My point was that if someone has a severe social anxiety, one can learn to read the language first. This way they can build a model of phrases and how words tie

My point was that if someone has a severe social anxiety, one can learn to read the language first. This way they can build a model of phrases and how words tie together and so on. Of course, to actually communicate with people, writing or speaking is required. Then only with speaking comes the pronunciation. That can be very cognitively demanding in addition to other cognitive loads, so having a vocabulary and phrases ready can help. I know two foreign languages. The first foreign one I started to learn by accident by listening (English, through kids' movies/cartoons with subtitles) until English formally started in school. At that point it helped a lot to know some phrases and structure "beforehand". The second foreign one started in school at 14 years old (Swedish), but I did not have a lot of motivation for it back then. Reading felt easier and that is what helped me pick up the language in more detail over ten years later. I also studied German for two years but never used it afterwards so I can't really speak it. I can mostly figure out stuff I read if it has words I know or can figure out the meaning from the context. Now, is my lack of German pronunciation skills stopping me from deepening my skills in German? Nope, I can still study vocabulary and reading in general. Of course I cannot talk with anyone in a proper way. But, at least to me, knowing a language does not imply being able to speak it. Speaking is just one dimension (of reading, writing, listening, speaking).