This post marks the first of a series of posts dedicated to revealing and explaining the 8 strategic components of a learning system that yields continuous progress with minimal effort.

Language learning is one of those subjects that elicits heated debate, both among learners and teachers. Unfortunately, all this debate ends up detracting from the original purpose of language learning: learning another language. What results is mass confusion about how to learn a language, especially because teachers falsely promise that a good grade in a language class means you’re on the right track.

Read that again, because it’s such a widespread misconception that it actually is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, reason that most people who aspire to learn another language end up disgusted, dejected, and ultimately quit. Grades in language classes, both good and bad grades, do not at all measure your proficiency in a second language, nor do they measure whether or not you’re making progress. Grades were only constructed to give schools a way to measure something.

In language learning, however, there are many more factors to measure and take account of, simply due to the fact that language learning is a skill. Skill-based learning is in complete contrast to fact-based learning, which is why rote memorization of languages doesn’t work and doesn’t produce fluent speakers.

Think about it: did you learn how to ride a bike by memorizing the process? Riding a bike is a skill, as is language learning.

That being said, of course teachers are going to tell you that good grades mean continued progress and bad grades mean you’re not learning (which usually turns into them saying you’re not studying hard enough), simply because that’s the way schools work. As we just said, though, studying in the usual sense, will not make you fluent and will not increase your language proficiency.

This is precisely why I said that teachers stressing grades in foreign language classes is such a big problem. Foreign language classes already put the students at a disadvantage by forcing the creation of artificial and unnatural learning environments focused on studying and memorization.

This flawed system will produce flawed results in most of the students, especially in the students that only use the language or are only exposed to the language in class. However, the grade-focused teacher sees these sub-par results and concludes that the student just isn’t trying hard enough, instead of working to create a learning environment that is conducive to learning a skill.

This, in turn, causes the students to not only stress about their grades but also to conclude that language learning is tough or impossible for them.

Remember something very crucial, though: if you’re reading this, you have already learned a language. How can you say learning a language is impossible for you, if you’ve already successfully learned one?

I know what you’re thinking: “But, learning your first language isn’t the same as learning a second language as an adult.” You’re absolutely right.

And that’s your advantage.

When you learn your first language as a child, you know absolutely nothing about language, about any language. You have no idea what language is, how it works, what it’s used for. That’s why it takes so long to learn your first language to high proficiency (would you consider a 5 year old to have high proficiency in their native language? Chances are, no. Children are fluent at age 5, but certainly haven’t reached a high proficiency).

However, as an adult learning a second language, your cognitive abilities are already highly developed. You already understand the basics of what language is and what it’s used for. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is.

Since you already understand what language is, you know what to look for and what to expect when learning your second language. This allows you to springboard your progress, as long as you efficiently tackle your second language in strategic areas.

In the next post, we’ll go in-depth on everyone’s favorite: grammar. Do you need it? Tell me in the comments below!

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