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The Art and Science Of Learning Languages

 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
Zorub
Pentaglot
Newbie
Spain
Joined 5953 days ago

3 posts - 3 votes
Speaks: Catalan*, Spanish, French, English, Italian

 
 Message 1 of 4
12 August 2010 at 10:50pm | IP Logged 
There is a page in this website regarding this book: "The Art and Science Of Learning Languages"

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/books/art-and-science -learning-languages.html

and it looked quite interesting, so I tried to find it. Through a simple search I saw it can be consulted on-line here:

http://books.google.es/books?id=076bOIBC1nEC&printsec=frontc over&dq=%22the+art+and+science+of+learning+languages%22&sour ce=bl&ots=vhCVVcIvBy&sig=osDku2jMIVEwX5vg4dMM0f365vo&hl=es&e i=TFNkTL-UH4aH4gaG0vCrCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnu m=1&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

(the address is quite long, but I don't know how to relate it to a link)

The book has helped me a lot as it clarifies ideas, and shows a deep knowledge on what can be learned, up to what level, which problems you are likely to face, myths surrounding language learning, and so on. I advice the members of this forum to take a look at it.

However, most of the pages weren't uploaded, probably for legal reasons -I don't know the way it works- which resulted in about three quarters of the book being completely out of reach.

However, my post (my first post here in this forum, by the way) is about a list of items that the authors considered the basic foundations of learning a language, a sort of first step. They were a list of 400-500 words called MINILEX A, a list of 150 phrases called MINIPHRASE A, and a summary of basic grammar rules called MINIGRAM. These were thought of as a way of helping a beginner, of pushing the learner forward, so he/she could see it was possible to communicate with relatively few materials and a relatively short time. There is a further stage for the first two (MINILEX B, MINIPHRASE B) and still other complexities I won't get into.

Apparently, as mentioned in the part of the book that's accessible, the authors included a sample of some of these lists and systems for English and Swedish in the appendices. I'm really intrigued, and I'm tempted to ask the people reading this if you've heard of these lists, if they can be trusted -if they cover basic communication needs or are unbalanced in the sense they tend to give more weight to special subjects-, and any comments you may want to share. They seem to be a very practical and useful approach to learn on your own. Some of the languages I'm interested in learning don't have easy textbooks (they are hard to follow, no pictures, hard, repetitive activities, not pedagogical in the current sense) and some guidance on what words, basic ideas, etc are good to focus one's attention would be appreciated. I'll probably buy the book, but from earlier purchases I know it will take a while to reach Spain, and I admit I'm a little impatient to know more, ahem.




1 person has voted this message useful



BartoG
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
confession
Joined 5475 days ago

292 posts - 818 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek

 
 Message 2 of 4
13 August 2010 at 7:57am | IP Logged 
This has been written up here at least once before. I myself have never gotten far with these systems, but for those who do, you should visit this website:

http://www.lingua.org.uk/evg.minis.html

You'll find links to minilex and miniphrase lists.

You'll find instructions on the lists and other content on how to learn vocabulary at this page on the same site:

http://www.lingua.org.uk/voc.html

Best of luck.

Update: On this thread you can learn more about Gunnemark and his collaborator Gethin:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=290&TPN=1&KW=gunnemark#2034

Edited by BartoG on 13 August 2010 at 8:12am

3 persons have voted this message useful



Zorub
Pentaglot
Newbie
Spain
Joined 5953 days ago

3 posts - 3 votes
Speaks: Catalan*, Spanish, French, English, Italian

 
 Message 3 of 4
13 August 2010 at 3:20pm | IP Logged 
Thanks a lot! This is really much more than I expected.

At present I don't know if I can go far with Gethin's method, but it's something I can try.

Gràcies


1 person has voted this message useful



Random review
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5811 days ago

781 posts - 1310 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German

 
 Message 4 of 4
13 August 2010 at 7:49pm | IP Logged 
If anyone saw an earlier post of mine here, before I deleted it please ignore me, I was talking embarrassing nonsense. That guy speaks better English than me.    :-(

Edited by Random review on 13 August 2010 at 7:51pm



1 person has voted this message useful



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