Foreign Language Training & Use

[Dayuhan]

how would you try to encourage students today to study these languages? Many Americans seem to be a bit on the lazy side when it comes to languages where the grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and/or script are noticeably different from English.

I think one obstacle is that many Americans go through much of their youth, often their entire youth, without any serious exposure to a second language. In much of the world that's quite unusual... my 16 year old daughter speaks 4 languages fluently and sees nothing at all unusual or remarkable about that.

I've never seen any scientific studies on the matter and I'm certainly no linguist, but my own observations convince me that people who grow up with multiple languages, or at least have early exposure to multiple languages, find it easier to pick up languages for the rest of their lives. If you get to age 20 with only one language, you're pretty much screwed. It seems like if you get to a certain age with only one way of saying things your brain just locks down on that and has a very difficult time accommodating other ways of saying things. Not to say it's impossible, but the effort involved is far greater than it is for people who have experienced that flexibility from an early age.

My memories of French, German, and Latin are very rudimentary, but I think that having once been at least functional in all 3 made it much easier to pick up Cebuano and Tagalog.

If someone with actual expertise in the matter comes along and tells me I'm full of it I'll gladly concede the point... just how it looks to a rank amateur, albeit a multilingual one.

[ganulv]

I've never seen any scientific studies on the matter and I'm certainly no linguist, but my own observations convince me that people who grow up with multiple languages, or at least have early exposure to multiple languages, find it easier to pick up languages for the rest of their lives.

It's like playing a musical instrument (or learning a martial art or style of skiing or a number of other skills): every time you know one more well,* the next one comes more easily. It is generally thought that children enjoy a full access to Universal Grammar which adults do not, but the evidence is not unequivocal in that regard.

*The caveat is well. Going on to the next one before getting a good grasp on the one you have started tends to lead to confusion.

[Dayuhan]

It is generally thought that children enjoy a full access to Universal Grammar which adults do not, but the evidence is not unequivocal in that regard.

I find it hard to believe that American children have full access to any grammar at all, but that is perhaps just me being a contentious old fart...

[Stan]

I think one obstacle is that many Americans go through much of their youth, often their entire youth, without any serious exposure to a second language. In much of the world that's quite unusual... my 16 year old daughter speaks 4 languages fluently and sees nothing at all unusual or remarkable about that.

If someone with actual expertise in the matter comes along and tells me I'm full of it I'll gladly concede the point... just how it looks to a rank amateur, albeit a multilingual one.

Steve,
This article in the Foreign Policy Journal is right up your alley.

The author painstakingly describes and supports his experience and theories, which generally busts the myth about children learning faster. But he has a point similar to yours... exposure. A good read with some real funny bits !

A survey of people working as professional interpreters would show that 80% of them graduated from less than five universities in the world.

None of them were children.

In conclusion, my theory is if an adult and a child attend the same number of hours of classes, the adult will learn faster. In practice, however, adults have lives. They are busy people, and studying is a kind of luxury, which generally takes second place to work and earning money and taking care of their family.

However, given the same number of hours of classes, an adult would learn a language faster than a child. The proof is Monterey Institute, Defense Language Institute, and Middlebury Language Program, all of which can take an adult student from zero to passing a college entrance exam in a foreign language in just one to two years.

[Dayuhan]

The article talks about learning in a classroom setting, where I would agree that adults would learn faster, largely because they have a longer attention span and can endure more classroom time. Take two adults and two children and put them in a foreign language environment without classes, my bet is the kids will be speaking the new language way before the adults, especially if they are playing with local kids.

When my oldest son was 4 we moved to a place where the prevailing language was one he'd never spoken or heard. He showed no sign of learning it for about 6 months, and then just started speaking it, no accent issues, just chattering away. It was like a bucket filling up and then running over. I can't say all kids learn like that, obviously, but it was an interesting thing to observe. There was no visible "learning process", no "what does this mean" or "how do I say that". I'd guess kids would have a hard time if expected to learn like an adult learns in a classroom, and an easier time learning by pure immersion.

I'd still be interested in seeing data on rate of learning a completely new language in adults that have been multilingual since birth vs adults that have been monolingual since birth.

[parvati]

My background is that I have several years experience working as a Linguist for the govt. I speak 5 languages fluently plus another 5, I barely speak and/or understand. The 5 that I speak fluently, I learned by the time I was 12. The other 5, I picked up here and there and put no hardcore effort to learn or improve and learning remains so very stagnant. I believe that if my only job was to play with locals and learn languages, then I would be able to learn new languages and gain fluency in a decent timeframe even now.

Regarding children vs. adult learning debate, I would say that learning how to speak a new language is much easier for children. However, after a certain point it is schooling (college/DLI/home study) that makes a person refined in a language, that is where the adult learning part comes in place. I picked up Italian in Italy during my high school years and when I was in college in the US, my Italian professors would always tell me not to speak/write in Roman slang and deduct points for that. That is where I think the adult learning is crucial. If a child lives abroad for 18 years, picks up a language just by speaking with people/watching television etc., that person will most probably speak fluently. However, unless they are reading books and writing a little, they will not be able to pass a 4+/5 level reading/writing proficiency test because those tests are hard and are at college level or at least high school honors level. So the testers will most probably not pass a person at a native level if one starts speaking a more street version of the language picked in back alleys or slang picked up in high school.

To Mr. Dayuhan's question about multilingual individuals learning a brand new language as adults, I would say, it is not as easy as learning while younger, one reason is definitely not having time to play with locals :-)

If all other things being equal, a hard-working, eager to learn monolingual and a lazy multilingual who doesn't put any effort are put in a class to learn a language with no prior exposure, I would think that the monolingual would fare better just by the sheer effort to learn?

I salute all of you who are leaning new languages and putting an effort, most specially if you didn't grow up in that linguistic environment.

[xf4wso]

Many thanks to all who have responded - I think some very interesting and valid (at least in my limited experience) points have been made.

- I have also found that people generally show more tolerance towards "ignorant foreigners" if the ignorant foreigners are making a sincere attempt to learn and use at least a little of their language. A little truly can go a long way.

- I did not begin serious study of a foreign language until high school, but I at least was able to take 4 years of Spanish, and become reasonably proficient. No doubt, I would have learned more had I started at a much younger age.

- Desire to learn and the willingness to occasionally make a real fool of yourself in public will also carry one far. While the public embarassment may be hard on the ego, it too can be an icebreaker.

- I think the point about learning one foreign language well making learning another one easier is also true. Clearly knowing Spanish well would make it easier to learn another Romance language, I think that it goes beyond that. My personal theory is that if you can make your brain accept the fact that the world can be described and categorized in some amazingly different ways, the next "map of the world" is easier, even if completely unrelated to the first foreign language learned.

In the context of small wars, COIN, etc. perhaps the question is how do you create, find and/or encourage the patience, mental flexibility and willingness to learn another language and culture as one of the bases for success?

[Dayuhan]

...unless they are reading books and writing a little, they will not be able to pass a 4+/5 level reading/writing proficiency test because those tests are hard and are at college level or at least high school honors level. So the testers will most probably not pass a person at a native level if one starts speaking a more street version of the language picked in back alleys or slang picked up in high school.

Probably true, but raises another question: do you learn a language to pass a test or earn a rating, or do you learn it to communicate with the local populace?

If all other things being equal, a hard-working, eager to learn monolingual and a lazy multilingual who doesn't put any effort are put in a class to learn a language with no prior exposure, I would think that the monolingual would fare better just by the sheer effort to learn?

This lazy multilingual once learned a language by drinking palm wine in the shade with some helpful, loquacious, and equally lazy native speakers... and learned faster than some people who were sweating it out in a classroom (long story).

I have also found that people generally show more tolerance towards "ignorant foreigners" if the ignorant foreigners are making a sincere attempt to learn and use at least a little of their language. A little truly can go a long way.

Yes

Desire to learn and the willingness to occasionally make a real fool of yourself in public will also carry one far. While the public embarassment may be hard on the ego, it too can be an icebreaker.

Yes again

My personal theory is that if you can make your brain accept the fact that the world can be described and categorized in some amazingly different ways, the next "map of the world" is easier, even if completely unrelated to the first foreign language learned.

That's pretty much my theory as well.

In the context of small wars, COIN, etc. perhaps the question is how do you create, find and/or encourage the patience, mental flexibility and willingness to learn another language and culture as one of the bases for success?

Particularly when there's no way to know what language will be in demand next, when deployments are of limited duration, and in places where security concerns limit opportunities for immersion.

[xf4wso]

In your defense Dayuhan, I do not regard sitting in the shade drinking palm wine as the mark of a "lazy multilingual" - as long as the conversations were in the language you were trying to learn, the palm wine party is legitimate language practice. Perhaps DLI will consider adding it to their bag of tricks to encourage more rapid language acquisition...

[Stan]

I suddenly realized why I liked learning Estonian over Lingala... the social settings

We venture into an underground pub from the 13th century and drink beer and eat garlic bread and chicken wings

That should motivate most of our younger generation providing the Army wants Estonian speakers !