I learned and became fluent in a second language as an adult. Not only was I an adult, but I was a full-time teacher as well. I’m going to take you through my process of learning a language. As teachers, we are inundated with constant quotes about what the research says works. My experience should add perspective to what the research is getting at.
In short, the research says that isolated skill drills don’t work and that language and literacy is largely acquired incidentally by reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Furthermore, students learn to read by reading, and they learn to write by writing. The teacher’s job is to teach skills, strategies, techniques, and information that facilitate this process and fosters student ownership.
A Unique Perspective on Learning a Second Language
As a teacher and as an adult, I can reflect on how I learned a second language while also reflecting on the research. Not only do I know the research, but I have taught English-language learners for decades. I don’t spell out all of the research, but I do tell you what did and did not work for me. Having said that, I have posted summaries of the current research all over my website. Let the journey begin!
Step 0: Spanish 101 Class
Like most people who have graduated from college, I was forced to take Spanish 101 in high school and again in college. I’m comfortable calling those foreign-language-requirement classes Step 0 because that sums up what they contributed to my learning of Spanish.
I’m not saying that foreign-language-requirement classes aren’t valuable and important; I’m just saying that mine did not contribute at all to my learning of Spanish. My classes simply informed me that I had no interest in and no aptitude for foreign languages.
Apparently, that wasn’t true, so we must question the methodology that is used in these classes. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how I did learn a second language. Let’s look at what did work.
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Step 1: Learning Words
I began my teaching career as an elementary-school substitute teacher during the tail end of a failed bilingual program. Spanish was a part of most classrooms I taught in, and in many classrooms, it was the primary language.
In the upper elementary grades, I could get by just fine with English. In the lower grades, things could get tricky. I remember one kindergarten class—either they didn’t know a word of English or they did an excellent job of pretending that they didn’t. It got to the point where it felt surreal in both an amusing and frightening way. On that day, I became far more interested in committing to memory many important commands, pleasantries, and compliments.
Right from the start, I had taken an interest in the Spanish and English/Spanish books, posters, and bulletin boards that filled so many of the classrooms I entered. I was immersed in the culture and the language, and it inspired me to take an interest in both. By the time I had entered that kindergarten classroom, I had certainly learned more Spanish than I had ever learned in a Spanish 101 class. However, that class taught me that I wanted to learn even more. It was around this time that I bought a few resources to help me communicate more effectively. I bought a dictionary, a verb book, and a couple other resources that caught my eye.
Step 2: Costa Rica and Grammar Worksheets: Discovering the So-Called Worksheet Trick
Once I began teaching full-time, I didn’t have the luxury of learning Spanish in the classroom anymore. Although all of my third-grade students’ first language was Spanish, we were not a bilingual classroom. Therefore, my goal was to teach them English. And since my students had also caught the tail end of that bilingual debacle, their skills were shockingly low (in both languages).
As we all know, teachers must take classes to move up the salary scale. I discovered that I could take Spanish classes on the beach in Central America and get college credit for it. I was a surfer in my younger years, but I hadn’t surfed in a decade. However, I still had actual dreams about surfing while I slept. This looked like a win-win-win setup for me. I could learn Spanish, get salary points, and surf uncrowded beaches. In short, I would return from my vacations with a great tan and nine units of college credit.
The first Spanish school I attended was right on the beach in Costa Rica. Sadly, they took their job a little too seriously. There were tests and homework! Upon arriving at the school, I was placed in the advanced class, and even in that advanced class, everyone believed that I would be the star student. I knew lots of words, and I could easily communicate with people in Spanish. All of the other students had taken many years of high school and college Spanish, but their ability to communicate with native Spanish speakers paled in comparison to mine.
We were a small class of six students, and everyone except me had taken at least four years of Spanish in the classroom. Although no one could communicate as well as me, it soon became apparent that I didn’t understand the grammar. Worse yet, I didn’t understand the so-called trick for getting my homework done quickly.
All of the homework was worksheets. One day as I was starting on my second hour of homework, another student (and surfing buddy) who had finished his homework in 10 minutes said, “What are you doing? You just need to figure out what the TRICK is, and then you fill in the rest of the blanks the same way.”
When I approached the homework this way, I discovered that it was this easy. Although I wanted to learn the language, once I knew that I could simply use the trick and then go have fun, it was hard not to take advantage of this newfound knowledge. In fact, I almost felt embarrassed that I had spent so much time completing my homework.
Takeaway #1: There are many takeaways inferred by this narrative, and most of the takeaways support what the research says is true. For example, decades of research show that “drill and kill” isolated skill drills don’t work. Why don’t they work? There are many reasons, but the trick is one of them.
Takeaway #2: On the other hand, my discovery that I didn’t understand the Spanish grammar sure does damage to the whole language theory. I had learned Spanish with a focus on sending and receiving authentic messages, which certainly relates to the whole language approach. My results do show the pitfalls of this approach. In short, we don’t learn the technical and rule-based structure of language unless we learn it concretely, specifically, and explicitly.
Takeaway #3: There is a reason that balanced literacy instruction is the most common approach. Both myself and my fellow Spanish-school classmates with their classroom worksheets learning were lacking in skills. To be fair, my skills had more value in the real world. I was able to communicate; they only had workbook knowledge. It’s the application of workbook knowledge in the real world and in daily reading and writing that makes that information stick and have value.
Step 3: Oral Fluency
Teaching in a year-round school system, I had two vacations per year. For a few years, I spent one or both of these vacations on a beach somewhere in Central America. While in Central America, I spent my days practicing grammar in the classroom, speaking Spanish with friends, and of course, out in the water surfing, where I was also speaking Spanish with friends.
Surf towns in Central America are always an eclectic mix of tourists and locals. And when you speak Spanish as well as I do, you become somewhat of a centerpiece and translator for conversations. Furthermore, you develop quite a network of Spanish speaking friends.
I can appreciate what my students experience as they learn English in an immersive school setting because I experienced it too. There are times when the brain struggles to process even one more verb, and there are times when the brain reaches exhaustion. Becoming fluent in a new language is an extraordinary endeavor and experience.
To be clear, others perceive you as being fluent long before you are. Furthermore, even native speakers continue to learn and master the language long after they are fluent in the language. If you ask a second-grade native speaker to read a fifth-grade book, you will see that fluency is relative.
Step 4: The Benefits of Writing in Learning a Second Language
I attended Spanish schools for as long as I could acquire college credit and get salary points, and after that, my trips were simply surf trips. I fell in love with one town, and I was looking into buying some land. Furthermore, I got involved with a group that was putting together a small community lending library. As a result, while I was back home, I was getting frequent emails in Spanish.
Many of the emails were complicated, and some contained sophisticated vocabulary. Both reading and responding to these emails always involved me researching words and making sure I conjugated verbs correctly and used proper verb and pronoun agreements, and that’s not even taking spelling into account. Real reading and real writing are different from filling in blanks on a worksheet, and it’s also different from in-person conversation.
Although I’m not a perfectionist, I do try to do things correctly. I probably put way too much time and effort into those emails, but I find it difficult to let go of things that I know are not right. Anyway, when I returned to my town, I found it shockingly easy to communicate. Many people noticed the difference and commented. In short, it seemed like I didn’t need to think quite so hard. Certain skills, concepts, and rules cemented themselves in my brain in a way that they had not done before.
Takeaway #1: Do you teach ELL students or ESL? You will get better results if you bring real writing into your classroom. If your students are learning English in an immersive environment—that is, if they are learning English in an English speaking country, bringing more REAL writing into your classroom will improve your results.
For many teachers, it will take a small change in mindset. Be sure to read my free eBook called Nine Strategies for Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum. Also, be sure to read all about Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay on the homepage. I created the system and methodology while teaching elementary and middle school classrooms full of ELL students. Put simply, the program gets results and makes sense to kids. Your students will be saying, “I can’t even read what I was writing before!”
Step 5: The Benefits of Reading in Learning a Second Language
Right from the beginning, I enjoyed and saw the benefit of reading. As a substitute teacher, I constantly came across texts that had English on one side of the page and Spanish on the other, and I always appreciated them. At the end of the bilingual debacle, I made sure to grab from the basement a Spanish copy of each of our textbooks to match my English copies.
Although I appreciated the power of reading, it didn’t play a large role in my Spanish language acquisition for some time. Most of my learning was based on needing to know and needing to communicate.
But in the end, reading did play a large part. I discovered that I could listen to the audiobook version of a great book in English while reading the paper-book version in Spanish. Of course, I always had a verb book and a dictionary right by my side. I read so many great books this way and learned so much Spanish this way! Furthermore, it was enjoyable—extremely enjoyable! It’s still my go-to method for maintaining and improving my Spanish-language skills.
Final Notes and Takeaways
Throughout my website, I’ve posted many summaries of the research on language acquisition, vocabulary development, literacy, and writing. But the reality is that you have just read a summary of the research in narrative form. At its heart, the way I learned Spanish is the same way our students learn a second language. Furthermore, we learn a second language in much the same way that we learn our first language. The real difference between teaching native speakers and ELL students is how we scaffold content to make things comprehensible to them. Put simply, teachers need to be able to scaffold the grade-level content to maintain their students’ interest.
The point of the English-language arts research is to help teachers understand how students develop language skills and literacy. It happens in two ways:
1. Incidental Learning: Students master language and literacy by sending messages (speaking and writing) and receiving messages (listening and reading).
2. Intentional Learning: Students learn skills and strategies and practice them, and then they apply them in the real world and their daily school work.
In reality, intentional learning supports and encourages incidental learning. My experience learning Spanish was a constant process of intentional learning that supported incidental learning, and it was this way with all of my fellow Spanish students.
In the end, if students aren’t interested and motivated about their learning, they won’t learn. The reality is that an endless stream of “drill and kill” worksheets don’t interest students or motivate them. Worksheets contributed almost nothing to my learning of Spanish. In contrast, a constant stream of sending messages (speaking and writing) and receiving messages (listening and reading) will interest them and motivate them.
For this reason, I strongly urge all teachers to bring more REAL reading and more REAL writing into their ELL and ESL classrooms. As relates to writing, it’s the glue that ties together all of the English-language arts, and it is also the most underused tool in improving literacy and language skills with students who are learning English and students who struggle. Be sure to read my free eBook Nine Strategies for Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum. Also, be sure to read all about Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay on the homepage. It’s the missing piece of the puzzle that ties together everything else you teach in the English-language arts.
