2 Steps Forward...1 Step Back

Do you ever feel frustrated when you're trying to learn a new language? Well, if you've been at it for a while, you know there are starts and stops, advances and retreats, and down right getting in a rut. If you're like me, you sometimes think you have forgotten more than you have learned. The old saying comes to mind--Two steps forward, one step back describes my language learning. And if you have the same feeling, you are not alone. Even some of the best language learners, who have learned multiple languages, realize and accept that this is normal. They know it's the norm and not the exception.

I'd like to introduce two leading language experts who would wholeheartedly agree with me. One is Dr. Stephen Krashen, a leading ESL influencer for many decades, and the other is Steve Kaufman, a polyglot who speaks over 20 languages.

Dr. Krashen is a professor of linguistics who has been active for forty years in teaching about second language acquisition. My professor used Krashen's book when I was going through a Masters in ELL program. Krashen is famous for his five hypotheses in his Theory of Second Language Acquisition. I'm going to focus on some of those for this article.

The first I will share is the Acquisition/Learning hypothesis. He says that acquiring a language is far superior to learning a language. Acquiring a language is a natural thing that is really evident in young children. When they move to a new culture they must learn a second language out of necessity to communicate. They don't know a bunch of rules to trip themselves up. As a rule, children don't over-monitor themselves while speaking a new language. I should put a caveat on this. When they are playing with other children of different language backgrounds they don't over-monitor. Out on the playground with other kids from different countries, they let the English fly. On the other hand, when a teacher is asking them rapid fire questions about why they got in trouble, they many times go silent. I think this illustrates another of Krashen's hypotheses, the Affective Filter Hypothesis. ELL students perform better with a low affective filter, but this could be said for any student.

The Monitor Hypothesis is another of Krashen's hypotheses and have already mentioned it above. Language learners who are perfectionists tend to over-monitor their own speaking while speaking. ELLs who are acquiring the language may make a lot of mistakes, but they certainly are still having a good time, especially if they are extroverts! Language learners tend to focus more on the academics and rules of learning, while language acquirers tend to focus less on rules and being perfect.

The Natural Order Hypothesis is a key concept to remember when thinking about stopping and starting. When you feel like you are losing what you learn or you're in a rut and making no progress, I believe Krashen's work addresses these issues. Krashen's Natural Order Hypothesis asserts that language is achieved in a certain order. Usually, ELLs, mostly do intake of the new language first, such as reading and listening. The production part comes later, after the student has had a great deal of intake of reading and listening. With a great deal of intake the learner can then be more skilled in production, such as speaking and writing. Perhaps, some of our starts and stops can be attributed to us trying to jump ahead to producing the language with too little intake as a foundation.

My other hero in Second Language Acquisition is Steve Kaufman. As I said, Steve is a polyglot, meaning he speaks several languages. Steve is in his 70s and loves learning languages. He now can speak over 20 languages and he's currently working learning two more.

Steve says that over the years of study, he has forgotten big chunks of vocabulary and rules of his target language. He also relates that all that knowledge you attained is still with you because you haven't totally forgotten it. If you lay off from study and return to it, it will come back to you. He talks about this cycle: learn, forget, then relearn.

You may say, "Isn't Steve Kaufmann learning language instead of acquiring it?" I believe that this is only partially true. He uses the same principles of acquiring a language that Dr. Krashen endorse in many cases. Steve's major method is to consume a massive amount of input daily of the target language. He always has his devices with him going about his day and is always learning new vocabulary words. If you have learned and speak twenty languages it is hard to stay fresh on every one, so if he is rusty in one of his languages, he has to "relearn" it, but as Steve says, It's always still up there and comes back very quickly.

Steve also does massive amounts of reading in the target language. Consuming huge amounts of vocabulary and reading can then give one confidence when beginning to produce the language in speaking and writing. Steve doesn't seem to mind that speaking and writing comes last. So, after he receives all that input, the production part is less stressful, comes more readily, and is naturally akin to acquiring a language.

These two gentlemen have had several conversations on Youtube about language acquisition. You can tell that both men love sharing their discussions with the world about the best way to learn a second language. Steve certainly loves learning language and relishes the process. Dr. Krashen relates that he has been studying Spanish for several years but is not really fluent yet, but he also loves the process of learning. He related a story of having dinner with some of his Spanish-speaking colleagues. He said that it was a happy celebrative time, and he spoke Spanish with his friends that night without even knowing if he was using the correct word for the English "to be". Ser and estar are two Spanish words for "to be". Each one has different shades of meaning to the Spanish ear. Dr. Krashen said his friends didn't care and they had the best time ever. He was communicating with his friends more like a kid on the playground and less like a university professor. I hope this article has provided at least some insight on why we feel like we are in a rut, but that it lets us know that progress is still being made and eventually we will become a fluent speaker and writer.