"Use it or lose it!" So the saying goes. The first time I heard someone say it was when I was standing in front of a chair as a child. I was told "use it or lose it", meaning that if I didn't sit in the chair, someone else would. Here it is, several decades later, and I find myself saying "use it or lose it", though in a very different context.
As someone who teaches English to speakers of other languages and, more specifically, English as a foreign language, one thing I stress with my students is the importance of actually using the language one is learning. I provide opportunities in class for my students to use their English and insist that they also need to use their English outside the classroom in their daily lives - even something seemingly small like changing the language settings on your electronic devices to English (or whatever language you're learning) can make a real difference. Yet, I also understand this from a student's perspective because I'm a Spanish-language learner and I've seen in my own learning experience the necessity of using the language in my daily life. One way I've done that is to change the language setting on my smartphone (which is always within arm's reach) to Spanish. I speak from experience when I tell my students "Use it or lose it!"
"The only way to get better at a language is to use it", a quote I often tell my students to remember. Learning a language isn't just memorizing a bunch of grammar rules, some of which are becoming obsolete while textbook publishers fail to keep up with the evolution (or perhaps devolution) of the language. It isn't just memorizing a bunch of words in isolation. And if all you're doing is learning enough information to pass school tests (pretty much the reality in primary, middle, and high schools here in China), you're not learning a language, you're studying a subject. Learning a language is learning to communicate with others in that language. It's a skill, not a subject. We learn a skill; we study a subject. But skills, once learned, need constant care and feeding; they need to be maintained. The only way to do that is to use what you've learned. In other words, "use it or lose it".
It is no mistake that part of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages is becoming an independent user of the language you're learning. This starts when you go from the elementary level (A2) to the beginning of the intermediate level (B1). For more information, go to the CEFR website at http://www.commoneuropeanframework.org/ or visit the related Cambridge English page at http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/cefr/. You're not really a speaker of a language unless you're able to speak it independently - independent of your native language. Such independence comes through regularly using the language. "Use it or lose it!"
Once you've achieved independence in a language, you can go on to proficiency and what many people call "fluency" or being "fluent". Despite the advertisements with the elaborate claims about becoming "fluent" in a language in x number of days or weeks, there is no quick and easy way to language fluency. And even after you've achieved fluency, you have to maintain it. There is only one way to achieve language fluency and it's also the way to maintain fluency: use the language you've learned - think, listen, speak, read, and write in the language. "Use it or lose it!"
Talk all you want about teaching methodologies or things students themselves can do to improve their language skills - and these certainly have their place - it really all comes down to one thing: use what you've learned. "Use it or lose it!"
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