Learning a language is like building a house. The whole process starts with a foundation upon which the walls spring up, made up of individual building blocks or bricks. Each wall has its own marks, holes and openings for inserting other necessary components of the house, like windows, struts and purling, electrical conduits, etc.

Everything that is part of that house, every building material, has its own position in the structure and must be put in its correct position before the house can be said to be a house. If the walls stand on the bare ground without an inch of foundation, a window is placed where a door is supposed to be, wall tiles are positioned where the ceiling should be, the water closet is placed in the kitchen instead of in the toilet, electrical switches are fixed all over the floor instead of on the walls, then that builder can truly be said to be building confusion and people would begin to wonder what on earth he is trying to achieve, knowing very well that what he is doing is not the way to build a house.

The house scenario is analogous to speaking a language. The building materials of a language are called Parts of Speech. It is these parts that the speaker of a language brings together in an orderly meaningful manner to form the building called speech. Whenever you say something that has a meaning, you have constructed a linguistic building called speech. Whenever you say something that has no meaning, you have constructed a linguistic monster called confusion, like that builder did, and people would begin to wonder what on earth you are saying, because they do not understand you, even if you are opening and closing your mouth like people do when they speak and you are using the very same words they use when they speak. The difference is that he who builds linguistic confusion in not placing the building materials called parts of speech in their respective correct positions.

Learning a language, therefore, is learning as many words of that language as possible (all the words of that language, if possible, because the more words you know, the more fluent you are) and how to use them in the right combination to form phrases, which combine to form sentences, which combine to form paragraphs, which combine to form endless text or speech.

The fastest way to learn a language, in my opinion formed out of experience, is to do it most systematically, from the foundation, through the roof, to the furnishing; from the alphabet, through patient and steadfast study of vocabulary, to the advanced text; for if a builder puts up four walls, installs windows and doors in them before digging the foundations, that builder is building a monstrous confusion and that edifice is bound to fail.

That is where I totally disagree with many a language grammar book, especially the modern ones we have all over the place now, some with accompanying CDs and DVDs, which pretend to honestly teach a language by beginning right in the middle of the course, with advanced texts and translations and whatever else, without taking the learner through the indispensable initial stage of the alphabet and pronunciation.

And that is why I have written and teach with my own Spanish Grammar Book, because the students I have had the pleasure of teaching this language for so many years, in physical classrooms and online, have made me know what style of teaching the language learner prefers.

If you are a language teacher, what do you think, in your experience, is the best language teaching method? If you are a language learner, what method of language teaching do you like best? Share your experience.