Learning a foreign language takes time

Learning a foreign language occurs incremental. Thus it takes time for the brain to grow new cell to store and handle a new language. It is absorbed (or not absorbed) in doses, and runs from zero to whatever ceiling is reached.

Children naturally learn no fewer than 500 words by the age of 2 years. This happens as Skinner, a behavioral psychologist, explained through a process that uses of positive and negative reinforcement. This reinforcement can occur in school but also a home. Parents play a vital role in their children’s learning process.

Changes are gradual and occur at different rates for different people and in different aspects of learning.

At first, beginners understand little and produce nothing. (Something we all might agree with.) Then gradually they understand individual words, fixed formulas, and disconnected items in speech or text. There is often little creative scope, frustration is common, and regular praise and reassurance are essential.

Translation is constant and often obvious. Generally, learning to understand is faster than learning to express. (Thus listening to a language is important.)Performance is usually poor at this stage and dominated by the mother tongue. Children are trying to translate from Chinese into English.

At the next stage, learners begin to produce their own phrases and sentences. They become able to use their own creativity and make mental connections (sometimes correct, often wrong, and constantly developing) between items already encountered and partly learned. They make guesses what things mean, or how they might be expressed, and modify them in the light of experience.

At the following stage, many learners stop. They become frustrated because the feel they are unable to express what they think in their own language.

This is the time (usually around Junior High School level) to especially motivate students again. It is the level at which the performance skills (speaking and writing) often improve rapidly without being obvious to the student, given opportunity, stimulation, and time for assimilation.

Then the learners have reached the advanced stage. They start using their own creativity, seeking skillful selections of meaning and subtleties of their culture, to incorporate them into the new learned language. All going well, the inner translation continues to decline and the fluency, speed, and accuracy continue to develop.

At this level, many learners achieve a close approximation to the skills of the native speaker of the target language.