Thread by @LearnGreek1981

How important is speaking early in language learning?A thread on language learning. Most of what I'm writing here is based on Professor @skrashen 's work, the rest is based on my teaching experience. 1/8
#langtwt #studytwt

Lots of ads where the teacher/school promises to make you speak early. Be aware that this is tricky path; until B1/B2 you simply don't have enough vocab to maintain a convo. You'll just memorize some phrases and throw them at ppl, but you won't understand their answers. 2/8

I keep telling my students that there is little point in memorizing "Where's the toilet?" if you won't understand the answer. Even more obviously what's the point of "what's the price?" when you hardly know the numbers 1-10 (huge shout-out to price tags). 3/8

However, the insistence of many students to keep saying phrases even at the earliest phases of learning (we are talking lesson 1 here) suggests there are some deeper underlying causes, which have to do with preconceived notions of language learning. 4/8

Two causes stand out IMO. There's a very deep seated belief that the reason some ppl learn fast is bcs they speak early on. This has to do with confusing cause and effect. Good speech is an outcome of learning not a driving cause (altho it's always nice to pretend otherwise). 5/8

Second, it has to do with a view that has been forced on us since early school days - that the only way to learn is to suffer. Enjoying the process is a mistake that impedes progress; think of the well known mantra "no pain, no gain". 6/8

Now, don't get me wrong, hard work is great, but imagination, creativity and enjoyment are also big parts of the process. Memorization (the staple food of most hard workers) is great for doing well in exams but doesn't have significant long term benefits. 7/8

An obvious exception to what I just discussed: lang pairs like Italian-Spanish, German-Dutch and Norwegian-Swedish. In these cases, you are basically a false beginner so yeah, speaking "early" might actually work (bcs it isn't really "early"). 8/8