Ask Dr. Katie: How long does it take to learn a language?
In this blog series, EnGen founder Dr. Katie Brown applies her three decades of research on second language acquisition to address your questions about language learning – what works, what doesn’t, and why.
Q: How long does it take to learn a language?
When I am giving a talk – whether it’s in front of an audience of hundreds or at a more intimate gathering – I can reliably count on being asked this question: How long does it take to learn a language?
My answer – which no one likes – is “it depends.”
There are a number of factors that influence a language learner’s rate of progress: How old are you? How much time do you have to practice your new language? How are you planning to learn the language? Personal motivation also plays a big role, as do any relative similarities between your target language and the languages you already speak.
Spanish speakers, for example, may advance more quickly in learning Italian or French, given the languages’ shared Romance language roots, than they would at Mandarin or Arabic, which occupy completely different branches of the language family tree. Children learn languages in a different way - and often more quickly - than adults. And the extent to which you need to use the language to accomplish something important to you can have an outsize effect on the rate at which you can pick up a second language.
Beyond listing these factors, it’s important to flag that the idea of “learning” a language is a bit misleading. There is no final destination in language acquisition, be it one’s first language or a second, third, or even tenth. Language learning is an ongoing journey, one that can – and should – take a lifetime. (I’ve spoken English my entire life, and learn new vocabulary all the time. The most recent additions to my lexicon have come from my two teenagers, who’ve patiently explained the meanings behind, for example, rizz, bet, bussin, no cap, and, my personal favorite, sus.)
It’s helpful to think of learning a language as advancing along a spectrum, or climbing up a ladder – but it’s also incorrect to think that progress is always linear. Beginning-level learners generally make quick progress in the early phases of language learning, but may need more time to move through intermediate and advanced levels. Proficiency and fluency are helpful ways to measure progress, but those terms are also full of nuance, as I describe here.
The Case for Real-World Goals – and Measurement
The impossibility of accurately answering the “how long” question explains why there has been very little published about this topic. Most concrete answers are essentially a wild guess. But since you’ve asked, I’ll offer some metrics that can help manage expectations around pace and progress.
The U.S. Foreign Service Institute School of Language Studies (SLS) knows a thing or two about language learning – for nearly 80 years, they’ve provided language and culture training to U.S. government employees to prepare for job-related needs, including high-stakes international positions like consular services and diplomacy.
SLS aims to get their learners to a level of “General Professional Proficiency” – and they’ll work up to 25 hours a week in class, for months or even years at a time, to get there.
SLS estimates that English speakers can achieve needed proficiency in languages like Danish, Spanish, and Portuguese – languages that are relatively similar to English – after 600 to 750 class hours. “Hard” languages like Albanian, Farsi, and Vietnamese, which are linguistically quite different from English, can require up to 11000 hours. And “super-hard” languages like Arabic, Mandarin, and Japanese can take up to 2200 hours.
Beyond the SLS estimates, there are numerous other global scales and standards, each of which has estimated numbers of hours to complete each level, from the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) to the National Reporting System for Adult Education (NRS). And all of them estimate that it will take hundreds if not thousands of hours to achieve specific benchmarks.
Here’s the rub: Language learning is quite literally a full-time job for a foreign service officer-in-training. And it’s still challenging. Asking any other adult – particularly immigrants and refugees, many of whom are already juggling multiple jobs, caregiving responsibilities, and the complexities of rebuilding a life in a new country – to devote up to 2200 hours to something as difficult as learning a language seems a surefire way to sap their motivation.
If the destination seems unattainable, many learners will be loath to even begin. That’s why it’s important that learners, especially adult learners, have concrete, clear goals for learning a language: Do they want to be able to communicate with co-workers? Learn new vocabulary and skills to get a promotion? Communicate with their child’s teacher?
Breaking language learning down into manageable tasks is not only a proven way to organize instruction, it also drives measurable outcomes. If you are learning English because you want to be able to speak to your boss to ask for time off, and then you are able to ask for time off, you’ve accomplished your goal, and you can continue working on other language skills. Research shows that adults learn faster when they can apply what they are learning right away. Approaching instruction in a way that mirrors learners’ lives is a promising way to boost progress: An aspiring phlebotomist makes faster progress when English lessons are related to blood counts and PPE whereas a warehouse associate is likely to have opportunities to practice vocabulary related to workplace safety and forklift operation.
The EnGen Solution
Instead of asking learners to invest hundreds or thousands of hours in study, EnGen is built using bite-sized lessons that can be completed in as little as 10 minutes.
Instruction is personalized, on-demand, and tailored to learners’ real-world goals, meaning that new vocabulary and language concepts are immediately applicable to their lives and livelihoods. Putting language to use – actually practicing it – is key to advancing in proficiency and fluency.
We also track learner’s progress and time spent on the platform – and we’re proud to see some encouraging results. Learners are advancing toward their real-world goals after investing just a dozen or so hours, instead of the hundreds needed to move along abstract proficiency scales.
With just under 22 hours on the platform, a learner who had earned a medical degree in her home country learned enough career-related English to successfully interview and secure a job as a medical assistant in Colorado, a first step toward her goal to rebuild her health career in the U.S. “I really love the platform because it allows me to practice my English at my own pace,” she says.
After investing 41 hours on the platform, an EnGen learner employed at a global e-commerce company has moved from a “low intermediate” to an “intermediate” level, making progress towards his goal of achieving a promotion at work. “[Before using EnGen] I was afraid to speak in public because I felt ashamed and embarrassed. Now I can understand more when people speak to me and I have increased my vocabulary,” he says.
After 48 hours on EnGen, a learner at a major U.S. retail corporation has improved her ability to do her job in English. "Before EnGen I would understand only 30% of the communication with my Team Leader and now I understand 80%," she says.
These learners may never reach the SLS’ criteria for “General Professional Proficiency,” and that’s OK. What matters to most working adults is having the English skills necessary to succeed in both their lives and livelihoods. Learners, local employers, and economies all benefit when working adults can learn the English needed to meet their career goals after just 22 hours – instead of 2200.
Learn about EnGen’s approach to equipping learners with real-world English skills, helping them connect to employers and careers in high-demand fields. Request a live platform demo: https://getengen.com/demo