How Languages are Learned Quotes

“the features of the language that are most frequent are not always learned first. For example, virtually every English sentence has one or more articles (‘a’ or ‘the’), but even advanced learners have difficulty using these forms correctly in all contexts. Finally, although the learner’s first language does have an influence, many aspects of these developmental stages are similar among learners from different first language backgrounds.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“The only place where feedback on error is typically present with high frequency is the language classroom. Even there, it is not always provided consistently. In Chapters 5 and 6, research on the role of feedback in the classroom will be reviewed. One condition that appears to be common to learners of all ages—though not in equal quality or quantity—is exposure to modified or adapted input. This adjusted speech style, called child-directed speech in first language acquisition, has sometimes been called foreigner talk or teacher talk depending on the contexts of second language acquisition. Some people who interact regularly with language learners seem to have an intuitive sense of what adjustments they need to make to help learners understand. Of course, not everyone knows what adjustments will be most helpful. We have all witnessed those painful conversations in which people seem to think that they can make learners understand better if they simply talk louder!”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“Another way in which younger and older learners may differ is in the amount of time they can actually spend learning a second language. We know that first language learners spend thousands of hours in contact with the language or languages spoken around them. Young second language learners may also be exposed to their second language for many hours every day—in the classroom, on the playground, or in front of the television.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“Learning conditions Young second language learners are often allowed to be silent until they are ready to speak. They may also practise their second language in songs and games that allow them to blend their voices with those of other children. Older second language learners are often forced to speak from the earliest days of their learning, whether to meet the requirements of classroom instruction or to carry out everyday tasks such as shopping, medical visits, or job interviews.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“Indicate the extent to which you agree with each statement by marking an X in the box associated with your opinion: SA–strongly agree A–agree somewhat D–disagree somewhat SD–strongly disagree”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“The research evidence suggests that a better approach is to strive for additive bilingualism—the maintenance of the home language while the second language is being learned. This is especially true if the parents are also learners of the second language. If parents continue to use the language that they know best with their children, they are able to express their knowledge and ideas in ways that are richer and more elaborate than they can manage in a language they do not know as well. Using their own language in family settings is also a way for parents to maintain their own self-esteem, especially as they may have their own struggles with the new language outside the home, at work, or in the community. Maintaining the family language also allows children to retain family connections with grandparents or relatives who do not speak the new language.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“For usage-based theorists, acquisition of language, while impressive, is not the only remarkable feat accomplished by the child. They compare it to other cognitive and perceptual learning, including learning to ‘see’. That is, the visual abilities that we take for granted, for example, focusing on and interpreting objects in our visual field, are actually learned through experience.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“Of particular importance to this hypothesis is the fact that children are exposed to many thousands of opportunities to learn words and phrases. Learning takes place gradually, as the number of links between language and meaning and among language forms are built up.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“the emphasis is more on the child’s ability to create networks of associations rather than on processes of imitation and habit formation. Referred to by various names, including cognitive linguistics, this view also differs sharply from the innatists’ because language acquisition is not seen as requiring a separate ‘module of the mind’ but rather depends on the child’s general learning abilities and the contributions of the environment. As Elena Lieven and Michael Tomasello (2008) put it, ‘Children learn language from their language experiences—there is no other way’ (p.168). According to this view, what children need to know is essentially available to them in the language they are exposed to.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“developmental and cognitive psychologists find further evidence that language acquisition is ‘usage-based’. In this view, language acquisition is possible because of children’s general cognitive capacities and the vast number of opportunities they have to make connections between the language they hear and what they experience in their environment. Sophisticated electronic recording devices have been used to track and count words and phrases children hear in their daily lives. Deb Roy documented his son’s acquisition of words, showing the frequency and the contexts for the occurrence of language. Most remarkable, perhaps, is the demonstration of the power of interaction between the child and the adults and how adults focus on the language the child has begun to use (Roy 2009).”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“The importance of interaction The role of interaction between a language-learning child and an interlocutor who responds to the child is illuminated by cases where such interaction is missing. Jacqueline Sachs and her colleagues (1981) studied the language development of a child they called Jim. He was a hearing child of deaf parents, and his only contact with oral language was through television, which he watched frequently. The family was unusual in that the parents did not use sign language with Jim. Thus, although in other respects he was well cared for, Jim did not begin his linguistic development in a normal environment in which a parent communicated with him in either oral or sign language. A language assessment at three years and nine months indicated that he was well below age level in all aspects of language. Although he attempted to express ideas appropriate to his age, he used unusual, ungrammatical word order. When Jim began conversational sessions with an adult, his expressive abilities began to improve. By the age of four years and two months most of the unusual speech patterns had disappeared, replaced by language more typical of his age. Jim’s younger brother Glenn did not display the same type of language delay. Glenn’s linguistic environment was different from Jim’s: he had his older brother—not only as a model, but, more importantly as a conversational partner whose interaction allowed Glenn to develop language in a more typical way. Jim showed very rapid acquisition of English once he began to interact with an adult on a one-to-one basis. The fact that he had failed to acquire language normally prior to this experience suggests that impersonal sources of language such as television or radio alone are not sufficient. One-to-one interaction gives children access to language that is adjusted to their level of comprehension. When a child does not understand, the adult may repeat or paraphrase. The response of the adult may also allow children to find out when their own utterances are understood. Television, for obvious reasons, does not provide such interaction. Even in children’s programmes, where simpler language is used and topics are relevant to younger viewers, no immediate adjustment is made for the needs of an individual child. Once children have acquired some language, however, television can be a source of language and cultural information.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“This child-directed speech may be characterized by a slower rate of delivery, higher pitch, more varied intonation, shorter, simpler sentence patterns, stress on key words, frequent repetition, and paraphrase. Furthermore, topics of conversation emphasize the child’s immediate environment, picture books, or experiences that the adult knows the child has had. Adults often repeat the content of a child’s utterance, but they expand or recast it into a grammatically correct sentence. For example, when Peter says, ‘Dump truck! Dump truck! Fall! Fall!’, Lois responds, ‘Yes, the dump truck fell down.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“Vocabulary grows at a rate of between several hundred and more than a thousand words a year, depending mainly on how much and how widely children read (Nagy, Herman, and Anderson 1985). The kind of vocabulary growth required for school success is likely to come from both reading for assignments and reading for pleasure, whether narrative or non-fiction. Dee Gardner (2004) suggests that reading a variety of text types is an essential part of vocabulary growth. His research has shown how the range of vocabulary in narrative texts is different from that in non-fiction. There are words in non-fiction texts that are unlikely to occur in stories or novels. In addition, non-fiction tends to include more opportunities to see a word in its different forms (for example, ‘mummy’, ‘mummies’, ‘mummified’). The importance of reading for vocabulary growth is seen when observant parents report a child using a new word but mispronouncing it in a way that reveals it has been encountered only in written form.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“One of the most impressive aspects of language development in the school years is the astonishing growth of vocabulary. Children enter school with the ability to understand and produce several thousand words, and thousands more will be learned at school. In both the spoken and written language at school, words such as ‘homework’ or ‘ruler’ appear frequently in situations where their meaning is either immediately or gradually revealed. Words like ‘population’ or ‘latitude’ occur less frequently, but they are made important by their significance in academic subject matter.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“Language acquisition in the pre-school years is impressive. It is also noteworthy that children have spent thousands of hours interacting with language—participating in conversations, eavesdropping on others’ conversations, being read to, watching television, etc. A quick mathematical exercise will show you just how many hours children spend in language-rich environments. If children are awake for ten or twelve hours a day, we may estimate that they are in contact with the language of their environment for 20,000 hours or more by the time they go to school.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“One important finding is that it is not enough for babies to hear language sounds from electronic devices. In order to learn—or retain—the ability to distinguish between sounds, they need to interact with a human speaker (Conboy and Kuhl 2011). The Internet abounds with remarkable videos of infants reacting to language sounds.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“by the time they are a year old, babies who will become speakers of Arabic stop reacting to the difference between ‘pa’ and ‘ba’ which is not phonemic in Arabic. Babies who regularly hear more than one language in their environment continue to respond to these differences for a longer period (Werker, Weikum, and Yoshida 2006).”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“tiny babies are capable of very fine auditory discrimination. For example, they can hear the difference between sounds as similar as ‘pa’ and ‘ba’.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“What enables a child not only to learn words, but to put them together in meaningful sentences? What pushes children to go on developing complex grammatical language even though their early simple communication is successful for most purposes? Does child language develop similarly around the world? How do bilingual children acquire more than one language?”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“We are currently working on a new series of books for teachers, the Oxford Key Concepts for the Language Classroom.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned

“One study involved an analysis of the effects of small doses of alcohol, known for its ability to reduce inhibition, on pronunciation. Study participants who drank small amounts of alcohol did better on pronunciation tests than those who did not drink any.”
― Patsy M. Lightbown, How Languages are Learned