Why Many Students Fail to Learn, Speak a Foreign Language

I'm sure you have met them. As a matter of fact, you are probably one of them!  

People take a foreign language in school for two to six years, in college or in both and after all those years of studying, endless homework assignments and tests, these students find themselves unable to speak the language they have studied for so long, why?

Well, there is a powerful reason why! Many people don't even know or realize it. The truth is that most schools (public and private), colleges, continuing education institutions, etc. have flawed curriculums.

All this time you thought it was you when really it was the flawed curriculum that was being fed to your brain that was the problem!

Most curriculums being used to teach foreign languages in most schools lack the two essential components of the M.A.C. language pillar. They lack the A. and the C., which refer to one's ability to input and output information in a foreign language.

A curriculum that lacks these two essential components is just as pointless as a bald man buying shampoo for himself or an eskimo buying a bikini—as far as I know they don't sit out there on the ice trying to work on their tan.

When you download programs or apps on a computer or phone, don't you sometimes get "bugs" or a foreclose option, or error messages that say, "Try again. There was a problem with the download?" What does that usually mean? Was your computer or phone at fault, or was it the download? Most of the time it is the program or download (I am not a technical genius but this much I know).

A lot of times it's not your computer or phone, it's the programming. Well, the same thing happens in school! Your brain is the computer and the teacher (coupled with the curriculum they feed your brain) is the programming.

You are asked to download information into your brain and run the program only to find that there are bugs in the information downloaded; therefore, it was never you to begin with but the methods and curriculums used to teach you that were the problem.

Some students struggle in class while others seem to mentally comprehend the information; however, they can't input or output the info, resulting in a person that gets 100s on tests but that can't speak or comprehend the foreign language they are "passing" in school! 

Schools seem to focus on grades a lot of the time and not on true knowledge. You can memorize ideas and information like a robot but actually taking these ideas and turning them into a melodic symphony is what counts! The ability to melt ideas together to create new knowledge is truly priceless.

If you have a TV set and decide to buy a DVD player, the only way the DVD player will work is if you connect the cables to the TV set, right? Same thing if you have an XBOX; it will have full functionality only when you plug in the right cables into the TV set.

The same thing happens with learning a language. You need three things to be truly bilingual—M.A.C. Just like you need three cables to connect your DVD player to your TV set—audio cable, video cable and connectivity cable. For languages those cables are M for mental comprehension, A for auditory comprehension and C stands for conversational ability.

If right now you are learning a second language and you don't have these three components in your curriculum, then it's almost a certainty of life that you will not become bilingual. Don't worry. You can change this right now by filling in the blanks yourself!

This is one of the major problems that exists right now and why so many fail at becoming a true bilingual citizen! This is a world-wide problem—not only a U.S. problem. 

The problem isn't you but how you are being taught; what's lacking in your curriculum is what is causing you to fail (there are a few variables; however, it is mainly because of the reasons explained above).

There is another reason why people either give up, get frustrated or find learning a second language very difficult. The problem is that most people aren't taught what to expect when learning a second language. If you are never told what is normal and abnormal, then you will make erroneous conclusions about your own self and abilities and make your educational journey unpleasant and hellish!

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