Well, I realize that my blog production this last week was, well, inadequate, but we’re slowly but surely ticking off the final days of the semester. As of Wednesday, I should be fairly clear. I’ll still have a final exam, but at least all the various projects, presentations, reports, and the like will be over for the summer.

This week, I’d like to delve into my own story a bit. This is not just a biography. It is the story of a language learner. I hope to dispel the common assumption that, as a linguist, language learning is “easy” for me. While I admit that it has gotten easier over the years as I’ve studied more and more individual languages and the processes by which we learn, speak, and comprehend them, it has never been an innately easy task. I hope that my story might give you some hope in your own studies. Ultimately, I firmly believe that if I can learn a language, then anyone can learn a language.

I was born and raised in a monolingual family in the US. Note that none of the languages I speak (other than English) was acquired the quote-unquote “easy” way — that is, via infant acquisition. All subsequent languages came well after most guesses at the critical age for learning flawless FL phonological production (i.e., I speak everything with a honking American accent). While I learned English the same way most everyone else learns their mother tongue — i.e., through interacting with my parents and older brother, there were two events that caused some early metalinguistic awareness (–knowledge of language as an abstract concept).

The first event was a move. Soon after I was born, my parents, native southerners, moved to Georgia, and that was were I spent my first few years. As a consequence, I developed a heavy drawl (I say y’all with three distinct syllables) which has shaped my speech patterns to this very day. At the age of four, however, my father moved us out to Utah, where I stayed through high school. Almost immediately, it became apparent to me, and was pointed out almost daily by others, that my phonological production did not follow local norms (or as my helpful peers would say, I “talked funny”). This exposed me to the idea that language was not universal, but instead, regionally and culturally bound. While my accent “flattened out” for the most part over the next 10+ years, to this day I still bare two major imprints from my formerly molasses-thick southern drawl — 1) I tend to speak slowly; and 2) I pause a lot. While these two traits always struck Utahns (yes, they refer to themselves as “Utahns”) as odd eccentricities, they certainly were a boon to my career in ESL teaching.

The second event which caused me to ponder the mechanics of language was being enrolled in speech therapy when I was 7. Yes, I’m a linguist and language buff who formerly had a speech impediment. It seems that I couldn’t correctly pronounce my “r” and “th” sounds. My mom, to her credit, decided that while hearing stories about “ve wabbit” was undeniably cute, it would definitely get old if it didn’t get corrected. Hence, I spent a few hours a week with a therapist at school learning how to shape my mouth, and reading odd sentences designed to ingrain the correct sounds into my brain and to train my vocal apparatus to produce them at will. It worked, I’m proud to say. I no longer sound like an Elmer Fudd clone (with a full head of hair, I’ll add!).

The stage was now set. I had full control of my native tongue (to age-level, of course), and it was time to start learning some other languages!

Tomorrow — Si, yo speako espanol….

Having discussed the idea of “expertise,” it’s probably necessary that I be frank about my own…

I only claim expertise in three things…

1) second language acquisition — what I’m doing my doctorate in presently. It’s my hobby, passion, and profession, all wrapped up into one neat package…

2) guitar playing — my “other passion.” I’ve been playing electric, acoustic, and classical across a variety of styles since I was 15. I’ve played in various bands — punk, rock, metal, jazz, cover, blue grass, celtic, contemporary worship, etc. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty good at it, though sadly I’ve never had the $$$ to upgrade to equipment that I really want.

3) women…. no wait… My wife is shaking her head vigorously at this one… I guess I only know two things…. *sigh*

Today, I’d like to take a little detour and discuss another type of self-proclaimed expert that blots the landscape of ideas with idiotic opinions. We’ve already discussed the posers — i.e., people who know little or nothing about a topic, but pretend that they do; and we’ve gone over the charlatans: i.e., people who may or may not know a great deal about language teaching/learning, but nevertheless, try to promote a singular method or idea, often in the face of all facts and reason, in an attempt to make some $$$. Today’s “expert” is potentially the most dangerous of all… It is the bona fide professional and/or expert in one field who tries to use his/her credentials as a cover and free license to editorialize on issues quite outside of his/her field of expertise. This type of individual is dangerous because he/she WILL be taken seriously by a wide range of people due to the authority he/she exerts within that field. However, being an expert in one area does not make one an expert in everything… Unfortunately, this type of person cannot be convinced that, outside of professional areas of expertise, his/her opinion, while more easily publishable, and thus more easily disseminated, carries no more intellectual weight than any other John Doe on the street, and is more than likely informed by the same webpage rants or ideological positions as their supporters, and thus brings nothing new to the debate. In short, these people are ego-centric maniacs who use their (much deserved) fame in one field to meddle in debates which they know nothing about. Unfortunately, far from being challenged on the relevance of their expertise, their “Star power” is often used to frame debate.

Perhaps the biggest (re. “easiest”) target/example of this type of ego fallacy is Dr. Noam Chomsky… If you know the name, you’re quite probably aware of where I’m going with this, but let’s recap…
Dr. Chomsky is one of the most influential minds in the are of linguistics of the last 50 years. He practically single-handedly tore down the (until then) preeminent behaviorist ideas of language acquisition (i.e., that we learn language through stimulus and response), and introduced the linguistic community to the importance of syntactic structure through his ideas of generative grammar. He furthermore created the coolest nonsensical sentence ever (to prove a point that syntax can be divorced from meaning): “Colorless green ideas slept furiously.” — Pure poetry!!!
He, furthermore, has had a considerable degree of influence on the direction of modern psychological research, and has been an ardent critic of post-structuralism and post-modernism, instead arguing scientific method as the starting point for understanding history and human affairs.
If this sounds gushing, it is meant to. The man is quite arguably one of the leaders of my field, and to this day continues to make pronouncements that send linguists across the world scurrying back to our desks to try to reconcile them with our own research…

But, in the end, the man’s ego threatens to undo even his lofty reputation…

In the midst of the Vietnam war, he decided to use his fame as a researcher as a bully pulpit from which to criticize the US war effort. He adopted what are essentially anarchist views on government, and has been a constant critic of US policy ever since.
Excuse me, but are you a political scientist? No… Historian? No…
Hmmm…
In the 70’s he publicly minimized accounts of North Vietnamese atrocities and “reeducation camp” conditions. He claimed that claims of the ongoing massacre in Cambodia was merely “anti-Communist propaganda” and has yet to issue any correction or apology for his whitewashing of one of the most horrific (certainly one of the quickest!) genocides in human history. He has yet to denounce in any way these most deplorable actions on the part of SE Asian regimes, yet shows no sign of abating his unending lectures on perceived human rights abuses.
Hmmm…

He more recently seemed to decide that he was the answer to the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. Hmmm…. A conflict with roots going back 4000 years stretching over various empires, multiple wars, conflicting claims of land ownership…. I know!!! Send in the linguistics prof!!!
It seems that most of his “helping” tends to consist of siding with Arab militant groups (he met with Hezbullah last Spring) and denouncing Israel. Kind of odd, as he’s Jewish, but then again, plenty of Israelis do the same…

Basically, it simply irks me that this guy seems to think that he, personally, is the embodiment of the solution to each and every problem that ills the planet. He does not recognize his own limitations. He is wonderfully talented in linguistics… That’s it. Accept it… All you college kids who rave over “Manufacturing Consent” between bong hits need to realize that, brilliant as his bits in the film are, he’s a man who overstepped his professional boundaries years ago, and his opinion bears no more weight on current events than yours or mine. He also seems to be almost completely bereft of a moral compass… Choose carefully who you go to for information. While “experts” like Chomsky are probably provide much more stimulating arguments than, say Ben Affleck (don’t get me started on Hollywood ditzzies forays into world affairs…), he ultimately doesn’t bring a whole lot more to the table (other than a better vocabulary, and — let’s face it — as 99% of people on the planet can act more convincingly than Mr. Affleck, it would be reasonable to assume that Dr. Chomsky is superior in that regard as well).

Hey, why bother learning a FL the hard way? Just learn it in your sleep using my patented method….
Learn the language in 10 days, or your money back!
This exciting new method is based upon scientific reports detailing the most effective ways to learn a new language…

We’ve all heard claims like the above. As ridiculous as some of them sound, they typically have one thing in common: a claim to science.
Unfortunately, scientific method, much like statistics, can be subverted to basically prove anything you want to prove. If you look hard enough for a certain effect, you’re likely to find something to help justify your position. Anyone pitching a particular unorthodox method is likely to conducted any “conclusive studies” with a predetermined outcome. Very few marketers conduct studies with the idea of simply determining the best course of action. Instead, they use studies to justify the decisions they’ve already made.

It would be impossible to list all the programs to avoid, but in general, I’d offer the following recommendations to anyone pondering what methodology to use:

1. Be skeptical of any claims of outright superiority. There is no real “best” method for teaching/learning language — only that which best suits the individual teacher, learner, and situation.
2. Be aware that any method that doesn’t incorporate some aspect of actual interaction with other speakers (be they native or not) will fall short. This is not to say that they are useless — merely limited.
3. Don’t believe any claims that you’ll “learn the language” (what does that mean exactly?) in any time frame that seems overly-fantastic. Remember, even given total immersion + instruction in a FL, fluency still takes years, and even basic competency will usually take a few months, at least (maybe more — depending upon amount of time committed to language learning and the individuals’ personal aptitudes).
4. Don’t believe anyone who claims that a language can be learned without significant effort. It’s the same as any other skill. It takes time and effort to learn, and will improve in direct correlation with the time and energy expended.

Probably, the most obvious question you’re asking yourself right now is, “what type of learning methodology would this guy recommend, then?” Rightly asked… There are no shortage of teaching methodologies competing for attention in the language teaching profession, and they’ve all been written on extensively. I’ll simply post a couple of links here and here, so that you can take a look at them. I’m a fan or some, and not so much of others, but they are all accepted to the point where they tend to be taught in teacher education classes. The success of such methods is mainly dependent upon personality (of both teacher and learner) as well as the learning context. For example, when studying ancient Hebrew, the grammar-translation method would probably be much more appropriate than a communicative or direct method, as most students would be much more interested in learning how to decode ancient documents or Biblical texts than they would be in speaking it (what are the chances of running into and needing to communicate with any ancient Hebrews?). For the record, I am a fan of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), but that simply reflects the fact that most of my career has been spent teaching oral language, and that it suits my teaching persona. I, by no means, assert CLT as “the perfect” teaching/learning method. I’m aware of its shortfalls, but also of its potential in the domain of learning/improving speaking and listening FL skills.

First, I’d like to extend my deepest sympathies to the Va Tech community, and especially to the families of those who were slain in such wanton, senseless act of violence yesterday. My dad is an alumnus of Va Tech, and I have family in the area (I didn’t know it until I talked with my mother, but apparently I have a cousin or two who go to school there, as well), so as could be imagined, this selfish act of a craven individual who sought to dull his own pain by lashing out in the worst way at those around him struck home deeply…

Secondly, the astute observer will probably note that I blatantly ripped off the title of this post from the oft-appearing column series by Stanford Economist Thomas Sowell. I do so with great respect and reverence to a man whose intellect and authority far exceeds my own.

Today’s column is about “expertise.” Everyone is an expert in something (whether they’re aware of it or not), however, for every actual authority on any given subject, we will find several hundred people who try to promote themselves as experts, but in actuality know little or nothing. This happens across all domains. The other day, I heard two cowboys on the bus roaring with laughter over some poor colleague who had tried to sound off about pro-bull riding with them, only to fully demonstrate that he knew absolutely nothing other than what one would pick up from having watched the movie “8 seconds.” To hear them talk, apparently the movie has some pretty sizable distortions, but I will fully admit that I 1) don’t know enough about it to critique it (though I have seen the movie); and 2) I don’t care enough to even Google it… Another notable, recent example of someone trying to claim expertise that they clearly don’t possess would be the esteemed metallurgy authority and political history authority, Miss Rosie O’Donnell (follow the video link — this is truly a breath-taking example of cluelessness! You can almost hear the sound of engineers across the nation snort-laughing at her analysis of 9/11 — if you are inclined to side with her, view this, then this, then get help…).

So what actually constitutes authority? I don’t equate expertise with degrees. My mechanic barely graduated high school, but he sure knows a lot more about cars than I ever will. Expertise usually simply comes with caring about a particular subject enough to spend the requisite time and energy to be well-informed about it — whether the subject be NFL stats or nuclear physics. Needless to say, a lot of people like to cheat at this — they pretend to know more than they do in an attempt to get the admiration/respect that comes from being an expert in the field, without actually doing the work.

There is more to it than simply spending time studying, however. You have to study from real and respected sources. There’s a lot of misinformation out there, especially online. This is often how the posers are most easily identified. How do you identify real and respected sources, then? Well, this comes with time and experience, but this is also why, no matter what you’re learning, most people will start out with an “expert guide” — be it a teacher, a boss, a mentor, or just some guy at the gym who really knows a lot about workout methods… The guide helps the rank novice to make wise choices of what to believe, and how to go about learning.

What does this have to do with language learning? Well, lots… Suffice to say, the language learning community, like any field, is rife with posers, but we’ll go into the details tomorrow….

As we can see from this clip… They’re once again building themselves into a major naval power to be reckoned with….

Have a nice weekend!

I’m always hearing language learners talking about experiencing feelings of physical exhaustion after having long and/or complex conversations in the FL. Some people actually worry about this. Is it normal? Will conversations always be so taxing?

Well, the good is that the answers are yes, and not necessarily.

To explain…. Speaking and listening to a foreign language, or for that matter even your native language, requires a certain degree of mental activity. Now, normal conversation in your native language is not very taxing at all. This is simply due to the fact that you have a high degree of familiarity with the form and vocabulary of the language, and probably with the subject matter you are discussing too. While learning a language involves much more than habit formation, ingraining speech habits is an important part of mastering a language. To give an example, those of you who amongst the large ranks of Americans who studied Spanish in high school or college will probably remember spending a lot of time going over the various verb conjugations, and when you speak, you are probably spending considerable energy remembering what verb ending to employ. However, I doubt most native English speakers every even consider when to put the inflections on verbs in third person singular (”goes” vs. “go”) or past tense markers (”stopped“), nor do native Spanish speakers spend much time thinking about such. They certainly don’t have to go to classes to learn it, either. If you ask them (particularly children, who don’t know how to put this into academic terms), certain verb structures just “sound right.” — I’m sure everyone feels the same about their own language. This “feeling” of what the language sounds like, comes, in large part, from habit formation. If you hear certain constructions enough, and use them enough, they simply come naturally.

Advanced speakers can certainly attest that, in the beginning, keeping all of these grammatical structures in their head while participating in full-speed conversation was hard work — overwhelming at times, even. But if you continue to learn, practice, and expose yourself to the language, it gets easier.

This is not to say that one day everything will suddenly be as easy as in your home language, hence the “not necessarily” noted above. As is frequently the case, the mental taxation of a conversation is context driven. Even in your native language, if you think about it, certain subjects will wear you out. For example, sometimes I come home from class just drained. Now, as this wasn’t PE class, I did nothing physically taxing, so why am I so tired? It’s simple, really. The subject of discussion in class is sometimes so weighty that, even though we’re speaking in English — my native tongue, my brain has to work overtime to digest what’s going on in the conversation. I am currently in a class on neural processes that completely fries my circuits. When I come home each week, I feel like I just ran a marathon. Interestingly, though, upon occasion, the class lecture will concern something that I have a high degree of background knowledge in, and on those days, I go home with plenty of energy left.
In FL learning, you will always have those situations and days when you come across unfamiliar subject matters and your brain simply has to work harder to resolve the situation and the conversation. Fortunately, the longer you learn, the fewer of those days you’re likely to encounter.

‘Til next time…

I’ve had several people contact me regarding finding resources for learning more obscure languages, i.e., the type stuff not offered in Berlitz-style language schools and tapes…

If you are interested in learning an obscure language, the chances are, you are planning on going there (about the only exception is people studying dead languages, like Sumerian Cuneiform, for research purposes, but if that’s the case, you probably already know where to look) — there almost always seems to be a boyfriend or girlfriend involved (wink, wink). It’s always easiest to find classes and materials in the milieu where the language is spoken. Use any travel opportunities to snatch up books, dictionaries, audio materials, and the like. Consider it “homework for later…”

But what if you want to study a little before you go? What can you do then? You’re unlikely to find a Pimsleur tape series on Dogri (a language spoken in India and Pakistan) anytime soon, for instance. If you’re in that boat, here are a few tips to help out the materials search.

• Do a google search on the language name (many languages have various names and various spellings, so take some time and care with this).
• Google the name of the language together with various combinations of the words “learn,” “lessons,” etc.
• Look specifically on Wikipedia. While not the most “academically rigorous” reference website, I’m consistently amazed at the pure quantity of information available there — and often the language listings will contain some basics on sound systems, writing systems, etc. They won’t teach you phrases, but it’s still a start.
• Go check out your local library. Yes, seriously!!! Even if you live in the most back-water, small, one-horse town imaginable, your job there is to ask one simple question… “Do you participate in the interlibrary loan system?” This will allow you to borrow books from anywhere in the country (and sometimes even from outside. Linguists, various academic organizations, and the US government all keep audio recordings of various languages. Now, through the internet, a lot of these files are more accessible than ever. Whether you can download online, or have to wait a week for the tapes to be sent from some depository in another state is variable, but the materials are available….
• If you have access to a university library, all the better. Linguists’ classic bread-and-butter job has always been studying, analyzing, and describing obscure and/or endangered languages. If you can get your hands on some publications, they often read almost like textbooks on how to learn the language.

I hope that this helps!

Sorry for the more-lengthy-than-usual absence, but these last couple of weeks have been, for lack of a better description, insane! April, for students, is indeed the cruelest month, as I have several tests, projects, major assignments, papers, and presentations all hitting within a two-week span. I’ll thus beg my readers’ patience for another week or two until things quiet calm down. I’ll do my best to still meet my self-imposed 3xweek minimum, but I’m doubting I’ll get much more than that in until the end of the month.

That aside, I left one topic hanging last week — that of alternative foreign language learning methods. We’ve all seen the ads in in-flight magazines and travel publications.

“Learn a language in 30 minutes a day…” “Be speaking fluent XXXX in days…” Etc…..

There are all sorts of “alternative” self-study methods. There are books, audio tapes (or CDs, MP3s, whatever), video tapes, and, the newest additions to the line-up, CD-Roms and online sites., but how useful are they, and do they deliver on the promises that they make in the ads?

Well, yes and no…. While I’m not going to name any names, I think some of these “method providers” are ripe for a false advertising suit, however this isn’t to say that they are useless. The key in using alternative methods is to realize that there are real limits on the learning that can be achieved simply through contact with books or machines. It’s all a matter of perspective and what your goals are in learning the language.

If you want real fluency in the language, a record set simply is not going to cut it… Infant studies have shown that exposure to TV alone will not stimulate children to learn language. They need active conversational input from living, breathing humans — and so do you… While adults, unlike infants, have the metalinguistic skills to take something away from human-to-machine/book interaction, you still will not progress very far. So the “fluency” claim made by a lot of these products simply flies out the window. How much do you think you can learn from a 120page book or 4 hours of audio, anyway?

If, however, you merely want to complement what you’re learning in a class or in introduction before plunking down money for more formal lessons; if you want to brush up on skills that you haven’t used for years, or are moving to the country and want to be able to say anything before you get there; if you are taking a tour to the country, and you want to moderately improve your experience — these methods were made for you.

Modest goals…. That’s the key. Most of these method sets were made with the casual tourist in mind. They will teach you just enough to enjoy your trip that much more. They will teach you a few phrases that will make your life easier. Of course, one of the major limitations of learning without through any method that cuts out a living human on the other end of the conversation is that your listening comprehension will be extremely limited! For the most part, these methods tend to teach set phrases, but real people do not always stick to the script. For example, if I were a non-English speaker coming to America and listening to some Basic English tapes, and I learned the question “how are you,” chances are, I only learned the response “fine, thanks, and you?” Native speakers of English, of course, employ many different responses to this question however. If someone responded, “just great,” I’d probably only be able to stare at the person blankly. Still, something is better than nothing…

So bottom line, if you’re a serious learner, look at alternative methods as a means of reinforcing the learning you’re doing elsewhere. Only use these as a sole/primary source of input if you only want a brief introduction to the language or if you have very modest travel/communication goals.

Are teachers necessary for FL learning? This is a question that people ask me a lot. To be honest, it’s a question that teachers even ask themselves. If you find yourself thinking, “well, of course you need a teacher to learn a language,” please consider this: how do you think most immigrants learn the language of their host country? A great deal of them never took a class in their life. They learn by direct contact with speakers of the language, slowly putting together words and phrases. This is what is commonly referred to informal language learning (re. learning outside of a classroom environment). Some learners end up with very fluid speaking skills, while others still struggle to make themselves understood 50 years down the road. Why is there such disparity between FL acquisition levels, and how can we maximize the effectiveness of informal learning?

While it’s tempting to ascribe the success of some learners to innate talent, and that may have some bearing on the learner’s ultimate FL proficiency attainment, the vast bulk of disparity between learners comes down to one thing: “caring.” While most people living in another country will immediately respond that they do care about learning the host language, and sincerely desire the benefits associated with fluent speaking ability (i.e., improved employment opportunities, social networking, etc.), actions speak louder than words in this case. How much of their free time do they actually spend working on their FL proficiency. The chances are, most people who speak a language well probably spent A LOT of time and effort attaining that proficiency. These are the people who spend every free moment reading in the FL, and reviewing grammar and vocabulary. These are the people you see on the buses and subway systems busily reviewing vocabulary flash cards.

This is not to say that immigrants who don’t learn a language well are lazy. They merely have other priorities! To be frank, most of us care about raising our families and putting food on the table than strengthening our command of obscure idioms or mastering relative clauses.

There is some correlation, as well, between personality and ultimate FL attainment. Simply put, more outgoing people will, of course, have a steeper learning curve than shy/withdrawn people because they will seek out people to speak with, and thus end up spending more time engaged with the language.

People who succeed in language learning without classes are usually doing more than simply “absorbing” the language from their environment. They seek out opportunities for constructive feedback, and engage in structured learning. They may review grammar/structure rules through books, or merely consult friends. They certainly request critiques on their speaking ability. They engage in language practice (often through language exchanges with friends/partners) whereby they may have errors pointed out to them explicitly, and can consciously work on new patterns. They try out new language that they hear. They often carry around notebooks to record new expressions.

The critical factor to successfully learning through informal methods is motivation. If the personality and learning traits mentioned above don’t sound like you, chances are that you are the type who needs the extrinsic motivation that classroom learning provides. There’s no shame in that. Most of us fit in that category.

It’s truism in language learning that you’ll ultimately learn a language to the extent that you admire and want to emulate the people who speak that language. It’s important to note that, particularly in the case of informal learning, often what causes people to fossilize in their FL development (i.e., to stop developing, despite still being immersed in the target language environment) is a sense of cultural detachment. This is literally a sense of separateness — not wanting to be fully assimilated into the target culture. This can come from religious, social, cultural, etc. sensibilities, or it also can come from the other direction, i.e., some cultures are simply not willing to fully accept outsiders. Try to keep this in mind as you begin your language studies so as to be honest with yourself as to what extent you are truly willing to work towards FL fluency. Nothing kills self-learning motivation like a sense of alienation from the target culture. If you feel your interest waining, trying a new learning approach can sometimes help to rekindle an attachment to the culture.