How To Run The Show in Language Learning

Reading a language learning blog is a funny undertaking, isn't it? You can find amazing community, new ideas and reviews of products that you have not tried yet. For many people, looking at the language learning successes out there is also a real motivator: When you feel like it's never going to be a thing to really learn 20,000 words in Japanese, it's nice to see others out there who have done it.

img ©Purple Ghost Flower on Deviantart

As a language teacher, I know how you feel. My Twitter and Feedly are full on inspiration for making lessons more interesting, helping students with grammar and being a better teacher. Websites and blogs are an amazing resource and I love reading about what other teachers have tried, what works and just how they go about language teaching. It's so reassuring to know I'm using an idea that works!

Focusing on Yourself

But every now and then, I have to take a break from all the blogs. The internet is noisy, and I start reading about how it's all about immersion, how "using English in lessons is a big mistake" or "no sensible learner uses paper anymore".

It's all "have to do this" and "useless if you don't do that". And I kind of have to shout "NO!! This is my show! We're using my style!" I am a teacher who likes to get to know and forge a real partnership with my student, I want to teach relaxed, happy people. I don't want a cramped-up forced immersion and I know that this method really does not work when I try it. The atmosphere of trust and joy in my lessons disappears when I turn army general, and I feel like a failure.

Conclusion? I am much better when I run the show my way.

Does that sound familiar to you? Too many blogs telling you to watch 5 hours of TV in the foreign language every day, or to only read articles that are way too difficult? Yes, thanks internet. I don't think you need to do that. In fact, I think what you need to do is chill out.

What is something you can do that you truly enjoy without stressing out? Even if it’s something that people don't blog about, if you like it, you're way more likely to do it more.

The Core Skills Idea

For example, take my strong belief that every language learner needs to work on all four core skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing. What if you could work out a plan that addresses each weakness systematically?

First reveal of the new book cover. Do you like it?

The idea of my book Fluency Made Achievable is to guide you through the right kind of self-assessment without telling you what you absolutely have to do. I provide ideas, methods, showing what works and what has crystallized throughout the years as good advice from language teachers and learners. But what I never want to do is have you feel like you are failing if you are doing things your way.

The book’s sequel, The Vocab Cookbook, will then address how you remember all of the vocabulary you pick up and help you develop good systems for learning it. Again, what I do is give sensible advice. Sensible is sensational but not sensationalist.

Run the show.

If you feel demoralised, and can’t believe you’ll ever improve just because the internet says so, take comfort in knowing that you’re not alone. I hope two books will help you to develop skills to conquer this, but most importantly I want you to feel like you're having fun here.

For me, it's all about trying out my new words on people, looking like an idiot and sticking post-its with vocabulary all ove the house.

What are some things that you love doing in your language study?

• “Fluency Made Achievable” and “No Forgetting – A Smart Guide To Vocabulary Learning” are out now and available at www.fluentlanguage.co.uk/book

Rise of the Female Language Blogger

So This Is The World We Live In

The other day I was reading the back of my packet of breakfast cereal (a habit I've had since I could read) and noticed that the back of it is addressed to kids. A game, some fun suggestions, some ideas for a family day. One thing was striking: There were about 3 different references to "mum" and not a single one to "dad".

img ©Daniel Zedda on Flickr

As a woman who grew up in a non-feminist environment (Mama, I hope this is ok to say..) I am more than aware of the world today. Women are still expected to be quiet. We're not as visible on the salary scales, the boards of directors, in most industries and anywhere that people are expected to speak up. Being a woman when I was growing up meant cleaning, cooking and being nurturing. It did NOT mean speaking up, and it certainly didn't mean speaking other languages.

And These Are The Hands We're Given

So looking at the world of language learning, what do we see? The same situation?

Well, yes and no. Here's the accusation:

The internet is full of "polyglots", guys showing their talents and performing for their different audiences. This is great, but can take on quite the characteristics of a (excuse the expression) boys' pissing contest. We all love languages, and we don't all love a show-off. I see very few women in that space - are they welcome?

And here's the defence:

There are many amazing female linguists in the world who should be highlighted and celebrated. As Sheryl Sandberg puts it in her impressive book Lean In: We have to SEE what what want to become in this world. No women of importance means fewer women who will be of importance. Pioneers are all fine, but after the pioneeresses there will be the true followers. So let's go. I'm in great company.

Judith Meyer

“It can be quite surprising actually, thinking back about the past week and realizing how little language study you’ve done, even though you may have the superficial sense of having recently worked on your languages.”

— Judith Meyer, Learnlangs.com

Judith Meyer is well known in the language learning space. She holds her own in the "polyglot" world, and has even created German learning apps. Judith's style is no-nonsense and focused on practical learning tips. She shares what works for her and lives a life dedicated to language learning. [please refer to Judith's most recent works in her comment below - ed.]

Ruth Thao

Ruth Elisabeth Thao writes about learning Vietnamese, but as with all language learning blogs you can actually use many of her insights for learning any language at all. For example, here's good advice on improving spelling.

“Before I launched my blog about Vietnamese, I did some research to see what other single-language blogs were doing. I never thought about gender at the time, but two of the three blogs I used as a model were run by women. It’s only later as I began reading general language learning blogs that I noticed that nearly all of those are run by men.

This doesn’t match up with what I see in the real world - classes I’ve attended have been fairly balanced, most of my language teachers over the years have been female and of course in towns and cities all over the world you meet both men and women who can speak one or more foreign languages.”

— Ruth Thao on being a Female Language Blogger

Jennie Wagner

Our next blogger, Jennie Wagner has been going for a long time. Jennie is an American who moved out to Europe at the start of her adventure. She has actually written about the invisibility of women in the language learning space, too! And as always it's so much more eloquent than I could ever hope to be. These days, Jennie is a bit quieter and I believe she's working on a PhD in Australia. What a world traveller!

Ellen Jovin

Next up - Ellen Jovin, an energetic and dedicated self-identifying linguaphile. Ellen lives in New York, and is working on her 18th language - and here's what I love - because she wants to know her city's languages! So cool, so smart, and a prolific reviewer too. Plus, this is the best-designed language learning website I have ever seen!

Kirsten Winkler

Kirsten Winkler is not a learner of a dozen languages, but she has put her smarts to the task in the area of language blogging. Most learners will know her as the mastermind of Fair Languages and Deutsch Happen, and these days Kirsten's main work is in informing and reporting on EdTech - a true pioneer in the learning industry. I love Kirsten's independent attitude and the way she clearly follows a good story no matter where it's hiding. Find her work at Edukwest.

Jana Fadness

“Adventure is something you take with you. Adventure is an attitude, a spirit, a way of approaching life. You can have great adventures as a world traveller, as a brain surgeon, as a bus driver, or as a housewife.”

— Jana Fadness

Jana Fadness has one of the cutest blogs around. She shares her art and music, her love of travel, her photos and her love of languages, and regularly posts bilingual articles in English and Japanese.

Catherine Wentworth

“I am not a teacher. I am not a fluent Thai speaker. In fact, I’m pretty cacca at languages. Ok, maybe cacca isn’t the word for it: I’m finding learning languages as an insomniac quite challenging. That’s more like it.”

— Catherine Wentworth, womenlearnthai.com/

More Thai! It's such a popular language - man I need to put Thai on my list one day. Catherine Wentworth from Women Learning Thai (and some men too) runs an extremely informative and in-depth website about all things related to learning Thai and other languages too. I love her own description, which once again goes to show that a lot of people out there are keen to express how accessible language learning is.

Conclusion

For me personally, I write in order to represent who I am - a language learner, a language teacher, a person who is interested in the whole way people connect to each other. And yes, I'm also a woman and I will mention that whenever it's relevant! I have other interests too (this blog will reflect them more in the near future), but there's only one Kerstin out there. What I see from ladies around the internet is matter-of-fact advice paired with a lot of enthusiasm. The focus is on these things being practical, and there are many teachers out there who share their work. While women and men are both entrepreneurial in this space (which I love, and I am also participating in very happily through the Fluent Guide books), I have not seen declarations of having found the one answer, and also much fewer promises of how language can be learnt faster, harder, stronger. On the whole, could it be said that the female language bloggers out there prefer a slightly more sober, less achievement-focused style? No matter where you stand, it's obvious that we are not invisible!

Ladies, do you feel like women are represented enough on the internet? Do you think we are different from guys in how we learn languages?

Tell me and tell the world in the comments below, and don't forget that I'm here to help you

Motivation: Why "This Language is Hard!" Is No Reason

Ahh, procrastination. It's a beautiful thing to be doing. On my lazy Sunday morning journey through the wilderness of Pinterest, I discovered a powerful thought and wanted to share it with you language learners. The quote is from John Green, author of The Fault In Our Stars and various other novels.

To me, the most important part that Mr Green points out in this quote is

Hard is often seen as the opposite of fun.

All the successful language learners I know have done one major thing at a point in their journey, and that's been to change their attitude and let in fun and curiosity. Sometimes you do go about a project thinking it's going to be easy, and language learning is no different from anything else. But when reality hits and you encounter something that is difficult, hard, complicated or a hassle, it's the real test of a great learner.

Remember my great student I told you about a few weeks ago, who said "For some reason I've got it in my head that there is nothing I can't learn"? If you want to become fluent in another language, then that's an attitude you can adopt for yourself, because it really is true. There is definitely nothing in this language that you can't learn. Like a videogame, you'll get better at it the more you do it - whether you want to or not.

You also would never expect yourself to finish every Angry Birds level the first time. In a videogame, you will expect to work harder as you move into the higher levels. The harder it gets, the better you are. Ever considered how this applies to your learning process?

Motivation In A Nutshell

The main messages that I take from this beautiful quote are these:

• You've already got all you need for language learning. You've got time, you need commitment.
• Failing and trying again is what we do all the time, and if there's no shame in it with Angry Birds then there's no shame in it with irregular verbs either.
• Hard can be really fun. The two are not opposites.

For me, it's Threes by the way. It's bloody hard, yet I still play it and keep trying.

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The Special Needs Child and the Foreign Language (by Sally Holmwood)

Sally Holmwood, tutor at Indigo Languages is establishing herself as a regular and always very welcome guest here on the Fluent Language blog. Her experiences working with young people of all ages, both inside and outside the UK school system make her views so profound, and Sally has a real passion for her languages to share with you. Today she is discussing a special group of people, often forgotten in the language learning world: Special needs children.

One Tongue, Two Languages

As well as working with languages, I support individuals with special needs in a wide range of settings. There is a wealth of information, on the internet and beyond, about teaching languages to children with special needs – and plenty of resistance from parents and school staff alike!

“My Child Struggles to Communicate in English - Why Teach Them a Foreign Language?”

Many parents I know of children with severe learning difficulties would argue against teaching a foreign language to a child that experiences considerable difficulty in speaking their own. I know two mothers of non-verbal autistic boys, for example. For the mothers, English is not their native tongue. They live in England and so speak to their sons in English. They believe that, as their children hear English all day, wherever they go, it might confuse them to hear a different language spoken at home. Such apprehension about introducing a child with a learning difficulty to a foreign language is not uncommon. Some parents and staff believing pupils’ time might be better spent focussing on building independence skills.

Using Language-Learning as a Stepping Stone

At Languages Without Limits, the rationale that we are all different is reason enough to introduce pupils with special needs to a foreign language. Seeing the variation between people from different cultures showed pupils that it is acceptable to be ‘different’. There is scope for revisiting useful basic language concepts when learning a foreign language too. The teaching of social and other core skills can be integrated into foreign language lessons, shifting the focus just slightly. (Read this twice because it applies to all learners, not just special needs ones. -ed.)

“But This Child Can’t Speak!”

We may believe the non-verbal child does not benefit from learning a foreign language - but can we really be sure? If you haven’t heard of Carly Fleischmann, the Canadian teenager with non-verbal autism, now’s the time to look her up! Watch her video below to see for yourself the stark contrast between her father’s assumptions about her understanding and what she herself wants to communicate! Carly, like many other non-verbal youngsters, now has an electronic communication aid – many of these can even be furnished with foreign language software!

David R. Wilson has compiled a list of resources that include guidelines on making foreign languages accessible to pupils with a number of special needs, who may need to learn in a different way to their peers.

A Time and Place for Everything – Including Traditional Teaching Methods!

Rudyard Kipling once said

The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it!

We know that there are three learning styles – visual, auditory and kinesthetic (tactile) – and certainly some pupils with special needs learn better if they can ‘get stuck in’. Videos, games and songs and plenty of opportunity to get up out of their seat to act things out will enhance their learning experience – the more tactile, the better!

Take fruit. Teach the names – and even the signs – not just by showing a simple photograph or cartoon image as a visual aid. Embrace the wonder that is ICT. Even better still, bring actual pieces of fruit in for pupils to try and allow them to feel, smell and taste it. Make the most of stories like Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" – just think how this could be used to combine simple vocabulary with a brilliantly multi-sensory experience for children with special needs!

The Higher Functioning Special Needs Child

Let’s not forget the high functioning autistic learner either, who, like any of us, is highly motivated by things they really like. It may be the rigidity of maths or science that appeals. To others, like one young man I know, it is foreign languages. Excelling in school at French and German, he taught himself Russian at home. Foreign languages come complete with strict, non-negotiable grammar rules and a clear right or wrong answer for many questions. This can play to the high-functioning autistic pupil’s thirst for rigidity of routine. They may find such things easier to grasp than confusing abstract concepts found in other subjects.

Is the Special Needs Child the Better Language Learner?

We know that the pupil with special needs learns in a very different way to one without. We may have concerns that a child with special needs may not understand a foreign language, particularly if they are non-verbal, but that shouldn’t mean we exclude them altogether from the opportunity to learn. After all, Carly Fleischmann showed the world just how wrong people could be about the level of understanding of a non-verbal child.

The question of whether the special needs child makes the better language learner is a tricky one that brings me back to the diversity of all pupils, so much so that I am inclined to sit on the fence and say simply that we are all motivated by the things that interest us! We all deserve to be offered the same experiences and to receive support, where necessary, to make the most of them.

Learn One, Learn All!

The language learner with special needs may need to approach language learning in a completely different manner. Yet amongst the vast technologies that exist today, there are certainly many ways in which to offer them an experience of learning a foreign language that is meaningful to them. Perhaps the question we should be asking ourselves from now on is not simply whether individuals with special needs should learn a foreign language, but rather how they should be doing so?

About Sally Holmwood

Sally lives and works in West Sussex, England. She splits her working week between individuals of all ages with special needs, and languages (specifically German and French). Sally loves to make time to travel the world when she's not working - sometimes Europe, sometimes even further afield! Furthermore, she is a big fan of great television: Sherlock, Bones, The Big Bang Theory and Doctor Who. Stay in touch with Sally on Twitter or Facebook.

**Note from Kerstin : Like Sally, I also believe very strongly that language learning should be open to everyone who wishes to do so. This is not an easy path for anyone, and her ideas of the learner with autism finding comfort in rigid grammar rules, or the tactile learning styles, should be an inspiration to us all. How do you bring more adventure into your learning styles?** 

Eurovision is letting language learners down

It's the best song in Europe, honey!

What were you doing last Saturday night? If you are like 125 million Europeans, you may have spent a few hours in front of your television following one of the continent's best-loved TV traditions: the Eurovision song contest! It features bilingual presenters, entrants from European countries such as Azerbaijan and Morocco, and one of the largest tele-voting networks outside the USA.​

Eurovision stage ​©wikimedia

Is Europe ruled by English?

But there is one thing that bugs me about the contest: The rules were changed in 1998 to allow countries to submit entries in any desired language. As a consequence, a lot of countries opted for the widely understood English language. And the numbers don't prove them wrong - the Economist reports that most of the winning songs were sung in English, only followed by French on a far-off second place. The article says "whether you find this linguistic convergence cheerful as an Abba foot-stomper or depressing as an Icelandic fishing trip will say as much about your politics as it will your views on language."

“Most winning songs were performed in English - songs (mostly) in English won 24 times. French is also popular, with 14 victories. Dutch and Hebrew songs won 3 times each”

— eurovision.tv

Why Eurovision entrants should sing in their official language

​This may not come as a shock to Fluent blog fans, but I say let's get the old rules back and give so many countries a voice in their own words.

1. ​Europe is one of the most beautifully diverse continents in this world (top 5 I'd say!) and its languages are one of the strongest symbols of that diversity. If we don't support languages from every country, we risk losing them.
   
   
2. Eurovision is not a popularity contest - or at least it shouldn't be. In a world where the voting is so skewed by silly political considerations, I believe that singing in English can mean trading in a little bit of your national identity for bland conformity.
   
   
3. ​Inspiration can strike in the language learner anywhere, and this is one of the most famous platforms for some countries to show off their beautiful languages. The brave countries took the decision to submit an entry in their native tongue this year, and to me, each of them stood out: Iceland, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Greece, I salute you!
   

What do you think - is winning the Eurovision with a bland English-language track better than flamboyantly celebrating what your country has to offer? Are there any entrants that combined both?​

Read more about Music and Language Learning on the Fluent blog:​​

​Where to look for inspiration

Musical Language Learning Hacks​

And you can see me speak 25 European languages on this Youtube video: