• Allocate strictly 15 minutes for this focused reading module in class.
• Have learners complete all 8 tasks individually before unlocking the step-by-step rationales for a joint review.

• Skim through paragraphs A to D in under 3 minutes to grasp the central themes.
• Answer the 8 graduated IELTS-style questions without consulting a bilingual dictionary.

The Science of Learning Languages

How long does it take to learn a language? The US Foreign Service Institute (FSI) has some answers. The FSI teaches languages to diplomats. It also estimates how long English speakers need to learn different languages.

For languages that are close to English, such as Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch, the FSI estimates about 24 to 30 weeks, or 600 to 750 class hours. For Japanese, Arabic, Chinese and Korean, it estimates about 88 weeks, or 2,200 class hours.

What happens in the brain when people learn a second language? In 2004, a team of scientists led by Andrea Mechelli scanned the brains of 83 English speakers. 25 of them spoke one language, 25 had learned a second language before the age of 5, and 33 had learned one between the ages of 10 and 15. The results were published in the journal Nature.

The people who spoke two languages had more grey matter in one area on the left side of the brain than the people who spoke one language. The difference was bigger for people who learned earlier and for people who spoke the second language better.