I’ve been following an online debate, discussion, argument, and near p*ssing contest between a few people over which is the best method for learning languages. I think it’s great that people debate these things that shake long-held beliefs over what is the most effective learning system for acquiring languages. Input vs. output; speaking first; reading & listening first; grammar-translation; communicative; audio-lingual; etc…
I’m a follower of both Benny and Steve (no, I’m not hedging!) I think the fact that both of them have opened up the debate is great for language learning, while the personal attacks are not. I suppose attacking someone’s learning method tends to feel like a personal attack. It’s too bad that this is what online debates tend to spiral into.
While I may be stating the obvious, I think it needs to be said again: the best method of learning a language is the one that works for you.
If you love grammar, do grammar-translation. If you are passionate about foreign movies and music, use both as much as possible. If you’re a gamer, use games as a window into your target language. What’s the common denominator? Your interests are what will interest you and keep you motivated.
My interest in any language is food. I can focus on a Korean soup recipe far more than a descriptive table on past tense usage for action verbs. I used to subscribe to RSS feeds of a Yahoo Japanese page that updated restaurant reviews in Japan. I was fixated on that every morning.
My advice? Follow these language debates from a distance, but don’t dive into them and get stuck on the ground. Any time you’re spending tangled in linguistic debates over methods and strategies is time you’re not spending achieving your linguistic goals. If that’s your thing, cool — stick with it and debate all you want. Personally, I hate to see things get personal, and would rather spend time moving forward towards my personal language goals. Cheers.
