IT'S THE BIG ONE!!! Four Methods for Adults to Learn Language

Graham Herrli

Lera Boroditsky

Language and Society

9 December 2007

Four Methods for Adults to Learn Language

What is the most effective method for adults to acquire language? Adults can learn language using many different methods, including traditional classes, Automatic Language Growth (ALG), learning by watching films, and complete immersion. Each of these methods has its own strengths and weaknesses in facilitating learning of the four different aspects of language: reading, writing, oral comprehension, and speech. Naturally the gamut of methods available raises the questions: what is the most effective method for adults to learn each of the four aspects of language? and what makes this method better than others?

The first possible method for an adult to acquire language is to take a traditional class—one with teachers, workbooks, vocabulary lists, homework, and tests. In traditional classes, factors such as peer pressure and competition play a significant role, especially in classes with grade curves, where students compete to learn a language faster and better than their peers. The desire to succeed engendered by these factors provides a motive for learning and tests have shown that people learn more effectively when they are motivated to do so. ¹

Numerous psychological tests have shown that contextual association aids in memory. For example, one study demonstrated that if divers were taught some words underwater and some words on land, they would be more likely to remember each set of words when situated in the same setting in which they had learned those words.² Similarly, regular repetition of language learning at the same time and same place each day leads students to better remember things within that setting. However, outside of that classroom setting, the students no longer have access to that mnemonic, and will thus be less likely to remember their classroom learnings. In other words, traditional methods teach students to remember the new language within the classroom, but to forget much of it once they step outside. Also, the natural mnemonic tendency to remember less outside of the original context of learning is reinforced by lack of a need to speak the new language outside of the classroom.

Despite the accessibility, regularity, and motivation associated with conventional classroom language learning, the method remains unnatural. Rather than recalling words instinctually and naturally, conventional students must engage higher brain functions in actively thinking about grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and other, similar concepts which no native speaker would need to think about.

In considering the four elements of language, conventional learners would probably perform better than other learners in the categories of reading and writing because outside of a classroom setting, people usually focus solely on oral conversational skills and do not bother to learn to read and write until they are nearly fluent. In both the ALG and the immersion methods outlined below, people learn to understand and to speak long before they learn how to write.

The second method of language learning is Automatic Language Growth (ALG). ALG is a method developed and primarily used in Bangkok, Thailand, where the students study Thai, but are forbidden to speak any Thai until they have heard hundreds of hours of native speech. Such students attend classes where the teachers tell stories and create interactive activities, learning to understand the language before they speak it, in much the same, natural manner infants learn language.

In addition to emphasizing this naturalness, proponents of ALG point out that students learn far better pronunciation by listening to native speakers, that the method is centered on the students rather than the teacher. They outline six basic principles of ALG learning:

1. Our point of reference or comparison is the native speaker, not other students.
2. Children are the best examples of how to learn another language
3.The adult ability to translate, memorize, and practice can NEVER produce as good of results as naturally learning a language can.
4. Practice cannot help and in fact it hinders the ability to learn naturally
5. Good speaking ability grows out of a good foundation of understanding. Therefore, understanding is what must be gained, not practice speaking.
6. Exposure to understandable, interesting experiences is the key to learning another language.” (emphasis theirs)³

These principles are conceptually sound, but few scientific experiments have been performed to support them. Instead, one must consider the success of the ALG program, and take this as evidence that good reasons must underlie the success. Indeed, after only 700 to 800 hours of class time, students begin to speak Thai relatively fluently of their own accord. One can also consider the reasons why the principles underlying the program would lead to its success:

The method focuses on promoting understanding before practice. Thus when people finally do practice, they practice the proper method of speaking. Studies have shown that it is more difficult to relearn something which has been learned in error that to simply learn something in the first place.⁴ By avoiding erroneous practice, the ALG method avoids ingraining erroneous methods into the brain and facilitates a comparably easy learning of the language. Also, when people feel that they understand a subject they are more likely to enjoy that subject and thus more likely to memorize it. ALG teachers tell entertaining stories to teach the language to their students. Because of this, the students enjoy the learning process, and the happier and more entertained students are, the faster they learn.

The method is designed to be as natural as possible, simulating the way in which infants first learn language. However, the adults have an advantage over infants in that they have already learned to perceive the world and understand the concepts underlying nearly all words which they could learn in a new language. Because adults already understand the world to a certain degree, they can never learn a new language in quite the same way as infants who are simultaneously learning about the world as they learn a new language. While the infants develop language to help structure their thoughts, the adults already have fully structured ideas and build the new language around these. Thus although the ALG ideal of trying to impersonate the way in which infants learn is advantageous in some respects, adults can never learn in quite the same way as babies.

Most importantly, ALG is based on context. Contextual association has been shown to play a significant role in the understanding of language. In the early 1970s Albert Merabian demonstrated that as little as seven percent of communication is in the actual words of the language—the rest of the meaning is conveyed through body language. By coupling their spoken words with body language, ALG instructors clarify their meaning and thus make new vocabulary easier to remember.

In considering the four elements of language learning, ALG supports oral comprehension first of all and the ability to speak soon after. It does not teach reading or writing abilities.

A third method is learning by watching films in the new language. Using this method, the learner is able to pause the film and go back to hear a phrase again as many times as needed. Repetition is an effective method of learning.⁶ Naturally, the more times a person is presented with the same material, the more likely he or she will be to remember it later.

Also, like with ALG, words in films are found in context and are thus easier to remember both because the context makes them easier to understand initially and because it provides a mnemonic association to recall them later.

If the film is a musical, the student has the additional benefits of tonality and rhythm, both of which have been shown to be powerful mnemonic aids.⁷ Also, in musicals, song lyrics are often enunciated very clearly, thus making them an ideal model for learning the pronunciation of a new language.

Films can also help to teach reading to a greater degree than purely spoken methods. If a film watcher sets the film to have subtitles in the new language, he or she can read those words while listening to them. “Visual learners [compose] up to forty percent of adults.”⁸ Being able to read the words in subtitles rather than simply hearing them is particularly beneficial to this large section of the population.

Although people watching films with subtitles are not directly learning to write, by learning to read the language, they begin to memorize spellings which they will need to know when they begin to write.

Also, with subtitles in the same language as the spoken words, the learner can read unknown words to know their spellings and can look them up in a dictionary. This can be an advantage over the spoken methods of learning because a student cannot necessarily spell a word correctly after having heard it spoken and thus cannot necessarily look it up in a dictionary to learn its meaning. Subtitles ensure that the word can be spelled and can thus be found in a dictionary and translated back into a language known by the learner. Tying the new information back to the learner’s native language in such a manner has both positive and negative aspects. Positively, it improves understanding and thus improves the learner’s overall attitude about the subject, causing him or her to learn more quickly.⁹ Negatively, it forces the learner to reference his or her native language and thus slows the learner, preventing him or her from thinking solely in the new language.

If subtitles in the same language as that being spoken in the film are not available, then subtitles in a language already known by the learner can still be advantageous because they provide greater context. Such a greater context facilitates understanding and thus improves learning, although it again slows the learner by tying information back into his or her native language.

The fourth learning method is immersion—learning by being completely surrounded by the language, generally for an extended period of time and in a foreign country. One obvious disadvantage of immersion is the amount of time it consumes, but it is superior to other methods in most ways. Through immersion, like through ALG, new information is always reinforced by a context and students can thus learn a great deal of information in a short time. Unlike ALG, however, students do not have a positive classroom environment to reinforce their studies, but instead have real world experiences, coupled with frequent embarrassment and fear of failure. Studies have shown that students feel greater motivation to assimilate information if they feel fearful or insecure rather than apathetic.¹⁰

Because they begin speaking from the start, immersion speakers attain a great deal of fluency because they learn to think in the new language rather than translating everything back to their native language. Yet, because they begin speaking so early, immersion learners—becoming accustomed to the sound of their own voice—are more likely to develop an accent than ALG speakers are.

Regarding the abilities to read, write, speak, and understand; immersion is similar to ALG in that it greatly facilitates the latter two but does not generally support even mild literacy in the former. People do not learn how to read and write simply by speaking a language, and in many indigenous places, languages are never written save by outside scholars; literacy is not a natural byproduct of language learning, but rather an extended branch of language, developed to facilitate communication.

To test one method against the others, one could create an experiment where a large number of prospective students are divided into twelve groups of relatively equal demographics—balancing, in particular, people of different learning types—and are each told to learn one of three new languages using one of the four methods. Using three different languages from three vastly different parts of the world in the study would help to ensure that one method does not appear better than the others simply because certain aspects of the language being learned. For example, if one of the three languages considered has a pictographic writing system, this could affect the way in which people learn it, especially when using the conventional classroom and film watching methods, which rely on reading to aid their learning.

In considering multiple languages, one would need to analyze the results from each language separately to see if any major differences exist between the rates at which each aspect of them is learned. One could not, for example, reasonably compare the rate at which English speakers learn Chinese using one method versus the rate at which they learn French using another method. Instead, one would have to compare the rates at which they learned each element of each language, considering each method separately.

Temporally, it would be difficult to simulate actual learning methods. The immersion method is frequently used to learn a great deal of language in a short time and people using such a method are fully immersed in the language all day, every day, for an extended period of time. The other methods are generally only used for an hour or two per day and are used to learn language more slowly. For the purposes of the study, immersion could be considered using the time frame of the others, as though someone were to immerse himself or herself for only an hour or so per day. Such methods of immersive learning do exist, although they are rarer than longer term, continuous immersion. Obviously, long term, continuous immersion learners would attain fluency in the language far faster than other learners simply because they would be spending a greater time learning, but for the purposes of the study, only immersion learners who immerse themselves for only an hour or so a day need be considered.

The subjects of the study, after being divided into their twelve groups, would each begin studying using their assigned method for one hour each day. The groups simulating the traditional classroom experience would meet at the same and the same place each day. The ALG and film-watching groups would meet at the same time, but different places each day. The immersion learners would meet at different times and different places. This control over the time and location of the meeting is aimed to simulate contextual factors associated with each group because such factors could have an effect on the amount of information remembered by the members of each group.

The learners would be evaluated once every month for three years—by which time the ALG learners would finally have been permitted to begin speaking. Because the movie-watching and traditional classroom methods tie back to the native language, the learners using these methods might score better when the tests were administered partially in their native language. To take this into consideration, all of the learners’ reading, writing, speech, and oral comprehension skills would be tested both entirely in the new language and partially in their native language.

The outcome of such a test would help to determine which methods of learning are most useful for learning each of the four elements of language. Presumably, learners using oral methods would score lower on the reading and writing elements, but various factors—including associations, learning types, contexts, and motivations—could affect which groups learn fastest and score best, particularly on the oral elements.

Endnotes

1. S. R. Millis, “Assessment of Motivation and Memory with the Recognition Memory Test after Financially Compensable Mild Head Injury,” Journal of Clinical Psychology 50, no.4 (1994): 601-605.

2. A.D. Baddeley and D. R. Godden, “Context-Dependent Memory in two Natural Environments: On Land and Underwater,” British Journal of Psychology 66 pt3 (Aug 1975, 325-31.

3. Autogrowth International, Ltd., 2001, “Automatic Language Growth,” On-line. Available from Internet, http://www.algworld.com; accessed 23 October 2007.

4. Christopher D, Green, “Classics in the History of Psychology: Cognitive Maps in Rats and Men,” York University, Toronto, Ontatatio, First published in The Psychological Review 55 no. 4, 189-208, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002, accessed online 9 December 2007.

5. Maria Luisa Salvadori, “Apologizing to the Ancient Fable: Gianni Rodari and His Influence on Italian Children’s Literature,” The Lion and the Unicorn 26 no. 2 (2002) 169-202.

6. Roxane J. Itier, “Effects of Repetition Learning on Upright, Inverted and Contrast Reversed Face Processing Using ERPs,” The Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, Canada M6A 2E1, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France 2004.

7. David W. Rainey and Janet D. Larsen, ” The Effect of Familiar Melodies on Initial Learning and Long-Term Memory for Unconnected Text,” Music Perception 20 no. 2 (Winter 2002) 173-186, On-line, Available from Internet http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/mp.2002.20.2.173, Accessed 4 December 2003.

8. Shirley A. Griggs, Multiculturalism and Learning Style: Teaching and Counseling Adolescents (Greenwood: Praeger, 1995) 7.

9. Salvadori, “Apologizing to the Ancient Fable.”

10. Edward Liss, M.D., “The Psychoanalytical Study of the Child,” Motivations in Learning, 10:100-116., 1955.

Bibliography

Autogrowth International, Ltd., 2001. “Automatic Language Growth.” On-line. Available

from Internet, http://www.algworld.com; accessed 23 October 2007.

Baddeley, A.D. and D. R. Godden. “Context-Dependent Memory in two Natural

Environments: On Land and Underwater.” British Journal of Psychology 66 pt3 (Aug 1975) 325-31.

Green, Christopher D. “Classics in the History of Psychology: Cognitive Maps in Rats

and Men.” York University, Toronto, Ontatatio, First published in The Psychological Review 55 no. 4, 189-208, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002, accessed online 9 December 2007.

Griggs, Shirley A. Multiculturalism and Learning Style: Teaching and Counseling Adolescents Greenwood: Praeger, 1995.

Kersten, Gregory E., et al. “E-Negotiation Systems: Interaction of People and

Technologies to Resolve Conflicts.” UNESCAP Third Annual Forum Online Dispute Resolution http://64.233.179.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:XM_BDfdp36UJ:interneg.concordia.ca/interneg/research/papers/2004/08.pdf+Mehrabian+%22percent+of+communication%22.

Liss, Edward. “The Psychoanalytical Study of the Child.” Motivations in Learning,

10:100-116., 1955.

Itier, Roxane J. “Effects of Repetition Learning on Upright, Inverted and Contrast

Reversed Face Processing Using ERPs.” The Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, Canada M6A 2E1, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France 2004.

Janata, Petr, Jeffrey L. Birk, John D Van Horn, Marc Leman, Barbara Tilmann, and

Jamshed J. Bharucha. “The Corical Topography of Tonal Structures Underlying Western Music.” Science 298 no. 5601 (13 December 2002) 2167-2170.

Millis, S. R. “Assessment of Motivation and Memory with the Recognition Memory Test

after Financially Compensable Mild Head Injury.” Journal of Clinical Psychology 50, no.4 (1994): 601-605 .

Rainey, David W. , and Janet D. Larsen.” The Effect of Familiar Melodies on Initial

Learning and Long-Term Memory for Unconnected Text.” Music Perception 20 no. 2 (Winter 2002) 173-186, On-line, Available from Internet. http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/ mp.2002.20.2.173, Accessed 4 December 2003

Salvadori, Maria Luisa. “Apologizing to the Ancient Fable: Gianni Rodari and His

Influence on Italian Children’s Literature.” The Lion and the Unicorn 26 no. 2 (2002) 169-202.

Artistic Sign Language Translation

A recent article in The Star Online deals with the difficulties of translating artistic speech, such as that in plays, into sign language. "A play is an artistic expression and thus requires the interpreter to express the target language in a similar way, artistically." Also, to translate a play, the interpreter must take on the roles of various characters. Most importantly perhaps, the interpreter must try to exist solely as a bridge of the language barrier and not as the centerpiece or the performance. He or she must facilitate the understanding of the play, without becoming the the focus of the audience.

Something that struck me as interesting in reading the article was that the interpreter was translating from English directly into Malaysian Sign Language (MSL). I suppose that since MSL is a language all its own, it is natural to translate directly from English into it, but I had nevertheless assumed, prior to reading the article, that to translate to MSL, someone had to be speaking Malaysian. It's interesting that both deaf and hearing Malaysians can understand English after only one translation.

Looking further into sign language interpretation, I found that a machine now exists which can recognize sign language symbols ninety-nine percent of the time. I doubt the machine is able to translate the grammar, but it is nevertheless interesting to know that technology has made it possible for deaf people to communicate words (though still not complex phrases or ideas) to a hearing audience. As far as I can tell, sign language to hearing machine translators are just as reliable as machine translators between two hearing languages--which is to say they are generally unreliable owing to the subtleties and artistic nuances of human expression.

The Origins of Idioms

One of our recent News Alerts, and article from Courant.com considers the ways in which idioms develop. According to the article: "[a]n idiom starts as a phrase, becomes an idiom when it catches on, and then dies as a cliché." and "'[i]diom' is a very loose term that can mean anything from the colloquial to a metaphor."

Idioms often originate within subcultures before spreading to the population at large. For example, the word cool is generally considered to have originated as a part of jazz culture before spreading to the larger world community.

A lot of idioms come from a specific event or a specific detail of history now lost. It seems interesting to me that in such a manner our language itself is a record of our history. Even long after record players have fallen out of use, people will still use the phrase "like a broken record" to refer to someone saying something over and over again.

To look into idioms further, I went to an idiom dictionary (http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/). Here, I noticed that a great many idioms deal with food. A search for egg returns "as sure as eggs," "a bad egg," "can't boil an egg," "a chicken and egg situation," "a curate's egg," "a good egg," "have egg on your face," "kill the goose that lays the golden egg," "lay an egg" "a nest egg," "over-egg the pudding," "put all your eggs in one basket," "teach your grandmother to suck eggs," and "can't make an omelette without breaking eggs." Perhaps this reflects the greater significance eggs held in the past as a large part of many people's diets, perhaps it simply goes to show that idioms often relate to common things such as foods. Whatever, the reason for such an abundance of egg idioms, even in considering this brief selection from the dictionary, is is possible to gain further insight into the origins of idioms. "Kill the goose that lays the golden egg" comes from a fairy tale, "put all your eggs in one basket" comes from one of Aesop's fables, and "a chicken and egg situation" comes from ancient philosophical debate. This goes to show that some idioms are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, and that they embody a large part of our culture within them.

In class we've discussed the possibility that idioms affect our psychology through metaphorical meanings, causing us to associate otherwise disparate concepts. The full psychological impact of such metaphors remains questionable, but the above examples nevertheless show that idioms are a large part of our cultural consciousness and often preserve within them some long-forgotten aspect of our history.

Culture and Power Relationships

Several articles recently have dealt with associations between language and power, often in association with culture. Philologist Juan Luis "Conde looks into this kind of relationship between employers and employees, doctors and patients, and sellers and buyers in a paper on 'Power and Power Relations.'" He says that in any relationship, language causes one party to dominate over the other, whether the subordinate party is aware of this or not. Also, in some cases, such as those where companies do not bother to translate their slogans into foreign languages, "it is not only the product that is being advertised, but also the very language used to advertise. The English language adds prestige to the product endorsed and its endorsement in English adds to the value of the English language."

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald considers the languages which children make up and speak to each other. This includes widely spoken "languages" such as Pig Latin and Double Dutch, but also includes languages which only a few children together have made up to communicate with each other in secret. The author of the article suggests that children create their own languages to gain some control over the world. "Perhaps when you are 10 or 11 the world of language seems like a meticulously built maze - it's been constructed by adults, well before your arrival on the scene, and your only role is to learn how to navigate your way through." Rather than simply following the rules constructed by adults, some children use language as a way of gaining some power of their own over the world.

Yet another article considers the effects of language in interpreting and listening to music sung in a foreign language. The author concludes that "we retreat, without really meaning to, into a type of appreciation that's probably less earthy and more superficially aesthetic than that of the musicians. They sing about their daily hopes and fears, and we listen to their nimble guitar work and exotic tunes." Being unable to understand the lyrics sets the listeners on a power level both above and below the musicians. The listeners are subordinate because they are unable to understand the full significance of the tunes; the musicians subordinate because they are unable to convey their tunes' full meanings.

ASL

A recent article in the Virginia Gazette tells how American Sign Language (ASL) is gradually gaining acceptance as a real language. Although some people toke it in high school as an "easy" alternative to a spoken language, "(1) ASL is an autonomous, natural language, with its own morph­ological structure and syntax, comparable in complexity and expressiveness to other foreign languages; (2) ASL is associated with a distinctive culture of deaf Americans; (3) the study of ASL provides opportunities for exploration and research comparable to those offered by spoken languages and is consistent with the goals of the foreign language requirement at UVA." The University of Virginia, among others, has recently begun to accept ASL to fulfill language requirements.

Looking further into the background of sign language, I found that there are a considerable number of grammar books detailing its phonolgy, morpholgy, syntax, and semantics. Clearly the language is fully evolved. The only question remaining is whether it can be considered a language if it is not spoken.

Students of any standard spoken language learn four aspects of that language: reading, writing, speech, and oral understanding. Perhaps the reason that some people do not consider sign language to be a language is that it uses only two of these aspects: speech and understanding. Yet, despite this, Latin is widely considered a language and is accepted to fulfill college language requirements, even though students of Latin also only learn two aspects: reading and writing. If Latin is accepted as a language, so too should sign language be. Indeed, sign language is, if anything, more of a language than Latin, because is has a modern culture associated with it. While no native speakers of Latin are alive today, a considerable number of people speak sign language as their native language: "According to 2005 Virginia education statistics, 1,538 students aged 2-22 received special education services in Virginia with a primary disabil­ity of hearing impairment/deafness."

Because I posted about body language last week, the article on sign language got me thinking about a combination of the two languages. Is there body language in sign language? How do deaf people express emotion through language? Can a deaf person gesture more forcefully to show anger, or does making certain gestures more forceful (wider or faster) change their meanings?

----

Another, wholly unrelated article in the Seattle Times considers the difficulties faced by Spanish-English bilinguals when trying to decide which language to use. "For example, switching to Spanish might seem rude if it suggests the other speaker is inept in English. Yet, among Hispanics proud of their ethnic heritage, avoiding Spanish can come across as standoffish." I thought that this was an interesting observation because I never know which language to use when trying to speak to native Spanish speakers who only know a little English. The interesting thing about such a subject is that it cannot possibly be researched: the associations each person has with any given language vary widely from one individual to the next.

Body Language

A few of the recent News Alerts have dealt with body language. One talked about the body language of prominent public figures, trying to determine how sincere they are, while another talked about dance as a form of expression. The first one mentioned that each person will look in a certain direction when trying to remember something. It is possible to discover what this direction is for any given person through a process called norming--asking that person a few questions that require him or her to remember something and watching which way he or she looks. Beyond this description of eye movement, neither article had much scientific merit, but the articles did get me thinking about body language.

Looking into the subject further, I found that there's quite a lot of information on the web about body language. Any given body part, such as the eyes, has a tremendous amount of body language associated with it. Direct eye contact suggests sincerity in our culture, while in some other cultures it can suggest disrespect. A rapid blinking of the eyes can show confusion or insecurity, can reveal that someone just came out of a dark room or just woke up, or can be used as a flirtatious gesture. Rapid redirecting of the eyes can show that someone is nervous or alert. I once heard that in addition to looking in a certain direction when trying to remember something, as the one News Alert already mentioned, each individual looks in a certain direction when trying to visualize something.

I even found an article at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/155816/body_language_and_eye_contact_what.html claiming that "there is research to show a change occurs in the eyes, in the glow and "light", [sic] when mood changes. In other words, for individuals who are happy and content, there is a certain glow in their eyes that can not be ignored. Conversely, for those who are depressed and saddened, the glow or "light" of the eyes tends to be faded from sight." I'm rather sceptical about the validity of this statement, and I couldn't find any sign of the actual research supporting it. It seems likely to me that people's eyes appear slightly brighter when they are happy because they are more attentive and thus their eyes are slightly wider open and will thus reflect more light. I don't see any scientific reason why eyes would actually glow.

Of course, a great deal of body language deals with parts of the body other than the eyes. Often one emotion will manifest itself in symptoms all over the body. Unfocused eyes, extended and crossed legs, tapping fingers, fidgeting, and yawning are all signs of boredom. I wonder how much of this body language is instinctual and how much of it is learned.

I've heard that the specific words we use only account for about twenty percent of what we communicate. Of course, intonation of words probably accounts for a large portion of the rest, but body language probably also plays a significant role as well. I've also heard that facial expressions express the same emotions across nearly all cultures. A smile is a universal language of welcome.

An article in the Finanical Times considers the spread of English becoming a global language. The total number of English speakers worldwide is greater than one billion and is expected to peak between 1.5 and two billion sometime in the next ten to fifteen years. Mandarin, Spanish, and Hindi-Urdu still have more native speakers than English does, but English has become a prominent second language and the language most commonly used in international schools. Nonnative English speakers outnumber natives three to one.

Such a ratio raises several questions. Is there a proper English? Should nonnative speakers be forced to comply with all English grammar or are they free to develop a dialect of their own with slight differences in rules of grammar and usage? Will English eventually develop into several distinct languages? Is English such a predominant language because of psychological factors (i.e. its simple grammar) or because of socioeconomic factors?

If English is not regulated enough, it could shatter into several dialects, and would thus not remain the lingua franca of international relations; yet, at the same time is must be fluid enough that native speakers are willing to adapt to international means of speaking. Already, native English speakers encounter a linguistic barrier communicating with nonnative speakers in business conferences although no such similar barrier exists between nonnative speakers communicating with each other in English. "Native speakers are often poor at ensuring that they are understood in international discussions. They tend to think they need to avoid longer words, when comprehension problems are more often caused by their use of colloquial and metaphorical English."

In many places, individual people speak different dialects of English depending on whom they are communicating with. A businessman often speaks one, relatively formal, dialect to communicate with other international businessmen, but also uses a colloquial dialect to communicate with friends and family. A book called World Englishes talks about the various branches of Englsih, such as a dialect used by Indian teenagers or Nigerian pidgin English. As long as the speakers of these dialects also learn the internationally accpeted form of English, they ought to have no difficulty communicating in the modern world.

Perhaps the increase in communications provided by technology will prevent excessive subdividing in modern English and ensure that all speakers of English at international conferences speak more or less the same dialog. Because people from all over the world will continue to communicate using a branch of English different from their native dialect, one could claim that a new branch of English, an international English, is evolving, distinct from the dialogs of any other regions.

Looking further into the spread of English as a global language, I found that many academics do not think that English will spread to encompass the entire globe. In an MSNBC repport, language researcher David Graddol points out that the number of native English speakers worldwide is falling and tells how he thinks that English will remain a powerful international language, but will never become the sole world language. Instead, he believes that it will remain a popular secondary language through which people of varying backgrounds can communicate.

Perhaps sometime in the future English will exist solely as an international dialect spoken by nearly everyone in the world, but spoken by no one as his or her primary language.

Translation

A literary review recently published in The Hindu raises some interesting questions of translation in considering a collection of short stories translated into English. It questions whether the fury of the characters in some of the tales is effectively communicated or whether the emotion is somehow distorted by the process of translating.

The review also asks whether people have developed an ability to read translations in a different mindset from original works: "Can we conclude that down the years an outlook on translations has developed among us, which leaves us unaffected by the incomplete harnessing of English to native thought? Have we, in other words, evolved a technique of reading translations?" The reviewer seems to think that although the general mood of the stories remains intact, English is incapable of recapturing the tone of the original vernacular, but he still ponders whether readers can infer much of the original tone from their own preconceptions of society.

This article made me think of a passage I once read in a book about writing. The passage said that when language is translated it loses its poetry. While two words or phrases may have the same denotations in two different languages, their connotations are invariably different. Because of this, a translation can never fully represent the thoughts and emotions of the original text.

I Googled "difficulties in translation" to try to get a general idea of what the most common difficulties are. In general, the Google hits reflected the ideas expressed in the literary review. "Translation is never an easy task, but it becomes particularly difficult when there are very strong human emotions and traditions involved." (http://lobeckta.tripod.com/carnavaldebinche/id7.html) Someone reading a work outside of that work's original cultural context cannot possibly understand the full extent of the emotions in that work. Yet, I, like the writer of the review, wonder whether--if the reader understands the original cultural context--that reader can still infer the original emotion, even from a translation.

Writing Language

An article in the Houston Chronicle tells about an exhibition of historic calligraphy. In Islamic culture, calligraphy is much more than simply a way of writing words--it is an art form. Master caligrapher Zakariya explains, "The writing has to have an easy look that moves like a great piece of music. It should be very natural, not artificial." He has practiced writing calligraphy for years, much as any other artist or musician would practice to perfect his art.

By traditional Islamic belief, the creation of pictorial images is considered sacrilege. Instead, artistically-minded people resorted to calligraphy to express themselves. Zakariya gives his interpretation of this: "I think the people in those earlier times and later didn't think pictorial art said anything to them. They were people in love with language, in love with words. That's what pulled them, and that's what caught their spirit."

Further considering writing as an art form, I decided to look into the history of pictographic languages. At http://www.logoi.com/notes/pictograph.html, I found that "Today's major pictographic systems are the Chinese characters used in China, Japan, Korea, while all other writings are phonetic, including the mono-syllabic systems of Katakana and Hiragana in Japan, the Devanagari in South-East Asia etc, and the different alphabetic scripts all over the world." In other words, few pictographic systems remain. However, in considering dead writing systems, such as those once used in Mesoamerica and the Indus Valley, I find that many more cultures once used pictographs. Perhaps, pictographs were an essential step to developing written language. The very first pictographs (cave art) were drawn 30,000 years ago. I wonder if all written characters were in some manner originally pictographic. Perhaps the letters I'm typing right now were once pictorial representations of something. Pictoral representations change greatly over the years. To demonstrate this, I've included the following diagram of the development of some common Chinese characters:

(http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/chinese/handout_files/image009.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/chinese/handout.html&h=740&w=520&sz=14&hl=en&start=1&sig2=6Z8pr583yButTFxx7xX6uQ&um=1&tbnid=XCTct1e_aaS_iM:&tbnh=141&tbnw=99&ei=T8cwR5CeIaGEggPvluyJAQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Devolution%2Bof%2Bchinese%2Bcharacters%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN)


Although the possible history of our own alphabet is intriguing, more intriguing yet are the possible psycholinguistic effects of using a modern pictographic language--does using a pictographic language have any impact on the way a person thinks about the words in that language. Do Chinese people think of horses as being more motherly because the characters for these words (horse and mom) share the same radical? And if so, do they think this because of the similarity in characters or the similarity in punctuation of these two words?

Washoe, a female chimpanzee who learned 250 words of ASL recently died of natural causes. She is widely considered the first non-human to gain human language, although some psycholinguists, including Steven Pinker, contest this theory as being without scientific backing. It seems to me , though, that there is plenty of backing for the idea that Washoe acquired at least a little human language. Her progress was carefully monitored and "for her to be considered 'reliable' on a sign, it had to be seen by three different observers in three separate instances. Then it had to be seen 15 days in a row to be added to her sign list." Also, she taught ASL to three other chimps. Such repetition of signs suggests scientific evidence rather than random chance.

Looking further into the significance of human-chimp communication, I found that some scientists consider the connection an important vista into the origins of language. Because chimpanzees are so genetically similar to humans, some scientists believe that in considering chimps we gain insight into the primitive levels of our own psychology. Considerable evidence exists to suggest that chimps actually have a relatively firm grasp of human language. Accourding to http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/language/chimpanzee.html:

Many linguists still believe that apes have no real grasp of human language, but are merely imitating their human companions. They insist that while apes may understand individual symbols or words, they do not understand the concepts of syntax, or how words are put together to form a complete idea. However, evidence is continually proving that the nonhuman primate mind is capable of advanced thought (Rayl 89).

Chimpanzees have shown the ability to communicate using ASL to human observers and other chimpanzees about the normal course of surrounding events. They use signs to create natural language categories; for example, they will sign "dog" when shown many different species of dogs and "shoe" whether it be a slipper or a cowboy boot. They can invent new signs and combine signs to metaphorically express something different, for example: calling a radish "cry hurt food" or referring to a watermelon as a "drink fruit" (Fouts). They can comprehend and produce novel prepositional phrases, understand vocal English, translate words into ASL and even transmit their signing skills to the next generation without human intervention.

Even if chimps lack the grammar and syntax to organize complex ideas, their ability to categorize objects such as dogs and shoes and their ability to communicate metaphorically suggests some higher level of thought.

Another of the Google News Alert links led to an article on bat language, which seems to be even more primitive than chimp language, but is apparently far more advanced than humans had previously thought. Apparently, a bat pup's isolation calls can communicate its identity, its location and its wish to nurse.

This use of so-called "language" by other species leads to many questions. What exactly is language? What do humans do that makes us different from other species? Are humans the only species to truly use language or are some other species' methods of communication advanced enough to also be called "language." How does our mastery of a language superior to that of the chimps affect the ways we think and live our lives?

It seems to me that because we are capable of more complex and abstract thoughts than chimps, we are also capable of forming more complex institutions. Our highly bureaucratic societies are able to run because of the structural support provided by our language. Without such support, we would remain like the chimps, loosely organized into wild bands, but incapable of establish a large, coherent society.

Immutability Versus Volatility of the English Lexis

A few weeks ago, I examined an article which deals with the importance of preserving a dying language. Today, I consider the motives for preserving traditional usage in a much more thriving language: English.

The BBC is considering appointing a language chief to oversee its reporters' grammar and usage. It wishes to protect its "reputation as a bastion of the Queen's English," which has come under attack recently due to minor usage errors on the part of several BBC reporters. In general, the usage errors are barely worth noting: minor nuances in the usage of such words as "replica," "might," and "refute." However, many people argue that BBC should make an effort to preserve the historical meanings of the words. Because so many people watch or listen to BBC programming, the programmers can affect the linguistic beliefs of a large number of people. If a BBC reporter misuses a words several times, then many of the people who hear that misusage may begin to use the word that same way. Mass media has a tremendous influence over the usage of language. Yet despite all this, some people argue that no new restrictions should be imposed on BBC reporters. They consider the idea of regulating language so strictly to be "pedantic and yesteryear" and believe that language should be permitted to morph.

If language is too immutable it falls out of date. Unable to keep up with the times, it dies and fades away. But language also loses its significance when it is too volatile--if a word does not mean the same thing today as it meant yesterday or will mean tomorrow, then its meaning is insignificant. Language must be relatively standardized so that certain words denote certain things or else those words have no meaning at all. Between making a language too immutable or too volatile, I believe that it is always best to err on the side of immutability. It is better that words have set (though slightly antiquated) meanings rather than no meanings at all. Legal settings, in particular, require strictly standardized meanings of words.

There are innumerable texts which could be considered as background reading on the subject of preservation and regularization of the English language. Some focus on grammar, others on usage; most cover both. Of these books, my favorite is probably The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. This book, while supporting the traditional regulation of language, does so in such a thorough manner that one can clearly see why some critics would consider such regulation "pedantic and yesteryear." Does it really matter that the vast majority of the populace misuses the word "hopefully"? Or that virtually no one knows the difference between "shall" and "will"? Such rules are entertaining to know but seem to have little significance in modern society. Some rules fade into the past naturally, but the mass media should still make an effort to preserve traditional language usage in its broadcasting so that it does not actively contribute to major shifts in language usage.

Federally Funded Language Program

Federally Funded Language Program

In Ohio, Oregon, and Texas, a federally funded pilot program is experimenting with teaching preschoolers foreign languages. This seems like a good idea because language experts generally agree that people learn new languages far easier when they are very young.

Ohio hopes to set a national example of the benefits of having citizens interested in other languages and other cultures. In particular, they are interested in the economic benefits of such a program, although they also realize that having residents who understand foreign language and culture could help support positive international relations and promote national security.

An article in the Akron Beacon Journal focuses on the goals of the program in Ohio.
The article outlines the goals of the program as:
(1) "Expanding foreign-language training--from pre-kindergarten to adult-education classes" and promoting study abroad opportunities
(2)" Increasing the number of foreign-language teachers and creating Internet language courses"
(3) "Creating a one-stop shop--called the Ohio Language and Culture Service Center--where residents can locate interpretation services, study-abroad opportunities and teacher training. Companies could get help creating foreign Web sites, developing culturally appropriate ad campaigns and testing their products."
(4) "Developing a social-networking group called "Language Partnering for Life" that would organize cultural festivals, international events, study groups and trips abroad. The group also would link people, such as foreign business owners and possible investors."

Looking further into the philosophy behind the new program, I found that it will include specific tools to tell how far each student should have prgressed at any given stage. The program's goal according to http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/10/22/bilingual.ART_ART_10-22-07_B1_VT88EKT.html?type=rss "is to make sure that people who want to work overseas or with foreign businesses or governments can carry on a conversation." The people supporting $333,333 of government funding of the program clearly think that they will gain more than this sum worth indirectly from their education program. I read somewhere recently that by learning English, a Spanish speaker in this country gains one million dollars of lifetime salary. There is no reason this can not work the other way around as well; when the Ohioans learn new languages, they gain economic opportunities. Like all education, language education can help people to be more economically successful. Clearly, the languages we speak affect the ways we think and live our lives not simply psychologically, but also through their simple economic benefits of knowing another language.

Automatic Language Growth (ALG)

In Bangkok, Thailand, teachers are teaching the Thai language using an unconventional method called Automatic Language Growth (ALG). By this method, the teachers speak unceasingly for an hour at a time, acting out stories, using hand gestures and diagrams. They occasionally involve the students by having the students act out parts of the story as well, but the students are forbidden to speak Thai.

ALG tries to parrot the way in which very young children naturally pick up language: listening without responding. In a conventional language class, students try to pronounce words after they have only heard them pronounced correctly once or twice. They grow accustomed to their own erroneous pronunciation and that of their peers, rather than than the perfect pronunciation of a native speaker, and because of this they develop accents. Also, in a conventional language class, students have difficulty memorizing new vocabulary terms because they lack a real-world context in which to apply those words. ALG aims to overcome this by using stories which provide a context for all new words the students learn. Before they ever attempt to speak, babies spend a long time hearing language pronounced perfectly and in context by native speakers. ALG tries to replicate this method of learning.

Going to www.algworld.com, I was able to learn more about this remarkable language learning method. It is founded on the following six principles:
1. Our point of reference or comparison is the native speaker, not other students.
2. Children are teh best examples of how to learn another language
3.The adult ability to translate, memorize, and practice can NEVER produce as good of results as naturally learning a language can.
4. Practice cannot help and in fact hinders the ability to learn naturally
5. Good speaking ability grows out of a good foundation of understanding. Therefore, understanding is what must be gained, not practice speaking.
6. Exposure to understandable, interesting experiences is the key to learning another language.

The ALG teachers found that "Opposite to popular belief, it became apparent that adults could learn just as quickly and nearly as well as children." Apparently after only 700 to 800 hours of class time, students naturally gain the ability to speak. By that time their understanding of the language is more or less fluent. Considering this amount of time in terms of our own education system, I find that it is roughly equivalent to four years of studying a language in school for an hour a day (disregarding time spent doing homework outside of class). After four years using our education system, the students generally come out nowhere near to fluent, so it seems to me that the ALG method is generally a lot more effective than our own method. ALG students spend between two and seven hours a day in language class. I cannot help but wonder if it would be possible to institute this method in our own schools where we generally spend only an hour per day in class.

Globalizing URLs

According to an article in The Globe and Mail, "Today, the U.S. organization in charge of overseeing and regulating domain names online, is to launch 11 test sites in languages that don't use the Roman alphabet." This would make the internet far more international by allowing people in other countries to use their native alphabets to type URL addresses. As things stand, people typing in Russian, Japanese, or Arabic still have to type roman character suffixes (like .com) at the end of their addresses--although since 2003, they have been able to use their own scripts for the rest of the addresses. Also, there is currently no way of typing diacritical marks over the Roman characters; when typing URLs, French people are unable to use the accents which appear over their "e"s.

Although many people who speak languages other than English are glad of this attempt toward internationalization, some are frustrated because it means that they will have to pay for an additional domain name for their businesses. Instead of simply paying for the current Roman-character name, they will have to pay for the name using another alphabet as well, or else another company could create a competing site using the other alphabet. Despite this, it seems to me that this internationalization of the internet will be beneficial in the long run, making the internet easier to use for many people around the world.

The test pages in non-Roman scripts "will allow Internet users to establish subpages, leave comments and test how well the IDNs link to their pages, according to a statement from ICANN. The organization expects to begin offering working addresses that use non-Roman suffixes toward the end of 2008." ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a US nonprofit organization has been working to shift the internet to other scripts since the year 2000, but according to the Globe and Mail article, this shift has never been one of ICANN's top priorities.

Looking into the background of ICANN, I found that it is a California based organization founded in 1998. Its primary concern is the introduction of top-level domains. (A top level domain is a suffix such as .com) According to ICANN's own website "ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers. These include domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .UK), as well as the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols. Computers use these identifiers to reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability." This would suggest that although ICANN has been a bit slow at shifting its top-level domains to use non-Roman scripts, its delay has been caused by caution rather than insouciance. In adapting the internet to new languages, the ICANN must be careful to avoid compromising the stability of the internet. Nevertheless, it must strive to convert to other scripts as quickly as possible to avoid creating international tensions; although it is US based, it must avoid appearing as overly favoring to US interests or else it will offend the global community. In general, people find it extraordinarily offensive to have foreign languages forced upon them, and few people in foreign countries would gladly be made to use English. Many view the US's refusal to relinquish control over the internet as an act of US vanity and refusal to participate as an equal in world affairs. By developing other languages on the internet, the ICANN as a US company, helps to lessen some of these international tensions.

The Stuff of Thought

According to an article in The Times, a new book by Steven Pinker called The Stuff of Thought considers the connections between language and the ways we think. Pinker point out that language is an imperfect way of representing what we perceive in the world about us, and because of this, it is provides wonderful insight into our manners of perception.

One element of thought which Pinker focuses on is the use of metaphors. He considers phrases which compare love to a journey, political allegiance to physical bonds, or intellectual argument to an act of war. These metphors provide insight into our psychology by suggesting that perhaps we really do consider many abstract concepts through the visor of more concrete metaphors.

Apparently, there's been a fair bit of research on the connection between metaphor and psychology. A Google search for "psychology" and "metaphors"--two terms which I would certainly not have expected to occur in the same sentence--returns 2,240,000 hits. I found that many famous thinkers, including Giambattista Vico, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jean Paul, Gustav Gerber, Alfred Biese and Friedrich Nietzsche have all contributed to this field. One article from Nottingham University called "Mind, Meaning and Metaphor: the philosophy and psychology of metaphor in 19th century Germany" seems to have a similar philosophy to that of Pinker's book. It's abstract tells how it "explores a German philosophy of metaphor, which proposed a close link between the body and the mind as the basis for metaphor, debunked the view that metaphor is just a decorative rhetorical device and questioned the distinction between the literal and the figurative."

This cause me to wonder: is there any real connection between the literal and the figurative? Do we need concrete ideas to understand the abstract? Or do we simply use concrete nouns to help clarify abstract concepts or to make them more understandable to young children? Is the idea of joy as a sense of lightness something which is found across the world in all different languages or is it something which is specific to our own particular culture? When people are angry we English speakers represent this abstract emotion with the concrete sense of temperature, saying that they are hot-headed. Are people's heads actually hotter when they are angry than when they are calm? Do English speaker's heads get hotter than the heads of people who speak languages without a metaphorical connection between anger and heat? It seems like an interesting, though largely unexplored, field of study.

Emergency Communication

According to a recent ABC 15 news announcement at http://www.wpde.com/news/viewarticle.asp?view=7062 "fighting fires and fighting health emergencies also means fighting a language barrier." Many emergency workers are having difficulties trying to help people who do not speak English.

Apparently, the rescue associations have singled out Spanish as a the primary non-English language to focus on. "To try to break through the language barrier, rescuers take spanish [sic] classes, they have a spanish [sic] program on their computer and they carry around a mini-spanish [sic] guide, but it's still a significant problem." Yet, even with their Spanish training, many rescue workers must result to simple hand signals to figure out what ails a patient.

The workers must have even greater difficulties in areas where multiple foreign languages are prevalent. I suppose in such places the rescue workers are forced to simply speak English with a lot of gestures and hope that the patient is calm and sensible enough to point to where it hurts.

Of course, in such an important field as emergency communication--where lives all too often hang on the line--much research has been done to ensure that interlinguistic communication is as smooth as possible. An article in the British Journal of General Practice titled "Improving Communication Between Physicians and Patients who Speak a Foreign Language" outlines a study done on communications between francophonic physicians and allophonic patients (with a francophonic patient control group). Before and after the study, the physicians and patients both filled out surveys concerning their satisfaction with care given and recieved and with communication during consultation. The ratings given by the allophones improved slightly from one consultation to the next, but the ratings given by physicians remained the same. The conclusion which the scientists produced at the end of their study was that "[t]he quality of communication as perceived by allophone patients can be improved with specific training aimed at primary care physicians."

In other words, studies such as this one have shown that physician-patient communication can be improved by training the physicians, even if they do not speak the language of the patients. Perhaps this is simply because both parties developed better methods of sign language during the study, perhaps the patients grew more relaxed around the doctors and were inclined to rate them more highly, perhaps each learned a little of the other's language, or perhaps it is caused by some other unidentified factor. Whatever the cause, it seems important that physicians, particularly emergency personnel, be provided with training which allows them to more effectively communicate with patients speaking foreign languages.

Preserving Inuit Culture and Inuktitut Language

Canadian Native Americans are working to establish an Inuktitut institute to preserve native language and culture. They are basing their plans on similar efforts by the Faroese Language Committee in the Faroe Islands. According to the Nunatsiaq News, the Faroese committee "provides individuals, businesses and government institutions with advice and information about the Faroese language, and helps come up with new words and expressions. It also answers questions about personal names, place names and other names."

If a similar institute were founded for Inuktitut, it could help to preserve the existence of Inuktitut language, and in doing so, it would protect ancient Inuktitut culture.

Looking further into the background of Inuktitut, I found that it is spoken by about 65,000 people in Siberia, Greenland, Alaska, and Canada--especially in the Nunavut territory, which is 85% Inuit. Early Northern Canadian settlers recognized the importance of Inuktitut to such a degree that they translated the bible into Inuktitut, recorded the Inuktitut grammar, and created an "Eskimo-English" dictionary. To show how developed the language is, I've included a diagram of the Inuktitut syllabary below:

(http://www.omniglot.com/writing/inuktitut.htm)

However, Inuktitut will need far more than its own syllabary if its going to survive. It will need to come up with new words to adapt to the rapidly changing world. To come up with new words and to standardize spelling across regions would be one of the main purposes of the Inuktitut institute if it were founded. It would unite people so that they could preserve their language and culture as they progress together into the modern world.

I think that the preservation and updating of their languages is one of the most important steps native peoples can take if they are to preserve their cultures while thriving in the modern world.

Forensic Linguistics

According to an article published in The Star on October second, linguistic forensics was recently used as evidence leading to conviction in a high-profile South African court case.
(see_http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20071002001320177C866364 for the complete article.)

Apparently, because each person makes unique language errors when speaking a language (especially a secondary language), forensic linguistic analysts can use these errors to link suspected criminals to crimes. In addition to these errors, the analysts also use instances of concomitant words to connect texts. Because the probability of anyone using any three given words in the same sentence is remarkably low, if the same three words are used in two different sentences in two different texts, analysts take this as evidence that the two texts were written by the same author. In the field of forensics, this new method is considered far more reliable than the old method of handwriting analysis.

Personally, I found the concept of linguistic forensics particularly intriguing because I had no idea that manners of speech really varied so much from person to person. Linguistic forensics is evidence that no two people really speak the exact same language, but that we all have our own unique idiolects.

Looking into the background of the field, I found that linguistic forensics is still not widely accepted. Apparently, a man named Robert W. Shuy wrote a book focusing largely upon difficulties he had encountered in trying to convince judges of the reliability his forensic linguistic evidence. When compared with the precision of DNA evidence, linguistic forensics looks shady at best—based on probability rather than concrete evidence—yet when compared to other abstract forensics, forensic linguistics seems more reliable. It is based on probability and is thus far more mathematical and precise than observation based forensics such as handwriting analysis. Yet because linguistic forensics is a relatively new field, it will still be some time before it gains acceptance in the broader field of forensics.

I also found that the field of written forensic linguistics is far more reliable than its oral component. I encountered one document from the North Carolina State University detailing the misconceptions which led to one man’s wrongful conviction in a case based on tape recorded evidence. While greater credence should be given to written forensic linguistics, courts should still exercise caution surrounding oral evidence. Voices are far more difficult to analyze than words, although oral evidence could still be used if the forensic scientists analyzed the actual words spoken and attributed only secondary importance to the words’ intonation.

Infant Sign Language

On 28 September 2007, the Albany Democrat-Herald ran an article on the developing methods of baby sign language.

To sum up the article, it said that babies at various childcare agencies are being taught to sign, beginning when they are about six months old (before they learn how to speak), so that they can communicate their wants to childcare providers and are thus less likely to cry. Although some people worried that by teaching sign language to infants they would slow down the infants’ development of verbal skills, one study showed that learning sign language actually helps infants to develop verbal language sooner and can even cause a slight boost in their IQs.

I thought baby sign language sounded interesting, so I Googled it to find out more. Apparently there is a whole baby-signing industry. Companies sell instructional DVDs and books, and there is even an online baby-signing dictionary with video links for various words.

Although the use of sign language may cause an infant to develop verbal skills earlier, http://baby.families.com/blog/baby-sign-language-good-or-bad rightly points out that it’s also necessary for the parents to speak to their babies while they sign if the babies are to progress with their development of verbal skills. The writer on this site is inclined to regard baby sign language as a “baby bandwagon” and insists that the most important thing a parent can do to help his or her child’s development is to speak to that child frequently, whether with sign language or not. However, “bandwagon” or not, sign language clearly helps infants to communicate their wants and thus reduces the number of tantrums they have.

According to the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis from the University of Kansas, the evidence for the more rapid development of verbal language was suggested by a 2000 study by Goodwyn, Acredolo, and Brown. That same journal also reports that, in a study of its own, a child cried far less in sessions during which he signed.

At http://www.babies-and-sign-language.com/baby-sign-benefits.html, I found the following list of perceived benefits of baby sign language:

• Promotes the development of language skills
• Reinforces language skills already developed
• Reduces frustration at not being able to express needs
• Increase [sic] speed of spatial reasoning development
• Develops understanding of language for communication of emotions
• Creates feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment
• May increase IQ
• Increases creative thinking
• Teaches a 2nd language that is formally recognized (ASL)
• Reduces unexplainable emotional outbursts
• Increases early literacy skills
• Teaches baby how to start (and participate in) a conversation

If all this is true, it’s a wonder more people don’t teach their children to sign. Perhaps this is because many parents are afraid that signing would be detrimental to their children’s verbal skills development, or perhaps because baby-signing remains as of yet a widely unknown method.

----

On a wholly unrelated note, I also thought that the September 25 NPR report about Congressman José Serrano learning to speak English by listening to Sinatra was interesting because I used a similar method when I taught myself French. (I instead listened to Phantom of the Opera.) Listening to music is a wonderful way to learn a new language, not only because singers often enunciate their words very carefully, but also because songs can be listened to over and over again without becoming exceedingly boring, and because the tonality of music is a wonderful mnemonic aid. I highly recommend the use of music to anyone taking up a new language.

Why am I interested in taking this class?

The interstices between languages fascinate me more than any other region of academia I have yet encountered. While many people learn new languages primarily because they wish to gain the ability to communicate with native speakers of that language, I study languages because I love to see the differences between them. To me, the inter-linguistic differences are the main point--the ability to actually communicate is just the icing on the cake.


What languages do I speak?

I began studying Spanish in seventh grade and concluded my in-school studies of it in eleventh grade at the end of level five. German, I began freshman year of high school and studied through level five in senior year. I began to study French in my free time near the end of junior year and entered third-level French second semester of senior year.

This year I am beginning first level Chinese and first level Xhosa, a South African click language.


What experiences have I had germane to this class?

I have traveled on exchange programs to Ecuador, Spain, and Germany. During these travels, I noticed that there were some linguistic differences between our cultures that affected our ways of thinking. This was particularly evident to me in Germany where I noticed that the German manner of thought is more pointed and direct than that of English speakers. The Germans have no word equivalent to our "whatever," and as such, they are less likely to randomly end any given thread of conversation and more likely to articulate their ideas clearly. Also, in German, suggestions of what to do are more forceful and the future seems more definite (and closer to the present) because there is no difference between the words "shall" and "should." While in English we are prone to suggest, "We should (or ought to) go to the mall," the Germans instead say, "We shall go to the mall."

Also, different languages value different parts of speech more than others. The speakers of Spanish, French, and German ascribe a much greater importance to articles than English speakers do. Before a speaker of any of these languages even says a noun, the listener knows the gender and plurality of that noun (from the article) and begins to formulate an idea of what the noun will be. As a non-native speaker of these languages, I require more time to process incoming information because I instead have to wait for the noun to be spoken before my brain begins to engage.



create your own visited country map