Language learning: how adults actually learn a language

Language learning, for an adult, is long, repeated practice, and no published source gives one method or one length of time that fits everyone. What the sources do give is narrower: how much time one government school expects for its own students, and two kinds of practice that studies found helped people remember words. For one language in depth, read Learn French as an adult in Canada. For the time figure applied to French, see How long does it take to learn French?, and for the practice habits, How to learn French fast.

Source: US Department of State, Foreign Language Training page (no page date shown), with three peer-reviewed studies listed under Sources.

How do adults learn a new language?

Adults learn a new language through regular practice over a long time, and the research below describes parts of that, not the whole path. A 2018 study in Cognition used data from 669,498 native and non-native English speakers to estimate how grammar-learning ability changes with age [1]. It found the ability preserved almost to 17.4 years old and then declining steadily [1].

That finding is about English grammar, measured in one very large sample [1]. It does not say that adults cannot reach a given level, and this page makes no claim about what you will reach.

The Council of Europe describes what the end of the road looks like in terms of what a person can do. At A1 a user can introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details; at B2 a user can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party; at C2 a user can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read [5]. The levels describe ability. They do not set a number of hours [5].

What is the best way to learn a language?

No source opened for this page names one best way to learn a language. Two practices have published support, for the material their participants learned.

The first is recalling the answer instead of re-reading it. In a 2008 study in Science, students learned foreign language vocabulary words [2]. Once a student had produced a word correctly, repeated studying had no effect on delayed recall, while repeated testing produced a large positive effect [2]. Students’ predictions of how well they would do were uncorrelated with how they did [2].

The second is spacing practice. A 2006 review pooled 839 assessments from 317 experiments in 184 articles on distributed practice in verbal recall tasks [3]. The gap between sessions that gave the best retention grew as the time before the final test grew [3].

In plain words: try to say the word before you look it up, and come back to it after a gap. Both studies used memory tasks. Neither measured how well anyone speaks, which is a different skill. For how this works with cards, see French flashcards.

Try it with three French words. Cover the English, say each French word aloud, then play it to check: actuellement (currently), demander (to ask), merci (thank you). Come back to them tomorrow and try again.

How long does language learning take?

It takes longer for some languages than others, and the only official figure opened for this page describes one school’s students. The US Department of State’s language school lists timelines to reach an integrated score of 3 (speaking plus listening) on the Interagency Language Roundtable scale [4]. The page says actual time varies with the learner’s natural ability, prior language-learning experience and time spent in the classroom, and that a typical week is 23 hours in class and 17 hours of self-study [4].

Is Spanish language learning quicker than other languages?

Not by this source: the State Department lists Spanish at 30 weeks, the same as French and longer than the 24 weeks it gives for the seven other languages in the same group, including Italian and Portuguese [4]. The page places all of these in Category I, “languages close to English” [4].

The page gives no reason for the differences within the group, and it does not say what the timelines are for other learners [4]. If you are choosing a language, treat the table as a rough picture of how far each language is from English for those students, not a ranking of difficulty for you.

What do language learning platforms offer?

A language learning platform is a way to deliver practice, and the useful question is what kind of practice it gives you. There is no study behind a ranking of platforms on this page, so the list below is a set of general questions, not findings.

• Does it make you recall? The 2008 study found repeated testing helped delayed recall where extra study did not [2].
• Does it space the practice? The 2006 review tied the best gap to how long you need to remember [3].
• Does it include speaking and listening? The two studies above measured memory for words, not conversation [2][3].
• Does it fit the level you need? Compare its descriptions with the CEFR level wording [5].

In Canada, the federal government also funds language classes. Its page says that permanent residents and protected persons can take language classes at no cost, and that you must first be assessed, and an organization that helps newcomers in your area can tell you where to get assessed [6]. Who is eligible, and the other official routes, are on Learn French in Canada.

Answer five quick questions on what this page covered before you go.

Lingwell is a French-learning app in development for adults in Canada; you can join the waitlist.

Common mistakes

• Reading the State Department weeks as your timeline. They describe one school’s students on a 40-hour week, to a United States score [4].
• Reading a critical-period study as a verdict on adults. It measured English grammar and found a steady decline after 17.4, not a stop [1].
• Studying again instead of recalling. In the 2008 study, extra study after a correct answer did not help delayed recall; repeated testing did [2].
• Trusting how it feels. Students’ predictions of their results were uncorrelated with their results [2].
• Cramming in one sitting. The best gap between sessions grew with the time the material had to be kept [3].
• Trusting a page about methods, including this one. Research and official pages change. Check each source’s own date against the date at the top of this page.

Sources