Long post alert! Make sure you read this post until the end as | IELTS APEX | IELTS 8.5

Long post alert! Make sure you read this post until the end as it may change the way you think about language learning.

I have just encountered a video on youtube that claims that the way most of us acquire a new language is totally wrong.

According to the video, a typical way an adult studies a foreign language is through learning grammar and vocabulary and starting to speak from day one on. However, according to the video, a near-native speaker level is never achieved through this method.

The method that is claimed to actually work- and this is by the way how kids learn their first language- is called ALG ( Automatic Language Growth). Basically, this means that when learning a new language, it is advised to go through a 6-12 month silent period before actually saying your first sentence in that language. What one should do instead within this initial period is to take in as much of that language as possible through listening and reading.

This style of learning was tested in a language school in Bangkok, Thailand and it was a great success as foreign students started to speak Thai fluently with a clean accent after a year-long period of passively digesting the language.

In hindsight, this does make a lot of sense. When I was living in China, I had very few Chinese classes and I don't remember learning anything in those classes. The real learning, however, took place when I started to work at a Chinese company where I was fully immersed in the language. About a year or so later, I actually started to understand pretty much everything spoken around me and, even more importantly, it started to feel quite easy to articulate my ideas in Chinese as well.

So, this is a method that I guess is worth giving a shot.

Mardon's Blog | IELTS