An easier second attempt
Can you express the message in more connected phrases, rely less on prompts and recover when a word is missing? This shows progress within the practised task.
Ideas worth exploring
How do we learn
another language?
A short guide to influential thinkers, evolving approaches and the wider value of language learning. The classroom examples are my practical applications of these ideas.
UnderstandListening & reading for meaning
ExpressSpeaking & writing for meaning
StudyWords, grammar & pronunciation
Build fluencyUse familiar language more readily
Plan for all four across a course; an individual lesson can have a particular focus.
Nation (2007) · Read the source ↗Research → thoughtful practice
Fluency: finding your flow, keeping your meaning.
Professor Judit Kormos
More than a fast delivery
In everyday conversation, “fluent” can mean being generally proficient. In research on speaking, it often has a narrower meaning: how smoothly speech unfolds over time. Accuracy, vocabulary, intelligibility and interaction remain important, but they are not interchangeable measures.
Kormos and Mariann Dénes’s 2004 study examined 16 second-language learners. Speech rate, the length of speech runs and the proportion of speaking time helped predict teachers’ fluency judgements. Simply counting pauses did not explain those judgements. This small study gives useful insights, not a universal speed target.
Kormos & Dénes (2004) · Fluency measures and listener judgements ↗
01
Pace & continuityCan the message move forward in connected phrases?
02
Pauses & planningWhere does the learner need time to think or find language?
03
Repair & recoveryCan the learner rephrase, clarify and continue?
A classroom observation guide, not a scoring scale. A thoughtful pause or successful self-correction can help the listener.
How I put this into practice
We begin with a short, meaningful task: describe a school day, explain a work problem or tell a story. I listen for places where the message becomes difficult to sustain, choose one or two priorities and give you another opportunity to speak. We can compare brief recordings, with your agreement, and listen for clearer phrasing, more connected ideas and easier recovery.
Useful phrases, preparation time and repeated tasks can reduce the burden of building every sentence from scratch. In research with Craig Lambert and Danny Minn, Kormos found immediate same-task repetition associated with gains in oral fluency. We then vary the situation to check whether the language is available beyond a rehearsed answer; improvement on one task alone does not establish lasting transfer.
Lambert, Kormos & Minn (2017) · Task repetition and speech processing ↗
The aim: speech that is easier to produce and follow, with room for your accent, personality and thinking time. Fluency work sits alongside our checks on pronunciation, intonation, grammar, syntax and register.
Understanding the obstacles
“I understand it. Why can’t I say it?”
Knowing and using are different demands
Recognising a phrase or explaining a rule is different from retrieving it while deciding what to say, listening to someone else and preparing a response. Fluency practice creates opportunities for familiar language to become more readily available in real time.
In de Jong and Perfetti’s study of 24 learners, gains from speaking practice were maintained on later tests only by the group that repeated its speeches. The researchers interpreted this as evidence of proceduralisation: knowledge becoming easier to use through practice.
de Jong & Perfetti (2011) · Speech repetition and fluency development ↗
A difficulty is information, not a verdict
A learner can speak comfortably about a familiar interest and hesitate in an unfamiliar meeting. Topic knowledge, task demands, access to language and the conditions of the conversation all deserve attention.
I begin by listening to what happens in a real task. The possibilities below guide that conversation; they are not a diagnosis or a claim that everyone stalls for the same reason.
| Possible obstacle | What we may notice | My teaching response |
|---|---|---|
| Understanding without enough retrieval | Words feel familiar on a page, but are hard to find in conversation. | Pair useful input with short speaking tasks. Protect student talking time and gradually reduce prompts. |
| Too much to manage at once | An unfamiliar topic, new grammar and word-by-word translation compete for attention. | Start with familiar content and useful phrases. Add one new challenge at a time. Use another language strategically when it helps understanding. |
| Pressure to get every word right | Checking and restarting every sentence makes it difficult to complete the message. | Separate a period of uninterrupted communication from focused correction. Agree when feedback will be most useful. |
| Practice that stops at one performance | A prepared answer improves, but a new question or a later conversation remains difficult. | Repeat after feedback, vary the question or audience, and return to the language on another day. |
| Feedback without another attempt | The learner understands the correction but has not yet used it. | Choose one or two priorities, then say something again that needs the improved language. |
These are my practical teaching responses, informed by the fluency and practice research linked here. Read about STT, TTT and purposeful methodology →
Confidence and engagement belong in the plan. If speaking feels exposing, we can begin with preparation, a personally meaningful topic and a supportive listener. The challenge grows as participation becomes more manageable. You do not have to feel completely confident before taking a useful first step. Explore engagement →
Beyond a rehearsed performance
Progress you can hear—and use.
We compare what you can do with your own starting point. Recordings, where agreed, or simple observation notes can help us hear change. The comparison is most useful when the task difficulty and support are similar.
A fresh question
Can you respond when the details, listener or question change? We look for flexible use of the language, beyond remembering one answer.
A later conversation
Can you return to the language after a gap and use it again? We revisit goals over time, alongside accuracy, intelligibility and successful communication.
A faster delivery is useful only if the message remains clear. Natural pauses, an individual accent and occasional repair are compatible with effective communication. There is no single words-per-minute target or fixed number of lessons that proves someone is “fluent”.
See the practical fluency routine →Attention · challenge · purpose
Engagement: absorbed in something worth doing.
Positive Education in a language lesson
In Seligman’s PERMA model, engagement concerns the use of attention, strengths and skills in a challenging activity. It can include “flow”: deep absorption when challenge and skill are well matched, with a clear goal and feedback. A learner can be quietly absorbed as well as visibly enthusiastic.
Why it matters for progress
My practical aim is sustained participation: listening closely, making choices, attempting a message and acting on feedback. Enjoyable activities need a language-learning purpose. A demanding task can also be engaging when the learner understands its value and has enough support.
Engagement creates opportunities to learn; it does not guarantee a grade. We look for evidence in what the learner understands and can do afterwards.
Language-education research also uses engagement in a broader sense. Philp and Duchesne describe cognitive, behavioural, social and emotional dimensions: how learners think, participate, connect and feel during a task. I consider all four when reviewing a lesson; flow is one possible experience, not a requirement for every successful activity.
Philp & Duchesne (2016) · Engagement in language tasks ↗
A reasonSomething I want to communicateA reachable challengeSupport, choice and room to stretchA responseFeedback I can use in the next attempt
My lesson-design application of these ideas, rather than a measured formula for success.
For children: design an ideal school day, choose subjects and persuade a partner. Pictures and useful question stems support the exchange; the learner still makes the decisions.
For adults: solve a familiar work problem, negotiate priorities or prepare for a real conversation. We adjust the challenge as the language becomes more accessible.
A PERMAH lens for a sustainable learning experience
Positive emotion
Curiosity and small moments of enjoyment make participation inviting.
Engagement
Give your attention to a meaningful task with an achievable challenge.
Relationships
Practise with a partner who listens, encourages and responds.
Meaning
Connect the task to a person, ambition or situation you care about.
Accomplishment
Notice a specific improvement and identify your next step.
Health
Build a sustainable routine, with breaks and realistic demands on energy.
PERMA is Seligman’s five-part wellbeing framework. PERMAH adds health in educational applications, including the Winmalee High School example shared with me. The language-learning examples here are my own; this is a planning lens, not a claim that a language course produces every wellbeing outcome.
Evidence → action
Three habits that make practice count.
1. Repeat, then vary
Revisit a speaking task after focused feedback. Once the message is easier to express, change the audience, details or problem. This separates familiarity with one answer from being able to use the language more flexibly.
Try it: explain yesterday’s school day, improve one feature, then explain a different day without a script.
Lambert, Kormos & Minn (2017) · Task repetition and speech processing ↗
2. Space your return to the language
Spread practice across occasions rather than relying only on one long session. Kim and Webb’s meta-analysis supports spaced second-language practice, while showing that outcomes depend on the task and learning conditions.
Try it: recall useful phrases the next day, revisit them later in the week and bring them into the next conversation. Adjust the intervals to what you retain.
Kim & Webb (2022) · Meta-analysis of spaced second-language practice ↗
3. Plan, monitor, evaluate
Choose a concrete goal, check how your strategy is working and decide what to change. The EEF’s school-learning evidence supports explicitly teaching these self-regulation routines; it is broader educational evidence, not a promise for every adult language course.
Try it: “I will justify an opinion, notice where I get stuck, then practise one better way to continue.”
Education Endowment Foundation · Metacognition and self-regulation ↗
Meet some influential thinkers
Big names. Practical questions.
Understandable input
Stephen Krashen
Krashen proposed that acquisition is supported by language we can understand, with new elements within reach. His influential hypotheses also drew attention to emotional barriers.
My classroom applicationChoose a comprehensible story or dialogue; support it with context, then check the message.
Interaction & negotiation
Michael Long
Long’s interaction hypothesis focuses on what happens when people work to understand each other: clarification, feedback and adjustments to the message.
My classroom applicationUse information gaps that give learners a reason to ask, clarify and confirm.
Learning through output
Merrill Swain
Swain proposed that producing language can help learners notice gaps, test a way of expressing meaning and reflect on language with others.
My classroom applicationAsk for an explanation, notice what is missing and try an improved version.
Izumi and colleagues (1999) · Testing the output hypothesis ↗
Noticing & attention
Richard Schmidt
Schmidt’s noticing hypothesis highlights attention to features in the language we encounter. It offers a reason to help learners spot a useful pattern.
My classroom applicationCompare two requests, notice the wording and use the pattern in a fresh exchange.
Richard Schmidt (1990) · Consciousness in language learning ↗
A balanced language diet
Paul Nation
Nation’s four strands bring together meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, deliberate attention to language and fluency development across a course.
My classroom applicationBalance listening and reading with speaking and writing, focused study and reuse of familiar language.
Motivation & the future self
Zoltán Dörnyei
Dörnyei explored how a learner’s imagined future as a language user, expectations and learning experiences relate to motivation.
My classroom applicationPicture a personally meaningful conversation, then turn that aim into a small practice goal.
Emotions in the language classroom
Jean-Marc Dewaele & Peter MacIntyre
Their research explores enjoyment and anxiety as distinct experiences that can coexist. Feeling challenged and enjoying a lesson are not mutually exclusive.
My classroom applicationOffer preparation, a supportive response to mistakes and tasks that invite participation.
These are concise introductions to influential proposals and research programmes, rather than settled rules or endorsements of this service. The sources include original work and research examining the proposals. Some publishers provide an abstract or preview; full-text access may require a subscription.
From rules to real-world use
A timeline of teaching ideas.
Periods overlap and adoption varies by country. New approaches have added possibilities; earlier practices have often continued.
- 0119th century
Grammar–translation
Rules, written texts and translation take centre stage.
In my lessons: I retain useful language comparison and clear explanations, alongside listening and speaking.
Richards & Rodgers · Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching ↗
- 02Late 19th–early 20th century
The Direct Method
Spoken interaction and meaning demonstrated in the target language become prominent.
In my lessons: Objects, images and context support understanding; another language can still be used when helpful.
Richards & Rodgers · Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching ↗
- 031940s–1960s
Audiolingual approaches
Habit formation, model dialogues and repeated sentence patterns shape practice.
In my lessons: Short drills help rehearse form and sound; meaningful choices make the language usable.
Richards & Rodgers · Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching ↗
- 041970s onwards
Communicative language teaching
Successful communication becomes a central goal, with tasks that exchange information and express intentions.
In my lessons: Accuracy matters alongside appropriateness, meaning and the ability to keep a conversation going.
- 051980s onwards
Input & the Natural Approach
Understandable messages and conditions for acquisition receive renewed attention.
In my lessons: Rich, accessible input sits alongside interaction, explanation and guided practice.
- 061980s–1990s onwards
Task-based language teaching
Learning is organised around an outcome: solve a problem, plan an event or reach a decision.
In my lessons: A task creates a need for language; preparation, feedback and attention to form support it.
Richards & Rodgers · Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching ↗
- 072001 / 2020 milestones
CEFR & action-oriented learning
The CEFR and its Companion Volume foreground purposeful action; the later volume expands mediation and plurilingual perspectives.
In my lessons: Learners act as social agents, cooperate and help others understand information.
- 082000s–today
Connected, reflective learning
Digital media and online interaction widen the materials and people learners can work with.
In my lessons: My approach: choose technology by its purpose, combine methods thoughtfully and check what the learner can do.
Evidence with a human purpose
Languages, opportunity
& a richer everyday life.
A skill employers ask for.
22%
of the online job vacancies analysed explicitly requested English.
22 out of every 100 in the dataset
OECD study of 2021 online vacancies across the EU-27 and the UK, published in 2023. This historical snapshot measures demand in job adverts, not a learner’s chance of employment or a salary premium. Other adverts may leave language expectations unstated.
Enjoying the process matters.
Enjoyment of language learning
Associated with
More willingnessto communicate
Higher achievementin language learning
The 2022 meta-analysis found moderate positive associations with both. It supports taking the learner’s emotional experience seriously.
An association does not establish cause and effect. Enjoyment in language lessons is not the same as overall happiness or proof of improved mental health.
Bring the benefit into the lesson.
For work, we can rehearse the conversations a role demands. For personal enjoyment, we can build around a topic you love. For a young learner, we can turn curiosity into a question they want to ask. Your goals give the evidence a practical direction.
Another language. Another way of seeing.
- 01Meet a different perspective
Listen to a real voice, compare a school day or explore a workplace custom.
- 02Ask before assuming
Check what someone means. Notice tone and context; look beyond national stereotypes.
- 03Respond with understanding
Adapt your words, explain a viewpoint or help two people understand each other.
My teaching application of purposeful communication and mediation: opportunities to practise perspective-taking, rather than a promise that language study automatically changes someone’s attitudes.
Explore the wider educational context: OECD, UNESCO and national bodies
National & international perspectives
Why languages matter in our lives.
Communication, participation, curiosity and the ability to work with other people all give language learning a wider purpose.
OECD
Connection & opportunity
The OECD highlights intercultural understanding and links between language skills, further education and employability. Language gives people more ways to participate across borders.
What that means hereWe practise communicating with a particular person, purpose and cultural context in mind.
OECD Learning Compass 2030
Agency, reflection & wider skills
This educational framework connects knowledge, skills, attitudes and values with learner agency and individual and collective wellbeing. It is an aspirational framework, not a test of a language course.
What that means hereLearners set a goal, take action, reflect and decide what to try next. This is my application of the framework.
UNESCO
Inclusion & multilingual lives
UNESCO’s multilingual education work values learners’ languages and access to education they can understand. Its focus is broader than foreign-language tuition.
What that means hereExisting languages are resources. Comparison and mediation can help us make meaning together.
Council of Europe
Doing things with language
The action-oriented approach treats learners as social agents, using language together to accomplish meaningful purposes, including mediation.
What that means hereExplain a message for someone else, negotiate a plan or create something for a real audience.
Department for Education · England
Curiosity & cultural understanding
The languages curriculum connects communication with curiosity about other cultures and preparation for further study and work.
What that means hereBuild practical expression alongside stories, cultural comparison and the confidence to ask questions.
Skills with a place to practise.
Communication & collaboration
Ask for clarification, take turns, disagree politely and work towards a shared decision.
Perspective & problem-solving
Compare interpretations, adapt a message for an audience and find another way to explain an idea.
Self-management & reflection
Plan practice, retrieve language, respond to feedback and recognise the next achievable step.
These are opportunities built into the activities. Progress in a language task does not automatically establish a general improvement in intelligence or every area of life.
Keeping the claims in proportion
Enjoyment, belonging
and the confidence to take part.
What the research reports
A 2022 meta-analysis by Botes, Dewaele and Greiff found moderate positive associations between foreign-language enjoyment, willingness to communicate and achievement, and a moderate negative association with language anxiety.
These are correlations. They do not prove that enjoyment causes higher achievement, that language study improves overall wellbeing, or that a course treats anxiety.
What I aim to make possible
A lesson can offer meaningful contact, a sense of progress and the satisfaction of expressing something that matters. I aim to create those opportunities through relevant topics, supportive interaction and achievable challenge.
The OECD Learning Compass places wellbeing within a broad educational vision. It helps frame our aspirations; it does not establish a specific mental-health effect of learning French, German, Italian or English.
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