Learning a second language

Before we talk about learning your second language, let’s talk about learning your first

language.

Think about your first language. Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Korean. Think back and imagine what it was like for you as a baby. While in your mother’s womb, you were listening to sounds. These sounds were muffled, but they were still sounds belonging to your first language.

When you were then born, you were still listening to those sounds, but now the sounds were much clearer. Not only were you listening to sounds, you were now listening to sentence structure, organization of the language, grammatical rules and social rules of language (when to speak, how to use gestures while speaking etc)

Think about what you started to do as a baby. After 6 to 8 months of listening to these sounds and sentences you started to produce your imitation of those sounds. Babies babble. You babbled when you were a baby. You practiced all the sounds you ever heard and as you practiced you made lots of mistakes and most of the people around you encouraged you, laughed at how cute you were sounding, smiled at you, picked you up, and cuddled you. You were encouraged as a baby to continue these sounds even though as a baby, they don’t make much sense.

Sometime around the age of one year, you probably started making sounds that made sense. Wow. Now all of a sudden, you were saying words Dada, Papa, Mamma, ball, Car, Milk. Now you are making these sounds and they made sense, think about how your parents or carers reacted. They praised you.

They rewarded you by giving you want you needed. They also talked back to you slowly and clearly. When they wanted to show you something new, they showed you and spoke to explain at the same time. For example, your parents used to hand you your book and say “here is the book”.

By the time you were 5 years old, you had listened to 15,000 hours of your first language. Think about that number. 15,000 hours. All those hours were in a relaxed environment, with family members, where you learned the language while doing actions. Your language learning was comfortable, natural, contextualized and engaging. It was relevant to the stage of life that you were in.

You were learning words for your toys, your home and your life. The words you learned were related to what you needed. You learned the words for food when you were hungry. You learned the word for water when you were thirsty.

Now you live in a country that does not speak your first language. You now have to acquire your second language. You are acquiring a language where you are not getting praised for making mistakes in the language. You may feel humiliated and embarrassed when speaking. You feel pressured to learn English well for your job, for your school and for your children. You feel impatient to learn to write English in a professional manner.

It is very natural for us to speak any language. It takes time. You are learning your second language (English) in a very different way so you may find it difficult. But I assure you, it is not impossible. But it will take some time and effort.

Next time, let’s talk about how it is best to learn your second language.

This article was written by Madeleine Monaghan, MBA, Director of SHELI Sacred Heart English Language Institute. For additional information about the courses they offer, please call the Fairfield campus at 203-365-7528, or Stamford, 203-323- 4959.