What kind of child can learn a second language?

 What kind of child can learn a second language? 

The first thing to point out is that this method is not just for children. Children are usually the intended students but many adults as well decide to take up a second language.  Both children and adults can learn a second language with this method. 

The kind of student who can benefit from this method are those who already know at least one first language. This method is very specifically meant to teach a second language and not a first language. In the rare case that a child does not even have a first language, it is likely that the method used here will not work.  

For children that do have even the most basic ability in a first language, this method will be 100% effective in teaching them a second language. Yes, 100%.  

The child is rambunctious. Doesn’t matter, they will learn. 

The child is developmentally slow? Doesn’t matter. They will learn. 

The child has health problems. Doesn’t matter. They will learn. 

The student is an 80 year old woman who doesn’t like learning. Doesn’t matter. She’ll learn anyway.

The textbook we have access to is terrible. Doesn’t matter. They will learn. 

The teacher is not a very good teacher. Doesn’t matter. The students will learn. 

We’re lost and don’t know what to do.  That’s why this book exists.  Follow the method in this book.  Put in the time.  

The secret is this; it really doesn’t matter if the teacher is terrible and can’t even speak the language they are teaching. It doesn’t matter if the textbook is garbage. It doesn’t matter if the student has autism or brain damage. Follow the method in this book and every learner will learn.  Good teacher or bad teacher. Great textbook or garbage textbook. Genius students or Forest Gump’s even dumber cousin. None of those things matter. The only thing that matters when teaching a second language is the clock. 

Time is the most important thing. You have to put in the time. It is a lot of time. It will be a lot of time no matter if the student is naturally gifted or takes extra time to learn tasks. A teacher who wastes time is the enemy.  A teacher who talks too much is wasting time. The way to get student to learn a second language is to get the students to speak the language. They need to speak the language for up to a certain amount of time depending on a trait in the language we call “Markedness”.  I’ll explain more about that later. The important thing to keep in mind for right now is to get the students speaking. Not listening. Speaking. 

But you ask, if the students don’t know the language how can we ask them to speak it? I will address this. Don’t worry. You’ll think it’s magic when you see it work.  

The teacher’s job is to listen. The student’s job is to speak.  The most basic set up for this is two students speaking to each other in the target language and the teacher will be listening.  

If we imagine a lesson is one hour and for the entire hour the teacher speaks then the teacher has taken up 100% of the talk time. If the teacher has one student and the student asks questions that the teacher then answers we can say the student got 50% of the talk time and the teacher got 50%.  If there are two students and the teacher gives them some basic instructions and then the rest of the lesson the students talk to each other, then we can say the teacher used 10% of the talk time and the students used up the other 90%.  That is the goal.  

And that is why good teacher or bad teacher doesn’t matter. That is why good textbook or bad textbook doesn’t matter. The actual mechanism for learning language is a student using their voice.