Second Language Acquisition

So, I'm actually writing a BLOG!!  Hopefully, my personal narrative prose will not bore you as much as my short fiction and poetry.

I'd like to take this opportunity to write a little bit about my experience in my Linguistics class yesterday.  We were discussing the problems with the Second Language classroom in America (which are many, I might add).  It was sorely depressing to hear countless stories of students who had been "studying" Spanish for years with absolutely no skills in the language use itself.

And I have my own theory as to why students are enrolled in Spanish classes but not learning a thing...

Now, Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is the theory that language acquisition is more important than language learning.  Acquisition is the natural obtainment of language skills by immersion; it could be compared to first language acquisition, which comes about naturally, through the child hearing the language all around her or him from a young age.  SLA can occur, then, when a foreigner lives in a country and learns the language almost by diffusion.  It's not a conscious effort, but instead, a natural process. 

Lanugage learning, on the other hand, is the systematic studying of a lanuage.  Arguably, it is the sole manner of language learning in our country's school system, simply because teachers refuse to speak the language constantly, but, instead, attempt to make the class "easier" or "more comfortable" for the students by speaking their native language (English) to teach the foreign language (Spanish).  How does that help?

How the heck are students going to master a language and obtain fluency by studying the language's rules and structures in their own language?  This is an absolutely TERRIBLE way of teaching a language. 

One of my favorite Spanish tools is the website linked to the image below.  However, this webiste (studyspanish.com) is useful in obtaining a language monitor, not to acquire communication skills. 

To truly learn Spanish, one must be immersed in the language itself.  This means that TEACHERS MUST SPEAK IN SPANISH !!!  This often makes the students uncomfortable, because it's incredibly challenging at first.  However, if the teacher adequately uses hints, images, motions, engagement, and games in the classroom, the students will actually acquire language skills and be able to communicate.

Therefore, the classroom should be more engaging and Spanish-filled, resembling less like the systematic teaching of studyspanish.com and appearing more like the news video below.