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Ask-A-Linguist - Message details
Subject: Learning foreign languages from another language family
Question:
I am a teacher and have had basic classes in teaching ESL students. I took these classes a few years ago.

I recall from a lecture in class - or perhaps from a reading in a text or our required reading materials - that different language families can require varying amounts of time for learning. In other words, from a general and overall population standpoint, the time it for native English speakers to learn another northern European or Celtic language takes the least time for us (native English speakers); Romance languages the next level of time; the mid-eastern languages a third level of time; and the Asian languages the longest amount of time. And, then, it's the reverse for the Asians to learn mid-eastern; Romance; northern European inc. English, etc.

Is my memory of this theory close to reality or current research theory or have I recalled incorrectly?

I know that individual differences can also be very important in learning another language - and many exceptions to the general population time rule can apply and do everyday.

If you could also refer me to the archives for articles related to the time it takes to learn languages from different language families, please provide me with the proper search terminology. Thank you!

Reply:
So now you've heard from three of my colleagues and gotten 3 quite different
responses (according to my reading). I subscribe to all of these statements which I
can find in the previous responses:
- motivation and engagement is the best predictor of successful language learning
- English speakers will find Germanic languages (German, Dutch, and Scandinavian
languages) easier to learn than Romance languages, but Romance languages
easier than other (more distant) members of the Indo-European family. English
speakers may have more difficulty with learning Semitic languages and some of the
languages of Asia (Chinese, Korean, Japanese), and others which are unrelated to
Indo-European (Thai, Finnish, Turkish, Basque, ).
- learning to read and write is different from learning to listen and speak
- all 4 of these language skills may proceed at a different rate for different
individuals in different learning settings (speaking well enough but not understanding
is one dilemma; the reverse can happen as well: listening well, but not being able to
speak much)
- learning in a classroom setting is different from learning solely from interaction in a
community of speakers
- acquiring a native-like accent is more difficult than acquiring native-like syntax (this
was slightly hidden in Jim Fidelholtz's response)
- you've asked a question that mixes inquires from 2 disciplines: i) about "linguistic
distance" and ii) ease of learning as part of general psychology of learning
- from a US perspective your question makes a lot of sense, but taken in a world-
wide perspective, we may be the unusual case; many people take multilingualism as
the norm

Reply From: Nancy J. Frishberg    click here to access email
Date: Oct-04-2009
Other Replies:
  1. Re: Learning foreign languages from another language family James L Fidelholtz    (Oct-04-2009)
  2. Re: Learning foreign languages from another language family Robert A Papen    (Oct-04-2009)
  3. Re: Learning foreign languages from another language family Anthea Fraser Gupta    (Oct-04-2009)
  4. Re: Learning foreign languages from another language family Elizabeth J Pyatt    (Oct-04-2009)
  5. Re: Learning foreign languages from another language family Joseph F Foster    (Oct-04-2009)
  6. Re: Learning foreign languages from another language family John M. Lawler    (Oct-05-2009)
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Page Updated: 29-Nov-2009

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