog. |
| second language courses in the Free World are | | | | For the first time, he thrusts out his hands at |
| taught: Grammar First. Not only is this method | | | | what he sees and makes all manner of grunts, |
| frighteningly boring, but I also explain why it will | | | | groans, screeches, and spewing saliva. The |
| not-indeed cannot-give you what you want: A high | | | | caregiver instinctively says something like, "That's |
| degree of spoken fluency. I recall all too well | | | | a doggie. Do you see the doggie? Can you say |
| walking into my first Spanish course at the | | | | doggie?" And until the child begins to use that |
| University of Kansas. I was handed a huge | | | | word, the caregiver goes through the same |
| textbook, a workbook, and was told I had to login | | | | routine each time the child sees a dog. |
| so many hours each week in the language lab. | | | | The child is listening. The child sees the object in |
| Now, instead of a language lab, you just get | | | | front of him. The object provides the mighty |
| some CD's or tapes. | | | | stimulation. The child makes an association |
| The reason this approach cannot teach you a high | | | | between what he hears and sees. When he sees |
| degree of spoken fluency is simple. It is so simple | | | | a picture of a dog in a picture book as the |
| that all of you who raised children already know it. | | | | caregiver tells a story, the process begins again. |
| This approach is not the way humans acquire | | | | Very simply, this is how language, or I should say |
| spoken fluency in any language, including their | | | | spoken fluency, is acquired. You did not enroll your |
| native one. The same way in which you, the | | | | child in an English course with books and tapes so |
| parent, coached your child to say words, phrases, | | | | he could learn his native language. He developed a |
| and sentences, is the way in which a second | | | | degree of spoken fluency long before a formal |
| language is learned. The mechanisms your child | | | | study of his native language began. And, hundreds |
| used to learn his native tongue are the same | | | | of thousands of people who have tried using the |
| ones you need to acquire a second language. It | | | | grammar-first approach would kill for that level of |
| does not matter at what age you begin to | | | | fluency. |
| develop a high degree of spoken fluency in a | | | | Grammar first will give you the skills to exegete |
| second language. | | | | written text and that is about all. Is that what you |
| Does this mean someone who wants to become | | | | want? |
| bilingual should ignore grammar? Absolutely not! | | | | Input, input, input is what you want first and |
| What this does mean is that one comes before | | | | foremost. Total Immersion means meaningful |
| the other. The horse pulls the cart. It is not the | | | | input before output is attempted. The process of |
| other way around. The horse is spoken fluency | | | | need, picture, sound, and association is taking |
| and the cart is the study of formal grammar. The | | | | place in meaningful input. The child shows you by |
| logic of what I am saying should not escape | | | | his slobbery enthusiasm that he needs to know |
| anyone. | | | | what the animal in the picture is. You sound out |
| In my book, I reviewed and suggested two | | | | the word dog and the child makes the association. |
| commercially available products that closely | | | | You go through this repeatedly until the child is |
| simulate the process in which you learned your | | | | able to make the sound himself. |
| native language. In the book, I explain the science | | | | One day, the magic of language occurs and the |
| behind second-language acquisition. Without | | | | child begins to speak. |
| rewriting the book in this article, let me mention | | | | The two commercially available products I |
| the natural process of acquiring language is to | | | | mention in the book are The Learnables and The |
| engage in intensive input first. | | | | Pimsleur Language System. The Learnables |
| This means a period of time in which the learner | | | | provide the meaningful input, and lots of it, before |
| just listens to meaningful input in the target | | | | you attempt any output. The Pimsleur products |
| language. This is what children do. It is called, "the | | | | provide a channel to begin your output-beginning |
| period of silence." Before children begin to speak, | | | | to speak. |