solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7047 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin
| Message 33 of 83 07 February 2006 at 1:41pm | IP Logged |
[QUOTE=maxb] Just wanted to add that I'm now convinced that obtaining
a native accent beyond the "critical age" of 10 is possible. I recently heard
a man interviewed on Swedish radio who spoke Swedish without a trace of
foreign accent. He came to Sweden when he was 15, so he started
learning well after the supposed critical age. He said that he spent a lot of
time listening to the radio. First to childrens program and then to talk
radio. So the reason most adult learners fail in this regard is, I think,
because they either don't care or their method of learning is incorrect.[/
QUOTE]
Definitely.. look at DaShan for example. He went to china in his early 20s.
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fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7152 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto
| Message 34 of 83 20 February 2006 at 7:05pm | IP Logged |
I was just speaking with a man who has learnt Portuguese and Spanish and spent some years in South America. He said he went to a town in Brazil where they spoke a dialect that was very difficult to understand. He said he worked but didn't say anything for six months, then began speaking fluently. He said he was afraid of making mistakes and looking silly in front of his co-workers, so he said nothing. I suppose he must have said something, but he probably got away with giving one word answers to questions.
I will be meeting with him soon so I will ask him.
I wonder if there are a lot of similar cases where people don't speak because they are shy or afraid of making mistakes, then suddenly begin speaking.
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jerikl Newbie Joined 7182 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese
| Message 35 of 83 20 February 2006 at 8:01pm | IP Logged |
I am very interested in this topic ... after I am comfortable with my first second language (Portuguese), I believe I will try this for my second (probably Spanish). It seems to make a lot of sense.
fanatic, I'm of course extremely interested to hear about your friend's case with Portuguese and Spanish :)
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InsanePenguin Senior Member Wales Joined 6877 days ago 248 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 36 of 83 26 February 2006 at 12:34pm | IP Logged |
This makes me want to try Assimil even more, with Pimsleur I'm about to complete unit one, after lesson 25ish when the lessons got harder the listening to conversations got harder to understand, I often thought if I became good at listening to Spanish and understanding lots of conversations the question and response part would be made alot easier.
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axe02 Triglot Groupie Joined 7227 days ago 71 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, French
| Message 37 of 83 27 February 2006 at 2:49pm | IP Logged |
This concept of delaying speaking is very intriguing. It does seem to make a lot of sense - exposing oneself to a lot of comprehensible input to intuitively absorb how the language works. I can see how speaking too soon (outside of repetition) would interfere with this assimilation of correct (or at least commonly used) speech, possibly embedding the wrong pronunciation (from the learner's output) and incorrect/limited structures into our memories. I think there are several language experts who claim you cannot properly produce a sound you cannot hear accurately, and most of the time we jump straight into trying to pronounce the new language. Even after going through all 3 levels of Pimsleur and lots of other speaking practice, I wasn't satisfied with my French pronunciation. It's a lot better now that I've spent more time on listening.
If anyone has used this method of learning, I think we'd all be very interested in reading about your experiences. I'll probably experiment with this method for my next language.
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jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6915 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map
| Message 38 of 83 27 February 2006 at 3:02pm | IP Logged |
A friend of mine told me about a method used in France. Each student sat in a booth with headphones listening to spoken French, and eventually repeating what was said. The teacher could listen to every student and correct them. According to my friend it worked wonders.
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axe02 Triglot Groupie Joined 7227 days ago 71 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, French
| Message 39 of 83 27 February 2006 at 3:08pm | IP Logged |
That sounds very interesting. Did your friend say what the name of the method or of the school in France was?
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jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6915 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map
| Message 40 of 83 27 February 2006 at 3:28pm | IP Logged |
No, but I can ask him.
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