The real lab

I know it is really hard for people, but imagine this - that people want to be taught how to speak a second language and they have no formal training using or developing their native tongues.  That may not sound like it should be a huge obstacle, but consider how most schools teach language.  That's right, through grammar and written language.  Grammar and written language, of course, are an exercise in formal training and these second language learners have none.  So, to develop it after a child's learning window has closed for acquiring it naturally, is to learn it by repetition and being in many hundreds of different circumstances over time.  Right again, that's impossible.

So, what a challenge it is to learn a second language without being able to rely on the formality of grammatical nomenclature, written expression, or a sense of what is native expression.  There is a way, of course, to learn a language without the three methods just mentioned, but many educators don't know how to do this since they were taught formally, and they tend to teach in  the way they learned.  Many of them will tell you it's impossible to teach a second language without describing what happens in grammatical terms.

If people would think how they learned science, (in the lab, right?), then they can better understand how to learn a foreign language.  There is an axiom that has to be followed.  To the extent that grammatical description is not used, then to that extent people have to be in the lab.  And by lab, a classroom environment is not meant.  A real world environment is meant. So, the successful formula is GD-n=L+n (Grammatical Description - the amount of ability from understanding grammatical description  =  use of the Lab of the real world + the amount of ability from hearing, practicing, and experiencing real world language) 
Public, private, and business schools who don't discover this don't really teach for fluency, they teach to say they have taught.  The proof of any method is always in the success of the students who become bilingual as a result of the method. That measure alone would condemn most of the language learning methods used.  Roughly, and without regard to a person's determination to learn, 1000 hours of actual practice of language are necessary to achieve a measure of fluency.  That excludes any instruction by a teacher.

As the world becomes more globally networked, the need for a second language is likely to be more in demand.  Those who pay attention to what is on the horizon for higher paying jobs should begin looking at the field of second language development to include on their lists.  And ABSOLUTELY, method is important.