How long does it take to learn a language?
How long does it take to learn English? How long is a piece of string?
Learning a new language is very difficult for some and easy for others. Perhaps to explain this further, tell your students this story:
There was once a young man who was walking to the beach through an unfamiliar town. He walked and walked until he saw an old man sitting near a hill.
“Excuse me,” he asked the old man. “How long does it take to get to the beach.”
“Go on, go on, keep walking!” The old man grumbled.
The young man walked away confused, wondering if he had said anything offensive. When he reached the top of the hill, the old man called after him,
“About twenty minutes.”
“Uh…Thanks, but why didn’t you tell me that before?” The young man asked. “I thought you were mad at me.”
“Mad? No!” The old man said. “I just had to see how quickly you walk.”
And the moral of that story: It’s hard for a teacher to predict how long it will take each individual student to learn.
Depending on the student they will have different backgrounds and, whilst some will continue to take language classes a couple of times a week, and some will watch English movies and listen to English music to help further their grasp of the language, some won’t.
It's a lifetime project
When learners feel too much pressure, they can become buried in lists of words and begin feeling overwhelmed and disheartened. I think it is important to let students know that they will never stop learning English. It is a lifetime project and that you, as their teacher, are still learning new words and phrases.
So, unfortunately, it’s hard to give students the definite answer they’re looking for. I can relate… I know what it’s like to be learning a language and worried that you’ll be learning forever. I can assure you that if you work at it and, like the young man, you keep on walking, it won’t take forever! Even a big journey starts with small steps.
Help your students learn more effectively with my varied ESL activities for teens and adults.
3 Comments
Alessandra: Aug 25, 2018 at 02:00 am
Berrin: Nov 08, 2018 at 16:06 pm
Valerio Diani: Jan 21, 2019 at 17:43 pm