"I'm studying French." "Really? Can you speak it?" Most people think that knowing a language means speaking the language. But is speaking a language truly the only worthy goal of language study?
No one, least of all me, can deny the thrill of successful conversation in another language with a native speaker.
I can still remember a few of those exchanges in my past and the satisfaction they brought me. For example, the customs inspector as I was leaving Brazil after six weeks of language immersion told me I spoke Portuguese "bastante bem" (quite well). A fellow party-goer in Mexico City where I was studying Spanish didn't realize at first that I was American. And, even in my home town on the border, El Paso, Texas, I still get a kick out of rare times when I am speaking in Spanish to a native Spanish speaker who doesn't immediately switch to English.
I can still remember a few of those exchanges in my past and the satisfaction they brought me. For example, the customs inspector as I was leaving Brazil after six weeks of language immersion told me I spoke Portuguese "bastante bem" (quite well). A fellow party-goer in Mexico City where I was studying Spanish didn't realize at first that I was American. And, even in my home town on the border, El Paso, Texas, I still get a kick out of rare times when I am speaking in Spanish to a native Spanish speaker who doesn't immediately switch to English.
Recently, however, I have been taking a more practical approach to language study, which I do mostly on Duolingo.
Duolingo is a language learning program, available in a wide variety of languages on the Internet in web based and mobile platforms at no cost. It isn't perfect, but it is the best program I have found to date for doing a bit of language study faithfully every day.
My thirty-minute morning goal is to successfully complete one exercise in six languages. I study Spanish and Portuguese in order to maintain speaking proficiency because those languages were my teaching fields. I also study French, Italian, Irish, and Welsh in order to ...what? Will I have the opportunity to use those languages in conversation? Much as I like to dream of extended vacations to Canada, Italy, Ireland and Wales, happily conversing with natives of those countries, let's get real here! And I know of no French, Italian, Irish or Welsh speakers in my hometown of El Paso, Texas, who want to meet up for coffee and conversation.
Duolingo is a language learning program, available in a wide variety of languages on the Internet in web based and mobile platforms at no cost. It isn't perfect, but it is the best program I have found to date for doing a bit of language study faithfully every day.
My thirty-minute morning goal is to successfully complete one exercise in six languages. I study Spanish and Portuguese in order to maintain speaking proficiency because those languages were my teaching fields. I also study French, Italian, Irish, and Welsh in order to ...what? Will I have the opportunity to use those languages in conversation? Much as I like to dream of extended vacations to Canada, Italy, Ireland and Wales, happily conversing with natives of those countries, let's get real here! And I know of no French, Italian, Irish or Welsh speakers in my hometown of El Paso, Texas, who want to meet up for coffee and conversation.
Unfortunately, Duolingo does not at present provide enough opportunities for creative language use, although a promising feature was available for a short time in the past. With that feature, you could communicate orally with a "bot," which came very close to a real-life situation, because you truly had to create language.
I have hopes that Duolingo will continue to introduce innovations for the speaking skill.
In the meantime, though, I must be content with learning ABOUT some languages rather than learning to SPEAK them. And is that worth my time and effort? Yes, and here's why I think so.
* I enjoy the mental gymnastics of language learning (a term coined by the linguist, Stephen Krashen). Surely the effort it takes to analyze another language qualifies as one of the methods of keeping the brain active.
* I feel a connection to the countries and speakers whose language I can at least read, which makes international news a lot more interesting.
* I believe that analyzing the various ways in which other languages express meaning makes me more in tune to how speakers use English, my native language. Random overheard conversations, radio, TV and signs are all fodder for thinking about language in general.
* I think about language study as an enjoyable daily activity, something I can use to reward myself for completing household duties.
So, is speaking a language awarded the gold medal for language study? Yes, it is. But I will be very content with the silver and the bronze medals for reading, writing, and understanding the structure of many other languages.
* I feel a connection to the countries and speakers whose language I can at least read, which makes international news a lot more interesting.
* I believe that analyzing the various ways in which other languages express meaning makes me more in tune to how speakers use English, my native language. Random overheard conversations, radio, TV and signs are all fodder for thinking about language in general.
* I think about language study as an enjoyable daily activity, something I can use to reward myself for completing household duties.
So, is speaking a language awarded the gold medal for language study? Yes, it is. But I will be very content with the silver and the bronze medals for reading, writing, and understanding the structure of many other languages.
