Managing Your Second Language Acquisition Material
How to make it through the language learning plateau and build towards fluency
Welcome, aspiring polyglot! A recent experience one of my students had made it clear to me that some things happen during the language learning process for which most people are not ready. One of those things is the physical restructuring of the human brain that happens as people become more and more proficient with their target language. If you aren’t ready for it, it can feel like a massive setback.
Crossed wires
During the initial phases of learning a new language, the goal is never to do things perfectly. This is especially true when it comes to speaking. The goal is and should be communication through imperfection. Over time things will improve and you can work towards perfection, but if you start out with perfection as your goal you will find yourself struggling for a long time.
Since “finding a way” to say the things you want is the initial goal, you necessarily will not do things the most efficient ways possible, therefore your initial neural pathways will not be efficient. Have you ever experienced immense mental fatigue after only studying your target language for an hour? This is why. Nothing is ever optimally efficient the first time it is done.
Your native language is going to interfere already. Word order, grammar in general, vocabulary, all of these things will be fighting against your natural inclinations. That is why new neural pathways must be built in the first place. Since you are relying, at first, upon the existing pathways, you are at risk of falling into the same traps you fall into in your native language.
If you are messing up vocabulary or grammar in your native language, you are likely to have to fight twice against the same opponent. Once in your native language as you slowly make those corrections and once in your target language as you seek to avoid making the same mistake in your target language. Slowly, but surely, you will be forced to untangle your own mind.
Overwhelming cognitive load
When you are doing the work to untangle your mind, it is important to remember the curve of expertise. It looks something like this:
The precipitous drop that follows peaking confidence comes right around the time you feel your first massive leap forward. Something is going to click, then suddenly you will feel like you have never seen the language before in your life and that your learning journey is going to take years. Rest assured that is not the case, no matter how much it feels like it is the case.
This, in essence, is your brain making physical changes to itself to “manage the cables” in the most efficient way possible. Keep working consistently and you will get through this period of physiological restructuring faster. However, this is a critical period to avoid burnout. If you feel yourself burning out take a step back, you never know how your brain will react to a little bit of reprieve.
Listen to your body and your brain. Sometimes too much focus can cause more problems than it solves. Have you ever had a problem you were really struggling with? One of the best ways to find a solution is to step away and go for a walk. The walk could be 20 minutes or 2 days, but when you come back to the problem and see it with fresh eyes the solution will often reveal itself.
Demystification
If, on the other hand, you find that things are still not making sense, working with an instructor, or even just a friend who speaks the language, can help immensely. Especially if you find someone who speaks your native language natively. If for nothing else, this is because people who share a native language share struggles with learning foreign languages.
An English teacher whose native language is English will have a harder time explaining the reasons behind certain quirks to a Spanish speaker than an English teacher whose native language is Spanish will. This is always true, sometimes native speakers actually do understand their grammar and how it changes from language to language, but that is more rare than it should be.
For those who do want to take the next step and find someone to help them, here are some incredible options:
italki ~ $9-$24/class
Preply ~ $10-$25/class
Private tutor ~$30-$100/class
Community college ~ $450/semester
University ~ $1200-$3500
Depending on your goals and your timeline, any of these may be a fit. I highly encourage you to work up the list. If you find someone who you really enjoy working with on italki, that is amazing and you should stick to it. Make sure you have goals so that the people you are working with know exactly what they need to do to help you reach your goals.
Just remember, if you aren’t making the progress you want to be making, try the next level. Maybe a private tutor is the best bet for you. Maybe you would benefit most from taking a community college class, they will test you for your level! It could even be that there is a foreign exchange program that you could participate in for a few months or a year. Never box yourself in to a single option.
Whatever you do, I encourage you to give it your all for at least 21 days. Given the right framework, the amount of progress that can be made in 21 days cannot be overstated. This is your life. Your education. Your future. I think you owe it to yourself to give it your all for 3 weeks. Everyone I work with has; and the progress they make shocks even me at times.
Conclusion
The visual of managing cables is helpful in understanding the physiological changes that your body is going through whenever you learn something new. At first, your set up will be anything but ideal. In fact, the best way forward when it comes to languages in particular is brute forcing your way through or “finding a way” to say whatever it is you want to say.
Therefore, it is going to be necessary for you to be patient as you repeat and iterate towards perfection. It takes time and it will be difficult to endure the stagnation that comes with neural rewiring. But you can do difficult things and be great. So get out and do some difficult things and become great. I am rooting for you.
Requests
If you have anything you would like covered you can reach out to me on X, Instagram, or at odin@secondlanguagestrategies.com.
Additional Resources
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