Native tongue vocabulary (Lessons in Polyglottery) Language Learning Forum

Native tongue vocabulary
Tags: Age \| 6 Weeks Challenge (6WC) \| Vocabulary learning
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Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery

12 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

kewms
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6188 days ago
160 posts - 159 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese

Message 9 of 12

16 January 2008 at 8:03pm | IP Logged

apparition wrote:

Hmm. As an adjunct to this, I'm wondering if it's inevitable that, if you speak in your native tongue with a certain 'laxity', let's say, then you will speak only at that level in any foreign languages, as well.

No.

It's quite common for non-native English speakers who are educated in the US to have more "advanced" vocabulary in English than in their first language. They might be more comfortable in their first language for social conversation, but more comfortable in English for specialized material in their field.

Katherine
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fey
Diglot
Newbie
Germany
Joined 6256 days ago
2 posts - 3 votes
Speaks: English, German*
Studies: Russian, Swedish, Finnish

Message 10 of 12

17 January 2008 at 8:13am | IP Logged

I have just seen a documentation on TV about 2 children going to France for a half year. Both their mother tongue was German, the boy was 8 years old, the girl 10/11, I don't remember that well... Anyway.. Both felt pretty lost the first days (total immersion, no one speaking German around them, they were allowed to call their family once a week for 20 minutes...)

They were following the children and showed them at the beginning, the first few days, then after 4 months and at the end after 6 months.

After 4 months the 8-year-old wasn't able to build full sentences in German any more. The gave an example of a phone call he had with his father. He was stuttering and had a thick French accent in his German, when he finally came up with a word. He was horribly struggling with his mother tongue.
The older girl in contrast was able to switch between both languages without any problems. Her mother tongue wasn't affected at all. She translated a greeting card she got from her parents to Christmas from German to French with ease.

I think that this is probably because the girl had read more, heard more, used more her German than the boy, of course, because she was older. She was more experienced and developed in her language...
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CrazyManAndy
Groupie
United States
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Joined 6116 days ago
51 posts - 50 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

Message 11 of 12

02 March 2008 at 4:22am | IP Logged

I just want to share what a good laugh I got out of the Prof. mentioning the Harbrace College Handbook. Talk about a flashback! I fondly recall, any time I had an issue with grammar, my father going straight for his old copy of Harbrace and saying, "Let's see what the Harbrace College Handbook has to say!" Good times.

On topic, I admit my knowledge of English grammar isn't as polished as I would like. I hated all of my English classes, lol. I picked up a lot of it by reading books and absorbing the style and usage of the authors I liked. And I had to do a fair amount of writing in high school (homeschooled 9th-12th). I believe my grammar, in practice, is solid, but I would like to have a more pedagogical understanding of it. I guess it's time to whip out Harbrace and go at it!

CMA

Edited by CrazyManAndy on 02 March 2008 at 4:24am
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zerothinking
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 6373 days ago
528 posts - 772 votes

Speaks: English*

Message 12 of 12

18 April 2008 at 12:38pm | IP Logged

Kugel wrote:

I know that I was guilty of trying to learn a foreign language for superficial reasons when I first became interested in foreign language studies. I suppose one glaring sign would be this: wanting to learn a foreign language while not even knowing one's native tongue at an advanced level. If someone only reads a book or two per year, doesn't know advanced vocab in his native tongue, and no solid understanding of grammar in his native tongue, then why exactly does this person want to learn a foreign language? Do you see this being common for students getting their feet wet in foreign languages? Do you think knowing one's native tongue to an advanced level is irrelevant when it comes to jumping into foreign language studies?

I think its totally irrelevant to normal educated natives because even a below average native vocabulary is huge. An understanding of grammar is also totally unnecessary, and that will come from learning another language, as it came to me, i knew nothing of English grammar, learning French made me realize a lot about English, which was killing two birds with on stone.

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