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