Who chose my language learning goals?
If someone has mainly studied languages in school, then their sense of what language learning is and how it works probably aligns well with school-based approaches for language learning. I know this was true for me for a long time. But I want to interrogate these ideas from school. When someone attends a language class in school, they are given their goals for the class by the instructor. The instructor is given their goals by the school. And the curriculum is built to meet those goals. But anyone who engages in language self study is being inspired by their own set of reasons and goals. I think there’s less overlap here than one might expect.
The school system demands quantitative measurement in order to rank, pass and fail students. Why that’s “necessary” is perhaps a story for another day, but it’s sufficient to say that language curriculums in school necessarily are organized around quantitative measures of students. Can you measure how effectively someone interacts in the country where their target language is spoken? Not unless you’re there and the instructor has the time to follow them around. But you can easily measure how well someone can match words in one language to their translations in their target language. Can you measure the amount of enjoyment someone gets from watching a series or movie in their target language? Not in a way that allows a school to “objectively” and quantitatively rank, pass and fail some students. But you can easily measure how well a student can fill in bubbles on a multiple choice test or fill in the correct conjugations for a list of verbs.
I don’t say all that to simply criticize teachers. I am a teacher, of language among many other things, and I certainly know we aren’t perfect, but I also know that the formal school system was set up for a variety of reasons that simply don’t apply if someone is interested in learning a language for their own purposes. The school system assigns goals to students when they arrive and then creates failure and success based on the tests given to those students. This system produces language learning materials that meet its own needs. And everything has to fit nicely into a semester-long class. But language doesn’t exist in semester-long units. And language wasn’t created out of a nice list of lesson-sized grammar topics and vocab lists. All of these things have been imposed upon language over the years.
So, if I’m learning a language for my own reasons, the first thing to do is recognize that if my goals don’t match the goals of the schooling system, then the methods and measures I use likely won’t match the methods and measures of the schooling system either. So, where to begin? With my own goals and dreams. The great part about this is that no one else can define what my goals for the language are or should be. No teacher. No linguist. No one on twitter. No “polyglot”. And the other great part is that I can change (and do change) my goals and dreams for the language whenever I want and as often as I want.
I begin by thinking about what I want to do with the language: Read novels? Watch movies? Listen to or play music? Travel in the country? Fill out grammar charts? Take standardized tests? All of these are perfectly valid reasons for learning language if they are my reason for learning language. But different goals mean a different path in language learning. It doesn’t have to be much more complicated than short term goals and long term goals. For example, I began learning Russian largely because I wanted to read news and history in Russian, so I created short term goals around reading short texts. Then progressively longer texts. Then I found a graded reader about Russian history. My long term goal informs my short term goals, which informs my materials and approaches. If I’m memorizing vocabulary lists I want to be sure it’s helping me, so I will keep returning to my short term goals and ask, “Is this approach helping me read in my language?” (Or whatever my goal is). On the other hand, if I want to have conversations, perhaps I spend more time with listening practice. Or I track down a conversation partner. Or I visit a local restaurant or grocery store where I can expect to speak the language. Checking in with goals every so often allows me to adjust my language destinations. This isn’t allowed in the schooling system since “my” goals for language learning aren’t really mine at all. They have been assigned to me by the school and it’s my job to meet the goals that others have for me. But if I’m not in school I get to change and adjust my goals however I want.
This is where the division is clear between approaches informed by my goals and approaches informed by school’s goals. Since textbooks are created to help students meet the goals assigned to them by schools, it’s worth being thoughtful about how helpful that textbook will really be for reaching my own goals. If my goal is something other than filling out grammar charts, then textbooks full of grammar likely have less value for me than they do for students trying to keep teachers happy who are trying to keep school systems happy.
Finally, I use my first language to explore topics around my goal too. I wanted to read history in Russian, but along the way read Russian history in English. It’s easy to apply this to any goal: Read novels in translation or travel books, watch movies with subtitles, the possibilities are endless. This is important for two reasons. One, the content knowledge I gain is invaluable for when I begin engaging in that content in my target language. The more I know about the topic the easier it is to make sense of the new language I’m working with, and also the less of the language that is actually new (since I’m learning key terms even if I’m engaging in the content in English). Second, this keeps my goal fresh in my mind and centered in my attention. If I’m reminded how much I love history by reading about it in English, my inspiration for studying Russian keeps getting rejuvenated.
Language learning materials have a way of drifting back to school’s goals, so much so that before long it may seem like the only legitimate goal when learning a language is to pass a test. But if I’m doing self study in a language the only “tests” of my language abilities are the ones I choose. And if I’m no longer in a classroom there is no grade I need or outside benchmark I have to meet. I simply evaluate whether I’m effectively working toward my short term goals, knowing they exist only in the service of my long term goal, and only because I chose them.
