The definition of ‘passive’ according to Google is “accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance.” A small portion of students in the class actually want to learn the language for whatever reason, and that is what teachers want. But the majority of the class is just there because they have to be, not because they want to immerse themselves in the language. These students are passive, allowing the teacher to feed information into their brains, then let it drain out the other side, retaining only enough knowledge to skim through the class. “He is in the class simply because he has to be, and because he has no personal investment in his language studies, makes average progress” (Lampariello, 2). What is so interesting about this is that students who were learning a foreign language typically could understand their primary language better. The problem with requiring foreign language is that there isn’t a lot of choice involved, so students generally don’t pay attention and aren’t interested in learning it. Students need to feel like they have more free will and a say in the matter, and if they don’t, well, only active participants will learn anything lasting.