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[ebooktrial0001]

Hi Everyone,

As a thought experiment, what is the best case scenario for learning English?

Suppose someone has above average intelligence, a huge budget for private one-to-one tutoring, etc.

1. How much practice per day is maximal?

(I'm guessing four to eight hours of instruction)

2. Suppose this person does practice this every day, how quickly before they could learn at an intermediate/advanced level?

(i.e. enough to get by and not need a tutor anymore).

3. I know, this is a far-fetched question. But, I'm curious what experienced teachers think. I'd predict 12 months.

[fluffyhamster]

If you get a decent bilingual self-study (rather than a relatively thin, designed-for-classrooms, English-only) coursebook, you don't need a tutor (certainly not at first, as you won't be able to converse much anyway!), and can feasibly approach intermediate level within a couple of months, certainly within 6 months. Such a course should suggest a method if not amount of study (though I'd say 8 hours a day seems a tad excessive, unless several of those hours are spent conversing with a tutor once one is capable of conversing to a degree). The fashion nowadays however seems to be to jump straight in, bin any at all "formal" or well-thought-out approaches, and try to wing it on little more than a prayer and using scattered unintegrated resources. Cue painful progress videos on YouTube and/or any number of all-too-basic linguistic queries on language forums.

[scot47]

It is not realistic to learn for 8 hours a day. That is not how we work !

individual differences in language acquisition and learning make it difficult to say.

I have known students acquire a good grasp of English within a few months. Others toil for years and achieve limited competence.

There were well thought out programmes that I have seen where teenagers acquired a high level of English (or French, German or Spanish) in one school year. They did that full time aged 14 and then went on to do full secondary course in the Foreign language. The model for this was the "Ezikova Gimnazia" in Socialist Bulgaria. It worked but required huge resources.

[spiral78]

Generalizing across L1s, target languages, ages, ability, learning culture, motivation, and etc. isn't likely to produce any useful results.

I agree with scot - the Bulgarian model did indeed produce quite proficient L2 speakers, but it's not applicable across all possible language learners.

[MotherF]

Teens on study abroad programs routinely become fluent in about 9 months. Having lived that experience myself, total immersion is exhausting. Learning is interspersed with practice, I feel like the key is the mix of novel experiences with routiine. The routine language becomes more and more re-inforced and automatic with sprinkling of new language in short burst throughtout the day. I think a person who was highly motivated to learn as quickly as possible would do their best to replicate this situation as closely as possible given their situation.

[Hod]

Is it too early to start thinking about the 2016 Piece of String thread award?

[spiral78]

Clearly not; it would be very surprising if anyone could posit a wider, wilder generalization than this! Maybe the prize for this year should be for anyone able to beat this one.t

[Hod]

I'll re-ask then.

Hu Bong Doo has an IQ of 145. Aged 38, he is a multimillionaire and wants to learn English all day long. The trouble is Hu doesn't even know the alphabet yet and refuses to leave his beloved Beijing.

Jose Fourinho has an IQ of 145. Aged 39, he is a millionaire and wants to learn English all day long. He can't wait to leave boring old Lisbon and settle down in London. His soon-to-be-rich teacher, Bob, says Jose is pre-intermediate.

I reckon Jose will be chatting up the ladies within three months whilst Hu might be able to order a zinger burger at KFC, if he does his homework, in about eight year's time.

[nomad soul]

Seriously, guys. Just put a language book under your pillow when you go to bed, and shazam! You're fluent 6-8 hours later when you wake up.

[spiral78]

nomad's the winner (so far)

[nomad soul]

Yeah, I read about it on the back cover of an old comic book --- next to the ads for X-ray spectacles, Kryptonite rocks, and live sea monkeys.

[spiral78]

I used to have those sea monkeys. Totally cool;-)

[HLJHLJ]

I never had sea monkeys. I used to ask Santa for them every year, but he never brought them for me. Thanks for re-opening that wound <sob>.

I did have the x-ray specs though.

[ebooktrial0001]

Thanks, guys. I'm just curious. I'm guessing a year of exhausting, focused study would be enough to gain enough to get by.

[nomad soul]