Language Acquisition

This page is to provide some basic information about learning, or more precisely, acquiring, another language. I think it is super important for:

1) language learners to know something about how languages are acquired, 

and for 

2) researchers and teachers to be speakers of, and actively acquiring, other languages themselves. 

Links to jump to contents below:

4-part video series on langauge acquisition

Here is a series of 4 videos that teaches some basic concepts about language learning, and offers some practical advice for how to do it. If you want to take a deeper dive into the research, have a look at THIS great resource.

The Acquisition Cycle

Here is a graphic of the "Acquisition Cycle," which I mention in the 4 video series above. This is how I like to conceptualize the different parts of learning another language and some of the specific activities you can do to improve. 

A deeper dive into the processes of second language acquisition

This is another video (in Japanese) which dives into a little bit more detail about what might be going on in people's brains when they learn another language, and how you can apply this to help you learn another language more effectively!

Documenting the process: A 1-year journey of acquiring Vietnamese

Here is a brief documentary of my one-year (at the time) experience acquiring Vietnamese through comprehensible input. Just for fun, I did the documentary in English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. 

As I mentioned above, I think it is important for researchers and language teachers to be speakers of, and actively acquiring, other languages. How else could they really be sure of what works and what doesn't? I wouldn't trust a doctor that has only read about other doctors' treatment methods, or a researcher or teacher that doesn't speak and have experience learning multiple languages themselves! 

By the way, Dr. Stephen Krashen, who is famous for making "comprehensible input" famous, speaks or knows to some extent 8 languages himself. That's pretty credible, in my opinion.

And here is a brief, unscripted monologue in Vietnamese I did as further documentation of what I was able to achieve in the space of about one year. 

I did some light editing of some of the longer pauses, and just to try to keep things under 15 minutes, but basically, what you see is what you get.

I was very happy to find that the AI supported software I used to do the subtitles ("Vrew," great program by the way) was actually able to recognize my Vietnamese as Vietnamese, and as the Vietnamese I had intended to say! 

Based on a subjective "can-do" self assessment, my Vietnamese at this time was at a solid B1 on the CEFR scale:

B1 Listening: Can follow clearly articulated speech in everyday conversation, though repetition is sometimes necessary. 

B1 Spoken Interaction: Can start, maintain and close simple face to face conversations on everday topics. 

B1 Spoken Production: Can narrate a story and give detailed accounts of experiences, describing feelings and reactions. 

B1 Language Quality: Can keep a conversation going comprehensibly, and has sufficient vocabulary to talk about everyday topics. 

(adapted from: https://www.ibsevilla.es/imgs/B10621133200.pdf)

However, my at-the-time student and now co-researcher and I do not believe that language assessment rubrics, like CEFR, fully capture what I was able to acquire during the year. There is a much deeper ability to understand the language that develops through hours and hours of listening and reading. This means that even though it looks like B1 on the surface, what is underneath the surface is likely very different from someone else who might be scored as B1, as shown in the figure below, which shows two rocks partially buried in the earth:

VanPatten, B. (2024). "How To Learn Languages (According To Science)." Interview by Loïs Talagrand, accessible HERE

A 1.5 year update on my acquisition of Vietnamese!

I made 2 more videos to show my progress at one and a half years. On average, I have spent about 1.5 to 2 hours 6 days per week exposing myself to comprehensible input in Vietnamese. My co-researcher and I have also continued having semi-weekly conversations in English and Vietnamese in order to gather data. The conversation video below comes from one of those data collection sessions done at the start of June, 2025 (we started this at the end of November, 2023). My immediate goal is to attain a B2 level by the end of 2025.

A results comparison 

I want to show you the video below because it shows a striking contrast between the effects of trying to learn a language (in this case French) through studying and practicing grammar rules and vocabulary (what Stephen Krashen and others have called the "skill-building approach"), and actually acquiring a language (Spanish) through massive amounts of comprehensible input.

The video is by the Canadian language educator, Chris Stolz, and one of his students, Mustafa. 

Chris says this about the video:

"Mustafa has had three years of skill-building French with grammar lessons, speaking practice, worksheets, and role plays. He has had two years of Spanish: lots of fun stories and reading, and exactly zero 'speaking assignments,' grammar explanations or worksheets. Which method works better?"

According to Chris, the "test" he gave to Mustafa here was completely impromptu; Mustafa had no idea that Chris was going to test him like this, and had not prepared beforehand or anything. I think the results speak for themselves. What do you think?