It’s often helpful – when you’re trying something new – to hear how others have done the same thing. You pick up new ideas. You’re encouraged by their experiences and successes. And you learn that you’re not alone; others are trying to do the same thing you are. I hope these stories – about success speaking a new language – will do all of that for you.

Armando’s story

Armando is a young Mexican who works at a Jewish restaurant in Los Angeles. Armando speaks English well but, according to a Los Angeles Times writer, he speaks Hebrew even better.

How good is Armando’s Hebrew? The owner of the restaurant says that Armando “speaks Hebrew like an Israeli.” And four other native Hebrew speakers who listened to Armando’s conversational Hebrew described him as a fluent, comfortable Hebrew-speaker. Two of them thought he might have been born in Israel.

What’s most interesting is how Armando became so fluent in Hebrew. He did it by “observing and listening to co-workers and friends” from the restaurant. And that’s what we’d predict: Armando’s fluent Hebrew developed as the result of a large amount of comprehensible input – understandable Hebrew – in a relaxed environment.

Armando said that he had never learned to read Hebrew, never studied Hebrew grammar, and didn’t think about grammar when he was speaking. While he was acquiring Hebrew, he said that his friends at the restaurant helped him with vocabulary about five times a day, but not grammar.

Stories from Africa

Historically, many Africans have spoken several languages – their own tribal language, a European language, like French, and languages from neighboring tribes. A number of years ago, Eugene Nida, an American linguist, asked some of them how they did it. The answer was always the same: they listened.

Nida writes that “instead of trying hard to learn the language, they seemed to just take it for granted that after listening to the language for long enough, they would find that they could ‘hear’ it.” They were confident that their “ears and brain would take in the language” and that they would be able to understand and to speak sooner than they had imagined.

One more thing: they never worried about mistakes. They believed that their language would improve simply by more listening.

Adrian’s story

Four years ago Adrian, a Brazilian law professor, decided to learn English. He signed up for an adult English class but quit after a few months because he wasn’t getting anywhere. A Google search led him to discover the fact that changed his English experience: If I want to speak English, I need to experience it naturally, to listen to as much understandable English as possible.

Last year Adrian wrote that eight or nine months after he started listening, he met a friend from the class that he had quit. Without thinking Adrian said, “Hi, man! How are you doing? Long time no see.” They spoke in English for a minute or two, and then his friend asked him where he was studying. Adrian told him he was studying alone, just listening. His friend replied, in Portuguese, “I don’t believe you. Try another!”

As Adrian walked away from the conversation, he thought, “Wow! I talked in English without thinking about it!” And as he continued to walk home, he made a new resolution – to listen even more.

For more than two years Adrian listened without trying to speak. The first time he tried a lengthy conversation – with me – I was impressed. His overall fluency was very natural and he was able to easily move back and forth between formal and informal English. I was also impressed with his accent. His English had very little evidence that Portuguese was his first language.

Adrian’s story doesn’t stop with English. Since he began English in 2007, he has also acquired Spanish the same way – by listening and reading. His Spanish is good enough today that he has taken a leave of absence from the university in Brazil to teach at a university in Spain.

Your first story

Remember learning to speak your first language? Probably not. I wasn’t there, but I think I can describe what happened.

You began to speak your first language by saying … nothing. Remember that? From the time you were born you were surrounded by spoken language. But for a long time you said nothing. And everyone considered that normal.

When your parents and others spoke to you, they made the language as simple as possible. They used objects, pictures, and actions to help you understand what they were saying. And as they did, you absorbed – or acquired – more and more of your first language.

One day you did it! You said your first word. And everyone got excited. After that your parents probably talked to you more and more. They “fed” you as much language as possible. And as your language ability increased, they slowly increased the difficulty of the language – adding new words, more complicated sentences, and faster speech.

What your parents did to help you acquire your first language was to take advantage of your brain’s natural language ability – the ability to acquire new language from spoken language that you understood. And they gave you time to acquire the language you needed before you spoke.

Your next story

In each of these stories, there’s something that will help you find success speaking English. Let me summarize the lessons from the stories this way:

The only way to acquire the ability to speak English well is to listen to English. To listen to things that are interesting enough and easy enough that you forget that you’re listening to English – my first choice would be fiction. And to listen to as much as you can.

Warren Ediger

Related reading: If I wanted to speak better English

References: Krashen (2000) What does it take to acquire language? Nida (1982) Learning by listening.

Several months ago, I told the story of Adrian, a frustrated Brazilian English-learner who dropped out of his English class. Shortly after that, he discovered that we acquire language in one way – by reading and listening. In a short time – a little more than two years – Adrian became very fluent in English. Later, he used the same method to acquire Spanish. I recently received an e-mail from Adrian that continues the story of his language journey – a story every language learner should read. Here is Adrian’s e-mail:

(Note: I have made few changes, mostly punctuation, to Adrian’s e-mail; I wanted you to see his story the way he tells it. I have marked words I added by putting them in brackets, [like this].)

Dear Warren,

Months ago I wrote to you to tell about the beginning of my journey studying English. I decided to write to update and reflect a little bit more about my journey.

The beginning

As you can remember, my English studies began with classes at a prestigious [school] in Brazil. My grades were high – I never got less than 9.0 – but I used to speak with difficulty, limited [fluency], and fear. I remember memorizing dialogues and devoting hours to study for tests. I remember my huge problem, too: I only [correctly applied] the rule for the third person singular a few times although I knew the grammar rule I should use at that time. As you know, I was frustrated and left the course despite having passed the tests.

The change

… even if I had given up the English course, I had not given up my objective to learn English. I used Google, and after some time I found quotes from the writings of [Dr. Stephen] Krashen [in Portuguese] on a site about language. Insisting on [reading] the research, I found the actual site of Krashen. After that, I found the ESL Podcast, VOA, and finally, your web page….

How I learn

Today, I can see some problems that blocked my learning. But the biggest one, I believe, was the way they were trying to teach me how to learn English [by memorizing rules]. I also think that the answer to my difficulty was obvious. As a grandson of Italians, I learned Italian with my family. [As the] son of Brazilians, I learned Portuguese with my family. That is, I learned Portuguese and Italian in a natural way, by living them. Why should learning a third language be different? But it was. Learning English for me … was a marathon of drills and exercises that sometimes I could not understand the purpose.

The point is that I did not learn Portuguese or Italian studying grammar, yet I speak both languages very well and have well-structured writing. In fact, when I want I simply speak Portuguese or Italian. How is this possible? The answer is that I learned both without treating [them] as something strange: they are part of me and of my culture. I think when you start studying a language through grammar what happens is that the language becomes an object, like a can I pick up on the supermarket shelf. The language is no longer part of me; it becomes something strange to me, something artificial.

… I am not saying that studying grammar is not something you should do…. Studying grammar is important, but for everything there is an appropriate time. I have not learned to speak Portuguese or Italian with my parents repeating grammatical rules, but I studied grammar to write well and polish aspects of my speech years later, after I know how to speak.

The same learning process that made me a “native” in Portuguese and Italian [acquiring language by listening and reading] is what, as you know, I have been following to learn English. Today, I simply speak English. When I want, I change from Portuguese to English or Italian to English and without thinking, naturally.

In the first letter I wrote to you, I mentioned that, for a while, I only used to listen to the ESL Podcast, VOA, and read, read widely in English. …I did not speak English for nearly 10 months. In my opinion, this silent period was important for me to reduce my anxiety when entering an English-speaking environment as well as to have time to put together the pieces of the English language….

And now, Spanish

For professional reasons I am teaching in a foreign language – I teach law in Spanish. Today I teach at a prestigious University in Spain as a visiting professor. I began my studies in Spanish more or less a year-and-a-half ago. The method I used is the same that [helped] me learn English. I tried to [extensively] expose myself to the Spanish language, firstly reading the easiest things and listening to slow narratives. Almost two years later, I read well and I am able to teach three classes, each one with 52 to 60 students, without disruption….

Adrian

In his e-mail, Adrian also describes how he tried to improve his Spanish by doing a lot of speaking when he first moved to Spain. Unfortunately, speaking Spanish didn’t help very much. So what did he do? He says he spent “weekends with my silent reading and listening more than talking.” He tells me that his Spanish speaking began to improve very quickly after that.

Adrian’s story may seem exceptional, and in many ways it is. But it doesn’t have to be an unusual story. Anyone can do what Adrian did. How?

• Get as much comprehensible input as possible – interesting, understandable English – by reading and listening. Adrian often spends 2-4 hours reading and listening every day. He carries his iPod, iPad, or a book everywhere he goes and takes advantage of short periods of free time.
• Be enthusiastic about your English journey. Treat English as your language, not something alien; let it become part of your life. Think of yourself as becoming a member of the “English-users Club” – that large group of people around the world who use English frequently and use it well.

Related reading (the beginning of Adrian’s story):

• Frustration to success
• Frustration to success – how he did it

Warren Ediger

In Frustration to success, I briefly told the story of Adrian, a professor of law at a prestigious university. Two-and-a-half years ago he was a frustrated beginning English student who had dropped out of the English class he hoped would help him become a fluent English user. If you met Adrian today, you’d find that hard to believe because his English is very good. Let’s dig a little deeper to see exactly what he did to find success.

How it started

If you remember, Adrian began the journey from frustration to success when he read this in a Portuguese/English language blog:

Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language – natural communication – in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding (Stephen Krashen).

We could paraphrase this statement like this:

Picking up a language is the result of using the language for real communication; it happens when users focus on understanding each other, not when they’re focused on the form of the communication.

As Adrian continued to read, he came to two important conclusions: First, if I want to acquire English, I need to find content that is interesting and understandable and spend as much time as I can reading and listening to it. Second, I will acquire more English if I read and listen for my own pleasure.

What did Adrian do?

Soon after Adrian found the language blog, he discovered the ESL Podcast and began to listen to it every day. He subscribed to the Learning Guide and read the transcript (written copy of the podcast) while he listened. A short time later, he found VOA Special English and began to regularly read and listen to their stories. In addition to the ESL Podcast and VOA Special English, Adrian bought and read a number of the Goosebumps books, popular short picture novels written for children by R.L. Stine.

As his English improved, Adrian quit reading the Goosebumps books, but he continued to read and listen to the ESL Podcast. He also bought  A Day in the Life of Jeff and A Day in the Life of Lucy from the ESL Podcast store. He also continued to read and listen to VOA Special English and began reading occasional stories from VOA English News.

When he was ready, Adrian started reading articles that he could understand from People, USA Today, and Time. He also watched videos and read the transcripts from CNN Student News.

Sometime later, Adrian decided to try reading novels. He began with Black Dahlia by James Ellroy but quickly discovered that it was too difficult, so he quit. Adrian has never hesitated to do this. Whenever something is too difficult or doesn’t interest him, he says that he “abandons” it and looks for something new.

After he abandoned Black Dahlia, Adrian decided to try John Grisham’s novels. Adrian is a law professor, and he thought that Grisham’s exciting novels, about attorneys and the law, would be easier to understand. He was right. He says that he quickly began to understand and enjoy them. So far, he has finished four of Grisham’s novels, and he recently told me that he has bought eight more.

What is Adrian doing today?

Today Adrian listens to four or five ESL Podcasts and reads the learning guides every week; occasionally he listens to the podcasts more than once. When he sees something interesting – usually several times a week – he reads and listens to stories from both VOA News Special English and VOA English News.

He continues to read as much as possible, especially popular fiction. He’s reading Grisham’s novels and he’s also read novels by Scott Turow, Phillip Margolin, and Laura Lippman.

He scans the New York Times every day and reads two or three articles. And he usually reads three to five articles from The Economist every week.

I almost forgot: he’s also a big fan of Spiderman comics!

Adrian has developed a strong interest in understanding how language works and how it’s acquired. As a result he’s begun to read academic books and articles about language, and many of our discussions focus on basic linguistics, or the study of language.

Adrian uses every opportunity to read or listen to English. He downloads podcasts and other material to his iPod so he can listen while he walks, runs, or travels. He carries his books wherever he goes so he can read whenever he has an opportunity. He estimates that he spends several hours a day “in” English: reading, listening, discussing. If you ask him, he’ll quickly tell you that the most important time is the time he spends reading and listening.

Adrian has embraced English as “his” language; he’s made it an important part of his life, not simply something extra to be added to an already busy life. He enjoys English, he’s fascinated by it, he loves the experience of reading and listening, and English is quickly becoming the language that he uses first whenever he can.

What can we learn from Adrian’s experience?

There are several important lessons that we can learn from Adrian’s experience:

• Read and listen to things that are interesting and understandable; this is the key to acquiring language.
• Read or listen for pleasure: make your enjoyment a top priority.
• If something is boring or difficult, stop! Abandon it for something interesting and understandable.
• Don’t hesitate to choose things that are easy, including things that were written for children or young people. It won’t be long before you can move on to more difficult things. For another good example of this, read Better English at Sweet Valley High.
• Listen and read a transcript at the same time when you can, at least occasionally.
• Take advantage of what you already know, like Adrian did when he decided to read Grisham’s novels. Another way to do this is to read English novels that you read first (in translation) in your first language.
• Read or listen narrowly; in other words, read or listen to things by the same author, on the same subject or topic. This is what Adrian is doing by reading so many of Grisham’s novels. Each one helps you more easily understand the next one.
• If you find something you enjoy, listen to it or read it more than once: you’ll acquire more English each time.
• Set aside regular time every day to be involved with English. You may not have several hours, like Adrian frequently does, but even 20 or 30 minutes a day will make a significant difference in two or three or more years.
• Let English become an important part of your life; embrace it; allow it to become “your” language. Think of yourself as an English user, even though your English is still emerging, or developing.

Learn from Adrian’s experience. Make English an important part of your life, make time for it, and enjoy both the experience and the results of reading and listening to interesting, understandable English.

Warren Ediger

Several years ago, Kyung-Sook Cho* taught an ESL class for a group of Korean women in the U.S. They were all in their thirties, they had lived in the U.S. for a number of years, and before coming to the U.S., they had studied English for many years in Korea. Unfortunately, they had made little progress.

Success at Sweet Valley High

Cho had an idea. She suggested that her students read books from the Sweet Valley High (SVH) series, by Francine Pascal, about twin sisters: good-girl Elizabeth and bad-girl Jessica.

Cho soon discovered that the SVH series, which were written for girls 12 and older, were too difficult for her students. They couldn’t read them without spending a lot of time looking words up in the dictionary. So she asked them to read Sweet Valley Twins books with the same characters when they 8-12 years old.

Once again, the books were too difficult. And once again, Cho had another suggestion: the Sweet Valley Kids series with the same characters at about 5-8 years old. Her students, all adults, became enthusiastic readers of the Sweet Valley Kids!

The ladies didn’t attend any ESL classes. They concentrated only on reading. Their vocabularies began to grow. Their friends began to notice how much their English had improved. And one of the ladies, who had never read for pleasure in English, read all 34 Sweet Valley Kidsbooks, many Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High books, and had moved on to romances by Danielle Steele and adventure novels by Sidney Sheldon, which are significantly more difficult! All in one year!

What can we learn from this story?

This story has several important lessons for English learners:

• Reading – and listening – have significant power to improve language skills.
• Begin with things that are interesting and easy to understand; slowly move up to more difficult things as your language ability improves.
• Practice narrow reading – reading books by the same author, books about the same subject.
• Don’t be afraid to begin with books that were written for youth or even younger readers. They can be an excellent place to begin: most of them are very interesting, and they are usually easier to understand. One of my students, who is a teaching assistant at a university, is enjoying The Hardy Boys series, popular books written for boys.

More about the Sweet Valley books

For more information about the complete Sweet Valley series, look here. Coming in 2011: a new book, Sweet Valley Confidential, the story of Jessica and Elizabeth as adults. Francine Pascal, the author, says, “I can guarantee they [readers of the other books in the series] will be very surprised. Actually, more like shocked.”

Warren Ediger

*Kyung-Sook Cho currently teaches at Busan National University of Education, Busan, Korea.
Reference: Krashen, Stephen D. (2004) The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research

Adrian was frustrated! Seven months earlier he had started an adult ESL class in his home country, Brazil. But it wasn’t working. His English wasn’t getting any better.

Why did Adrian quit?

This was unusual for Adrian. He’s used to success. He’s a full professor of law at one of the leading universities in Brazil. He teaches courses in constitutional law and philosophy of law. He contributes to books and writes articles in his native language, Portuguese.

What was the problem? Adrian memorized lists of vocabulary words. He took and passed all of the grammar tests. He talked in class when his teacher asked him to, even though it made him uncomfortable. He did everything he was asked to do, but his English wasn’t improving very much. So Adrian quit.

Adrian finds success

A few days later Adrian sat down at his computer, went to Google, and began to search for help. On a bilingual blog, he says he found this statement (definitions added):

Acquisition (picking up a language) requires meaningful interaction (involvement) in the target language – natural communication – in which speakers are not concerned with the form of their utterances (what they say) but with the messages they are conveying (communicating) and understanding.

Here’s the important part of that long sentence: we acquire, or pick up, a language when we understand it in natural communication – when we understand what people say or what they have written.

Adrian remembers thinking, “That makes sense!” If I cannot understand, how will I learn?”

Soon Adrian found the ESL Podcast and began to listen to it. He subscribed to the learning guide and began to read it. Later he found VOA Special English. Soon he was reading and listening to both whenever he had time.

A few months later, in a casual conversation, one of Adrian’s friends from the ESL class was amazed by his English. He asked Adrian where he was studying, and he said, “Man, I’m studying alone.”

How good is Adrian’s English? He tells me that about two years after he began this process, he decided to write an American professor at New York University about an article he had written. When he did, he received an answer. Adrian was ecstatic! It was the first time he had tried writing in English, and he was successful.

Today Adrian continues to read and listen. His English is good enough that he reads and listens to articles from the Economist. He listens to CNN Student News, the ESL Podcast, and VOA almost every day.

He enjoys reading John Grisham’s books because Grisham is an attorney, and his books are about attorneys and court cases. Since Adrian is an attorney, Grisham’s books are easier to understand.

Oh, I must not forget. Adrian also loves to read Spider Man comics!

Why was Adrian successful?

Adrian was successful because he spent his time reading and listening to interesting, easy-to-understand English. As his English got better, he moved to more difficult reading, like Grisham’s books and the Economist.

In three short years, Adrian’s English has improved significantly. Today he can use English to easily discuss almost anything, including his new favorite subject – how to acquire more English.

How does he feel about it?

Here’s what he says:

Studying English is a huge pleasure for me now. Reading in English opened a whole world and I feel that is only the beginning.

You could do the same!

Warren Ediger

Related reading: Frustration to Success – how he did it (part 2 of Adrian’s story)