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Babel No More / Mezzofanti’s Gift | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| michael erard Newbie United States michaelerard.com Joined 6106 days ago 24 posts - 106 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 25 of 149 15 July 2009 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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I appreciate the interest that Prof. Arguelles' posting has sparked in my book project and the survey. Though the
survey is ostensibly intended for people who claim six or more languages, the fact is that I welcome anyone's participation. Theoretically, those who claim to be better language learners than others and only have four languages are just as relevant as those who claim 12. Practically, the software allows me to filter out/group responses. The larger the N, the more meaningful comparisons I can make. What I will reiterate is the importance of completing all of the self-assessments. I recognize that the survey, as it's currently set up, doesn't capture information about latent knowledge, the languages one would need to "reactivate." This is because I don't know of a latency scale that's already been developed. You'll note (if you've looked at the survey) that the most questions (definitions of a good language learner, the Geschwind-Galaburda questions, the speaking self-assessments) have all been vetted to varying degrees in various research -- I'm not piloting them here for the first time. Back on the latency point: I would suggest that people on this forum could combine their expertise to develop a functional self-assessment scale for latency in one's languages. How much time with what sort of stimuli do you need (or think you would need) to reactivate a language for what purposes? thanks, Michael 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6695 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 26 of 149 15 July 2009 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
I think you have to separate two situations: 1) languages which you once knew very well, but haven't used for a while 2) languages which you never have known very well, but nevertheless well enough to use them under certain circumstances (absence of distractions, minor brush up-activities). I could imagine questions like the following: Could you discuss politics or another common theme with a native speaker if he entered the room NOW? Could you sit down and write an essay about such a theme (with or without a dictionary) NOW? (supplementary question 1: are you scared out of your wits at the thought that it might really happen NOW?) (supplementary question 2: do you really need a dictionary, or is it just something neurotical?) Could you do it after watching a one hour program on TV? .. resp. Could you do it after having read newspapers or magazines or similar things for an hour? Do you need even more time / a regular brush-up course to speak/write language X? Do you 'warm up' (i.e. get better) while you are speaking /writing? Do you need a person to speak to or a reason for writing something in order to get started? (supplementary question: does that also apply if you recently have used the language - say within a day or two?) Can you speak/write language X in X-istan, but not at home? Can you discuss a theme in language X while somebody is speaking your maternal language(s) in the background? (measures distractability) Do you mind speaking X to somebody who answers in language Y? etc etc good luck with your research Edited by Iversen on 16 July 2009 at 3:38pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| staf250 Pentaglot Senior Member Belgium emmerick.be Joined 5689 days ago 352 posts - 414 votes Speaks: French, Dutch*, Italian, English, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 27 of 149 16 July 2009 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| michael erard Newbie United States michaelerard.com Joined 6106 days ago 24 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English* | Message 28 of 149 30 July 2009 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've gotten a few notes on the survey asking why I don't ask about skills other than speaking. I agree
wholeheartedly: other skills are important, and often more relevant to massive language accumulators. However, 1. I am using an assessment scale that was developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. This means it's been vetted and used extensively, and its advantages and drawbacks are all known. 2. I wanted to use a known assessment scale rather than come up with one of my own. 3. At the time that I put the survey together, only the speaking self-assessment scale had been released. Scales for listening and reading have since been released, but I could not add them to the survey because a. the survey already takes a lot of time, and b. adding new variables to the survey midstream wouldn't be scientific. 4. Even if I had added the reading and listening scales, you probably wouldn't like them -- they're very functional and practical and don't necessarily capture the sorts of skills and experiences that many people on this forum seem to have. There is a description of the survey hyperpolyglots-surve.html">here. This description has been up from the beginning and available for anyone to look at. Thanks again to this remarkable community for taking the survey. If you've started it, please finish assessing all your languages, and put any comments to the last page! Thanks! Michael 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5839 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 29 of 149 06 September 2009 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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FEMALE POLYGLOTS?
Being involved with my forum work of transferring threads to our new subforum about "Learning Techniques" I discovered a very old thread containing a post of Prof Arguelles dated 27 March 2005 where he asked: "Why are there so few female polyglots?" In this old thread also our Administrator was discussing. Perhaps Micheal Erard's survey can also shine some light on this phenomenon. It's very interesting for me to discover that I'm such a minority person. :-) Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 13 October 2009 at 2:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Paramecium Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 5704 days ago 46 posts - 59 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Russian Studies: Japanese | Message 30 of 149 23 January 2010 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Anybody here still keep in touch with Michael Erard? I would like to know more about the current status of the book. Half a year has already passed since his last comment here. Edited by Paramecium on 23 January 2010 at 5:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| michael erard Newbie United States michaelerard.com Joined 6106 days ago 24 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English* | Message 31 of 149 17 February 2010 at 6:03am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello. A forum member asked where I am. Much has happened since I presented the survey last summer: I
completed two versions of my book. I traveled to Brussels to meet Johann Vandewalle. And, most excitingly, my wife had a baby, our first, and he has kept me busiest of all. In my spare moments I am analyzing all of the data from the survey and will be sharing the results with people who have requested them. You can follow me on Twitter for updates on the book (and the baby) at http://twitter.com/michaelerard. I'm going to be assembling a short series of blog posts about something I discovered in Bologna about Cardinal Mezzofanti - - I'll announce the series via Twitter. If anyone has questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Michael 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6462 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 32 of 149 17 February 2010 at 10:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello Michael,
I am sorry I missed this thread and wasn't able to participate in the survey before it closed. Your book sounds exciting and I hope that you will let us know here when it gets published. Yes I'm on Twitter as well (nickname Junesun), but I am trying to wean myself off it because it sucks up so much of my time. Best wishes for you, your baby and the project, Judith 1 person has voted this message useful |
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