e majority of our first language by ourselves. It has been said that if we intentionally set about teaching the whole of a new language to an infant, they would never learn. Of course, some parents do teach some vocabulary and other things to children, but it is ad hoc. On the other hand, many parents don’t teach their children much at all and still they learn. Which parent teaches their child the use of “ever”, “considering”, “if” and so on? None, I would say. Yet the child learns everything they need to sound like a native and to express all they want to.
Once this understanding is taken on board, even tentatively, then it is not a long stretch to consider that amongst the other things that may be preventing us from learning is what we are doing to stop ourselves from learning. In other words we have to consider that we have taken on views and practices that are preventing us from exercising what we need to learn a new language effectively.
Some of you may be thinking that there are other reasons why there are differences between infants learning and adults learning. Yes, we could say a lot about the differences. But for now I am asking you to consider (not accept) the possibility that we still have everything we need. All we have to do is find what it is we have. Let us consider (again, we don’t need to accept) that some of the ways we are learning are inhibiting us. That is, that they are preventing us from expressing the capacities to which we all have access.
This mental attitude of “considering” is something we all do in our lives when are facing, for example, personal problems. We consider – we might say this, we might say that, or they might be saying this for such and such a reason, and so on. So, I am not asking you to do something that you haven’t done before. I am just asking you to do something that you might not have done in regards to the subject we are talking about in this post.
What is stopping you?
So let us look at what exactly might be stopping us. What if the following practices were actually stopping you from exercising your amazing learning powers? The ones I have chosen you to consider are practices that no child does in ways that adults do. By coming to this from this perspective then, I will propose what this practice may actually be preventing.
No infant has fears about the unknown until we do or say something that brings it into their consciousness. And even when it enters, it is usually limited to certain situations. It does not define how they interact with all new experiences.
I have put fear first as I believe it is one of the key factors that stops language learners from embracing the unknown. Language learning is all about embracing the unknown; facing it and accepting it as a given thing. The ones who are comfortable with it and ready to turn it over, look at it from different sides without backing away, are the ones who will go on and learn more effectively. The ones who are not will be less willing to:
- speak to others, out of fear of making a mistake and believing they will look foolish
- try to say what they want in new ways out of fear of making a mistake
- try new ways of learning
- stop doing those things with which they are already comfortable.
Letting go of fear is the most difficult of the issues I have brought up here. However, it does not mean that it can’t be done. Many have done it. It does not mean that fear stops. It just means we accept it and walk towards it, knowing that by doing what we need to the fear will no longer be a force to stop us learning.
No infant studies. They learn as they do, speak, etc. Adults set time aside to learn a language. By focussing on studying as the place/time to learn, you reduce the emphasis on situational learning. The reality is that you can learn whenever you have any interaction with the new language (watching a movie, listening to a song, reading a book, talking, etc). For many, instead, the prevailing attitude can become “I have to get to a good level (through study, classes, etc) before I can do all that.” This belief dramatical