Language Orientation Instruction (LOI)

[Machjo]

I'd come across LOI or so called 'propedeutic Esperanto' before, but still would like to know more about it.

I'd found the following on Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propedeuti ... _Esperanto

While it lists various experiments, they're mostly limited to European L1's, followed by Esperanto as the L2, followed by a European L3, usually English. though one case with Jennifer Bishop tried it with East Asian languages in the EKPAROLI project. It did seem to raise their motivation considerably to learn East Asian languages, but whther it helped beyond motivation I don't know. But then again, motivation itself is half the battle.

They do seem to be imopressive experiments, but then again I'm aware of Ogden't Basic English as a similar concept (i.e. Learn an easier language first (Basic English in Ogden's case rather than Esperanto) before learning a more difficult one later.

What I don't fully understand though is the technicalities behind it. What mechanism is it exactly that allows the students in some cases to learn Esperanto first followed by the followign language togetehr in less time than had they just learnt the other. It's like two languages for less than the price of one. Is it how they reorganize information in the student's brain? Training logical processes or analytical processes in teh mind in a certain way as preparation for the learning of a more difficult language?

How does it work exacly?

Could anyone give some theories since I really would be curious.