Too many people leave school being able to use very little of the languages which they spent so many hours learning.

For some of us those hours spent in language lessons, practicing grammar, learning words, practicing to speak and write, will have been enjoyable, easy and successful. For these people the school experience will have given a firm foundation for using different languages throughout their lives.

But for many, the investment of time and effort in language classrooms may have had more disappointing outcomes. Such people may remember some constructions, some words, and for some reason often the mistakes they used to make. But even when they leave school, and later in their lives, they find it difficult to use the language actively, as a tool for real-life communication in everyday situations. Somehow it does not make sense to have spent all this time learning a language, and then leave school and find that we simply cannot use it in real-life situations.

Why are some people naturally gifted in learning languages? Are others always going to struggle just because they are not “made that way”?

When a baby is born it has a natural ability to acquire language, which it does from the earliest point of life. This ability to acquire language lays the basis for learning language, learning about the world and developing skills of human communication.

But if a parent hardly bothered to speak or otherwise attempt to communicate with his/her baby, then that child is unlikely to learn language as well and as quickly as other children of the same age.

In other words, although babies are born with the capacity to learn language, it is the opportunities they have to use this capacity and learn by doing which is the most important success factor.

It is not so much what we know but how we use it which is so important when we consider effective language learning and communication.

So, are some people naturally gifted in learning languages? Undoubtedly, yes, just as some people are gifted in music, science or the visual arts, we are all drawn in different ways towards differing forms of learning. But so much of this question of being gifted depends on how we have experienced the world around us; what has made us excited, focussed, disappointed, bored, or otherwise disinterested.

Children learn in different ways according to their personal learning styles. These may differ, even a great deal, from person to person.

Schools find it very difficult to accommodate different learning styles because they need to standardize what and how subjects are taught to suit the learning profile image of the up to 30 youngsters sitting in each class. And yet, each of those youngsters will have different backgrounds, needs and aspirations. This means that their personal learning styles may not suit the approach which the school uses. This issue affects all subjects, but particularly mathematics and languages.

Children and young people also prefer differing language learning styles which means that certain types of language teaching methods may suit some, but not others. For example, some children prefer learning about the language, others prefer learning by using the language. CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) usually offers alternative ways to improve language learning and so it could give more children better opportunities to develop their language skills in your school.