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Learn like a child? | ||
Tags: Children | Learning Technique/Method | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| JujuLeCaribou Diglot Newbie Thailand myonlinefrencht Joined 4701 days ago 28 posts - 44 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Portuguese, Thai, German, Dutch | Message 17 of 26 26 May 2012 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is true. According to the AUA of Bangkok (created in 1952 !), if adults study like children (i.e. using their right-brain instead of the left brain), they will do better than children ! In 2,000 hours, they can reach a native-like level. I am currently teaching French to my Thai wife via the Total Physical Response (similar to the method used by AUA). The results are IMPRESSIVE ! After about 45 hours of "study" (30 minutes/day), my wife can understand VERY WELL what I say to her, even if I talk at a native-like speed. She is just starting to talk, has not a lot of active vocabulary yet, but she makes almost no grammatical error..... IMPRESSIVE ! Learning like a adult means using the left part of the brain. This is slow and "painful". Learning like a child means using the right of the brain. This is fast, almost magic. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 18 of 26 26 May 2012 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| JujuLeCaribou Diglot Newbie Thailand myonlinefrencht Joined 4701 days ago 28 posts - 44 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Portuguese, Thai, German, Dutch | Message 19 of 26 26 May 2012 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
Why ? Edit : I think I got it....... ;-) Edited by JujuLeCaribou on 26 May 2012 at 5:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jason6 Diglot Newbie United States jasonanders Joined 4936 days ago 6 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 20 of 26 26 May 2012 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I used to think the "kids learn languages faster" thing was just a myth, until I moved to Costa Rica with my kids (ages 3 and 5). After 6 months they spoke decent Spanish. After 10 months their Spanish is almost at the same level as their English. I've spent the same time studying and while I know more words than they do, their speech is faster, their accent is better and they often understand native speakers better.
This is only one data point, but I think there are definite advantages to learning a language as a child both in reduced effort and improved accent, etc. Whether the same techniques can be used by an adult is a different question. Aside from the possible differences in brain structure, most people don't have the opportunity to spend 5 hours a day playing with a patient preschool teacher and a doting nanny. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| JujuLeCaribou Diglot Newbie Thailand myonlinefrencht Joined 4701 days ago 28 posts - 44 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Portuguese, Thai, German, Dutch | Message 21 of 26 27 May 2012 at 1:36am | IP Logged | |||||
Studies show that acquiring a native accent is the only thing that a child can do better than an adult. For all the rest (vocabulary acquisition, flaw of the speech, grammatical accuracy, etc ... ), adults learn better and faster than children. I invite people to read researches about how the brain works (especially the differences between the left brain and the right brain). Start with this website, you won't regret it. ;-) 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5563 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 22 of 26 27 May 2012 at 3:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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'I invite people to read researches about how the brain works (especially the
differences between the left brain and the right brain). Start with this website, you won't regret it. ;-) ' Perhaps it would be better to start with something like this: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/daniel-willing ham/willingham-the- leftright-brain.html before looking at something that is trying to make money out of, what is, at best a theory and at worst, snake oil? 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| JujuLeCaribou Diglot Newbie Thailand myonlinefrencht Joined 4701 days ago 28 posts - 44 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Portuguese, Thai, German, Dutch | Message 23 of 26 27 May 2012 at 3:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
Maybe my choice was not the best one, but at least I can open my link.... TPR, "at best a theory and at worst snake oil" ? LOL !!! Total Physical Response is the most studied method to acquire a foreign language IN THE WORLD !!! You have hundreds and hundreds of different studies over a period of about 35 years demonstrating its effectiveness, and you call this "at best a theory, at worst a snake oil" ???? 0_o Edited by JujuLeCaribou on 27 May 2012 at 4:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4907 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 24 of 26 27 May 2012 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Elexi was making a good point, which seems obvious to many of us. A website which makes money off a particular point of view is going to be biased about which research it quotes and how it quotes it. I also was puzzled that if there is a lot of research on the topic, we would be directed initially to a clearly biased website. The article Elexi directs us to is interesting, and agrees with most of what I have read about research on how the brain functions. (Oh and the link works, you just have to delete the space in the middle. It happens to a lot of links on HTLAL). Total Physical Response probably works well, but not because of left/right brain differences. If it works it is likely because it makes language learning interesting and memorable. I think what Elexi means by "snake oil" in this context is the method of taking something which actually works well, but then attaching it to a bogus theory to make it sound scientific and unique. If you believe their claims, you will turn to them rather than to their competitors. It's marketing. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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