Have you been questioning your achievement as a language learner? Raise your hand if you haven’t.

Learning a language soon proves to be more challenging and demanding than we expected, especially if this is the first time we set out to learn a language. Usually our expectations differ quite shockingly from reality and this can make us overly critical about what we aimed at and where we are, perhaps even threatening the progress we’ve made so far. But fear not— we can turn this in our favor.

In order to get out of the quicksands of ‘the feeling of falling short’, we need to take action. As learners, it’s important that we take time to consider the approach we have to learning, and not just revolve around an X amount of time spent and/or facts collected along the way against the skills we’ve developed, as if there was only one way to proceed.

It’s very important that you understand that there are no beaten paths— you have to try and decide which learning strategies work and which don’t work for you. Besides, don’t worry too much about measuring progress— while it’s not necessarily impossible, it can trick us into believing that what we ‘know’ means something by itself.

The truth is that the real value of the knowledge of a language we possess is connected to what we are able to do with it. It won’t automatically credit us as successful users of our target language.

My idea today is to address three different aspects of the language learning process that I would like you to keep in mind.

GRAMMAR
Oh, there is grammar. You are aware of it, right?

Broadly speaking, students tend to fall into one of two groups when it comes to grammar: some see it as crucial to mastering their target language, while others fear or underestimate its importance and try to avoid it at all costs.

Avoiding explicit grammar talk altogether can be just as challenging as obsessing over the hundreds of rules and exceptions. Grammar by itself is not going to save your soul, but not having a basic understanding of some underlying principles will definitely make your journey harder.

Don’t fear grammar. Knowing what types of verbs there are out there, what a direct object or a noun phrase is or paying attention to syntax patterns (these are solely examples) can get you a long way, saving you time and frustrations. 

Besides, grammar gives learners a point of reference. It can help enhance your understanding and make explanations more digestible.

Most of the time, you can tackle grammar topics on your own. Just remember that a spoken language is not a programming language. There is no perfect coding for a spoken language, so there’ll be more than one opportunity to find exceptions to the seemingly unchangeable rules you learn.

Languages can be unpredictable and don’t always behave as we expect. It’s worth noting that grammar rules were developed by linguists once languages came into existence, in an effort to prevent them from drifting too far. Romance languages (French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish) evolved from Latin as the Roman Empire grew bigger and bigger.

It took some time before someone decided to try to make sense of it. In fact, the first grammar book ever written was published in 1492, shortly before Columbus set foot in America. In its prologue, its author good old Antonio de Nebrija wrote “Language was always the companion of empire, and followed it such that together they began, grew, and flourished—and, later, together they fell.”

To sum up, this is my take: embrace grammar, but don’t put all your hopes in it. Learning a language means more than learning its grammar.

RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: Are you learning grammar in the most effective way?

YOUR TUTOR
Your tutor can play different roles according to their personality, teaching philosophy, age, experience and/or their own learning preferences.

It’s important that you consider if the tutor’s teaching style suits your learning style, and also that you understand what is their standpoint. We can adapt to your specific needs and learning style, but as I said above, we are not totally impartial.

I like the jungle metaphor. I really see myself more like a safari guide, someone who can make it easier for you in unknown territory. We can do a lot together, but you’ll still need to work on your own because no one can learn the language for you.

That’s why I tend to prioritize a functional use of the language (i.e. how to do specific things with it), instead of focusing on pure grammar rules and exercises in class. I feel the masterclass format is great for YouTube, but not for meaningful human interaction. I believe students come to class to get involved and engaged in their learning and hopefully to enjoy their learning journey.

I think the classroom, virtual as it is, is a space for developing your skills in a natural way. I don’t want to create an artificial bubble that bursts as soon as you step out into real-world conversations. What I like to do instead is to keep it real and  onversational.

However, this does not leave grammar out of the conversation. Quite on the contrary, very frequently I clear doubts by referring to a specific grammar point. To clarify, what I mean with ‘functional use’ is that I don’t base my teaching on teaching grammar and I’m quite convinced that the ‘old way’ (I possess knowledge which I transfer to you in the form of concepts) is still around because that’s the way we were taught at school— which comes to show that the education system needs a refresh, too.

My point is that grammar rules are not the best a tutor can share with you. Books outperform us on this subject! What you get from a native tutor on a 1-to-1 setting is an intangible asset —the command that person has of their language at your disposal which, combined with the right tools and guidance, accounts for a more
effective learning.

If you and your tutor are ‘tuned’ with each other, learning will take place incidentally. I’m not saying that improvisation is the key, I’m just saying that you have a voice in this matter. You are entitled to say what you’d like to learn (to do). Providing you are patient, you’ll get it right.

This is my take: everything you need to know to become a good user of Spanish is far more than what you can get from me, and I do my best to prove you that I’m just one piece of a bigger cake (your learning) and that at the end of the day, success is in your hands.

INPUT
Internet is changing the way we can learn a language. In the past, there were very limited options.

Now, there are so many resources available that it can be difficult to decide how to best take advantage of them. We might feel intimidated, or go to the other extreme and bite off more than we can chew.

To me, input means that we have the opportunity to be exposed to real language models. We can listen to the sounds of our target language, learn vocabulary items in context, discover some cool expressions and incorporate patterns.

I encourage you to look for YT channels, or podcasts, or a Netflix series, or websites, or even books to complement your learning. There’s a fuss about comprehensible input that makes it appear as the remedy to cure all ills. I’m quite convinced that by itself it’s not, but it can contribute to your overall progress.

We have to take it easy and accept that there are different levels of complexity and different ways to work with these numerous resources. The guidelines would be:

1) limit the ‘size’ of your portion
2) let go the desire to understand everything
3) try to guide yourself by all contextual cues
4) re iterate (watch/read/listen more than once) before you give up or pounce on a dictionary
5) and know when you’ve had enough for the session

I’m more than open to discussing these ideas with you.

May the force be with you!

Happy Spanish learning,