Are you frustrated with language learning?

I have been feeling a little frustrated recently about language learning.  Do you know the sensation? You really want to make progress in a certain language, but it is just not happening for you.

Irish Gaelic is the language that is currently making me chew my fingernails when I sit down at the computer. Irish is the only foreign language I have studied that is not in the Romance family of languages.  And I chose Irish on purpose for that very reason - I wanted a challenge.  And did I ever get what I asked for!

Currently I am trying to acquire Irish Gaelic on two different programs. Let's call them Program 1 and Program 2. Both are web-based.  I'm not going to slander them, because both programs are well formulated and well presented.  But the fact that I am very frustrated doing Program 2 leads me to analyze what's going wrong for me personally. The answer may lie in the language skills that each program chooses to present first.

The traditional language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are well known.

Although all four language skills can be interrelated, each skill has unique aspects as well.   Two of the most sought after language skills are listening and speaking, you know, so you can actually have a face-to-face conversation with someone.  The reading and writing skills are important for such mundane communication as text messages or emails, and also, of course, for reading and writing great literature.

One of the many debates in the field of language acquisition is which skill or skills to learn first.  Or should there be a first skill?  Should all skills be learned simultaneously?

Program 1, which I have been doing daily in Irish for about a year now, has yet to require me to speak Irish.  I have to read Irish, write Irish, and translate Irish, but I have not yet been asked to speak Irish. I know from working in other languages in the same program that after you reach a certain level, questions that require an oral response to be recorded are included. But a whole year without speaking?  There may be a method to their madness.

Program 2, which I have been doing for only several weeks, almost immediately required that I listen to phrases, repeat them, and then formulate my own sentences.  And I couldn't do it!  After a few minutes, I clicked off the computer and walked away, feeling very guilty.  Sound familiar?

Although the perfect language learning experience has yet to be discovered, one well-known approach is to allow learners to have a "Silent Period," during which language is presented for understanding, but no immediate response is required.

When working with Program 2, I would have enjoyed a more gradual introduction to Irish, where I could concentrate on understanding what was being said, rather than immediately being asked to perform all the tasks that speaking requires - remembering the vocabulary, arranging the words in the right order, and making the correct sounds, some of them familiar and others not.  Whew!  No wonder we language learners tear our hair out!

Now that I have ranted and raved, I may log on to Program 2 one more time, just to see if it caught me in a bad mood last time around.  But I am really looking forward to working in Irish in Program 1 again, where I can relax and take my time with the language.  But I can't order a Guinness in Dublin in Irish as yet!