Should You Focus On Speaking In A New Language Last?

When you learn a new language you will see that it is usually broken down into four parts: Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking. To be good at a language you need all four of these areas to be strong.

Commonly you will just work on all four at once. However, there are arguments about this and some people suggest you should instead focus on certain areas more than others and basically leave other areas alone for a while, the most obvious example of this is to leave speaking alone until you have gained some skill in the other three areas.

I will go through why people think these different approaches are best, but really, it comes down to your personal preference and there is no real one way that is better than another.

Why You Should Wait To Focus On Speaking

The main argument for putting speaking to one side for a while is because you need to know some of the language before you can actually speak it.

This does make sense. You don’t know anything when you start, so how are you supposed to produce the language?

You are probably going to struggle to understand what something means, so you can see why you might want to try and focus on that aspect of things first.

Focus On Input Before Speaking

If you are going to take this approach then you need to really focus on getting input, which means listening and reading as much as you can in the new language.

At this point everything is new and it is going to take you a while to start to notice the patterns and just generally how things work in the language and that is okay. Just sit back and try and work out what is going on.

Personally I think this is the best approach. You have to see you brain as an empty glass and you need to fill it up with the language. Just pour as much as you can in there. Some of it is going to spill out and get lost, but some of it will stay in there.

If you do this for the first few months of your language journey you are going to start building a nice solid foundation. You will have some understanding and you will have some vocabulary.  

You are going to start getting comfortable with some basics, and then if you want to actually produce the language, by speaking, you actually have something in your brain that you can pull out.

Of course it may not be very refined, but it’s something.

You Have To Make Up For Speaking Later On

I think it’s also important to note that if you are going to delay speaking, you sort of need to catch up on it later on. Once you are comfortable with your input, you can kind of have to scale back on this, and instead lean into speaking more.

You really want all four of the areas of the language to be equal in ability, if you are unbalanced, you will struggle.

If you are going to sacrifice speaking early on, then you have to make up for that later on to restore the balance.

Why You Shouldn’t Wait To Long

The big problem with this method is that people wait too long. It’s very easy to say “I’m not ready yet”.

The reality is that you will never be ready. You are never going to understand everything and to be honest; you kind of need to speak to get yourself more comfortable with what you already know.

Speaking is difficult, but it can really strengthen your understanding of the language. You are forcing yourself to take what you already understand and actually use it yourself. Input is for sort of like the theory, where as speaking is the hands on experience. You really need both of these to get good at something, so you have to start speaking, you can’t keep putting it off.

I think delaying speaking for maybe the first 2-3 months is totally fine, but after that, you are probably putting yourself at a disadvantage and you will inventively slow your progress down by avoiding it.

(You can read more about – Why Is Speaking A New Language So Difficult?)

Why You Should Focus On Everything Equally From The Start

If you look at how schools teach, and most courses, they focus on everything equally from the beginning.

You can understand why, all four areas are equally important if you want to be fully functionally in the language.

The problem with this method is that it can be overwhelming. Reading, writing, listening and speaking are all difficult in a new language and trying to focus on them all can be a shock to the system. However, it’s clearly possible as millions of people have learned a language in this way.

This approach also means you have to go a little slower. You brain can only handle so much new information at once, and if you are trying to hit it from four different angles, then you need to do that slowly.

If you are going to study for an hour a day, this will mean you spend 15 minutes on each area. You can see how this would slow things down compared to only focusing on listening for an hour solid for example.

(You can read more about – What Are The Benefits Of Practising Your Speaking Skills In A Second Language?)

Language Learning Is Slow

I do think we need to remember that language learning is a long and slow process, there is no need to rush and if it is going to take us a number of years to see any real progress, then why not just focus on everything all at once and slowly build up over the long run.

I’ve also explained above that you want everything to be about equal, and if you ignore speaking for a while, then you have to spend some extra time focusing on this later on down the line. You may just find it easier to do everything together from the start and keep everything balanced as you develop.  

(You can rad more about – Why Does It Take So Long To Learn A Lanaguage)

You Can Only Say What You Know

Really the argument against this approach is that you can really only say what you know. If you learn a sentence today, well that is as far as you can go. You can understand what this one sentence means and you can also say it …but that’s all. 

You can sort of fool yourself very easily into thinking you can say a lot, but when you actually start to engage with native speakers, or even just native content, you will quickly see that you are actually quite limited.

This is usually what people realise when they do this method for a while. They sort of become aware of their limitation and will usually pull back from speaking for a short period and start focusing more on their input.

There Is No Right Or Wrong Way

Really it is up to you to decide what you want to you. You need to decide what your goals are and find out what works for you.

Personally I would tell you to just focus on input for a few months, and then start introducing speaking. However, you have to sort of experiment a little be and see what you feel is right.

There is no one way to learn a language and every one does it a little differently so you have to kind of find you own way.

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

It’s All Going To Take Time

There are no shortcuts to learning a language, so even if you find waiting a while to start speaking, it is still going to take you time to get to a good level. You are still going to have to catch up with your speaking at some point, so really the workload works out about the same no matter how you do it.

You need to just focus on doing what you can and making sure you keep going, you will get there eventually.

Always remember that at some point you are going to need to speak, you can’t avoid it. Whatever approach you take, you will need to master this area, just like you will for the other three areas

(You can read more about – Resources To Help With Your Speaking In A New Language)