If you are embarking on your Finnish journey, or have already tried learning it without much success, and want to find the best, most efficient way to learn that mysterious language, search no more.
In this article, you will learn what to do, and what not to do, in order to start understanding and speaking Finnish in the shortest time possible.
The ‘best’ way to learn any language is always the one that suits you and keeps you consistent. However, scientific research has identified certain methods as superior to others.
Difference between language learning and acquisition
Science distinguishes two different approaches that lead to language fluency: language learning and language acquisition.
Language learning is what we’ve all done at school; it’s the conscious studying of rules of language. Remember the if-clauses in English or the subjonctif in French? Yep, that’s what I’m talking about.
Language acquisition, on the other hand, means the subconscious process of absorbing a language without focusing on grammar. “That can’t work!” you might think. Well, actually, I can very confidently say that it does – and has worked for you as well. Or how else do you think you learned your native language? By memorising irregular verbs while potty training?
Most people who speak more than one language have experience in both language learning and acquisition.
But which one is better? Can they both work for you? And which one should you use for learning Finnish the best and most efficient way?
Let’s look at what decades of scientific research say about language learning and acquisition.
A growing body of evidence suggests that studying grammar rules does not result in fluency in a language. According to research, conscious knowledge about language – e.g. knowing in theory when to use the passé composé – can only marginally be transferred into functional fluency and comprehension of that language.
In other words, even if you know the Finnish grammar by heart, you will not be able to understand or speak it fluently.
Is studying grammar then completely useless? It seems that mostly, yes, but as this study shows, some focus on grammar and correcting writing can help at a more advanced level – although those activities should only take a fraction of the study time.
So if we should not study grammar rules, how can we learn the structure of the language? Research shows, again and again, the best results from “comprehensible input”, which in all its simplicity means reading and listening in the target language.
The father of the comprehensible input hypothesis, Dr. Stephen Krashen, has shown that “grammar, vocabulary, spelling, phonemic awareness, phonics, and knowledge of text structure can be acquired and improved without explicit instruction or skill-building of any kind” and that “the source of competence in these areas is aural and written comprehensible input”.
This is nicely illustrated in a study by Mason in 2018, who found that students who did only one comprehensible input class per week and reading at home did significantly better in a test than students who, in addition to that comprehensible input class and reading, had 6 other classes per week studying a textbook.
Would you rather spend 1 hour or 7 hours per week studying Finnish, if both give you the same end result? Yep, that’s what I thought too.
Remember those vocabulary tests at school, where you memorised a bunch of words by heart out of context and forgot most of them by the following week?
Well, it seems that ‘learning’ is not the best way to gather vocabulary; not so much because we forget a lot of what we’re taught, but rather because it’s so much more time-efficient to acquire new words through reading and listening.
Reading, specifically, is estimated to work 20 times faster than classroom instruction – especially if you read something that actually interests you.
And in fact, research has found that most of our vocabulary overall comes from reading and listening using comprehensible input – not by learning words by heart (Krashen, Lee, & Lau, 2018).
In traditional language classes, students start speaking from day one. Or rather, they repeat sentences out loud sometimes even without knowing what they mean.
Does this help learning the language faster? Apparently, no.
Currently there is no scientific evidence that early or forced output – speaking the language when you don’t yet understand it – improves your progress. On the contrary, research shows that producing the language early actually slows learning.
This is because, at an early stage, you don’t yet know the language so you make a lot of mistakes. Now, mistakes are normal in language learning, but if you do a lot of output exercises when you have little idea how the language works, you’ll only get flawed input – your own incorrect talk.
Another issue with speaking early is your own self-confidence. You know you sound like a toddler, you need to search for words (time-consuming!) and, as mentioned before, you make a lot of mistakes. Language learning should and can be fun, so why force yourself to feel uncomfortable – especially when it’s not the most efficient way to learn?
So let’s skip drills – speaking exercises where you repeat a sentence or change a couple of words – they really don’t work.
Reading out loud, thus practising pronunciation while acquiring grammar and vocabulary, is another thing and can be effective, because you are not producing the language yourself.
And of course, learning to speak a language requires speaking, BUT in a much later stage, when you already understand most of what you hear.
By now, we’ve pretty much understood that ‘acquisition’ is the way to go and your best bet to learn Finnish in the most efficient way. But will this really work for you?
Luckily, research has an answer to that: yes it will.
Yes, we have different preferences about learning and some of us have better skills in some areas than others (without stating that some of us are bad at languages; watch a video about this here).
But at the end of the day, the only thing that seems to progress your language proficiency is the presence of masses of comprehensible input – coupled with the avoidance of counterproductive activities such as grammar practice, drills and rule-teaching.
Now, if you love grammar, by all means study it! As I said, language learning should be fun. But I would recommend pairing that with reading and listening, because that’s what will make you understand and speak Finnish.
The scientific evidence today strongly suggests that acquisition, through comprehensible input, is the best way to learn and become fluent in a language. In fact, when we look at the human race, most if not all human beings throughout history have learned languages with acquisition only, without even knowing what grammar is.
Why, then, do we still learn languages by studying grammar rules and vocabulary at school?
My guess is that some people find it cool to be able to name verb tenses and explain the logic behind them (I’m not one of those…). Or, to be able to keep the jobs for language teachers – although I would strongly argue that even if we changed the way we teach and learn languages, we would still need teachers – you can hear my thoughts on that in this video.
In conclusion, if your goal is to be able to talk to your Finnish friends without effort, go for the natural method (acquisition). If you want to be able to name all Finnish cases and explain the rules behind grammatical structures, use the traditional methods (learning).
If you’re in the first group and want to know more about how you can learn Finnish in the most efficient and fun way, I invite you to sign up for my FREE video class & start understanding Finns for real!
Resources:
Kirk, R. W. (2013). The effects of processing instruction with and without output: Acquisition of the Spanish subjunctive in three conjunctional phrases. Hispania, 153-169.
Krashen, S. (2011). Seeking a justification for skill-building. KOTESOL Proceedings, 2011, 13-20.
Krashen, S. D., Lee, S. Y., & Lao, C. (2017). Comprehensible and compelling: The causes and effects of free voluntary reading. ABC-CLIO.
Mangubhai, F. (2001). Book floods and comprehensible input floods: Providing ideal conditions for second language acquisition. International Journal of Educational Research, 35(2), 147-156.
Mason, B. (2018). A pure comprehension approach: More effective and efficient than eclectic second language teaching. IBU Journal of Educational Research and Practice, 6(1), 69-79.
Published on 8 October 2022.