Note to self: stay away from consumer market researchers with time on their hands.
On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 2:05 AM, George Dole <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello expat list. > > This is George Dole formerly from LA (The land of Angeles) and NYC (The > land of Hell's Kitchen). > > I came-across (discovered) this New York Times article about how to quickly > learn any second language. I receive all NYTimes articles about Russia, > Moscow or St. Petersburg. The article is from January but I received it only > 2 weeks ago. > > It can help those of us get-to (achieve) the "next level" of > knowing Russian and who were not lucky enough to learn Russian as our > mother-tongue. To paraphrase the article about the 395 page PhD thesis of > Dr. Sulzberger in a nutshell (succinctly), humans can not spell without > knowing the written alphabet and we can not hear not speak any language > correctly until we generally know the "phonetic alphabet" of any language. I > did not read the thesis yet but I will happily email it to anyone who wants > a copy. I compiled the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) Excel > comparison of Russian and English sounds and found 19 common sounds, 41 > unique Russian and 32 unique English phonetic sounds (phonemes). Dr > Sulzberger's email is at the bottom and would love to hear from anyone on > our Expat list. > > Two short stories. Because I am a consumer market researcher I teach GMAT > to Russians and accidentally got hyper sensitive to all phrasal verbs, > idioms, fragment phrases, and all other "pre-processed" English. Also, a > friend of mine in graduate school who was a language major told me the story > that because she knew Spanish and Italian when she visited Rio de Janiero > she "immediately understood Portuguese" without ever having taken one class > in it. It seems that Portuguese contains all the phonemes in either > Spanish or Italian. My friend could not speak Portuguese but understood > almost everything she heard. > > With these two stories in mind there is no impediment that exists to > learning any foreign language if you know the fundamental phonetic alphabet > and do enough drilling of basic vocabulary to start. I compiled the English, > French, Spanish, and Italian IPA lists from Wikipedia already. They don't > have Portuguese so I need to get that list from the IPA homepage to confirm > my friends story. Can anyone else confirm the Italian+Spanish=Portuguese > phenomenon? > > Any additional tips or URL links about learning Russian ASAP would be > greatly appreciated. > > The full article and link follows which is not long. Enjoy ! > > Revolutionary approach to learning languages NYT Published 27 January > 2009 > > http://www.victoria.ac.nz/home/about/newspubs/news/ViewNews.aspx?id=2455&newslabel= > > > The teaching of languages could be revolutionized following ground-breaking > research by Victoria University PhD graduate Paul Sulzberger. > > Dr Sulzberger has found that the best way to learn a language is through > frequent exposure to its sound patterns—even if you haven't a clue what it > all means. "However crazy it might sound, just listening to the language, > even though you don't understand it, is critical. A lot of language teachers > may not accept that," he says. > > "Our ability to learn new words is directly related to how often we have > been exposed to the particular combinations of the sounds which make up the > words. If you want to learn Spanish, for example, frequently listening to a > Spanish language radio station on the internet will dramatically boost your > ability to pick up the language and learn new words." > > Dr Sulzberger's research challenges existing language learning theory. His > main hypothesis is that simply listening to a new language sets up the > structures in the brain required to learn the words. "Neural tissue required > to learn and understand a new language will develop automatically from > simple exposure to the language—which is how babies learn their first > language," Dr Sulzberger says. > > He was prompted to undertake the research after spending seven years > teaching Russian to New Zealand students and observing drop-out patterns. "I > was very conscious of the huge difficulties students have when they tackle > another language, especially at the beginning. Many drop out because they > feel they are not making progress." > > Dr Sulzberger says he was interested in what makes it so difficult to learn > foreign words when we are constantly learning new ones in our native > language. He found the answer in the way the brain develops neural > structures when hearing new combinations of sounds. "When we are trying to > learn new foreign words we are faced with sounds for which we may have > absolutely no neural representation. A student trying to learn a foreign > language may have few pre-existing neural structures to build on in order to > remember the words." > > Dr Sulzberger looked for ways people could develop these structures to make > the learning process easier. His finding was simple: extensive exposure to > the language, something made easier by globalization and new technology. "It > is easier to learn languages these days because they are so accessible now. > You can go home and watch the news in French on the internet." He says > people trying to learn a foreign language in their home country are at a > disadvantage compared to those who travel to another country and immerse > themselves in its sounds and culture. For the same reason, he says, we need > to rethink the way languages are taught. > > "Teachers should recognize the importance of extensive aural exposure to a > language. One hour a day of studying French text in a classroom is not > enough—but an extra hour listening to it on the iPod would make a huge > difference," Dr Sulzberger says. > "Language is a skill. It's not like learning a fact. If you want to be a > weight lifter, you've got to develop the muscle - you can't learn > weightlifting from a book. To learn a language you have to grow the > appropriate brain tissue, and you do this by lots of listening—songs and > movies are great!" > > Paul Sulzberger [email protected] > The Acquisition of Phonological Form in Second Language Learning (PhD > research). > > This research considers the hypothesis that th e acquisition of vocabulary > in a second language is (inter alia) dependent on the acquisition of a > knowledge of the phonotactic structure of the second language. The > observation that children acquire considerable knowledge of the phonotactic > structure of their native language before they begin to speak, coupled with > the finding that phonological memory in both children and adults is > correlated with native language "wordlikeness", suggests that implicit > knowledge of the phonotactic structure of the native language is implicated > in vocabulary development - in particular the ability to rapidly acquire > ("fast-mapping") the form of novel, native (but typically not foreign) > words. This thesis considers the argument that the lack of such > experientially-derived, implicit phonotactic knowledge can explain many of > the difficulties experienced by second language learners in the acquisition > of vocabulary in the early stages. Email Paul. <[email protected]> > [email protected] > Best Regards, > George Dole (m) 8-926-813-78-47 > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > Please see my webpage at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/georgewilliamdole. > "Luck occurs when preparation meets opportunity". -Seneca > > _______________________________________________ > Expat mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.lists.ru/mailman/listinfo/expat > http://www.expat.ru/forum/ >
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