The place most worth considering where instruction in how to learn a second language abounds just might surprise you. Africa is the place where more people are multilingual than anywhere else in the world. Thousands of her people speak multiple dialects, different languages in which they conduct all manner of business, multiple native tribal languages, and colonial languages. These Africans have done so without the availability of a classroom, textbooks, workbooks, CD’s or cassette recordings, or teachers. And yet, they learn these languages with what would seem to us an almost uncanny ease.
In almost every case, it was a work situation in which these folks acquired their new languages. They left their hearth and home to go to another village or city where there was a work opportunity. They found some sort of job and began working with others who spoke another language. The newcomers did not enroll in a language course. They just worked side by side with the people who spoke the new language. They listened. That’s all. They just listened. Before long, they began to understand what was being said. Little by little, the confusing chatter became clear. Then came...