The smart way to promote language learning inside the school schedule is to build a climate of use. It’s kind of strange that so many Americans complain about languages besides English being spoken inside this country, and yet language courses are traditional in our secondary schools. In other words, people complain about languages being USED, and then expect school courses to make students competent in the languages. But hardly anyone actually is competent in them.
It’s still socially unacceptable among a large part of our population to converse publicly in languages other than English. “Speak English. This is America,” people say.
So where can you get any experience with a language while studying? You better get it all along the way, during class, outside class, mumbling to yourself, talking with others.
School administrators and lots of other people continually tell me they took years of language coursework and can’t do anything with it. The main problem is that there is almost never a climate of use that matches the tons of vocabulary and grammar that are piled on you during the courses. Piles of language take even bigger piles of practice.
Make practice the big item, and you will be really good. Anybody can do it. Humans are tailor-made for language.