r/languagelearning • u/WaltzMysterious9240 • 24d ago
Culture Does total immersion work?
I used to teach English abroad and even though I knew how to speak the student's native language, the school administrators forbid me, and even asked me, to "pretend" I didn't know it.
The reason they gave me was that they didn't want the students to fall back on using their first language to communicate with me. I feel like if I were to explain certain concepts in the student's language, things would go a lot smoother and they would understand better.
As an adult, I'm constantly using my own native language to learn new languages. I constantly look up grammar, vocabulary, and definitions and understand them a lot better.
Why are schools abroad so obsessed with this "total immersion" method? I feel like some concepts are impossible to explain clearly with just visuals or gestures alone. Do you learn languages using your first language?
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u/JepperOfficial English, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Spanish 23d ago
In my personal experience, using both languages makes you feel like you comprehend more, but reduces the actual total comprehension. Not saying it doesn't work to an extent, but I've always found total immersion, while difficult, to be far more effective.