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RE: How people learn foreign languages.
Where are you from originally?
In Australia it's pretty uncommon to learn a foreign language other than as a hobby. Native English speakers really are lazy language learners. There's statistics on it.
I am originally from the US - Texas. It is required in most if not all high schools to spend at least 2 years in a foreign language. Here in Panama they have a requirement for all high school graduates to know English.
Is that a law for Texas only, or the whole country? I know there is a lot of language overlap along the border areas of the US and Mexico. It's pretty much impossible to get a university degree in Mexico now without being fluent in English as well.
Yes, I was working in Mexico with college students, so I had to take the TOEFL test as well so I could be a student. It was awesome...I was the first one finished. ;) I'm not sure if the law is for all of the US or just Texas. I think it was made US-wide a few years ago...
Second language education should be mandatory, I think. And instruction should be in the target language, rather than through translation. Bilingualism has been proven to have cognitive benefits, but then that's another post altogether.
Yes, for sure. I completely agree! The instruction should be in the target language for the most part. Wow, that sounds so hard...not really how I learned, but how my kids will!
I think it's okay to do the first month through translation just to give a foundation, especially for "function words", such as the, a, and, if, whether, either, or, neither, nor, because their meanings are abstract so it's obviously easier to teach them through translation. But yeah, once the groundwork is done, instruction in the target language is much better.
For example, if a student asks what the word "lodilla" means, obviously their Spanish is going to benefit more by saying "es en la pared, naranja, rectángulo" while drawing a rectangle shape with your fingers, than by simply saying "it's a brick".