The Linguist On Language

4) In dog racing, greyhounds chase a mechanical rabbit around the track, (and people bet on them). At LingQ we measure the words that people save and acquire. This is indeed a measurement of what people have learned, of how far they have come in acquiring words and the language. It is a measure of learning activity, which is a good measurement of learning itself.

More than that, however, it is an additional incentive to engage with the language. It is like the mechanical rabbit. The learner may strive to increase his word total, but, just like the greyhound running around the track, what real y happens is that he or she ends up listening, reading and reviewing words more often. The pursuit of new words is sometimes an il usion, but a lot of ground is covered just the same. Before the learner knows it, he or she has becom e more comfortable in the new language.

Globish

I was driving home the other day and listened to an interview on the radio with a certain Jean-Paul Nerriere, who has written a book and "invented" a language cal ed Globish. It appears that Globish refers to a simplified form of English which uses a total of only 1,500 words, avoids slang and sticks to short and simple sentences. This Globish is a form of English that al speakers, especial y those who are non-native, can easily understand.

I agree that non-native speakers should avoid slang or overly idiomatic language when they speak. I also agree that everyone, native or non-native should use simple, short and direct sentences for clarity. I agree that every non-native speaker should make a special effort to completely master the most common 1,500 words of English.

Beyond that it gets more complicated. Even the simplest natural conversation in English wil only have 90% or so of its vocabulary consist of these high frequency words. Any more specialized content wil see this ratio of frequent words drop down to 75%. It is simply not possible to be effective in many situations with so smal a vocabulary.

Learning new vocabulary is on ongoing part of language learning. If done in a systematic way it can be done efficiently and be a source of satisfaction and sense of achievement. The solution to better communication across language barriers is to simplify the process of language learning and make it more enjoyable and more efficient. In this way more people wil be able to communicate in two or three languages.

One more thought: it may be easier for a Frenchman or European language speaker to get by with 1,500 English words, since he or she can guess at the meaning of new Latin or Greek based words. The same is not true for someone coming from a non-European background. But there wil be more on this in upcoming posts.

Adult learners

Here is something I found on a website. There is nothing new in education—we just forget.

"An approach which stresses the development of the receptive skil s (particularly listening) before the productive skil s may have much to offer the older learner (Postovsky, 1974; Winitz, 1981; J. Gary and N. Gary, 1981).

According to this research, effective adult language training programs are those that use materials that provide an interesting and comprehensible message, delay speaking practice and emphasize the development of listening comprehension, tolerate speech errors in the classroom, and include aspects of culture and non-verbal language use in the instructional program. This creates a classroom atmosphere which supports the learner and builds confidence.

Teaching older adults should be a pleasurable experience. Their self -directedness, life experiences, independence as learners, and motivation to learn provide them with advantages in language learning. A program that meets the needs of the adult learner wil lead to rapid language acquisition by this group"

Chinese characters

I am often asked about learning to write Chinese characters. When I learned them there were no computers and no word processors.

I got a hold of 1,000 flash cards, the most common 1,000. I started with 10 a day and worked up to 30. I wrote or studied characters every, I mean every, day, until I had learned these 1,000 characters.

The flash cards showed the stroke order. I wrote them out on squared paper, down the first column 10 or so times. Then I put the English or pronunciation (Wade Giles in those days) over three columns to the right and picked up the next card, and kept going. Soon I would hit the English of the first card three columns over etc. and have to write it before I forgot it. I kept doing this with the 10, or eventual y 30 characters that I was working on. These included new cards and cards that I had already learned and forgotten. I think my retention was less than 50%. After doing this for a while I would review my stack of cards.