Learning New Languages, Research Paper Example

When someone asks if a language is easy or fast to learn, people can disagree. People can also disagree if there is one language to learn that’s easy than another language that’s hard. But my paper is only done with the thesis that learning a language can be done easy and fast. The issue of which languages people are thinking of to be easier to learn than others will not be written here. A common issue is that people want to learn another language but they cannot find an easy way to do it. They always seem to have a hard time mastering everything when learning a language. However, my paper will take the stance that learning a language is fast and easy if the right way is chosen. I will explore some of the ways that are more better for language learners than some of the methods people have used with less success.

First, it is important to understand exactly what it means to learn a language. Because the word “language” is what people say a fairly vague term that can be applied to many different areas, I am writing that the working definition which this paper will talk about is this: a language is a system used by humans (for the purpose of this paper, and the length of it, I shall restrict my definition of language as applying to only humans, even though there are opinions by people that believe language can be applied to other species, like monkeys or parrots) with the main goal there is communication that can be understand between two or more parties. I am saying it like this so people can understand that language isn’t when you talk to yourself, but when you talk to one person or more. A language can be present in many ways, from the most basic being verbal communication between two people to something more complicated, such as an architect designing a drawing that “speaks” to others, where the person using the draw gains an understanding. Language can also be something more abstract, like as a computer programmer writing software code. She programs software so that it can be used by more than one person, but there is no back and forth talking back to the programmer and it is a one-way street (unless the program is Microsoft and frequent complaints come streaming back to the programmer).

It is also key to understand what I meant by learning a language. Just to use a handful of words in another language isn’t good enough. It’s not good enough too to say that a language is learn when a person does not follow the rules on a consistent basis. It is fine to make errors here and there. For the most part, a language speaker will understand the errors to be errors and not as proper speaking the language (Krashen, 1981). To make more clear the matter, I am making a comparison between “fluency of a language” and “learning a language.” The first says I mean that the speaker has a completely thorough understanding of a language, like as how to conjugate verbs in the right way in Russian. It also knowing that doing so meaned word order is not so much important in the Russian than in a language in English. The second is meaning a low degree of understanding and can include a much more bigger amount of speakers. To learn a language as opposed to being fluent in a language will then mean that a speaker doesn’t necessarily have to be familiar with all the intricacies, rules, exceptions and pronunciations. Rather they should be have only enough understanding that she can make her a relatively hard point known and understand one hard point in return.. For example, a fluent speaker would be a person who recognizes that the following sentence in English is the incorrect:: *A man that a woman loves the truth. A correct meaning of this sentence should read: A man that a woman loves knows the truth. Simply to learn a language, then, means not having to understanding the finer points of concepts like center embedding (Bader and Haussler, 2012). Instead, learning a language, for the purposing of my paper, will include, but not be limited to, basic easy points like as using subject-verb agreement, appropriate pluralization, word order, and proper pronunciation of sounds that belong to a specific language.

Children versus adults. Children are a good excellent example to be study when looking at learning a language because they do it in a real fast and easy way. In a matter of a couple of years, they go from mere babbling to speaking full, coherent sentences. How is this possible, when adults cannot be doing learning in fast and easy way like the baby? Except for things like a brain injury or physical injury in the mouth, I cannot see there should seem to be no reason why adults have more trouble than children, and yet they do.

I have spoken three reasons for the contrast: their brains are different than adults and this difference let them to learn a language much easy and fast than adults do; the environments they live is giving them alot of stimulation so that they picking up a language can be going rather quick; and the ways they are teach are more better to learning a language than to the methods applied to adults.

Goswami (2012) says that a child’s brain is not yet modular because it is still developing. Modularity is being the idea that the brain is divided into different areas, each using for a different task. She is writes that the specialization that is occurring is “experience-dependent”. This is meaning where an infant will develop the language module for a particular sound depending on what it is exposed to. The example she gives is of a Japanese baby being exposed to the idea that /l-r/ are the same sound whereas an English baby will be taught they are in fact two different sounds. The longer an infant is exposed to this experience, the more “set” she is in this behavior. It is good chances it is she will consistently and correctly apply this when learning her respective language. This is flexibility in a child’s brain, where it has not yet been fully formed. This is allow the child to learn to the rules that a certain language specifies. In adults, their brains are theorized to be fully modularized. Therefore, it is not as capable as learning language in an experience-dependent manner.

There is also what is known as the critical period of development (Goswami, 2012). This is a language learner has a golden period in which to best learn a language. Usually it is take place before puberty. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that the physical changes that is occur during puberty (e.g. size change of vocal cords, and how it affects pronunciation of sounds) can be impacting how a person picking up a language. With it goes that brain modularity sets in and it is making it more difficult to acquire a language. With the second point, Goswami writes that because a child’s brain isn’t yet modularized, there are no discrete units that is changing language acquisition. Instead, a more “sharing” type of learning is being done. For example, an adult learning irregular verbs in English would possibly have a separate module for that. And it is possible that a child is likelier to have that knowledge spread out in various areas in her brain.

A child’s environment may also be impacting how she learns language. It is such as parental encouragement and correction, exposure to various television programs and smartphone apps, and simply being exposed to a language constantly. We know this is the case because of feral children. They have not had any, or limited, exposure to the above. They are really behind in their linguistic abilities, and teaching them a language is an impossible job that is having frustrating results (Candland, 1995). Instead of simply observing how children normally acquire a language, study them as well as feral children. This can be offering researchers a way to prove and disprove various hypotheses regarding how the environment is changing the language learning.

Environment is also important because of the fun way language is taught as with shows like Sesame Street. Instead of presenting language in a rigid, classroom-like setting, Sesame Street is almost sneaking teaching children language. They use puppet shows, music and bright colors and objects. The pressure to learn is taken off. It is replaced with a much more fun form of entertainment value, but there is actually real teaching going on. Parents, too, teach their children language. Even if not by the using of television, but by speaking to them at a easy level they may understand. They don’t have to be having quick, extensive and sophisticated speech. Parents is much more likely to use simple sentences with common words so that their child is both able to follow along and say it back.

The ways in which children are teach language also shows to how fast they are can to do so. Each new word and correct use of irregularities is being celebrated as a milestone achievement. Mistakes are not where the parents usually punished them like giving a cruel treatment. Instead, the parents used as learning tools to get the child figure out how to better use the language next time. The child won’t make mistakes and will learn fast. This kind of good approach is making the child more relaxed and is easy to learning a language. It is not just one way they are able to do so fast. Even when children learn a rule and overuse it, this is being corrected by adults. This is until the child is able to stop in their overcompensation to use the language in right way like do the adults (Krashen, 1981). One of the most biggetse examples I am seeing of this overcompensation is with the verb “go”. A children can easy learn how to use it properly in the present tense. They will also quite easy learn that most verbs in the past tense in English take the -ed suffix. However, when they try and form the irregular verb “go” in the past tense, they attach the -ed suffix instead of the good “went”. This type of learning always has to be having children do it and must be done. Eventually, the child will learn to tel the difference between regular and irregular verbs. I also say only the child can be learn this if the language which she is being learning has these.

Common mistakes. If these methods are being so famous known when it comes to explaining how and why a child acquires a language so quickly, how come they cannot be applied to adults? One possible reason I am seeing is a lack of curiosity on the adult’s part. Maybe because she may feel that she’s already learned one language. That might be a reason she is able to communicate with a big part of the population with it. There is also seems to be not alot to need in going through all the frustrated feeling that is with learning another language. I am seeing children do not to show this lack of curiosity for a couple of reasons. One reason it is more of a necessity than a luxury for them to learn a language. This is because they don’t have a “fallback” language. This is also because language is one way in which they make sense of the world around them (Ellis, 1994). Most children show that they are being to learn a language as quickly and naturally as possible. This is so that they can express their needs, wants, desires, discoveries, consternations and pleas.

Adults, on the other hand, are being different than children. They may be more slower to learn another language because they feel that they are getting by just fine with the language they already know. This seems to be especially the case as adults get older. They are thinking learning another language causes a bigger amount of the frustrated feeling. For instance, immigrant groups in big cities I am seeing show that adults communicate among each other in their native language instead of using the main language of the city.

Another reason that is being close to this adult not having curiosity is fear of failing. People are judged on how good they can speak and communicate. For alot of people, they are having that fear of not living up to the expectations of others. This can be a strong motivator in not even trying in the first place. There is a bit of a Catch-22, though. A language learner is to be needing getting the feedback of others. This is because that they have to know that they are learning a language as best as possible. But also a person’s fear of making mistakes in public can be the prevention from get this feedback from the people who give it. They are being stuck in this cycle. This can also be preventing a person from every successfully learning a language. It can also be making the process a very slow, difficult and frustrating one.

The fear of failure can be so strong that even if a learner says to wanting to learn a language, their deep-rooted fears and insecurities may be the prevention that is them not doing it. If they allow this fear to take over them and don’t deal with it in a good way, like having people tell them a fact that everybody makes mistakes, then they could be having the chance that thoughts of failing will be all over their thinking. This can be to create a block from ever learning the language. One way to go against this is to find out a teacher who will be giving them a calm and relaxed learning space. When they can find this, the learner can be feeling okay with making mistakes. They can also be finding that mistakes are to be expected if the language is to ever be learning. Another good way is to remind the adult that she was learned her first language. She probably made many more mistakes than she will in learning another language because there is a fact that wisdom and age can be play a big role.

A third mistake common that can be seen when saying learning a language as being slow or impossible is to not be using as many methods as necessary. For example, there is Jane. She might be good in rote learning (the kind of learning where a concept is acquired through repetition) while John may not. John may need more of an explanation when it comes to his approach. Neither method is wrong. If John is not being showed to the types of methods that work for him, then there are chances of him learning a language are greatly decreased. There are so many tools available, such as podcasts, grammar books, repetitive drills, foreign immersion and television programs. With these tools, it is quite difficult to say that there is being a lack of methods. These methods and tools are available in fast and easy learning a language.

In fact, when learning a language, the more methods used, the more beneficial. Doing so is making different pathways in the brain (Goswami, 2012) in which bits of information can be more deeply encoded. One example for this is that there is the concept of plural endings. The most easiest way of getting this information across is by rote learning and then you attach the correct plural ending to a specific word. Instead of stopping there, a learner can be testing her knowledge by looking at objects and verbally identifying them based on number (e.g. one horse, two horses; one fish, two fish; one cat, two cats, one dog, two dogs). Going even further, give a presentation to a learner with a sentence with a missing noun can be challenging them to put in the right word that is missing.

This can be used to other concepts as well. Another way is subject-verb agreement. With this, the making a good sentence has to have the subject being correctly agreeing with the action it is performing. For example, a person learning English might start off with rote-learning that the subject “I”, when matched with the verb “walk”, should read “I walk”; and she should also learn that the subject “she” has the effect on the verb so that it reads “she walks.” Other ways that this subject-verb agreement concept can be more deeply embedded in the brain of the language learner is to listen to podcasts or the radio. They can also watch television, read newspapers or books. The last way is to be having conversations with fluent speakers of the language. I am making the idea with the last point that if the language learner converses with another speaker, it should be a fluent one The reason I have is to limit any possible mistakes. One possible risk that could happne if the language learner converses with another language learner is that they may be saying mistakes. They might be taking these mistakes to be true. They might embed the the mistakes in their brains. Then they are believing themselves to be saying them over and over truthfully in the future when, in fact, they are not.

Successful methods in language acquisition. So far, the issues of how children are able to pick up languages fairly quickly and why adults have problems have been addressed. What I have left is connecting the two to paint a picture in how adults can do so the same way so that learning a language for them is also easy and fast. It is being the most important to begin the process calmly and with confidence. If a potential language learner is being without these qualities they will face a real hard challenge ahead of them. This can often be easier said than done. But if the language learner is both able to identify the environments which are giving them a calm mind and they can be able to use them, she will be much better prepared in learning a language. Each approach varies for each individual. One common one I am seeing is to include being properly rested so they can ensure having sharp a mind as possible. They should also be going at a slow pace so that the material isn’t being overwhelming. But it is important that the pace should not be so slow that progress can hardly be measured. The last reason is finding the right institution where they can go to learn a language. This can be taking place at a school, with friends and family, or by themselves.

It is also important for the learner to identify the way which would work best for them. Guessing might have to happen, like a trial-and-error experimentation may be required. Ellis (1994) recommends that learning the correct pronunciation is important to learning a language. I am going back to the previous example of the Japanese and English babies with how they have different ways of interpretations of /l/ and /r/. They are learning the difference- if there is a difference- as a key starting point when learning a language. If Jane’s first language is Japanese, then is having to need to know that she can be taught phonetically. She is also learning hat there is a difference in /l/ and /r/ in English and that she can’t use them as being the same sound. This process is difficult. It can be achieved through the use of showing her where the tongue lies in pronouncing each sound. This should be repeated until she can show she can pronounce the two sounds differently.

However, this may not always be the best method of approach. Not everyone can be accessing to either people or equipment that show tongue placement in various sounds. Computer programs may be used or downloaded to assist in this. They can be used as a better replacement. If the learner is going to take this approach, it is real good to use a mirror so that she can see for herself, in real time, where her tongue is placed as she makes different sounds. A common thing I am seeing when a person learns another language is that they are using the phonology and syntax of their first language onto the language they are learning. For instance, a Chinese speaker knows that words in her language do not end in voice consonants. She may not know- or hear- that they do in English. Thus, when attempting to pronounce a word like “dog”, they may either devoice the /g/ at the end or add a vowel so that the word “sounds right” to their ears. It is important to recognize this when learning a new language. There may be some really big differences in pronunciation and it is best to try and learn them as accurately as possible.

Ellis (1994) also writes that the learner must be exposed to the appropriate amount of input. Input is being the sounds and syntax of the language the learner wishes to learn. This may seem like a very basic point. If a person is being without exposure to the language, a person cannot very well simply pick it up by just reading about it. She must be having the language presented to her in some way. This way includes by listening to a series of podcasts or interacting with a speaker of that language. The more input a language learner has presented to them, the larger the sample size they have to work with. One bad thing of not having enough input is that the learner may assume she has a thorough understanding of the language as far as it’s been presented to her. One example is that she is only having heard only regular verbs in English. She may be correctly placing these verbs in either the past or present tense. She might think that she has sufficiently learned a language, but indeed she has not. She is missing the input of irregular verbs. Until she is having that is presented to her, I cannot have it be said that she has learned a language. Because there are podcasts that are to use everyday, conversational language, the likelihood of coming across both regular and irregular verbs is much higher and the learner probably has a good amount of input presented to her.

Ortega (2011) adds on to this. She is explaining that in order for a person to learn another language, she must get to the point where she is thinking in that language. She cannot be translating it to her first language in her head. For this step to occur, stoping to use the materials is necessary. This is so that the learner can eventually think of what she wants to say in her desired language instead of having to look it up. Immersion in a language is an real good way of doing this. The learner is constantly surrounded by it. They can be likely to reach this point more quicker than if she was surrounded by speakers in her first language.

There is nothing wrong that I am saying with translating words or phrases in your head. I am saying there is a limit to it. It is going outside of the world of language and the definition of learning a language that I give at the beginning of this paper. To fast and esy learn a language, a person must be able to understand alot amount of concepts and use them in all sorts of ways in each day. Translating, by definition, is giving me the same results each and every time. I cannot be having it said that that is learning a language. Learning a language is meaning that the person must be able to fast understand and give bits of language right and without- most of the time- help from anyone else outside.

Learning another language does not have be a difficult task if the mistakes that I am seeing are not done. The best way has to be used with this. The method of learning is having to be most suited to the individual is used. Last point is that the person is having teach good input and feedback. Much last point is she can go from translating to thinking in the desired language. The timeline for each person is changed, and it also changes depending on just how much of effort a person is puts in when learning a language. Getting one new word a day with the goal of learning a language would take a very long time. It would probably more time than a person can afford. It is not learning a language and is not very practical either. Likewise, attempting to translate The Iliad after a month is not very practical either, in both time and intellectual constraints.

Any language can be learning is having with the same level of ease or difficulty. If one language is better than another because of how hard it is, then I am seeing that there would be no languages disappearing. However, since people can be learning to speak languages after they have learn a first language, I am seeing this is not the case. To me, it is clear that learning a language can be fast and easy if the right way is chosen. As long as the learner is starting the process with being enough prepare, like in knowing their limitations, what style of learning works best for them, how to go about it, etc., she is much more likely to learn a language fast and easy.

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