Have you heard over and over again that an adult must learn a new language as he learned his mother tongue, only by imitation and repetition? Surely it is because a big theory was generated in the last century and much more the current marketing that affirms it. But I am one of those who think, like other currents and other Spanish teachers, that this is not possible.
As a Spanish teacher, I want to tell you why I think so and why I am more of the trend of contemporary linguistics of this century. And pay attention because for my reasons there are two faces, the pessimistic or negative and the optimistic or positive, so it is your decision which face is yours.
Yes, adults learn languages differently than children.
When we are adults, our mental structure is not the same. Although children instinctively learn languages, as if they were programmed to acquire them, they lose this ability when they reach puberty. Around the age of 12 or 13, the brain essentially solidifies, radically changing its shape, and with it, also its processes of acquiring knowledge and skills, including language learning.
This is probably the main reason why it is more difficult for adults, unlike children, to learn new languages, especially without accents or with the characteristics of a mother tongue. And at the same time, it is also the reason why adults should not expect, nor should language schools, to learn or teach a new language in the same way that the mother tongue is learned.
Is this something negative? No. Only this requires a different process. What is certain is that the less rigid the mind of a language student is, the easier it will be for him to appropriate this new knowledge and these new structures. If you are studying Spanish or another language, and you already know that you are not characterized as a very flexible person, it is your time to start practicing flexibility, even in other areas of your life. It is time to allow yourself to be less rigid in your personal life, and that will make your path to acquiring a new language easier. So don’t see it as a disadvantage, see it as a great opportunity.
And here you have a clear advantage. An adult already knows a complete system of grammar and vocabulary of his own mother tongue. So he can learn new languages fast too by relating the grammar, syntax and vocabulary of the language he already knows with the one they are trying to learn. The key is to use the knowledge of their native language, or even another language they have acquired, as leverage to learn the new language. And of course, it is true that this too, which is clearly an advantage, can be a drawback if the teacher or the student are always in search of equivalents, of literalness, of similarity; this could be the path to frustration. What I am saying is that the possible connections, of convergence or divergence, speed up the pace. And, by the way, that is also a characteristic that children and adults share: the associative capacity. The former use it more for the creation of their imaginary worlds, and the latter for the concretion of their analyses. The epiphanies, I call them in class, the births.
The last thing I want to talk to you about is precisely our ability to analyze when we are adults. It is a double-edged sword. In addition to the excessive search for connections between the mother tongue and the target language, the student could suffer from an obsessive search for corrections or perfections, as well as an obsessive search for whys. And so, just as our ability to analyze could be our ally, it could also drag us down when learning a new language, especially in listening and speaking skills.
Not asking why is a good idea as a purpose. Replacing the why with the how is a better idea.
Another example of nonsense aligned with our excessive analysis is this. Let’s see if it resonates with you.
If we listen to a song and then we question that the direct object is not attached to the verb by the preposition a, for example, we don’t really question the song and say: ok, maybe in the search for the metrical structure of that song, the a was an obstacle. No. The typical thing is that the student questions his knowledge because he recognizes himself as weak compared with a native. Another example: if at the moment of speaking, once an indefinite verb has been used, in this self-monitoring process, the student identifies that what would have been correct would have been the past perfect, his chain of self-judgment. He is no longer focused on creating his communication, but creating his self-enemies.
With this analytical effort, the invitation always is to analyze not their linguistic products but their motivations to produce them. I invite you to become aware that you are immersed in a process for which you deserve to be applauded since you made the decision to learn another language.
Nothing to continue pretending that students are children in the process of learning a new language. No. The child, learning his mother tongue or a new language, does not make the decision. In this, the adult beats the child. The adult makes his decision, in an act of bravery and courage, and invites himself to an adventure on unknown paths, as the most genuine expression of his desire to feel alive.
Bye!
