IELTS Plus: Episode 58 - Language Learning

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the IELTS plus English podcast where today we're going to talk all about language learning. This is a topic I should be very comfortable with. It's my world, it's what I'm passionate about, and it's what my business is based on. Language learning. So a bit of pressure on me to do well today, I would say. I am going to start off with a quick question from a student. And the question was recently someone asked me.

How long should part one answers be? So in the speaking exam, how long should my part one answers be? I'll tell you my quick guide for the whole exam very, very quickly. Part one answers, I say, should be around two to three sentences. So you'll find they'll take around 30 seconds. By the way, you can check this through my episodes that generally I take about 30 seconds on part one questions. Part two, hit two minutes. Don't stop before. hit your two minute mark. I always say that. Part three.

I did a lesson about this recently and I said 45 seconds, but I think I'd like to slightly amend that and say between 45 seconds and a minute. I think that's a good answer length. Again, you go back through my episodes and you'll see generally I spend around 45 seconds to a minute answering part three. sentence wise for part three that means you're probably between five and six sentences but don't get too

bogged down with those details. These are just rough benchmarks. I just think that 45 seconds to a minute for part three allows you to say a lot. without rambling. You know, it shouldn't be becoming a part two style answer. So that's my guide. But as I said, it's just a benchmark and it's not strict. And I'd like to give you a student challenge today. And today's student challenge is tell me about a language you would like to learn. So...

Probably a language you don't speak or you haven't learned before. What would you like to learn? Tell me. This is a part two question. I think I'm going to be dealing with this today, but... For you, you can do a part two style answer in the comments or just simply share what language would you like to learn. So we're on language learning today. There is a wonderful list here in my textbook. Some tricky words like bilingual.

immersion, linguistic. So really, really language learning specific today. And that's in my textbook, which you can find on www.brit. plus dot net you can download it there and a lot of students have said that's been helpful for their exam preparation so hopefully it helps you let's uh let's get started part ones Language learning. What languages can you speak? I can speak a little German, English, of course, and Korean.

Obviously, I'm a native English speaker. With Korean, I'm probably upper intermediate, I would say. I don't think... I'd put myself in the advanced category. But I can absolutely hold a conversation in Korean. And German... I learned a lot when I was in school and perhaps I had a bit of conversational German there, but a lot of that has gone now. It's been a long time since I learned it, but I'd like to try it again.

Do you think learning a new language is important? Yes, I do. I think it's important for a number of reasons. Firstly, as far as I understand, it's very good for your brain. So that must be a good thing to keep you mentally healthy and strong. So that's one good thing. I also think just if you can become fluent in another language...

it doesn't even have to be fluent, but conversational, it opens you up to different people and different experiences. Good. So I don't know how that went there, but that... Felt to me like my answers were around 30 to 40 seconds, which is a good benchmark. I did feel my first answer was a little on the long side, but yeah, that's a pretty good indicator of what you should be doing.

Now, part two, describe a language you would like to learn. So this is your student challenge today. You don't need to give me a part two style answer, but I will. I have to. So two minutes is on the clock. I'll just set that up here. Two minutes and my time starts now. I would like to learn Spanish. About eight years ago, I went to Spain for my honeymoon.

I'd never been to Spain before that. It was my first time and we went to England for our wedding and then flew to Spain for the honeymoon. We went to Sevilla and Madrid and had an... absolutely wonderful time. I was really attracted by the Spanish culture. The people were very friendly. They had a really good relationship with food and drink and nightlife. I say good relationship because it wasn't too much. It was...

Just a little food here, a little wine there. And I just, the culture and the speed of living, it was a little bit slow style of living. It just really...

suited me and really attracted me at that time. So I really felt like I wanted to know more about Spain. So let me tell you a bit more about Spanish. I don't speak any spanish at all i learned a little for that honeymoon but i'd love to start by being able to be conversational in spanish that would be great i don't know how long that would take

And eventually it would be wonderful to be fluent in Spanish. I don't know how I would approach this, but I am aware of things like Duolingo and getting textbooks and things like that. I really would have to start from scratch, though, because I don't have I didn't learn it in high school or anything. So for me personally. I think that it would transform my life in terms of travel and meeting people. I think that it would open me up to a whole new area of content, being able to comprehend

YouTube videos or books in Spanish. Because... Okay, that's my time. Yeah, I thought that was reasonable. Today, I was able to progress with my... my structure more than normal, actually. I got almost to the end of my opinion, and then I would talk about future. Now, of course, you can see that in my textbook, the structure for part two.

That's not there in order to complete. I rarely complete my structure. But if I needed to fill more time, I would move on to in the future and I would talk about using Spanish in the future.

Good. Let's move on to some part threes. What are the most effective ways to learn a new language? I think the most effective ways, firstly, it's really important to have conversation. It doesn't mean you have to have conversation with someone. I think that you just need to be producing that language. It needs to be coming from your brain and out of your mouth.

Now, that sounds obvious, but here in Korea, a lot of my students love to sit there and read and read grammar and maybe listen through things like Netflix. But if you're not producing... the output, and that means speaking and writing, you're missing an enormous part of the language. So for me, I think the most effective ways are early on, really focus on... building up your vocabulary, and then as soon as possible, producing it and getting used to output. Good.

You can probably feel from that answer that this is an area I am comfortable with and I do have a lot of opinions on. But the problem with that is it's going to stop me using this vocabulary. So I'm going to have to make sure I get some of this language in to my answers. So let's see how we do on the last couple of questions. How does knowing multiple languages impact your career opportunities? I think that high proficiency in a language can open up. Firstly, it can open up.

different careers you know where you're actually using that language maybe you're an interpreter or a translator obviously that would be a an area you could use it but also i think possibly And just being able to work in other countries or being able to work online in that language or with people using that language, it would just open up. entire new markets for you which i think is really exciting lastly what role do schools play in promoting language learning i think

that schools should play a huge role in that. They must introduce students to the joy of language learning. The school's linguistic program is going to be very important. for giving those basics to students perhaps even beyond that I think that nowadays very often in high school you can reach a reasonably high proficiency in a language. Certainly for me in German, I think I reached kind of low intermediate level in high school. But most importantly, it's showing...

students the joy of language learning and having fun with that language, which I definitely experienced that in England. But when I did it in Korea... I was disappointed by, I had to do a three month German program here. It was entirely grammar focused and it was not fun at all. And it made me resent. my teacher and the language. And it just, it was a negative experience. So yeah, school's huge role to play in language learning. Excellent. Okay. Lots of things.

Far more, I could say, about language learning. It's an area, obviously, I teach. I have a lot of fun with. I do a little bit myself, especially here in Korea. But I hope you enjoyed that episode. I did try to use the language. Next week. Oh, a bit of a tough one next week. Rules and law. Yeah, that's going to be a tricky one. So study as hard as you can this week. And I'll be back next Monday for the episode on rules and law. See you then.