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"I just need the
perfect app" is a very common self-limiting belief about language
learning. Yes, there are countless of useful apps for all kinds of situations:
meditation, errands, fitness, etc. Even for language learning, apps may be
quite useful to learn and test vocabulary.
The illusion, however,
is that one app will do all the job in making you a prolific speaker. There is
a lot of marketing spam going on from very successful companies, promising
fluency in just a few weeks/months.
The crucial question is:
how do you define your language goals? What does fluency mean to you?
If you just have
moderate ambitions with that foreign language, if you just want to be able to
say Hello and Goodbye, plus learn some phrases here and there, a language app may
indeed be the perfect solution for you. It certainly may be a better investment
than going to a local language school.
But what if your
personal and professional goals depend upon mastering a new language? In this
case, your objective is to be able to speak almost like a native speaker. But,
what does characterize a "native speaker"? Most people would envy him
or her for
- having the
"right" passport,
- possessing the
"right" accent, and
- knowing lots of words.
Most probably, you would
also say that he or she would make no mistakes.
Well, as journalists,
school teachers, university professors and the like will attest, native
speakers commit quite a lot of mistakes. However, they are most often more
efficient speakers.
What does that mean?
They can express themselves more quickly and flexibly, in a wider range of
situations than the non-native speaker. If we boil this further down, it means
that they are better in producing their own sentences.
Now, what are problems
with most apps then?
1. Most apps are geared
towards the vast majority of consumers in the language market (aka
beginners). They focus only on quick
results based on repetition, rote-learning and "gamification".
The problem in learning
a foreign language lies not in learning your first 1000 words or memorizing 50
everyday phrases, as well as reproducing them with perfect intonation.
The real challenge is,
what and how to train after beginner and intermediate levels. What if you
already know your first 5 000 words and can sustain a small talk?
2. Apps may make you dependent on instant
gratification. Everyone using social
media can confirm about countless hours in front of Facebook or page XYZ, that
disappeared down the memory hole without a trace. Apps stimulate certain brain
areas providing us pleasure. We lose valuable time we could use for more efficient
activities.
3. Apps may make you forget your own agenda. Everyone learns a language with a concrete purpose
in mind. And, everyone is an individual with his or her very own interests,
ambitions, personality traits and preferences. Ideally, your language learning
should match your personality and goals as closely as possible, so that you get
the optimal preparation. Setting up your own specific language goals is a
crucial first step. With most apps, however, you will implicitly adopt a
general agenda crafted for millions of co-users.
(to be continued)
Please check out my online courses : at the moment, German for Russian- and Romanian-speakers, as well as
on goal-setting.
Stay tuned!
Gerhard
About the
GO Method
The GO Method applies research
in psychology as well as principles of quality management to the language
teaching process. It conforms to key elements of the ISO 9001 standard, while
being more specific on teaching-related issues. Customers get access to easily
adaptable document templates.
About me
Psychologist and polyglot from
Hamburg /Germany (*1979). Married with children. MA in psychology from the
University of Hamburg. More than 15 years of experience as a university
lecturer in psychology as well as a consultant for UNICEF, Terre des Hommes,
IOM, the EU and private companies. Coordinator of the GO Method network, with
representatives in more than 90 countries worldwide.
