One of the most discouraging things about studying English, as reported by many students, is low ROI (return on investment). In Russia, many students start taking English classes early in primary (elementary) school. In addition to that, many parents hire tutors for their children. Still, after many years at school and university, most don't master it. Many times I've heard someone say, "I'm not good at languages" or "You just have a talent for languages". I have to call BS on that. Everyone who has mastered their native language is good at languages. Language is an in-built function of a human brain. Why then many can't be fluent in something they've spent decades studying? Because they study it. Language is learnt, it's acquired, it's not studied.
If you study physics, you know the laws, but you don't necessary know how to build a rocket and send it into space or fix a car engine. Those require skills. Studying gives you knowledge. Language is a skill that should be learnt. Most schools employ a grammar/translation approach, which minimizes the contact with the real language. In an average classroom pupils barely have any authentic materials, their reading is adapted, their listening is unnaturally slow and clear, their speaking time is limited. Most of the exercises they do have nothing to do with the language they should be learning. Students believe they're inapt, while in fact they were wasting their time in class.
To make authentic materials work in class the teacher has to be committed to long-term results, spend a lot of time and effort on putting the course together, master new skills and employ technology. Unfortunately, the focus is on passing standard grammar tests, which requires studying the rules, not learning the language. It's also hard to convince parents that they shouldn't measure their children's future language level by grammar test results.
An essential part of learning is trying, which never comes without mistakes and failures. School is an environment that punishes for mistakes with bad grades and students get discouraged to try. Think of a child learning their native language and not making mistakes. What would you do if your toddler spoke their native language with mistakes? Would you punish them or get excited that they are learning?
One of the most overlooked elements of learning is joy. Students who enjoy lessons learn, students who experience any kind of negativity, let it be boredom or fear of punishment, don't. If your student's book barely contains pictures, if your listening exercises do not have any interesting information and are read by monotonous non-native speakers, if your teacher doesn't employ a positive reinforcement approach and doesn't bother to speak the language you're learning, if you don't learn anything new about people, the world and the culture of the country, then you're not going to learn the language. Considering most children don't know why they are learning what they are learning at school, joy is the only thing that can motivate to study.
My believe is that if children were watching appropriate TV shows and movies every lesson, they'd learn more English than they do now. Matching words to images and context is an important part of language acquisition. If your learning is limited to "fill in the blank" and "listen and repeat" type of exercises then there is no wonder that ROI in learning English is so low.
