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Hi, I'm El aprendelenguas. My name is a humorous Spanish word meaning "Learner of languages." Indeed, studying languages is my #1 hobby. I speak Spanish (very well), French (well), Latin (fadingly), Italian (very little accurately), and Japanese (at a beginner's level). My major is ], and I hope to eventually earn a Ph.D on that topic. I'm specifically interested in ] and ]. My goal is to unravel the mysteries of effectively learning a language and develop a successful program for second-language fluency. |
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1, 2, 3, ]<big>{{IPA|ʁ}}</big> |
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I really appreciate the Misplaced Pages project. I can spend hours looking up arbitrary tidbits of knowledge on Misplaced Pages's vast database. I like to contribute to the ], and you can often find me there. |
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<br \><br \> |
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Collapsible table: ] |
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Below I list some of my thoughts and opinions. You are welcome (in fact, encouraged!) to post your comments and critiques on my talk page. Being ], I understand that I am prone to mistakes and completely misguided thinking, and I appreciate your imput so that I may be enlightened. |
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== A few thoughts on English, language education, and language in general == |
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# ] is good for practicing language, but not very good at teaching it from scratch. Have you ever encountered an immigrant whom you could hardly understand and who used very uncommon expressions? On top of that, immersion is very stressful, and I have talked to an immigrant who admitted crying when she came to the US because she couldn't understand a word of what anyone was saying. |
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# Any language-learning program that promises "dynamic immersion" or to teach you "the same way you learned your first language as a baby" is misleading you. You're not a baby anymore and you are inevitably subject to ]. |
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# ] is the basis of any language. Even if you have mastered every last grammatical structure of a language, if a listener can't identify the ], it doesn't do you any good. You don't have to be perfect, but you still have to put a lot of effort into it. |
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# Your accent is the first evaluation a listener makes about your language proficiency. If you really want to impress someone, work on your accent. I've found people are more surprised and consider you more fluent if you have an excellent accent and a mediocre vocabulary than if you have a mediocre accent and an excellent vocabulary. In addition, keep in mind an accent isn't something you just "put on"; accents are defined scientifically by linguistics, and with an understanding of what a ] is and related topics, you can learn an accent as a science and not as a mysterious rhythm, which is often the guise accents are given. |
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# Reading works of ] doesn't make anyone any smarter. Of course it is important to know how to read, but that is completely mastered by the eighth grade/before secondary school. Why is literature class still mandatory at the high-school level? As for vocabulary, word exercises seem more effective, and if students can correctly analyze vocabulary in literature with context clues, would they not be able to use context clues if they encountered the same word in a different setting? In other words, if context clues teach you a word when you're reading literature, then context clues will also teach you a word in any other situation. Plus, having a repetoire of words that few people recognize doesn't do much good for communication, the main purpose of language. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying; if you enjoy reading books, ], but don't put other people down and label them "uneducated" or "uncultured" just because they don't read/like to read books. As for the requirement of reading literature in high school, a teacher once explained to me that reading fiction was important because it showed how people acted in certain situations, almost like it was a mini-class in sociology or psycology. However, characters of fiction are not real people; they do not necessarily act as a real person in the same situation would act, but rather how the author thinks a person should act, and unless the author has a degree in the subject, he/she is far from an expert. Even if this were true, movies offer the same lessons, and a two hour movie wouldn't be nearly as taxing as a 200-page book on a student's homework planner. |
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