Can You Learn A Language By Only Writing?

While this question does not get asked a lot, I am sure some of you will be wondering if you can learn a language by only writing.

The short answer is that no, you can’t really. You will never be able to only learn a language through writing, but you can certainly use it to improve your skills.

Basically writing can play an important role in your language learning, but you also need to focus on other areas too. This is the only way you will make real progress in a new language and I will explain why.

(You can read more about – How Important Is Writing When Learning A Language?)

You Need Input

The main problem with writing is that it is output, which means it is impossible to write without first having first had some input.

Just think about it, you can only write down what you already know. If you know zero of the language, well, you can’t write anything.

You need to acquire the language before you can write it. You need to put the language into your brain so that you can produce it and write it, which means you need to focus on reading and listening.

Listening and reading is how you get exposed to the language and come across new words and grammar. Hopefully you can then remember what you’ve heard or seen and produce it yourself later on when you are writing.

While writing and reading and very closely linked, reading is always going to be needed in the beginning, you simply can’t write if you have not read. 

(You can read more about – The Input vs Output Language Learning Methods)

Writing Doesn’t Teach You Anything New

As I just explained, the main issue with writing is that it’s an output activity, so you are not learning anything new, you can only ever write down what you already know.

This means that writing is more of a form of practice, rather than a way to learn. This is exactly why you cannot learn a language by just writing.

However, this is not a bad thing and is actually why writing can be so powerful. You may not learn anything new, but you can certainly master what you do know.  Writing is how we actually improve.

If we look at the reason we are so good at are native language, it is because we have practiced writing a million times. If we want to get good at are new language then we need to practice it a million times too, which means you need to start writing a whole lot more than you currently are.

Writing Will Help You Think In A Language

Writing is great as it will make you think in the language you are learning. You can try and think in your own language first, then translate it, but this is slow and a very clunky way of doing things.

This is usually how beginners write and is part of the reason why its feels so difficult and slow.  Once you start thinking in the language you will see improvements. The beautiful thing is that writing more will only strengthen this ability.

You are going to become more comfortable with the process and this is just going to make you faster and stronger at processing your thoughts in your brain.

(You can read more about – How To Think In Another Language)

Writing Will Strengthen Your Memory and Processing Speed

Writing also makes you use your memory. To write something you need to actively recall it and the more you do this, the stronger your ability will become.

You may struggle at first, but this process will get faster and stronger and one day it will become automatic, just like how it is in your own language. 

Words that you struggle to remember now will just flow out of you when you want to write and the only way to get to this level is to just keep practicing.

(You can read more about – Memory Tricks For Language Learning)

Writing Doesn’t Help With Pronunciation

One of the issues with writing is that it does not help with your pronunciation. It can help with your internal voice, if you are saying the words in your mind before writing them, but this will not translate fully into actual speech.

To speak with proper pronunciation you need to practice moving your month muscles to get the proper sounds to be made, which you don’t do when writing.

I guess you could speak out loud while you write, although would seem kind of strange and I don’t think any one does that. Usually we write a lot slower than we can speak, so you would need to speak a lot slower than usual. I guess if you want to try that it you could, who knows, maybe it could help, but in general writing will not help you with your pronunciation, so you need to focus on things like speaking as well.

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Writing In Your New Language)

Conclusion

As you can see, writing is important and will help your progress a lot, but it is not going to be the only thing you should do to learn a language. 

Really you need to focus on your input to get a good basic grasp of the language. Once you have done this, you can then use writing to strengthen your new found knowledge.

Writing may not help you learn a language, but it can certainly help you improve and solidity what you already know. 

(You can read more about – How To Improve Your Writing Skills In A Foreign Language)