As a mom of five in a bustling homeschool community, plus all those years on the road during convention season, I have heard probably close to a million statements from parents about what their child(ren) are doing to start learning a new language. I smile politely and nod, because they didn't ask for my input. It's a pretty hard practice.... I've tried telling them right off to change methods. It doesn't often go well, as they are excited to "follow the child," or "this is what we're doing now" or whatever other reason. Sometimes the reason is "Well, it can't hurt."
The thing is, some of these tendencies can hurt your learning process in the long run and actually create obstacles that weren't there previously.
So here are my TOP FIVE TERRIBLE tendencies that new language learners attempt, and more than one of them almost ensures that they will be back in a month or two asking for advice so things will go better.
TOP FIVE!
We'll start with the least worst and work up to the MOST TERRIBLE methods.
#5 LEAST TERRIBLE Tendency: Starting with long lists of words from one category. Like numbers, colors, clothing, or the alphabet. This causes students to log this information in their brain like a bunch of facts, rather than something to communicate with - in short, you're training your brain to learn this new concept with a portion of your brain that is not typically used to communicate, which is why it takes SUCH a long time to create a sentence, or you simply can't access the information at all. Your brain is completely blank. You know you know this information, but's only accessible to you when you're doing the lesson, not unlike doing a math worksheet or a multiple choice quiz. It's a list, because you learned it like a list. So the next bit that you learn, you have to re-route how you're learning it. Boom. New obstacle unlocked. And that is NOT the goal.
#4 TERRIBLE Tendency - Slightly worse than the list one: Doing too much review of static nouns. We often start any "new subject" with going over what we already know. That's fine. But the number of children that have "begun" their Spanish Lessons in Kinder with colors, numbers, letters, clothing, weather is ridiculous... because they then do the SAME thing in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade. Then, for some reason, the American school system sort of skips middle school (which is PRIME TIME for language development) and guess what their high school class begins with? Yep. Colors, numbers, letters, and clothing. SIGH. The student learns without even trying that learning a language is boring.
3rd slightly WORSE tendency than number 4: FOCUSING ON PHRASES. Augh. I can reel off several German phrases. Probably a dozen. And I know what they mean. And I can even say them at the correct time. But learning them AS A PHRASE was such a disservice, because I don't know which word means what, or where to use it outside of that phrase. So, I can say something correct to a situation... but that's it. And now I am stumped. When we focus on phrases as our main learning style, we are now trapped into waiting for a situation, or going through a rolodex of phrases, trying to remember which one applies to what time, meal, part of the house, location, etc. This is NOT the way you learned your first language. You learned to speak by seeing an item, hearing your mom or dad say something that applies to the item, and repeating it. Your brain is hard wired to learn to communicate about nouns first, and you have context of a concrete item, that then you can communicate about it - usually that you want or need it, or don't want or need it, or that you like it or don't like it, no matter what item it is. Phrases have their place, of course! But this should NOT be your first tendency. Learn NOUNS first. Your brain already has done that once, and then build from there.
The second WORST thing to do when you're learning a new language is to focus on writing, reading, and translating. This is a natural tendency, right? But it's terrible. Sorry. You want to learn words, and words are written, and you know how to read. But what happens is you begin using a crutch - you see the Spanish and the English, and you need to code swap with your phonics, and you try to translate. Turns out, our brains before age 13 or so simply can NOT translate. I mean, they CAN, but it's much more natural and effective to COMMUNICATE in Spanish rather than translate from Spanish to English or vice versa.
So, the correct method (or the most effective method) would be to see and item, a photo, an object and then say it in Spanish. See it, Say it. Reading uses a different portion of your brain, so you begin using a process that is tedious and slow and tricks you into thinking you're "bad" at Spanish or learning languages. The habit sticks, and your learning, progress, and speed suffers. Truth is, you're GREAT at language! You just need to use the SAME method that worked the first time. And no one came out of the womb reading, writing, or translating.
READ ON for the BIGGEST, #1 MOST terrible tendency that simply stunts learning a new language.
DRUM ROLL PLEASE. THE WORST tendency, BY FAR that makes me SUPER unpopular with EVERYONE for new language learners is:
...trying to learn a language using an app. It's just awful.Maybe you don't know, but studies show (well science shows through brain scans, etc) that screen use is TERRIBLE for memory, language development, and communication problems. It can cause focus problems, anxiety disorders, and attention span shortening. If you MUST use a screen, the worst way is to use a small one, close to the face, and not have anyone else looking at it with you. BOOM. All these things are encompassed in using an app.
The screen use itself turns off the language development portion in the brain. It goes dark. Silent. Inactive. So now you're using another portion of your brain to access the information. Maybe it's the storage area, maybe math area, maybe just the dopamine center. You're learning how to use the app, get the point, achieve a new goal, but you can never communicate, because you aren't communicating when you're using the app.