Job Discussion Forums

[ebooktrial0001]

Hello Everyone,

I certainly do not know much about jargon in ESL; but, I heard that we need to master a first language before we master a second? In other words, it is better to gain some fundamental foothold in the first, then move onto a second.

1. Does anyone have any info to defend or refute this suggestion?

2. I'm in China now. I'd love to figure out a "From Chinese to English" way to help the booming (but under-trained and under-funded) Chinese to English field.

[nomad soul]

The question in your subject line differs from what you're asking in your post (i.e., second language acquisition vs mastery/fluency of both L1 and L2). Please clarify.

On a related note, see Can we learn a 2nd language like we learned our first? which, by the way you posted to a couple of months ago.

[Hod]

Another great question. Are you planning on mastering English?

How do you define mastering a language? I'm a native speaker, but I don't know every single word in the English language. Nor can I explain every grammar point from memory. Maybe an MA will show me how to achieve mastery.

[santi84]

I had posted something, but I decided to delete it because I'm not sure what your question is.

[nomad soul]

[fluffyhamster]

Children (as is well known) are able to learn if not master several languages at once and without too much difficulty. Most adults on the other hand find it quite difficult to learn any language other than their first (i.e. their mother tongue), if only because they've developed such a capability and thus comfort zone in that mother tongue.

From the perspective of adult learners then it doesn't make sense to talk of anything other than learning a second, third, fourth etc language on top of the obviously already-mastered first/mother one (re. that 'I heard that we need to master a first language before we master a second?'), and the more languages an adult tries to learn at once, the more they will be spreading themselves thin (unless those additional languages are related to each other and/or to the mother tongue).

If however you are talking about children learning additional languages, then I think the only sure way to achieve that is by them having parents of differing nationalities and thus with differing mother tongues, or by growing up in a foreign country. Foreign-language education in schools, and/or whatever private tuition outside that, rarely provides enough input, and there may be opposition to FLs in the curriculum at "too young" an age (due, as was implied, to many parents wanting their children to concentrate on mastering their native language first and foremost), let alone to e.g. English becoming the possible or supposed medium of instruction for subjects other than English (it would be hard to imagine that ever happening in Japan say).

[Hod]

ebooktrial0001 will be back shortly.

Google Translate is currently down for maintenance.

[ebooktrial0001]

@HOD, why do you always lash out at me? I'm simply trying to figure out information to become a better teacher.

[kpjf]

[fluffyhamster]

https://mitpress.mit.edu/becoming-fluent (Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science Can Help Adults Learn a Foreign Language)

Overview: "Adults who want to learn a foreign language are often discouraged because they believe they cannot acquire a language as easily as children. Once they begin to learn a language, adults may be further discouraged when they find the methods used to teach children don’t seem to work for them. What is an adult language learner to do? In this book, Richard Roberts and Roger Kreuz draw on insights from psychology and cognitive science to show that adults can master a foreign language if they bring to bear the skills and knowledge they have honed over a lifetime. Adults shouldn’t try to learn as children do; they should learn like adults.

Roberts and Kreuz report evidence that adults can learn new languages even more easily than children. Children appear to have only two advantages over adults in learning a language: they acquire a native accent more easily, and they do not suffer from self-defeating anxiety about learning a language. Adults, on the other hand, have the greater advantages—gained from experience—of an understanding of their own mental processes and knowing how to use language to do things. Adults have an especially advantageous grasp of pragmatics, the social use of language, and Roberts and Kreuz show how to leverage this metalinguistic ability in learning a new language.

Learning a language takes effort. But if adult learners apply the tools acquired over a lifetime, it can be enjoyable and rewarding."

Reviews: "Kreuz and Roberts . . . begin by noting three myths associated with language learning in adulthood: adults cannot acquire a foreign language as easily as children, adults should approach learning the way children do, and one should not use a first language to translate a target foreign language. The authors devote the book to slaying these myths with the weapon of cognitive science . . . . Studded with pearls of wisdom, the book touches on the concepts of self-handicapping, cultural awareness, and the art of memory. Including notes, suggested readings, and references, this is an easy, entertaining, thought-provoking read."—Choice