Immigrant Song: Learning English outside of the classroom

Natalia Tchalova has some advice for immigrants who are struggling to learn English in Canada: sit down, relax and turn on the television.

When Tchalova moved to Toronto from Russia 10 years ago, she struggled with the daunting language barrier. And while ESL classes were widely available Tchalova, like a large number of immigrants, learned to employ strategies in her everyday life to improve her English skills. For starters, she turned to the tube.

“All the time you’re at home, it should be on,” Tchalova said. “It’s especially good to listen to news channels because during the day it repeats over and over.”

Shahnam Ma, who came to Canada from Iran seven years ago, agrees. In his late 20s, he found that his own learning methods helped him learn English quicker than ESL classes did.

“Whenever I’d see a new word on the closed captioning I’d write it down or look it up right away,” Ma said. “So if you learned one word a day, you learned 365 words a year. The progress is slow but you still learn everyday.”

This method of learning English is not only common among newcomers – it’s encouraged by educators. Helen Kazias, a specialist in teaching ESL, says independent learning is critical to the development of a new language speaker.

“I always tell my students to watch as much television as they can,” Kazias said. “Go to movies and read because that’s only going to help with their acquisition of the language.”

Twenty years ago, when Joseph Kim emigrated from Korea as a child, elements of popular culture helped him break down social barriers and develop his English skills.

“I learned through X-Men comics and stuff like that,” Kim said. “It’s not like it goes over your head because every kid on the playground has them. It’s a social tool.”

And social tools are invaluable when it comes to language acquisition. Tchalova volunteered at her daughter’s school as a way of meeting people and forcing herself to speak English. Ma got a job in retail and Kim found camaraderie with his peers through common interests.

“They really do need to get their ear attuned to the language spoken at a native speaker’s rate,” Kazias said. “It’s important for ESL learners to hear the correct speed at which we speak and the changes we make (in our speech).”

But speaking to someone in person is one thing. Speaking on the phone is a whole other matter. Ma admitted that he hated answering the phone because he had difficulty understanding anyone on the other end of the line. Tchalova, though, found a simple solution: she called offices or government agencies after hours and listened to their answering machines.

“I remember before I went to sleep I’d dial the same number 10 or 12 times until I understood most of what was said,” Tchalova said. “So, it’s really helpful.”

Grace Feuerverger, an OISE professor and ESL teacher, believes that advances in technology make it even easier for newcomers to improve their English skills rapidly.

“Given the reality of the Internet, that’s probably number one for them,” Feuerverger said. “They are learning to navigate the system. That’s making a huge difference.”

Though many immigrants manage to learn English by trial and error, some find that native speakers are often reluctant to correct them when they misspeak. It’s frustrating, Ma said, because so much of the process depends on learning from one’s mistakes.

“It’s a multicultural city and you can communicate fine without knowing proper English,” Ma said. “But it’s not necessarily a good thing. You have to have that level of comfort with others to ask them to correct you, but that helps a lot.”  

Learning, however, is a constant process, and language acquisition is no different.

“Some days you feel up and you can speak easily and understand easily,” Tchalova said. “Then the next day something snaps and words escape you and you have a really difficult time to say things that you could say before. It’s strange but it’s true.”

Still, Feuerverger said that immigrants’ determination to learn continues to amaze her.

“It’s that immigrant motivation,” Feuerverger said. “It’s psychological, like ‘I’ve been given this second chance and I really want to make it.’ It’s fascinating.”