There are more than 6,000 thousand languages ​​in the world. Some of them are more important, not better or more developed than others, but more important. Why? Because more people speak them. This does not mean that Finnish is not important to Finns or Turkish to Turks. These languages ​​are just not that important to the rest of the world.

On the other hand, Chinese is spoken by over a billion people. In addition, 60% of Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese words come from Chinese. Knowing Chinese will help you in learning these languages. The Chinese economy is developing rapidly, so knowing Chinese can be very useful.

Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and French belong to the same group of languages ​​and are derived from Latin. Once you learn one of them, you can easily learn the others. Knowing Spanish opens doors to culture, history, music and business with 800 million people in 60 countries.

There is no need to talk about the benefits of learning English - now it is one of the most widespread languages ​​in the world, spoken throughout Europe, America, Australia, and part of the eastern countries. The entertainment industry is born in the USA, most films and songs are in English. In addition, English has become the language of the Internet. All companies, even if they launch a website in a local language, subsequently add an English interface. Imagine what a huge world will open up for you if you know English?

Many people want to learn a language, but are faced with the fact that they fail. Most often this happens because they believe in the following beliefs that interfere with learning a foreign language.

Learning a foreign language is difficult

Learning a language is only difficult if you don't want to. Learning a language takes some time, but it is not difficult. For the most part, you only need to listen and read. Soon you begin to feel the satisfaction of understanding another language. Most often at school and in courses, teachers try to force the student to speak when he still does not know anything. This is what makes learning a language so difficult.

Must have a flair for languages

No no need. Anyone who wants to learn the language can. In Sweden and Holland, most people speak more than one language. They can't all be so gifted. It is not the inclination towards the language that is important, but the attitude towards learning it.

You need to live in the country of the language you are learning

Look at the foreigners who come to live in our country - do they all speak perfect Russian? It's good if it's a quarter. However, it is quite easy to meet a person who speaks perfect English. Now that you have the Internet at your disposal, it is very easy to read and listen to English in the original. Where you live is not an obstacle at all.

Only children can learn a foreign language perfectly

Recent studies of the brain have shown that it remains flexible into old age. Let's take people who are losing their sight. They learn Braille easily. Adults have more, it is easier for them to understand complex grammatical phenomena, so they are able to learn a foreign language much better and faster than children. The only thing adults need is a child's interest and lack of fear of being ridiculed.

Learning a language requires a rigorous classroom environment

This is the main problem. The classroom is a cost-effective way to learn and an opportunity to meet new people. This way of teaching is considered traditional and respected. It's just a pity that this is the worst place to learn a language. The more students there are in a classroom, the less effective the classes are. Languages ​​cannot be taught, they can be learned. Theoretical grammatical explanations are difficult to understand, remember, and even more difficult to use. The same type of exercises quickly gets boring. It is especially difficult to do all this in the classroom, as evidenced by the dismal results of our graduates who cannot communicate in the language after 10 years of studying it.

You have to speak to learn a foreign language

Usually speaking a language is the goal of learning it, but speaking can wait. Once you are comfortable enough with the language, you will find opportunities to communicate. But when you're just learning, it's important to listen more. If you just learn a couple of useful phrases, you will neither be able to understand your interlocutor nor maintain a conversation. One must not speak in order to learn, but study in order to speak.

I would like to learn a foreign language, but I don't have time

What about the time you spend in line, in public transport, doing housework, walking? Why not take this time to listen to the audio course on your player or read a brochure? If you start with 10-15 minutes a day, and if you really want to learn a language, you will soon find that you already have half an hour to an hour a day to study a foreign language. And this is quite enough to achieve a good result!

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Abilities for foreign languages ​​are, of course, special abilities. But within the framework of this concept, attempts are also being made to identify certain types of it. It is proposed, for example, to distinguish between speech abilities (ability for practical mastery of foreign languages) and linguistic abilities (ability for research work in the field of linguistics). From the point of view of psychological science, of course, the ability to master foreign languages ​​is of greater interest, although such a division should be considered rather arbitrary. It is not easy to imagine a person who has linguistic abilities, but is not able to master several foreign languages. Most likely, the exact opposite statement will also be true: with proper motivation, a person who speaks many foreign languages ​​will be able to make a certain contribution to linguistics.

First of all, it is necessary to consider the totality of those cognitive operations (components of special abilities) that distinguish the most successful students. Researchers have identified a relatively small number of them. Most often, the importance of developed verbal memory is noted, which ensures the rapid formation of verbal associations, their mobility and rate of association, and the effective learning of foreign words along with their equivalents in the native language. High sensitivity to the functions of words in a sentence, speed and ease of formation of functional linguistic generalizations also occupy an important place in this list. And finally, the third group of components covers imitation speech abilities, auditory differential sensitivity, and plasticity of the articulatory apparatus.

A special role in predicting abilities in foreign languages ​​is given to the level of speech development achieved by a person in his native language. After all, people master it in childhood, use it in speech and mental activity, and at first glance it seems that all native speakers have approximately the same level. However, if you ask a randomly selected group of people to name as many words as possible in three minutes, or to come up with a sentence that necessarily includes three of the proposed words, differences will quickly appear. But when mastering the vocabulary of a foreign language, coding and mediation are carried out on the basis of updating stable interword associative connections, reflecting the organization of the native language system. For people who speak several foreign languages, when learning new vocabulary, there is a comparison of the structures of different languages, which, when memorizing, manifests itself in the mediation of material on the basis of previously acquired foreign language systems. For this reason, it is not uncommon for professional simultaneous interpreters who speak several foreign languages ​​to continue translating after some hesitation, but into another language, without noticing it at all.

It should also be emphasized that abilities are a dynamic phenomenon that develops in the process of engaging in relevant activities. In the process of mastering languages, the development of abilities is primarily manifested in the specifics of the organization of verbal memory and the nature of the relationships between language systems. This fact was experimentally confirmed during a comparative analysis of the process of mastering a completely unfamiliar language by people with obviously different levels of proficiency in foreign languages. The experimental group consisted of persons with higher philological education, fluent in several foreign languages ​​and 5th year students of language universities, numbering 9 people aged 22-30 years. Hypothetically, thanks to active foreign language speech activity, they should have developed a specific psychophysiological speech organization that would ensure the rapid formation of skills and abilities when mastering a new language system. The control group consisted of 12 people aged 20-30 years who did not have a special philological education. As one might expect, philologist subjects were more successful in learning artificial words. It took them significantly fewer presentations to learn the words. Apparently, people who speak several foreign languages ​​have more opportunities in terms of sound and semantic differentiation through the use of stable interverbal connections of foreign language systems, greater activity, expressed in the use of various private methods of organizing and mediating the material. Its subjective organization was carried out on the basis of grammatical classification (division into nouns, adjectives, verbs). The success of memorization was facilitated by composing complete sentences from several artificial words. The meanings of words denoting animals were easily learned. The subjects conditionally assigned nicknames to the animals that corresponded to the given artificial equivalents. One might think that the specific speech organization of those who speak several languages ​​represents a unified system of interverbal neural connections within individual language systems, as well as external urgently formed connections between the structures of multilingual systems.

Diagnosing abilities in foreign languages ​​involves searching for more specific indicators based on the set of cognitive operations discussed above. Their number depends to a certain extent on the authors’ points of view on the process and result of learning foreign languages. Among the most common are: a) the pace and strength of learning foreign words along with their equivalents in the native language; b) the speed of formation of associations and associative systems; c) probabilistic forecasting; d) characteristics of an individual dictionary in their native language; e) quality of sound discrimination; f) the effectiveness of establishing language rules and generalizing language material.

Evidence of the existence of special abilities for languages ​​could also come from clinical data on speech restoration in polyglots. However, numerous hypotheses regarding which of them may be the least susceptible to damage or which recovers faster after a brain injury or disease are quite contradictory. In one study, for example, a patient who was fluent in German, Farsi, and English did not speak at all for the first week after injury. Then for five days he used a little Farsi, and for the next three weeks he spoke only German, even if he was addressed in Farsi. Then suddenly he spoke Farsi again, and four days later he had complete control of all three languages. The conclusion is that the violation is possible separately for each language, and any of them can be selectively used as a means of communication in a certain period of time. There is evidence in the literature that the specifics of language recovery after brain injury depend on factors such as the cerebral representation of the second language, teaching method, level of language proficiency, and individual cognitive style. It seems that the use of nuclear magnetic resonance promises significant opportunities for understanding the phenomenon, when it will be possible to conclude which parts of the polyglot’s brain are most active when using different languages.

ABILITIES TO STUDY FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND FEATURES OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT IN THE PROCESS OF TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT A TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Komarova Elena Vasilievna 1, Shadova Alexandra Sergeevna 2
1 Penza State University of Architecture and Construction, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Foreign Languages
2 Penza State University of Architecture and Construction, student

THE ABILITIES TO LEARN FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND THE PECULIARITIES OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT IN THE COURSE OF TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN A TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL

Komarova Elena Vasiljevna 1, Shadova Alexandra Sergeevna 2
1 Penza State University of Architecture and Construction, PhD in Philology, English instructor of the Department of Foreign Languages
2 Penza State University of Architecture and Construction, Student

Bibliographic link to the article:
Komarova E.V., Shadova A.S. Abilities for learning foreign languages ​​and features of their development in the process of teaching a foreign language at a technical university // Modern scientific research and innovation. 2015. No. 5. Part 4 [Electronic resource]..03.2019).

The effectiveness of the educational process presupposes not only that students acquire deep knowledge of a foreign language, but also the productive use of this knowledge, that is, it is assumed that students should know where and how they can use the acquired knowledge.

Currently, communication in a foreign language is an important component of a future specialist, so the task of forming and developing abilities in foreign languages ​​is of extreme interest. If in the course of teaching a foreign language it was possible to develop abilities in this subject, then as a result both intermediate and final levels of proficiency in foreign language speech would significantly increase.

Achieving higher productivity in practical lessons in a foreign language, the teacher must take into account various factors, among which the result of the influence of emotional states that can stimulate students’ oral speech is of great importance. Intense and interesting work in practical classes creates and maintains a good mood in students, which affects the effectiveness of the educational process.

Abilities should be understood as individual psychological characteristics that determine the ease and speed of acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities within a specific area. When specifying this definition, great difficulties arise, since the success and dynamics of mastering a foreign language are practically influenced by all the individual psychological characteristics of the student. The fundamental influence in this case is exerted by the type of nervous activity of the student, such characteristics as the degree of stability of psychological processes, the plasticity of nervous tissue, the direction of mental activity (introversion - extroversion), etc. The stability of mental processes ensures concentration of attention. The plasticity (or rigidity) of the nervous system, as a decisive factor, determines the degree of ease of formation of new speech connections; it is much more difficult for an introvert to engage in foreign language communication than for an extrovert.

The temperament of students has a great influence: A foreign language teacher could wish for more sanguine students among his students, who, as is known, are distinguished by high reactivity and activity, plasticity of nervous activity and pronounced extroversion. The success of language acquisition is influenced by individual psychological characteristics related to all aspects of activity and cognitive processes, for example, features of attention, perception, memory, imagination, etc.

However, it is clear that the ability to speak foreign languages ​​represents a specific set of certain mental properties. Ability to learn a foreign language requires:

1) successful management by the student himself of the processes of internal translation until its disappearance;

2) quick, durable and complete memorization of foreign language verbal material;

3) implementation of the widest transfer of acquired language units and speech actions to changed conditions;

4) distribution of attention between linguistic form and content.

The essence of mastering a foreign language lies in constant automation, curtailing internal translation up to its elimination. A person masters a foreign language to the extent that he manages to replace the sequentially carried out internal translation with the simultaneous stimulation of linguistic and speech units of the native and foreign languages, taking into account their differential characteristics. At the same time, he learns to “discipline” his thought, that is, to form it using the means of his native language, but in strict accordance with his abilities to recode it into a foreign language.

It is well known that the ability to learn foreign languages ​​is directly dependent on students’ predisposition to quickly, easily, accurately and firmly memorize foreign language verbal material. It is in the processes of memorization that the differences between students are especially pronounced. This primarily applies to voluntary memorization.

Individual psychological differences ultimately appear to affect the characteristics of long-term memory, however, the development of working memory is also of great importance for language acquisition. Operational memorization is a process that serves the current actions of students when solving specific problems. With poorly developed RAM, for example, even well-thought-out series of preparatory exercises for the final speech task may be ineffective. The success of the process of internal speech anticipation and retention and, consequently, the ability of students to construct phrases of the required length depends on the development of short-term memory. The “ability” of students to imitate largely goes back to memory. A good memory is an indispensable condition for managing internal translation in order to replace it: the success of such management largely depends on the number of remembered foreign language “speech fragments” and their maximum use in speech.

Speech activity in a foreign language is impossible without the constant transfer of acquired language material and speech actions to new conditions. Transfer occurs at all levels of language, in all types of speech activity. The learner's predisposition to transference is physiologically related to the plasticity of his nervous system. Psychologically, it is determined by the general level of development of the student’s mental activity, in particular, by his ability to generalize: in order to carry out the transfer of a linguistic sign or speech action to a new situation, it is necessary to highlight the categorical commonality between the new and previous conditions of their functioning and abstract from the distinctive elements, in other words , need to be categorized and differentiated.

To successfully master a language, a student must be able to distribute his attention between the linguistic design of an utterance and its content. Such distribution is necessary at all stages of learning, and a predisposition to it greatly facilitates and accelerates the acquisition of all aspects of language, all types of speech activity.

From the very beginning, students establish an optimal balance between the conscious and unconscious in the production of speech. They are able to “construct” their statements using language rules; They have highly developed self-control. One of the main reasons preventing low-ability students from successfully mastering a foreign language is their inability to rely on rules in their speech activity; such students do not develop compressed and increasingly compressed techniques of “conscious design”; therefore, they are usually unable to participate in foreign language speech communication. For some students, telling the rule and a few examples is enough for them to use this linguistic phenomenon in speech; for others, this requires a large number of special exercises.

For students capable of foreign languages, the predisposition to manage internal translation processes is “set” and then develops spontaneously; those less capable must be taught this. This goal is served by all techniques and exercises that link in the students’ consciousness the linguistic and speech units of their native language with their foreign language equivalents and contribute to the synchronization and curtailment of internal translation. Translation of students' own speech works into a foreign language is of great importance. These exercises should teach them to formulate their statements in their native language, taking into account the possibility of their easy and quick translation into a foreign language (teaching “discipline” of thought). In the same direction, there are exercises for presenting and annotating the content of texts, films, performances perceived in the native language, etc. All these exercises must be performed at a pace; transfer operations in them should, if possible, be worked out until they are synchronized. The condition for the effectiveness of these exercises is the speech orientation of most of them (they must prepare foreign language speech acts) and their organic combination with monolingual exercises. With these restrictions, the implementation of bilingual exercises is intended to make a significant contribution to the development of abilities in foreign languages, and the rejection of them contradicts the task of giving foreign language learning a developmental character.

The main emphasis is on involuntary memorization, while the actual development of memory requires learning rational techniques for performing “unveiled”, directly mnemonic tasks. Everything said speaks about the need for targeted development of students’ verbal memory in practical classes in a foreign language, which can be achieved through special training in memorization and memorization techniques.

Of no less importance for the indirect formation of abilities to learn a foreign language is the planned and systematic development of the “ability” of students to transfer acquired language material and speech actions to changed conditions. It involves revealing to students at each point of learning possible types of transfer, their understanding of its meaning and specific structure, students’ independent consideration of the possibilities of transfer and its proactive implementation.

All of the above applies equally to all aspects of language and types of speech activity. In the field of vocabulary, for example, this means the conscious inclusion of a lexical unit in certain semantic and other categories, its correlation with the category (or categories) of combined units, with a list of situations of its possible use and, conversely, the correlation of a speech situation with all lexical units that fit into it . When mastering the topic of oral speech, students must understand that from the linguistic and speech material of previously learned topics can be transferred to a new topic. Students' attention should be drawn to the possibility of transferring certain structures of activity to new but similar objects, for example, structures of presenting the content of a read text to a story about experienced events, etc. In the field of grammar, teaching transfer involves paying special attention to the systematization of material and the use of systematization results in exercises. As a result of such an emphasis in teaching, students become aware of connections and similarities between phenomena and categories of phenomena that are hidden at first glance, and they can develop a transfer mindset.

A special line in the formation of abilities in a foreign language should be teaching less capable students to distribute attention between linguistic design and the content of the statement. In this direction, there are exercises that involve conscious construction (and learning to construct) answers and solutions to communicative problems that are interesting to students. In this case, written speech exercises are called upon to play a special role, since they create favorable conditions for thinking about linguistic form and content.

The ways of indirect development of abilities to learn a foreign language outlined above involve the use of certain exercises in practical classes in a foreign language to bridge the gap between less capable and capable students in a foreign language.

My mother loves to remember how, at the age of 4-5, I would sit down with a book and “learn English” myself. The teacher of the intensive French course “from scratch” refused to believe that before that I had never studied French a day in my life. I learned to understand Portuguese without even opening a single textbook. In general, I am one of those who are considered “with abilities”, and today I want to debunk the myth of abilities.

1. Listen a lot

Listening is generally the simplest thing you can do with language. Headphones in your ears, and go about your business. Simply listening does not require any special willpower or extra time to practice. Everything happens in parallel with our daily activities.

Experts advise listening to foreign speech for at least three hours a day. At first glance, this figure seems monstrous, but I can confirm from my own experience that it is quite realistic. For example, I listened to Spanish audio courses on the way to university and back. In total, I spent three (and when there was an “unexpected” snowfall for Siberia, then all four) hours a day in transport.

How much time do you spend on the road? For example, in 2016 we are promised 247 working days. If you get to your place of work or school for at least an hour one way, then on weekdays alone you can listen to almost 500 hours of audio recordings. But on weekends, we also usually go somewhere.

If you work close to home, or right from home, or don’t work at all, it doesn’t matter. Physical exercise, house cleaning, and even blissful idleness on the couch can be perfectly combined with listening.

It is worth discussing separately what exactly to listen to. It is best to listen to live everyday speech, or training courses that are as close to it as possible. Audio lessons in which the speakers speak slowly and mournfully usually only make you feel sad and sleepy.

I also advise avoiding courses based on the Russian language. When our native language is interspersed with a foreign language, it does not allow our brain to tune in to the right wavelength. But learning one foreign language with the help of another one you already know is a great idea. For example, I found a wonderful audio course in Portuguese for Spanish speakers. Understanding Portuguese, starting from Spanish, turned out to be much easier than starting everything from scratch based on Russian.

2. Watch videos

Watching is like listening, only better!

Firstly, by watching native speakers from video materials, we not only learn words and phrases, we also absorb their facial expressions, gestures, and emotional states. These components are often overlooked, although in fact they play a huge role in language acquisition. To speak Spanish, you need to become a little Spanish yourself.

Photo source: Flickr.com

Secondly, when watching videos, we have more opportunities to learn new words from context. If when listening we rely only on hearing, then when working with video the whole picture helps you expand your vocabulary. It was in this way that in deep childhood we memorized the words of our native language.

I also want to talk separately about subtitles. Many “experts” have a negative attitude towards the practice of watching films with Russian subtitles, but I categorically disagree with them. Of course, in this case, our brain tries to follow the path of least resistance, that is, first of all, we read the text in our native language, and only on a residual basis we try to understand something by ear (but we are trying!).

I insist that watching films with Russian subtitles is a very important and necessary step for people with a low language level.

When we try to watch a film without subtitles, in which almost nothing is clear, it tires us very quickly, and we immediately want to quit “this is a disastrous business.” The same thing happens with foreign subtitles - we simply don’t have time to read them, constantly stumbling over unfamiliar words.

On the contrary, you can watch films with Russian subtitles from the very first day of learning the language. Then, as your language level improves, you can move on to watching films with foreign subtitles, and then “without crutches.” For example, I started watching Portuguese videos with Russian subtitles, not understanding a single word by ear. However, when the subtitles for these videos ended, it turned out that I could easily continue watching without them.

Finding time for watching a video is a little more difficult than for listening, because driving a car and watching a movie at the same time is unlikely to be possible. However, most of us, one way or another, watch something every day. You just need to take the same content and watch it in the language you're learning. Turn on foreign news (at the same time it will be interesting to know how they look at us “from there”), watch your favorite films and TV series in the original, subscribe to foreign language YouTube bloggers, etc.

3. Read everything you can read

To be honest, I started reading in foreign languages ​​not at all for the development of languages, but simply because, firstly, I love reading, and, secondly, I really like books themselves. Nikolai Zamyatkin in his treatise “It is impossible to teach you a foreign language” very accurately described the phenomenon associated with fiction: usually authors (most likely unconsciously) try to “stuff” the first chapters of their book with the most complex literary expressions, the smartest words and florid thoughts. If you have the patience to wade through these jungles, then you will find a completely normal “edible” text.

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So, at the “wild” stage, paper books really help me out: beautiful covers, the smell of paper, the rustling of pages - all this pleases and distracts me from complex grammatical structures. Before you know it, you find yourself in the center of a very exciting novel. In general, this is my little life hack - I read works of fiction in foreign languages ​​only in paper form. Electronically, I read mostly non-fiction in English. Such works are usually written in simple language and filled with useful practical information, so you can do without “entertainment”.

If you don’t like reading books in principle, then I don’t recommend tormenting yourself with it. Switch the language on your phone, tablet and laptop to the one you are studying (translate Facebook, VKontakte and all other sites where possible to it), subscribe to the profile of your favorite rock band on Twitter, read sports news and film reviews of the latest blockbusters in a foreign language , find a carrot cake recipe and bake it. In general, the principle remains the same everywhere - do what you love!

4. Communicate with native speakers

When I first started communicating with native Spanish speakers, my vocabulary allowed me to answer three questions: what is my name, how old am I, and what country am I from? It is clear that with such baggage one cannot count on even the slightest meaningful conversation. However, the Spanish language brought me such sincere childish delight that I wanted to start using it right here and now.

Now there are many sites that allow you to meet foreigners for language exchange: italki.com, interpals.net and others. But “in those distant times” I only had access to the Internet through a telephone line (which is not much different from its complete absence) and icq on my mobile. So ICQ helped me out. With her help, my first penfriends appeared from Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Spain...

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At first, each phrase was difficult. I had to painfully remember the necessary forms of verbs, select prepositions, look up nouns in the dictionary... But word by word, phrase by phrase - and now I could calmly discuss matters at school and at work, the vicissitudes of my personal life and, of course, eternal questions about frailty of life. It was in these simple correspondences that my active use of the Spanish language began.

However, writing is much easier than speaking. Firstly, we simply have time to think, better formulate a thought, look up the right word in the dictionary or remember how a verb is conjugated. In spoken language there is no such luxury. Secondly, unlike writing, speech is a physiological process. From birth we hear the sounds of our native language and a little later we learn to reproduce them. We train our articulatory apparatus every day, without holidays or weekends.

But when it comes to a foreign language, for some reason we forget about it. No matter how well we know grammar, no matter how rich our vocabulary, when we first open our mouths and try to speak a foreign language, what we get is not at all what we wanted to say. After all, our vocal cords are not trained at all, they are not accustomed to reproducing the sounds of a foreign language. This is why it is very important to find someone to talk to. For example, at first I communicated with Spanish-speaking friends on Skype, then I met with volunteers who had been brought to our Siberian hinterland from Latin America, and went on trips around Spain.

By the way, communicating with native speakers is much more pleasant than communicating with a strict teacher in the fifth grade. If a teacher scolds you for mistakes and gives you bad grades, then foreigners are usually very flattered that a person from another country is trying to speak their language.

As Nelson Mandela said: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.” If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” (“If you speak to a person in a language he understands, you speak to his mind. If you speak to him in his native language, you speak to his heart.”)

5. Finally, grammar!

And only now, when we complete all (or at least several) of the points listed above, will the grammar reference book turn from a terrifying enemy into our friend. I firmly believe that it is impossible to learn a language from textbooks. Language is a living system that has developed over many centuries, under the influence of territorial, socio-economic and other factors. Language can be compared to a river, which makes its way where it is natural and convenient.

All grammatical rules are formulated after the fact. Rules are not the basis of the language, but just an attempt to explain it and find some patterns. That is why for every rule there are a bunch of exceptions, and the rules themselves often look very vague and far-fetched.

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How to defeat the villainous grammarian? Practice, practice and only practice. When you intuitively know how to say it correctly, because you have memorized it, having processed a huge amount of authentic material (listening, reading, speaking), it will not be difficult to look at a sentence in a textbook and say: “Well, yes, of course, here is the present perfect, after all, the action is over, but the period of time is not yet.”

I will not argue that we should learn a foreign language like little children - this is not true. In adults, the brain works completely differently. But what about adults - according to research by neurolinguists, the opportunity to master a foreign language at the native level (which implies not only a masterly command of grammatical structures and vocabulary, but also a complete lack of accent) is slammed in front of our noses already at the age of two or three years.

But I know for sure that language is a practical skill and it does not develop in any other way other than practice. Learning a language “in theory” is the same as learning to swim in theory. So go ahead, close your textbooks and go use the language for its intended purpose - as a means of exchanging information. To begin with, use at least one of the above methods.

Post Scriptum

Surely there will be those who disagree. Surely, someone will say: “I watched the film in English and didn’t understand anything.” I constantly hear excuses like: “It’s no use anyway.” In response, I usually want to ask: “Tell me, how many languages ​​have you already mastered?”, but, as a rule, I restrain myself out of politeness. I would never believe that someone does all of the above and does not make progress in learning a language. You're either doing too little or you're just cheating yourself.

As an example, I can give you my story with the French language (the very language for which the teacher suspected I had hidden knowledge). I listened to a couple of dozen audio lessons, watched several films and educational videos, took intensive courses for beginners for 1.5 months, started reading The Little Prince and went to France.

By the way, in France I spoke mostly English and for some reason also Spanish. In French, I only beautifully answered the people who addressed me: “Je ne parle pas français” (“I don’t speak French”), which puzzled the French a little. Oh, yes - I once again told the maid at the hotel that I was afraid to ride their prehistoric elevator! Upon returning home, I decided that neither the French language nor the French themselves inspired me, and I didn’t study the language anymore.

Formally, of course, I can tick all the boxes - I listened, and watched, and read, and took grammar courses, and even, in some way, communicated with the French. But in fact, I believe that I did nothing at all to learn the language. Instead of diving headlong into the tongue, I only touched the water with the toes of one foot. The results are appropriate: now I can understand fragments of French songs and part of the French lines from War and Peace. However, considering that I spent almost no effort, this is a good result. So be honest with yourself and learn languages!