Passive English Learning

English or whatever foreign language we want to learn can be acquired not only at school but also in many different social contexts.If one is willing and has a specific talent of getting to learn English, for example, nothing can stop him/her in the process.

Nowadays, English has become one of the most important international languages in terms of international communication. English is seen as the language of the entire world, is the language that connects the people in tourism, business, marriage, music, films, theatre, arts, mass-media, school and many other domains. Therefore, I decided that this article will deal with the ability of children and people in general, in the way that they can passively absorb a second language.

There are groups of learners who are not so engaged in English classes taken at school and enjoy learning a foreign language more by simply watching different TV channels, a movie in English or by listening to an English song. As far as I am concerned, I also agree with these second passive language acquisitions but as long as we combine both ways of improving a foreign language they would become more effective and sustainable for a longer period of time and I would honestly give myself as an example of how someone can develop better in producing English fluency and I should try to tell how this made happen. It just simply occurred due to the fact that since I was very young I loved music in terms of singing and listening to it and all these things made me read in my free time those “Bravo” magazines which were dedicated to teenagers in the early 2000’s of Romania. Thus, they offered me the chance to learn the lyrics of famous English songs that were there written as we did not have computers, Google technology and YouTube channels to perform and develop ourselves better as nowadays’ teenagers do have. In this way, I started to improve myself in English and later realised that learning the lyrics of particular songs with the only purpose of knowing better those songs from that period made myself improve more in learning passively English vocabulary. In other words, I can say that through music I got to learn English. Personally, I consider that music is a good way to start learning a second language as it is, English.

Talking about songs, they are absolutely ideal for language learning as children love them and will want to hear them over and over again- also perfect for vocabulary acquisition and language learning.We may have noticed that if we expect our children or pupils to sit still and listen to ourselves while we are showing them flashcards, we will not have their attention for long. Therefore, it is needed to get learners since they are very young in activities which involve listening songs as they subconsciously will be able to formulate expressions from that particular songs by the end of the audition.

Successful ESL teaching is all about variety, movement and using resources that appeal to young children.

Young children love games, they love stories and songs. Singing makes students happy and even happier if they have to sing in English and would also make teachers’ work easier as this provokes students to learn inductively the grammar structure which is quite important in terms of improving their English language. Moreover, bringing enjoyable activities to the classroom will be helping students to learn successfully.

 

prof. Elena-Ștefania Radi

Școala Gimnazială Slătioara (Vâlcea) , România
Profil iTeach: iteach.ro/profesor/elena.radi

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