Suddenly It Stays

I'm convinced more and more that the key to speaking a language you're learning is selective repetition.  Notice I've used the word 'selective' there.  I'm on lesson 27 in the Pimsleur all-audio course for French.  One of the methods of that learning program is to present common words and phrases to the learner and repeat them not only in the lesson in which they are introduced, but to re-introduce them in subsequent lessons.  I've found that after dozens of these repetitions, some phrases just come naturally and I no longer have to retrieve the grammar rules and vocabulary, which is painstakingly slow and unnatural sounding, but the words and grammar just seem to arise in my mind before I even have time to think.  The narrator on the program will often ask for a specific response to a question posed in French and expects an immediate reaction from the listener, also in French.  When I first began to learn the phrases, I had to pause the recording and rack my brain for the proper grammar sequence and vocabulary. 

This is why it seems to me that the only way to improve one's French speaking skills is to get at least a medium-sized cache of the most used words and phrases of the language.  These items should be drilled until they just come right to the tip of the tongue; that's what happens when we speak in our own language.  I suppose for someone with a photographic memory and instant retrieval could get by creating thoughts and expressions as she goes, but for most of us it's a matter of drilling it into our brains. 

Of course this is not as important if you're only interested in reading, writing, or listening to the language.  In those situations, you usually have time to get your thoughts together.  When you're having a conversation, long pauses are usually very uncomfortable and make for very unsatisfying results. 

It is very gratifying to me when I'm able to answer the Pimsleur narrator's questions and respond to his scenarios without having to pause to plan what I want to say.  I can only imagine what it's like when this ability becomes so dominant that you almost feel that you've found he holy grail of language learning: fluency. 

A la prochaine...