Techniques in Formal Classes vs in Online Communities

Hello Syrup, welcome! That’s a very good question. Take my answer with a grain of salt as it’s not a method that suits everyone. I think it mostly comes down to what you want to get out of it. There are a bunch of methods and paths out there. This is just one of them. Some hobbyists also want to speak straight away and that’s okay if that’s what they would like to do. One of the examples that has been specifically brought up for speaking fast is Fluent in 3 Months by Benny Lewis, there are probably more out there too. Some intensive immersion based classroom courses include speaking and the speakers seems pretty fluent. Speaking sooner does help you when you are in survival situations like living in the country or visiting a country where your target language is used.

There’s a lot of confusion because the refold roadmap has changed over time but there are still videos and other sources of information out there with older information. It’s not as hardcore as AJATT or MIA, it tends to focus on consistency over time in a way that is sustainable. You start with a very small but achievable amount of time everyday and then gradually over time you can choose to increase time spent with the language. Some people are happy with just doing 15 minutes a day and other people are happy with 2-3 hours a day. I cannot verify it but I get the feeling that Steve Kaufman spends a little bit of a little bit of time per day as well.

When I went on the refold course people asked things similar questions, including myself and this is how I learned about the updates to their roadmap. I went on this course to make sense out of it all because being told,”just immerse bro”, was never helpful to me because it was never specific enough. There were some people who were taking traditional classes where you are expected to speak but they were using the refold method to reinforce their learning of vocabulary and grammar. With language learning, things don’t have to be super rigid so you can mix and match what methods and resources you would like to use.

You’re encouraged to study the phonetics of your language but if you are learning a language that is very different than your own (e.g. an English speaker learning Mandarin) then you’re encouraged to study it more frequently. When I learn new things, sometimes I get words and phrases stuck in my head and feel compelled to say them and practice the self-talk technique, I was told that it’s quite natural and it’s okay because often it’s something you’ve learned.

I asked what counts as output and what I was told Is that it’s when you freestyle and make things up on the fly (and I’m paraphrasing here). So in this case using tourist phrases wouldn’t count because you didn’t make it up yourself and so they’ll probably be grammatically correct. I’m not in the speaking stage yet but I don’t always follow it to the letter. Personally do shadowing infrequently but I read aloud with feedback from a tutor, a native speaker or I’ll do it alone. Sometimes I do self-talk with phrases, grammar patterns or chunks I have learned. I’m not as worried about sounding foreign because I am foreign, but for the people who are worried about that, there’s no pressure to speak. I do find that these speaking techniques are helpful for me because I get very anxious or shy speaking to people I don’t know but not everyone has that problem. My silly little noggin can go completely blank when I get nervous even when speaking in my native language.

From what I understand, in a conversation when you listen to someone else, you are practicing your listening comprehension skills but when it’s your turn to speak you’re using a form of active recall drawing from what you know to create a message you wish to convey. I think this is why people who speak from day one do very well to in recall as recall is used to learn a lot of things.

All in all, I’m not someone who is following it to the letter because as more research comes out they update things to improve it, my processes are always being tweaked and I am learning what resources work best for me as I go along. I think it should be the same for other people, it’s good to find what works best for you.
Right now., I have no deadline but I did also start off learning languages in a class at university where there were declines and very different goals. If you absolutely need to speak then speak.

Tl;Dr

• It boils down to goals and deadline
• There’s a lot of old/dated information floating around.
• Consistency is valued over cramming
• Refold can be combined with traditional classes if desired
• Outputting = free styling (survival phrases are okay to learn if you need them)
• Speak If you need to Speak

Note: I’m sorry in advance if there are any mistakes or if something is not clear, I’m getting sleepy. Some people are hardcore purists about a method but sometimes you need to try new things to grow.

Also, I love that you volunteer for ESL, it'll help a lot of people!