How Long Does It Take To Learn A Language?

To read a better-formatted version of the following article, please

visit http://www.pimsleurdirect.com/resources/time/.

The question of how long it takes to learn a language is not asked as

frequently as the question, Can I really learn to speak a language?

Some people would be very glad if they could say even a few phrases 

in a foreign language with a passable accent. Still others mainly want 

to read great works of literature. Still others may aspire to speak and

write another language as fluently as their mother tongue.

Before travel abroad became common, foreign languages were associated

in this country with educated people and immigrants. The former were

often interested only in reading and writing a particular language,

while the latter could speak their native language, but had little

occasion to read or write it after coming to the United States. Some

educated people resembled the upper class British gentlemen of the

nineteenth century, who typically "knew" French, but were disinclined

to imitate the "peculiar" sounds a Frenchman makes when speaking.

In today's world, many people who study a foreign language chiefly

desire to speak it. It is important, therefore, to estimate how well 

a

person can expect to speak a language after studying it for a certain

number of hours -- and conversely, how many hours it may take him to

reach the fluency he has in mind. Several estimates follow on how 

long

it takes to achieve various sorts of mastery, based on FSI data, and

personal research.

The FSI (Foreign Service Institute) Rating Scale

Most U.S. government agencies use the FSI Absolute Language

Proficiency Ratings to measure a prospective employee's ability to 

use

a foreign language in his work. Once employed, he periodically

undergoes the same type of rating as a basis for promotion. The 

person

to be rated is interviewed by one or more trained testers, who are

always native speakers. They converse with him for ten to twenty

minutes, probing his command of pronunciation, grammar, and

vocabulary. Then they pool their judgments to assign him a rating. 

The

lowest rating is 1, the highest 5, and any rating can be modified by 

a

plus or minus.

Each rating designates a particular degree of mastery of the language

for business and social purposes:

1.    Elementary proficiency. The person is able to satisfy routine

travel needs and minimum courtesy requirements.

2.    Limited working proficiency. The person is able to satisfy routine

social demands and limited work requirements.

3.    Minimum professional proficiency. The person can speak the 

language

with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate

effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical,

social, and professional topics.

4.    Full professional proficiency. The person uses the language

fluently and accurately on all levels normally pertinent to

professional needs. 5.       Native or bilingual proficiency. The person 

has

speaking proficiency equivalent to that of an educated native 

speaker.

How long, one wonders, does it take a person to achieve the minimum 

1,

and how much longer after that to reach a 2 or a 3?

FSI researchers studied the performance of all their students during 

a

three-year period, noting the ratings they received after various

periods of training. Table 1 shows the results for the "easy"

languages and for the "hard" languages. Incidentally, the definition

of "easy" and "hard" were arrived at by including only Group 1

languages -- for the most part the "Romance" languages --under the

"easy" languages, while "hard" languages included Groups 2,3, and

4.languages -- all other languages -- as listed in the second part of

the Table below. Whether this is the most valid, or even useful

definition of easy and hard to learn languages, depends to a large

degree upon whether one feels that language

instruction, regardless of learner or teacher preference, must start

with each individual learner gradually acquiring an increasing 

control

of the spoken language, before adding written skills, or with the

current standard academic approach to avoid language as a spoken 

skill

at first, and work with an eclectic, mixed approach using a written

grammar- translation and oral-drill combination, perhaps with a

language laboratory, or combinations of film, CD-ROM and/or other

equipment. There are advocates on both sides.

"Easy" Languages

Ratings of FSI students speaking a Group 1 language after specified

Periods of training.

8 weeks (240 hours) 1/1+

16 weeks (480 hours) 2

24 weeks (720 hours) 2+

"Hard" Languages

Ratings of FSI students speaking a Group 2-4 language after specified

Periods of training.

12 weeks (360 hours) 1/1+

24 weeks (720 hours) 1+ /2

44 weeks (1320 hours) 2/2+ /3

Which Are the "Easy" and "Hard" Languages?

Group 1

French

German

Indonesian

Italian

Portuguese

Romanian

Spanish

Swahili

Group 2

Bulgarian

Burmese

Greek

Hindi

Persian

Urdu

Group 3

Amharic

Cambodian

Czech

Finnish

Hebrew

Hungarian

Lao

Polish

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Thai

Turkish

Vietnamese

Group 4

Arabic

Chinese

Japanese

Korean

In reality, these time estimates are a little lower than they at 

first

appear; holidays and other lost time reduce them by about 10 percent.

Nevertheless, the meaning is clear. If you are a language learner of

average ability, and you undertake an "easy" language, it will

probably take you about 240 hours to get to the first level of 

mastery

in speaking it, and double that to get to Level 2. If you are slower

than average at learning languages, allow 50 percent more time, if

faster, 50 percent less.

These figures are based on a particular type of instruction: the FSI

intensive course where one studies a language for six hours a day,

five days a week, in a class of no more than 10 students, led by an

experienced linguist and a well-trained native drillmaster. The 

school

is a

language-learning paradise, the students are highly motivated, and

optimum results are achieved. Yet these estimates are reasonably 

valid

for people who, like most of us, have no choice but to attend a

conventional course that meets forty-five minutes a day or a couple 

of

evenings a week.

Human attention is limited. No one can absorb knowledge steadily for

six hours a day, week after week; some of the time in intensive

courses is necessarily "wasted" in relaxing, clearing one's mind, or

plain

daydreaming. Moreover, things that seem confusing one day sometimes

clear up by the next, after they have settled into place in one's

mind.

This "incubation" factor favors a non-intensive learning schedule. In

short, it is not certain that people who spread their language

learning over a longer period necessarily require more total hours

than those who concentrate. They may even require fewer.

The overriding message is that anyone can learn a foreign language,

but some people are quicker at it than others. Still, language

learning is a serious commitment, and if one's aim is to speak it

comfortably (say, 2+ on the FSI scale), this is likely to take the

equivalent of six months of full-time study.

If your objective is to master the language fully in speech and

writing, then you may have to devote at least a year and a half, most

of it spent in the foreign country, to reach this objective. A good

plan would be to study the language for three to six months at home,

and then go to the foreign country for at least a year, during which

time you must speak only the foreign language. At the end of this

time, you would understand most people and even television and 

movies,

read almost any written matter without a dictionary, and perhaps 

write

with a modicum of style. Adults who go abroad to live find that after

several months of getting adjusted to speaking and understanding in

everyday situations, they can then begin to penetrate the language 

and

participate in the life of the country.

Some people are dismayed by time estimates that run to hundreds of

hours. They feel that this is more time than they are willing to

commit. They should reflect on the fact that one year from today they

will be one year older whether they undertake this learning task or

not. The only question is, whether on that day, they are going to be

well along toward mastering the language they have dreamed of 

knowing,

or whether it will still be only a dream.

The Pimsleur Language Teaching Methodology

As noted earlier these FSI learning rates and achievement levels for

easy and hard languages are based on learners being trained with a

particular FSI Intensive Language Training Program. It is revealing 

to

compare these results with results based on learners using the

Pimsleur Self-instructional Language Comprehensive Programs, which

consist of three coordinated levels containing 30 audio lessons in

each level. Under the Pimsleur Methodology, learners accomplish one

30-minute lesson each and every day.

The Pimsleur method of language training is based upon the assumption

that every natural language contains within itself all of the keys to

unlock the code of that language. Therefore Pimsleur introduces the

learner to any new language by exposing him to spoken language in use

i.e. in actual communication. This practice permits the learner to

actually "hear" precisely what he needs to hear in order to identify

and to understand who is doing what to whom, when, why, and how! In

this type of training the learner gains the most powerful aspect of

language, which is to be able to hear statements, to understand the

situation, and eventually to respond with his own choices.

In short, he will be using all of the meaning-carrying elements human

languages have developed over generations to become the incredible

tool it has become! What more does a learner of a language need in

order to behave as a normal human being and engage in spoken

communication with his language community? Teaching him the rules of

grammar in English is not an asset he can afford to waste his time on

at this stage of his language learning!

All of this essential learning can happen -- and be acquired as

language-in-use only if the learner is allowed to concentrate on 

being

"exposed" directly to the target language while it is 

actually-in-use!

This means the adult learner can "do his own thing" and having

previously developed his linguistic skills, will acquire gradual

control of this new language as he did his mother tongue. It will be

as natural as talking! And we have made no mention here of the part

that learning to re-apply and re-use the same sort of previously

acquired linguistic skills will mean to learners. It will also mean

they will learn faster and easier and their success will give them 

the

confidence and assurance they need to stay the course of learning!

The important principle in the development of adult spoken-language

communication skills training is that learners progress from a

compound linguistic system, in which the items of the second language

are added to the native language to form a coordinate system. In this

coordinate system the two languages can function independently, as

appears to be the case with pure bilinguals.

Concerning language acquisition itself, with the exception of those

with severe pathologies, everyone who has acquired his native tongue,

can, under appropriate conditions, learn to understand, to speak and

communicate effectively in additional languages.

A second language will be acquired by a normal human being if and 

only

if particular, whole instances of the language are modeled for him 

and

if his own particular acts of using the language are selectively

reinforced. The critical point is that unless a learner has learned

them as

language-in-use, he has not learned them as language, and that if he

has learned enough such instances, he will be able to understand and

to effectively communicate in the foreign language.

In second language learning, instructional procedures have a

considerable effect in determining the way in which the two languages

coexist

psychologically. The objective of spoken proficiency levels --

effective communication -- depends upon the instructional methodology

of the teaching/learning Program.

In the space of each Pimsleur lesson of approximately 30 intensive

minutes a day, the adult learner will experience real-language use. 

As

he does this, each individual learner builds his own tapestry of

language, whether it be in one, or several additional languages, 

after

the first one. Pimsleur learners know they have the power to use

languages in real life! Pimsleur learner's who follow the schedule of

Pimsleur training, will test out as follows, on the ACTFL as well as

the FSI Proficiency Scales. The ACTFL (The American Council on the

Teaching of Foreign Languages) has developed their own official

Proficiency Scale as a statement of the general aims and goals for 

the

foreign language teaching profession. ACTFL and the FSI have 

published

equivalencies between the two Scales.

Level I Pimsleur Instruction 30-lessons, after only 15 cumulative

hours, you will be at the ACTFL Intermediate-low spoken proficiency,

(a FSI -1 rating), able to survive and cope in country; able to ask

and answer questions dealing with everyday situations, and as well

earn respect and cooperation for your fluency, your pronunciation, 

and

courtesy.

Level II Pimsleur Instruction 30 more lessons, after the second 15

cumulative hours, you will be at the ACTFL Intermediate-mid spoken

proficiency, (a FSI -1 rating), able to exchange information about

yourself, your family, or associates, and avoid basic cultural 

errors.

Level III Pimsleur Instruction 30 more Lessons, after the final 15

hours of the Comprehensive Program -- for a total of 45 hours of

training, you will be at the ACTFL Intermediate-high proficiency, (a

FSI -1+ rating), able to participate in casual conversations and

conduct everyday transactions with success and pleasure in your

achievements.