Bryan Murphy's Blog, page 11
February 26, 2013
Italians do it better
In France, the protest vote goes to old-style fascists; in Greece, it goes to new-style fascists; in England, it goes to Little Englanders; in Italy, it goes to new-style social anarchists. Who you gotta love?
February 18, 2013
Murphy's Laws
18 February 2013
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 4. Minimise your motivation
Unless you want to do something with the foreign language input you get, your mind will probably treat it simply as "noise" rather than "signal". This makes motivation crucial.
When I arranged to come to Thailand, my motivation was very high, for I planned a very long-term stay.
However, between fixing a job and arriving, I had a 3-month contract in Sofia to fulfil. In Sofia, I had a wonderful time, so that when I finally arrived in Bangkok, I had half a mind on getting back to Bulgaria. This impulse to escape was exacerbated by an awful first week in Bangkok, dealing with jet-lag, insomnia, the heat, dust and stench, the pollution, the gridlocked traffic and being billeted in student-type accommodation. My “integrative” motivation therefore rapidly fell to near-zero.
There remained the intellectual challenge, the fact that attempting Thai would be grist to the mill of language learning experience and understanding. However, in instrumental terms, keeping a good hold on English looked as though it would be of greater long-term benefit than learning Thai. Paradoxically, I can now manage a fair imitation of "Thai English" but barely a whisper of real Thai.
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 4. Minimise your motivation
Unless you want to do something with the foreign language input you get, your mind will probably treat it simply as "noise" rather than "signal". This makes motivation crucial.
When I arranged to come to Thailand, my motivation was very high, for I planned a very long-term stay.
However, between fixing a job and arriving, I had a 3-month contract in Sofia to fulfil. In Sofia, I had a wonderful time, so that when I finally arrived in Bangkok, I had half a mind on getting back to Bulgaria. This impulse to escape was exacerbated by an awful first week in Bangkok, dealing with jet-lag, insomnia, the heat, dust and stench, the pollution, the gridlocked traffic and being billeted in student-type accommodation. My “integrative” motivation therefore rapidly fell to near-zero.
There remained the intellectual challenge, the fact that attempting Thai would be grist to the mill of language learning experience and understanding. However, in instrumental terms, keeping a good hold on English looked as though it would be of greater long-term benefit than learning Thai. Paradoxically, I can now manage a fair imitation of "Thai English" but barely a whisper of real Thai.
February 14, 2013
Promozione
Per i lettori che mi seguono qui, “Padania addio” gratis dal 14-28 feb. Inserite il codice EW36Y alla cassa. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Per favore, passate la parola.
Per favore, passate la parola.
February 11, 2013
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 3. Grow as old as you can before you start to learn it
The decline in ability to pick up foreign phonology with age is well known (Oyama, 1976).
It is partly compensated for by better developed cognitive skills and potentially greater extrinsic motivation, which may explain why adults can learn faster than kids initially.
Indeed, White and Gennessee (1996) have found that adults can achieve native-like competence in a foreign language, and even I learnt pretty fluent Portuguese and Italian as an adult. However, in failing to learn much Bulgarian, I discovered that the declining capacity of my 47-year-old memory was a factor, and laid part of the blame for my trouble with words on the preponderance of long words in that language. However, just a few months later, I fared no better with the mainly monosyllabic words of Thai.
Back in the 'Seventies, the results of a psycholinguistic experiment reached even the British tabloid press when Guiora et al. (1972) showed that pronunciation of a foreign language improved after a drop of booze. The researchers attributed this to alcohol's ability to diminish inhibition and foreign language anxiety.
It is less well known that the foreign language in Guiora's experiment was Thai. In Thailand, I drank mostly with English-speakers, but I noticed that my foreign language anxiety had increased with age, even though I was much more aware of how harmful it could be to language-learning.
According to Spolsky (1989, p.114), “Up to a point, an anxious learner tries harder; beyond this level, anxiety prevents performance”. Yes, indeed: let anxiety stop you!
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 3. Grow as old as you can before you start to learn it
The decline in ability to pick up foreign phonology with age is well known (Oyama, 1976).
It is partly compensated for by better developed cognitive skills and potentially greater extrinsic motivation, which may explain why adults can learn faster than kids initially.
Indeed, White and Gennessee (1996) have found that adults can achieve native-like competence in a foreign language, and even I learnt pretty fluent Portuguese and Italian as an adult. However, in failing to learn much Bulgarian, I discovered that the declining capacity of my 47-year-old memory was a factor, and laid part of the blame for my trouble with words on the preponderance of long words in that language. However, just a few months later, I fared no better with the mainly monosyllabic words of Thai.
Back in the 'Seventies, the results of a psycholinguistic experiment reached even the British tabloid press when Guiora et al. (1972) showed that pronunciation of a foreign language improved after a drop of booze. The researchers attributed this to alcohol's ability to diminish inhibition and foreign language anxiety.
It is less well known that the foreign language in Guiora's experiment was Thai. In Thailand, I drank mostly with English-speakers, but I noticed that my foreign language anxiety had increased with age, even though I was much more aware of how harmful it could be to language-learning.
According to Spolsky (1989, p.114), “Up to a point, an anxious learner tries harder; beyond this level, anxiety prevents performance”. Yes, indeed: let anxiety stop you!
February 8, 2013
Murder By Suicide
My new e-book, Murder By Suicide, is now available in all electronic formats and for on-screen reading. It is very short and completely free. You can find it here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Please share this news.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Please share this news.
February 4, 2013
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
2. Choose a hard language to learn
Languages differ from each other in several ways, including syntax, sounds and semantics. The US Foreign Language Service’s classification of languages according to the time it takes its employees to learn them shows that those languages objectively closer to English are likely to be learnt faster. So unless there is something really special about diplomats and spies, choose a language far from your own.
However, languages also differ in less obvious ways. I recently tried to learn Bulgarian, and one of the hardest parts was learning to nod for "No" and to shake the head for "Yes". Try it. It really is very hard if you have spent your life doing the opposite. So choose a language with radically different paralinguistic features, preferably embedded in a culture (or cultures) very different from your own.
If possible, too, choose a language that has a different script from yours. Chinese is ideal, with its thousands of ideograms, even though their components are not as random as they might seem at first. Thai is pretty good, with its many consonants and vowels, even though most of the letters are actually phonetic. And if you opt for Serbo-Croat, choose the Serbian version, which is written using the Cyrillic alphabet, rather than the Croatian version, which is written with straightforward Roman letters.
In Ten Easy Steps
2. Choose a hard language to learn
Languages differ from each other in several ways, including syntax, sounds and semantics. The US Foreign Language Service’s classification of languages according to the time it takes its employees to learn them shows that those languages objectively closer to English are likely to be learnt faster. So unless there is something really special about diplomats and spies, choose a language far from your own.
However, languages also differ in less obvious ways. I recently tried to learn Bulgarian, and one of the hardest parts was learning to nod for "No" and to shake the head for "Yes". Try it. It really is very hard if you have spent your life doing the opposite. So choose a language with radically different paralinguistic features, preferably embedded in a culture (or cultures) very different from your own.
If possible, too, choose a language that has a different script from yours. Chinese is ideal, with its thousands of ideograms, even though their components are not as random as they might seem at first. Thai is pretty good, with its many consonants and vowels, even though most of the letters are actually phonetic. And if you opt for Serbo-Croat, choose the Serbian version, which is written using the Cyrillic alphabet, rather than the Croatian version, which is written with straightforward Roman letters.
January 29, 2013
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
1. Opt to stay mono-lingual
We all probably have room for improving our use of our mother tongue, or at least for keeping up to date with its changing colloquialisms and expanding technical vocabulary.
If you cannot completely overcome the temptation to pursue a foreign language, at least stay away from countries where the language is spoken.
This manual is based on my almost total failure to learn Thai, even though I lived and worked in Thailand for several months, which inevitably made it harder not to learn.
If you must learn a foreign language, stick to just one, because learning one foreign language will help you to learn others (Klein, 1995).
By increasing your general linguistic awareness, by making you more aware of the possibilities outside your mother tongue, and by giving you experience of what works and what does not work in the language learning process, learning a second language will make it harder for you not to learn a third language. Then you’ll really be in trouble.
In Ten Easy Steps
1. Opt to stay mono-lingual
We all probably have room for improving our use of our mother tongue, or at least for keeping up to date with its changing colloquialisms and expanding technical vocabulary.
If you cannot completely overcome the temptation to pursue a foreign language, at least stay away from countries where the language is spoken.
This manual is based on my almost total failure to learn Thai, even though I lived and worked in Thailand for several months, which inevitably made it harder not to learn.
If you must learn a foreign language, stick to just one, because learning one foreign language will help you to learn others (Klein, 1995).
By increasing your general linguistic awareness, by making you more aware of the possibilities outside your mother tongue, and by giving you experience of what works and what does not work in the language learning process, learning a second language will make it harder for you not to learn a third language. Then you’ll really be in trouble.
January 24, 2013
100% discount
From 24 to 28 January Goodbye, Padania is free on Smashwords, in multiple formats. Enter coupon code UH33Q at the checkout. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view... Please pass on the good news.
January 22, 2013
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Even when you live in a country where the language is spoken
Failing completely to learn a foreign language need not be an impossible task, especially for adults. Close adherence to the following ten precepts will give anyone a good chance of succeeding in failing:
*** 1. Opt to stay mono-lingual
*** 2. Choose a hard language to learn
*** 3. Grow as old as you can before you start to learn it
*** 4. Minimise your motivation
*** 5. Develop avoidance strategies
*** 6. Limit input
*** 7. Avoid instruction
*** 8. Develop coping strategies
*** 9. Do not persevere
*** 10. Get the hell out
Let us now look briefly at each of these in turn.
[to be continued] Please share.
Even when you live in a country where the language is spoken
Failing completely to learn a foreign language need not be an impossible task, especially for adults. Close adherence to the following ten precepts will give anyone a good chance of succeeding in failing:
*** 1. Opt to stay mono-lingual
*** 2. Choose a hard language to learn
*** 3. Grow as old as you can before you start to learn it
*** 4. Minimise your motivation
*** 5. Develop avoidance strategies
*** 6. Limit input
*** 7. Avoid instruction
*** 8. Develop coping strategies
*** 9. Do not persevere
*** 10. Get the hell out
Let us now look briefly at each of these in turn.
[to be continued] Please share.
January 21, 2013
Announcement
From 24 to 28 January Goodbye, Padania will be free on Smashwords, in multiple formats. Enter coupon code UH33Q at the checkout. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view... Please share!
