CHAPTER 11
The Third Rule: Learn With Your Ears,
Not With Your Eyes
My third rule for learning to speak English is simple, yet powerful. In fact,
I usually say this is the most important rule because this is how we all learn
language as children. It’s such an easy thing to do that you have to wonder
why most English classes don’t emphasize it more.
Here it is: Learn with your ears, not with your eyes. That’s right. If you
want to speak excellent English, you have to listen. Listening, listening and
more listening is the key to speaking excellent English. If you listen a lot,
you are going to learn vocabulary. You will learn grammar. You will get
faster at speaking and you will understand what people are saying to you.
You will do all of this in a more natural and enjoyable manner. You will
imitate the process that babies and small children use to learn a language.
Academic research on language learning has consistently found listening
to be the biggest factor in overall language ability – particularly in the early
stages. In fact, this is true even if you don’t understand most of what you’re
hearing. That’s because our ability to learn new words is directly related to
how often we have heard combinations of the sounds that make up those
words, says Dr. Paul Sulzberger, a researcher at Victoria University in New
Zealand who conducted a 2009 study on the subject. “‘Neural tissue required
to learn and understand a new language will develop automatically from
simple exposure to the language,” Dr. Sulzberger said. “This is how babies
learn their first language.”
Remember the process used by babies and children? Babies learn through
listening. They don’t study grammar rules. They don’t use textbooks. They
don’t take tests. Yet small children master spoken English, including
