Browsing my Twine feeds I came across a study claiming to revolutionize language learning. According to some research carried out at Victoria University (NZ), the most efficient method to learn a foreign language is by constant exposure to sounds in that target language, even if the learner doesn’t understand them or know what they mean.

Well…WOW…Quite a statement, isn’t it?

The researcher thinks that many language teachers won’t accept this theory. I’m a language teacher, and even though I believe there are many unknown and mysterious ways in our brains (that’s why I’m leery of ruling out any theory), I think this won’t explain why after living for years in Spain, most of the British and German citizens enjoying their retirement days in our coasts can’t (or won’t) speak a word in Spanish. I do definitely believe that frequent exposure to the target language DOES help…a lot (what’s the percentage of relevance and importance? 60? 70? 80?). But it might take something else. I’m not sure whether my parents are going to learn English faster just by watching  Aprende Inglés with R. Vaughan everyday (listening to a man or a woman talking non-stop with no interaction at all). Language is more than a string of arbitrary signs, it’s a social act. I’m sure I’d probably agree with Sulzberger point of view, but he should also take into account that language learning is a field where a) “experts” are very keen on magnifying effects and who easily discard a given method in favor of a “better one” just like that, in a split second, and all of a sudden there’s no other method than that, every single language school will either adopt it or die because learners (or parents) will be  requesting it;  b) can anyone remember audiolingualism days?

Probably the statement (grounded on Chomsky’s theories?) works best when we are babies because the brain is still forming the wires, we are exposed to the language since the fetus stage. I read once a report  (from Science) that said something like this: as babies we all are language universalists (indeed, the neural wires are still forming as Dr. Sulzberger also claims, we can distinguish all the sounds we hear) while as adults, we all are language specialists (by growing up exposed to a native language, we are specializing ourselves in that language’s sounds, reducing our ability to distinguish different sounds from other languages). It also depends on when, because that will also affect the place where we store that foreign language, i.e. in that area of the brain where our mother tongue is wired or somewhere else (i.e. uniform or divided Wernicke and Broca areas?) and the location of these spots may vary from one person to another.