Many people choose to learn a second language by living amongst those who speak it as a native language. But the one thing of most importance is that they are happy in that situation otherwise their language studies will suffer.
Many people prefer to go on shorter language study vacations than actually living in the country where the language is spoken. And quite often, it’s actually the simple things that give people the opportunity to develop their language skills. For example, using public transport or buying something from the shop.
Some reasons for this are that when a student is presented with some language study, or left on their own to decide which parts of the language they should study, they might not choose the most dificult bits. If their focus is mainly on getting some sort of task done (like buying food from a shop or catching a bus) then they do not have a choice in the matter and have no practical way of avoiding learning the words and the language required to get the job done. If you are going to go overseas for a language course you might as well learn as much as possible!
Another reason is that the student is not just reciting phrases from a book. Conversations will develop into unexpected verbal ‘territory’ and the student will have to try to be understood. It’s a lot easier to give up on a difficult task when failure only involves closing a book. When it involves walking out of a shop empty-handed, or walking off a bus - it’s a little more frustrating, therefore the person learning the language is much more likely to dig in,learn quickly and retain the information - fear of embarassment is a great learning tool!
Also, to be surrounded continually by other people speaking the language that you are trying to learn has many benefits that are not always so obvious. A lot of information can be absorbed while the learner is busy doing other things, if they happen to be in hearing distance of a conversation occurring in the language that they are learning. This is particularly helpful in terms of identifying intonations and emphasis used in the language.
An excellent way to encourage the mind to develop all of the skills required to master a new language is distraction. For example, imagine spending day after day consciously trying to learn a language. Once the task becomes boring or tedious, the mind has a tendency to rebel in order to remove the perceived ‘pain’ felt by continuing with the task. Trying to learn a new language, like the English language for example, should be enjoyable, not a chore.
There is a perfect solution for this that not only helps the student to learn the language more quickly and thoroughly,but also makes the whole language course a much more fun and memorable experience - mix the heavy learning sessions up with totally different sessions where having fun is the key aim. These activities are carefully planned in order to develop the individual, as well as ensuring that while distracted with simply having fun, they are also in an environment where they will be exposed to native speakers of the language while also occasionally being required to either just listen or also speak in the language that they are learning.
There are other benefits to be gained from these activities - especially if the student is quite young.For example, it’s possible to arrange the activities to ensure that they must get involved in activities that encourage team leading skills and character building exercises. This will also impact upon their language skills in a positive way too, as well as providing valuable experience that will come in handy in the future. They will finish the course feeling like they had a lot of fun as well as studying hard, but they will have picked up a variety of language and communication skills throughout the time spent on the course. Lots of English language course participants will be pleased to hear this - you learn more when you’re having fun!
