Bart Anderson

NOTES – Nov 9, 2012

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Contents

Chapter 0: Book Plan
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Method
Chapter 3: Languages
Chapter 4: Skills
Chapter 5: Orientation
Chapter 6: Basics
Chapter 6a: Pronunciation
Chapter 6b: Grammar
Chapter 7a: Conversation
Chapter 7b: Reading
Chapter 7c: Guessing
Chapter 8: Advanced
Chapter 9a: Stories
Chapter 9b: Polyglots
Chapter 10: SLA
Chapter 11: Wishlist
Chapter 12: Specific languages
Chapter 13: Readings
Chapter 14: Leftovers

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Chapter 0: Book Plan

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Method
  • Why learn a language?
  • Myths
  • MAP- Motivation, Active Attitude, Patience
  • Other approaches
  • Making your own path
• Chapter 3: Languages
  • Considerations
  • Language showcase
• Chapter 4: Skills
• Chapter 5: Orientation
• Chapter 6: Basics
  • Phase description: the crux
  • Managing the phase
  • Classes
  • Textbooks and software
  • Self-study
• Chapter 6a: Pronunciation
• Chapter 6b: Grammar
• Chapter 7a: Conversation
  • Phase description: on to fluency
  • Managing the phase
  • Resources
• Chapter 7b: Reading
• Chapter 7c: Guessing
• Chapter 8: Advanced
• Chapter 9a: Stories
• Chapter 9b: Polyglots
• Chapter 10: SLA
• Chapter 11: Wishlist
• Chapter 12: Specific languages
• Chapter 13: Readings
• Chapter 14: Leftovers

ABOUT BOOK

Let me think of hooks at the beginning of chapters

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Chapter 1: Introduction

SUMMARY. What you’re going to tell people and why it’s important.

It becomes a part of your life.

A chance to expand, grow, to “marry” a culture.

This book

I insist that it be fun and meaningful. Not fun as in party hats, but as meaningful, satisfying progress. A world opening up.

Purpose- FL on own, for pleasure and self-eucation. Usually adults, but also students who want more.
Qualifications: I’ve done it with French Italian, Spanish, German. Poke nose into Latin, Russian, Chinese, Swedish. Find it pleasureable and satisfying. *I keep at it*
Want to share technique. Point to where to share more.

directed at adults and motivated people, young or old.
Not children, academics, teachers.

For learners of language, not teachers.

Educators and academics are at too great a remove. We need to focus on people who have actually done it, and done it well.

SLA is a big field, but it is not very useful for learners.

I haven’t seen any teachers or teaching material talk about long-term learning strategies, or learner assessment of material.

What’s different with this approach?
– personal view from a learner
– interested in bottoms-up approach – experiences of learners and teachers, rather than theoretical top-down
– takes a long-term perspective — the only way to approach languages without frustration
– Sees learning a language as a relationship, not as a one-time accomplishment
– awareness of expense, goals, limitations of time and energy, motivations of adult learners
– not detailed, but gives strategy – ways to find and decide on paths.
– Footnotes and references for further reading (esp online resources.) But not a scholarly work. From the outside, looking for understanding, aiming to be clear and undersstabndable, give a broad overview (which is often the stumbling block)

Why learn a language?

Instrumental – to use
Integrative – to belong

There are the traditional pragmatic reasons:

• family, roots
• travel
• economic, jobs, business
• survival: find oneself among people speaking a different language
• academic requirements

Then there are the other reasons why one might want to learn languages, even if it was not necessary:

• culture
• fun

To become an educated person. Puts you in contact with other cultures, other civilizations, other periods of history.

Challenge, own control, new discoveries, contact with others-past.

An interest that is:
inexpensive, in one place, under one’s own control, pleasurable, meaningful, satisfying.

A treasure that is always available to you. No matter what the external circumstnces. You always will have something interesting to do.

A way to meet people. A hobby, a passion.

Why me?

My experiences, hints and observations. Naturally they reflect my likes and dislikes. Will point to other sources for different approaches.

Seems in accord with modern theories and the experiences of polyglots.

Inspired by the work of a Hungarian translater. Enjoyed her personal story, telling how she accomplished the learning of languages on her own, insights. Not dogmatic or theoretical. So this is based on my own experiences in getting reading knowledge of four languages, speaking knowledge (now rusty), and study of several more languages.

DESCRIBE how you started. Wound up because of peak oil, reading about it. Wanted some way to relax, take my mind off it, so I could go to sleep. Tired of reading in English.

In October 2006, I Picked up a novelette by George Simenon, the prolific writer of the Maigret detective series. It was “Sept Petites Croix Dans un Carnet.”

I had studied French 26 years before, and was not expecting much. I remember that I had been able to get to a reading knowledge and read several novels, but I remembered those as big achievements.

To my surprise, I could make my way through the text. I had to look up words, but there was a glossary in this edition, so with a little effort I was happy to find that I could finish it.

With that, I was hooked.

Very satisfying, it occupied my mind in a way that reading English did not. Hard to explain…. it made me slow down and pay attention to the words.

I’ve continued reading several French books per month since then. Re-discovered the pleasure of foreign language.

I realized that this was unusual, and perhaps worthy of sharing.

Some discoveries would make things easier for other people.

Qualifications – four languages, can speak, listen, read. Especially read.

I thoroughly enjoy, vs bitter medicine which is good for your character.

Enjoy, like to share. Not an academic, but interested in background.

You

You can do it.
Take your time.
Find out what you like, what the best way for you to learn is
Have fun. Learning a language takes time. Need to be able to sustain the activity.

We are dealing with motivated people. Mature, who have accomplished things. Not whiners. By this time, you have accomplished a lot. Learned a trade or profession, had relationships, are part of a family, completed ambitious projects. Now, take those abilities to a different field.

If you don’t have “any” time… There are still many things you can do. See Chapter 6 on Orientation. You can get started learning about the culture, listening to the sounds. Can listen to language listens on your electronic devices. Read grammar to make you sleepy at night. Squeeze something in the cracks in your schedule; over time, it becomes significant. Learn basic words, grammar in your spare time. Talk to people.

The *Senior Advantage*
Realize that it takes time to achieve anything worthwhile. Patient. Self-accepting.
Don’t have to prove anything.
Know how to be serious.
Keeps neural networks active.
Perfect for retirement. Can combine with travel. Does not require travel or physical strength.
Good to do in groups, adult ed.

Young people
Opens the way to new experiences, new people, travel, new opportunities
If you are in school, you can turn the language classes to good use, Learn how to get the most from them, see as useful.
Plenty of time ahead to perfect the language.
Make it a part of your life… it comes.

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Chapter 2: Method

There is a time for grammar, drills, guessing and pleasure reading. Problem: getting fixated on those things that fit in a classroom.

As Larry says, “What doo you mean by *knowing* German?” [he said that to his cousin Esther]. He pointed out that it is a psectrum. As Pei points out, even a little is valuable and brings satisfaction. For me, Greek, Russian, Chinese, Hebrew. Some knowledge and a taste.

A passion for languages.
Don’t be too careful, cautious, penurious in approaching language
Be generous, swashbuckling, unafraid.

First language is hardest. They get easier.

There are a series of books by independent language learners and teachers … we are on the same page. Talking the same language. Different from SLA, which is focussed on teachers. Somewhat different from polyglots who are perhaps more interested in their own personal techniques and achievements, than in describing the process for a general audience.

List of books: HERE

do whatever is necessary to get a basic knowledge
then – read and listen ASAP, relying on the dictionary as little as possible

How to pace yourself and keep up your morale

1) Get excited
2) Assemble a learning environment
3) Learn basics
4) Progress through a series of graded readings
5) Read / listen for pleasure and utility

These are done concurrently, of course, but the general order holds true.

Two aspects

INTENSITY — (BASICS)
focus on grammar (multiple texts), practice,
getting the basic vocabulary
pronunciation
Memorize where appropriate (esp for speaking and/or writing)

EXTENSITY — (CONVERSATION AND/OR READING )
reading,
listening
making it a habit in your life

Order of learning (maybe move to skills)

Loom of Language: points out that the skills required for reading and listening are very different from speaking and writing. You can get by with a basic vocabulary and grammar with speaking/writing, but you need to know them very well. OTOH, you need a much larger vocabulary to read and listen, but you don’t need to know it actively. Just have to recognize it. Also, you will encounter more grammatical forms, but again, only need a passive knowledge.

General ideas

1. No magic shortcuts. No secret gadgets.
2. Focus and motivation are the most important factors.
3. Be willing to make mistakes.
4. Don’t compare self to the images in the media or to ideas of perfection.
5. Figure things out for yourself: go with your own tastes and learning style.
6. Learn (selectively) from others
7. Make full use of resources.
8. Practice – make the activity a part of your life.
9. Make it fun.
10. Don’t explain, don’t apologize. Instead, concentrate on the thing itself.

MORE:
It has to be painful.
Learn in two months.

Methods

Grammar Translation Method: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_translation
Direct Method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_method_%28education%29
Audio Lingual Method (ALM) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio-lingual_method
Natural approach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_approach
Communicative language teaching http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicative_language_teaching
Community language learning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_language_learning

Making your own path

MAP- Motivation, Active Attitude, Patience

Motivation

Develop motivation. Think about it, envision having the skill.

movies, travel, books, people, food, history
Netflix and some libraries may have many DVDs in foreign languages
talk to others who are enthusiastic (Israeli couple and ancient Hebrew, explained relation to Aramaic)

Not emphasized much. But otherwise, what’s the point? It’s an excercise in mental gymnastics.

If you have a choice, learn the languages that you love, the cultures you are attracted to. Important to choose the right language. LINK to language section.

Even if you don’t like the culture at first, can usually find something worthwhile. For example, with Latin.

I don’t think people will be able to go through the process of learning a language, unless they enjoy it.

This is not fun like party-hats. But you can get satisfaction from working to achieve a goal. It is a limited goal. Work through the textbooks and the tapes. Can make a lot of progress.

For a community of language learners who are motivated to do this, see the Discussion Forums at
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/

Active Attitude

the active role of the learner in choosing FLs, skills, classes, texts, experiences, reading material

assessing, monitoring, paying attention to your energy level

Take responsibility for your own learning

Don’t blame teachers, books, classes. Get what you can from them. Supplement as needed. Go out and get what you need.

Manage your own learning:
Right skills
Right approach
Right level
Right language

Don’t “fight” the language. Sometimes I have the feeling underneath the surface, “Why don’t they do this logically?” “Why can’t they just speak English.”

Protecting the ego. It is hard to be like a child again. You may be laughed at. You will be helpless for a while. Thus: “I can’t do it.” blaming the teacher/course. Don’t blame, don’t apologize, don’t live up to any image. Concentrate on the language itself. Soon you will be past that frustrating early stage.

Persistence

Why be in a hurry? This is a long relationship.
Patience. Much to learn.

Make it fun enough so that you’ll keep at it.

Don’t count words, points, number of languages.
It’s not a contest, not a job – that ruins the spirit

When are you finished? Always more

Why you “can’t” learn a language

Strange, disconcerting. Seems as if you’ll never be able to do it. So much to learn. Like being put in a strange city where nothing works as you expect it to.

“Don’t know the grammar.”
“I’m too old”
“I’m not good at languages.”
“Can’t remember the words.”
“Had unpleasant time in school”

Sad – very competent people tell me they don’t have the ability to learn languages. Usually it’s because they run into an obstacle, as above. Some of them are very bright, almost geniuses. What is the psychological dynamic at work?

The autbor of “Babel No More” denies that he is a polyglot, when he has studied X languages (Spanish and Japanese I think).

And others make fun of themselves, as below. But it’s really not good. It adds to the delusion that languages are some special thing… or that there are certain people who are way gifted, and other people are not.

In the dystopic waiting room that is one’s forties it is possible to be quite serene on the language issue. I am reconciled to being useless at languages in the same way that I am now reconciled to dying still unable to identify tree species or remember phone numbers. But for many years I charged at language after language in the manner of someone running up against some massively barred and studded fortress door: Italian, Latin, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic (in a moment of lunatic lack of self-knowledge), German, Ancient Greek — a catalogue of complete pointlessness. On a conservative estimate I must have spent over a thousand hours of my childhood in Latin lessons — a magnificent grounding in that tongue and the sort of steady application that takes full advantage of the sponge-like absorbency of the young mind. In an adult spasm of masochism I recently bought Teach Yourself Latin which, to my total dismay, showed that eight years of Latin lessons had actually only got me about twenty-five pages into a three-hundred-page book. This hopelessness extended everywhere — Italian, Spanish and French were always doomed simply because they were taught at school. I have some vague memory of being castigated in a French lesson aged eleven or so for having spent much of the lesson trying to fill my pen cap with saliva. Spanish and Italian were exam subjects of which I now have no memory at all.

Russian, Arabic and German were different because they were actively self-motivated. Trying to learn Russian was stupid — a humiliation but a short-lived one. Arabic was more serious. I had spent some time in the Middle East selling books and became completely enamoured of cultural Islam, souks and sand — but above all the shape of the letters and their artistic use. Given that I had a clear block on all language learning I’m not sure really what I was thinking.

… It was then that I encountered German. By this point in my adult life even at my most delusive I could see that I had a problem with languages. I was resigned to always flunk Tlingit, say, or Miao — but perhaps through sheer effort I could land one mainstream European language and not remain trapped in the roomy but over-familiar cage of English. Ever since that teenage visit to Strasbourg my enthusiasm for German history and literature had grown and grown. Thomas Bernhard, Joseph Roth and Günter Grass were my heroes, and it was time to be serious at last about engaging with their work and the real version of the words they had written.

And so I embarked on the last great language adventure. Thinking about it now, intellectually it seemed to be the equivalent of one of those grizzled, independent-minded medieval German warlords who, pondering too long in his isolated castle, decides to go on one final raid, having already lost most of his best hounds, horses and sons on earlier outings, galloping down to the plains in a hopeless yet honourable bid to die, yet live on in story.

Galloping into New York University again I remember being oddly buoyant and cheerful about the whole business: a new exercise book, a new language, nicely sharpened pencils. Quite quickly I ran into the usual problems — like not really understanding anything. The individual words were as sonorous and magnificent as I’d hoped and many hours were spent rolling them over my tongue and getting what I imagined to be a rather wonderful accent. However: they knocked on the door and they rang on the bell, but Mr Language was not at home.

– Simon Winder, Germania, A Personal History of Germans Ancient and Modern, London, Picador 2010, pp. 9 – 12
http://www.wepsite.de/Simon_Winder,languages.htm

There are differences – just as with other things -physical abilities, musical – but more people have enough abiality to aget pleasure, achieve goals. Humans are designed to learn languages.

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Children and languages

I’m speaking mostly for motivated adults. Children are a different story – probably it’s more important to give them an exposure without forcing it on them. Songs, games, interaction. Keep it a positive experience, no heavy grammar. There are probably opportunities to do this better. Sesame Street for language learning. The equivalent of a governess. Being with other kids who speak a different language. (ask Ellen?)

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Myths

1. Myth: There is a magic technique. If only you could find the right product….

   Reality: It takes time and persistence to acquire any skill. There are some tricks and techniques for enjoying it more, motivating yourself, making it more efficient. But don’t need to spend a lot of money to acquire it. Will need to expend time and effort.

2. Myth: You need to have a high IQ, special gift. Some people cannot learn foreign languages.

   Reality: Children are able to learn every language in the world. Some children learn two, three or more languages. People in various countries can do it. The people who are able to do it, seem to have certain things in common. Enjoyment, fearlessness, curiosity, willingness. (Chomsky quote – humans are made to learn languages)

3. Myth: There is one way that works for everyone, that is valid.

   Reality: Different motivations, different learning styles. Some love grammar, some pick up languages from talking with people, others by reading. Some thrive in classes. Others hate them. Can make a few generalizations, but many differences. Different approaches, e.g. grammar. Some seem to work better than others, whereas others are mostly carried on by tradition, whether they work or not.

4. Myth: It is something that other people can do for you.

   Reality: Here is one generalization you can make. The more you take responsibiity for your own progres, the less you depend on others, the faster you will learn. The more active the better. Motivation is everything.

5. Myth: It is painful and requires superhuman will power.

   Reality: The key is to find an enjoyable activity which enables you to practice. Usually –
   the activity is under your control (not imposed on you)
   pleasure, satisfaction rather than fear, anxiety

6. Myth: You need to learn grammar.

   Reality: Children don’t learn their native language by studying grammar. Some teaching methods do without it, but people use them and learn languages.

7. Myth: Grammar is useless.

   Reality: Grammar can be very handy. Part of traditional teachning methods. Also, most polyglots rely on a knowledge of grammar – like a template that helps them learn new languages. Don’t need to make it a religion. Most of the important rules and forms — not that hard. It can be hard to learn everything.

8. Myth: Good language learners don’t make mistakes.

   Reality: Good language learners make lots of mistakes. It’s just that they persist, and they correct them efficiently.

9. Myth: Learning a language is a definite thing – you achieve it once, and that’s it.

   Reality: Learning a language is like a relationship. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it. It’s a lifelong thing. You never learn it all.

   Look on your relationships with langauge as a marriage. An ongoing relationship over the years. So think carefully about which languages you choose.

   For me (reflecting European orientation): Italian, French, Spanish, German.

10. Myth: Your head head will explode.

    Reality: No reported cases! One wonders, how can tens of thousands of different words, totally different languages co- exist in the same cranium? Somehow we humans seem to be able to handle it.

Questions

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Chapter 3: Languages

Considerations

Depends on you, your needs, your background
Big 3: Spanish, French, German.
Other European: Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Greek, Swedish. (Russian and Swedish are gateways to Slavic and Scandinavian languages).
Major world languages, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hindi (& related),

Other: Latin, Anc Greek, Hebrew, and other languages important culturally
Small and endangered languages: often very differn6t (sounds, grammar, writing systems_. Hard to get teachers, materials. May need a different strategy. See GT. The anthopology approach.

Considerations: ease, availability of materials and classes
general usefulness (# speakers, proximity, opportunities, literature, economics/political reole)

As you read these descriptions, think about several that you might like to learn if you could. 3, 5.

– a world language
– an easy language
– one you love, feel an affinity for

LT strategy?
Polyglot?

[Convey excitement, why you like languages]

My feelings about the different languages. Other people will have different ideas.

Language showcase
if i were to recommend a language for Americans, I would suggest Spanish or French.

Spanish because it’s about the easiest language for Americans to learn, and because it is the second most spoken language in the U.S. (more than 10%). French because it gives the most culture per unit of effort

(Of course, I ignored this advice and studied German and Italian as my first two languages.)

Spanish

cousin to French and Italian
said to be easiest for English-speakers — probably agree
phonetic, easy pronunciation
useful for US, especially the West
history and literature
right next door
different feel than French and Italian… more stoic

Almost a no-brainer. Huge amount of material. Many opportunities in the US. Spanish-speaking communities here. Neighboring countries.

Spanish is phonetically written, easy to pronounce. The grammar is straightforward Romance language (similar to French, Italian and Portuguese). Many teachers and classes. Much material. Right next to millions of Spanish speakers in Latin America. And in fact, it really is already the second language of the United States.

According to the MLA Langauge Map, based on 2000 census data,
82% speak English at home (215M)
10.7% speak Spanish at home (28M)
French and Chines are next, both with under 1%

In California (my state)
25% speak Spanish or Spanish creole at home (8 M).

According to a report by the Instituto Cervantes, the United States contains more Spanish speakers than Spain, and is surpassed only by Mexico. The present estimate is now at 45 million Spanish speakers.

The study also gives 2006 figures for U.S. university students of the three top lanugages:
822,985 Spanish
206,426 French
  94.264 German

(Also see the Wikepedia entry for Spanish in the United States.)

Michael Erard points out that “compared with Chinese, Thai, or Urdu, Spanish is practically English.” (Texas Observer, March 6, 2008, “Come se dice corruption” / “Lingua Americana”)

The US is a de facto bilingual state. We are lucky that the second language is Spanish – useful, and one of the easiest languages to know. It opens the door to the other Romance languages.

French

I’d recommend French, because it’s culturally important. Even though it’s hard at first because of the pronunciation and non-phonetic spelling, I find that French gets easier as you advance. It almost feels like cheating because so much of the vocabulary is similar to English.

May seem hard at first but gets easier to read. Speaking and listening are harder.
Clear style, many idioms, much culture.
Mutual influence between French and English-speaking worlds. Shared history, culture.

similar vocabulary. feels like cheating!
some difficulty in sounds, spelling, constructions
but i think it becomes easier to read… perhaps because of french literature

literature and history
the French have done it all: Empire, Revolution, peasants, avant-garde
chic factor, good taste
so much good writing. style is clear, entertaining (vs ponderous)

The Story of French by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow

Italian

cousin to French, doesn’t have a sense of its own importance as french.
human, humanistic
sense of humor
since i studied, italy has become rich – Berlusconi – soccer – pop culture
love the neo-realism of the 30s-60s. More human
French cousin said the food is better in Italy

fun to speak, hear
easier than french (at least at first)
not as rich a literature as french (but not many languages are)

not especially useful for business or science
but for art, history, literature

opera (multi-language librettos), many movies.

English

spelling and some pronunciation is difficult. many idioms.
But staggering amount of material is available (hard to get away from English in the modern world)
Practical reasons to learn
Simplified grammar (very few endings compared to other Indo-European languages0

museum of languages
vocabulary from Germanic and Latin/Romance languages
German structure, with many (most) from Latin/Romance
However most basic vocabulary words, most common, are related to German
useful
English literature and history
for better or worst, dominant empire

German

history and literature
nice contrast to Romance languages
different feel – more energetic, gritty, scholarly, intense, deeply felt
Romance languages tend to rhetoric (esp French) and abstract
fairly phonetic
not that hard to pronounce, spell
helps with English – learn more about vocab and structure
operas, vocal music. Much material available.

Mandarin

latest enthusiasm (mostly enthusiasm about culture)
huge population
very different -tones, different writing system
different culture
A good antidote to European-centered culture

Good instructional material is hard to come by. Easier than in past.
Keep looking for dual-language texts.
Chinese movies

Characters are fascinating, e.g. happy = mother + baby

would like to see dual-language or inter-linear editions of Chinese texts
with pinyin + characters + English

and especially if there were audio to accompany the text, someone reading in Mandarin

Free or cheap stories or articles, of good quality. So would enjoy reading.

A lot of commercial products, lessons. Seem to be superficial. Not very high quality. The textbooks I’ve seen are dry.

For a world language, Chinese does not have that much good material for learners. But the situations is improving fast.

Chinese teaching traditions aren’t too helpful – memorization, discipline. Needs updating.

Learning Chinese could be made much easier.

What a culture. Written form is usable by many languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, etc.)

Latin

See Taking a trip to ancient Rome

easy vocabulary if you kow a Romance language already
grammar is much more difficult than current Romance languages
Nice interlinear texts
Suggestion: work backward, from a Romance language (Spanish or Italian), then Medieval Latin, then the classic Latin of Cicero.
many texts available, but the Latin corpus is not very large
lots of classics
They are untouched for mottos and aphorisms

Dislike the way it’s been taught – memorize grammar facts
To irritate, pronounce like Italian (as Catholic Church does)
Dislike the myth – because it’s not true.
But once you put this aside, very interesting. Understand where the Western world came from, bad and good.

Latin word order in Loom p.323

HISTORY!

influenced European civilization = ideas, attitudes, literature,
e.g. the idea of Imperialism, copied by Hitler and Napoleon
dislike a lot – slavery, not esp creative or intelligent, pompous, warlike
OTOH, but like anything, much wisdom,

Prejudiced against Latin and Roman culture.
Found myself rooting for the Barbarians (see book & DVD)
But when dig deeper, as usual, you can set aside the myth
videos like Rome, I Claudius, Spartacus
Realized mostly it was the myth of Rome in European culture (idealizing Rome and the pompous literature). When look more closely, it’s fascinating
Tremendous amount of material on a non-modern civilization. Mayan archaeologist awestruck by the detail vailable.

slavery, imperialism, idea of a world empire, snobbery, pomposity, militarism
nostalgia for slavery and empire, for a self-confident elite

Choices – hidden – only a fraction of the Latin language is represented by the Golden Age. Used as literary and rhetorical models by a fraction of society. Does not represent Roman civilization as a whole. Latin was spoken for hundreds of years more, during the Medieval Ages, a different kind of Latin. This is part of the picture. It’s possible to see the current Romance languages as the most recent incarnation of Latin (McWhorter makes this point, I think). People kept speaking the language, at no time did they stop and say, “I’m not talking Latin anymore. Now I’m talking Italian.”

The myth of a great Rome is just a myth. It’s boring, wants a more critical look, as for example Parenti’s argument in favor of Julius Caesar.

Have to deal with the fact that it was a cruel, slave-based society. In addition to the usual peasant exploitation. Apparently more so than other ancient societies – who said this?
as part of its heritage – imperialism, fascism, snobbery, class, patriarchy
literature that has come down to us is one-sided
there’s not that much of it – see classics professor estimate
most of the material about Rome is uncritical and boosterish
Remember – torture, crucifying — they really do seem worse.

ideology, hidden and not-so-hidden messages.
See Latin series from 1943 – Christian. 3rd Year Preface.

Obey, obey, obey. Learn rules.

Hogben vs Latin

Russian

literature, history
interesting alphabet
satisfying pronunciation
a world language

Greek – modern and ancient

Greek literature more creative, more interesting than Latin
Doesn’t have the heavy hand that Latin does.
learn both. avoid mistake of reifying the Ancient, neglected the modern. Need to see how things change.
Suggestion: work backward, from modern Greek then the koine (used in the New Testament for example), then classic Greek.
Modern writers
sounds beautiful
literature and history

Hebrew
Bible, modern literature
easier than Arabic
different script
literature and history
much good material available.
Israeli government encourages Hebrew lessons

Arabic

huge civilization, due for a Renaissance
Different worldview
Script is hard.

Pali/Hindi

Read Indian literature, Buddhist texts. Access to a great cvilization.

Irish

Irish history and culture
another branch of Indo-European family of languages, would be interesting
spoken in Ireland, classes, materials
related to other Celtic languages
I like the sound

Synthetic Languages

Esperanto

Interlingua – Latino Sine Flexione

could read right away
easier than Esperanto
simplified Latin, similar to Italian and Spanish
English has made obsolete, too bad, good idea
There are others…. not really interested in pursuing now.

Lingua Franca Nova
http://lingua-franca-nova.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_Franca_Nova

Eurapanto

Funny. Started as a joke, but popular. Seems to respond to something in the way people work. (See email)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europanto
“The main feature of Europanto is that there are no fixed rules — merely a set of suggestions. This means that anybody can start to speak Europanto immediately;”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/220511.stm
http://www.europanto.be/
http://www.neuropeans.com/topic/europanto/what/more.php
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3930&PN=1&TPN=1

Readings

Choosing the language you want to learn
How to choose your target language
Empires of the Word: A Language History of the Word (Nicholas Ostler)
(how languages get to be world-languages).

Questions

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Chapter 4: Skills

There are different aspects of a foreign language. In terms of difficulty:
Reading
Understanding the spoken language (Listening, Hearing)
Conversation (Speaking)
Writing

Important to look at as separate skills. People have different needs that require very different approaches.

There is a certain order to the skills
1. Listening and Pronunciation
2. Basic conversation – common grammar structures and small active vocabulary
3. Reading
and/or Conversation
4. Writing

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Chapter 5: Orientation

Why

How to do it

culture
exposure
enthusiasm
exploration
“falling in love”

Try several

Throw yourself into the culture – history, literature, movies, food, arts, customs. Travelling.

Develop motivation. Think about it, envision having the skill.

movies, travel, books, people, food, history
Netflix and some libraries may have many DVDs in foreign languages
talk to others who are enthusiastic (Israeli couple and ancient Hebrew, explained relation to Aramaic)

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Chapter 6: Basics

Why

How to do it

Phase description: the crux

Most difficult phase. Orientation is fun and non-stresful. Intermediate – you’re seeing the result of your work and preparation. But the basics … stumbling block, because you don’t know enough to do the interesting stuff. It’s new, frustrating.

Typically this is what is taught in language classes. It’s where the most frustration is. Therefore this is where there is the most argument about how to teach it. Back and forth – Grammar-Translation Method, Direct Method, Audio-lingual Method, Natural Method, Pimsleur, etc.

Practice without fear.

Key: know basic patterns and vocabulary.

For most of us, we don’t have to have strong opinions about the theories. We can tell what worked for us, and take use of opportunities from many different methods.

Will explain what worked for me, and what the underlying skills that have to be learned, no matter what the method.

Personally, I don’t think the specifics of the method are that important. What’s needed is that you spend hundreds of hours with the language, as actively and enjoyably as possible.

Learn basics, then spread out

But to speed things up, you can concentrate on certain things: pronunciation, basic vocabulary and grammar.

can go through the basic material
grammar, pronunciation, alphabet (script), vocabulary
(optional but recommended)
Schaum or Spanish I, etc.

Basic Vocabulary

Another fact about languages. It seems to be an extreme case of the Pareto Principle (“For many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes”).

A few hundred or thousand words are extremely common:

the, and, you, is, think, walk, go, good

Whereas the vast majority of words are rarely used:

periwig, exterminator, peninsula, bagpipe, fo’c’s’le

So the logical strategy would be to learn the common words as quickly as possible. Do whatever it takes, so that you will know the most common words in a text. This makes it much easier to guess the remaining words. More successful. More fun.

Otherwise, if you just throw yourself into a text in language you don’t know, it’s frustrating and mysterious.

Loom p.213 Small number of words

Basic Grammar

The same idea as vocabulary holds true for grammar. Learn the most common grammar and constructions (especially the ones that are different from your native language).

Repetition

What you really need at the beginning is repetition. Grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary. Many thousands of things to remember.

Oh, lo
ok Jane, Look! See Dick Run.
Cat in the Hat

Look for repetition in structure, in vocabulary, in course formats
They help you remember, help you guess words that are uncertain.

Self-study
Experiment

Do what is at hand – easy – fun – rewarding

Look at different approaches, try them (with a small commitment at first), then contine with the ones that are the best for you.

Maybe not classes at first. See what you can do on your own.

Choosing material

Learn to investigate, choose, assess.

Textbooks and software

Textbooks
available 2nd hand, sometimes old ones are best
Courses – library, online, used, new
Workbooks!

Don’t get hung up on finding the perfect course/book.
The material I used was cheap, commonly available.
Conversaphone, probably obsolete, but I loved it for the basics.
Collected whatever was available.
Lots of practice.

I am opportunistic. If there’s a class or sw or textbook available, I’ll try it out. Looking for things that are available and cheap (or free) and that work. At this point now, I don’t need tricky software or handholding. I’m eager to get to good books and movies.

Software. I suspect a lot of language leaving recordings and software end up like exercise machines. We buy them in a fit of enthusiasm, then most of them spend years gathering cobwebs. Try the library versions first. See if you actually will use it. If you find a good program, stick with it.

Commercial products — often flashy and make extravagant claims, promising quick results with little effort. THey still can be useful, but don’t believe them.

Classes

Describe the experiences of being taught by different techniques.
grammar-translation
direct method
alm

etc.

Different types:
As part of schooling
in-country FL school (me, Italy, France, Guatemala)
adult community classes
study circles
FL clubs, conversation groups, tables
private lessons
language exchange

1. Prepare ahead of time
2. Keep responsibility for learning yourself. Maintain an active attitude. See it as a resource.
3. The social aspect can be good – esp in a foreign country.
4. At a certain point, they are not very useful. Easier to do it yourself.
5. Some people may be turned off to a particular approach.

I feel ambivalent about classes

At a certain point, they are awkward, slow, confusing – they get in the way of learning.
They teach bad habits, arouse anxiety (tests, grades), over-explain (??) over-intellectualize.
The classroom environment becomes dominant rather than the language itself
Bad attitudes: “this is hard” “i can’t do it”
Bureaucracy, inconvenience, expense.
Teachers can be dreadful, leave vulnerable people traumatized.

On the other hand, it’s nice to be with other people. Get exposure. Hear good pronunciation. Get a push. Teachers can be inspiring and helpful, especially at first. The structure. Get over the inertia that one may have by oneself.

Right now, I’d rather work on the basics by myself, to get to a certain level. Then I’d be better able to make use of the class.

Students who are enthusiastic and self-motivated are more fun to teach.

Questions

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Chapter 6a: Pronunciation

Why

How to do it

IPA is very helpful. I came to it late.

Especially if you are going to being learning multiple languages. Or your language is not phonetically written (e.g. English, French). Or you want to be able to get pronunciation details. Or you want to read pronunciations in a growing number of dictionaries and on Wikipedia.

Do not have to learn IPA in detail. For your foreign and native languages.

Most consonants are straightforward. The vowels are what give the trouble. A lot of variation in vowels among different dialects and accents.

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Chapter 6b: Grammar

Why

How to do it

Very helpful, but not necessary. A little goes a long way.

I don’t know what to say to others. I know there is a distaste for grammar – dry and abstract.

I took to grammar naturally, because it helped make sense of the new language. But I don’t like it for its own sake. But rather for what it enables you to do.

Those people who like abstract thinking, who tend to be bookish, will probably do best with grammar. (On the other hand, may overdo it.)

Those people who are more outgoing, impatient with books and sitting still, may do fine without it. May pick up conversation faster than others, if they are uninhibited.

If you want to learn multiple langauges, grammar is really a necessity. It’s like a template that stays much the same from langauge to language. (Similar language families, like French, Italian, Spanish, very similar. BUt even very different families will have nouns, verbs, adjectives, and rules for interaction.

Once you learn how grammar works, it becomes very frustrating to be in a language course without it.

Like a map. If you are accustomed to reading maps, it really helps. You can live without a map, but it will take you much longer to get around.

It is a set of shortcuts.

Get a reasonable view of it – it’s either over-empahsized or under-emphasized

Put it in perspective. You can fill two sheets of paper with the grammar facts and forms for a language.
That would be most of the important grammar. It is not unlimited. Why not learn it, and get on with it?
Memorization can be very efficient.

Need repetition of grammar. That’s why I love Spanish I, Spanish II books (also Schaum).
You are introduced to a point of grammar, then get several dozen repetititve exercises.

Don’t fight grammar. Study it or don’t. But don’t waste your time arguing about it, or doing it and resenting it.

If you don’t want to study grammar, make the decision and see the results. You can always change your mind later.

Just do it, get it over with. It’s easier just to do it than to fight it. People often seem to spend more energy fighting it.

If not motivated (I’m not motivated right now), jump into reading and see how far you can get. if/when you are frustrated or curious, you can dip into the grammar. Now you will have motivation to learn some grammar – it will help decode texts. Increasingly I’m leaning towards this direction: getting exposure first, then having questions and motivation. Perhaps because I’ve become more familiar with the process.

Suggest: Don’t get hung up on the fine points. To begin with, all you need are the basics. That will enable you to start with the fun stuff.

If you are mostly concerned with reading, all you need is a passive knowlege of grammar. You only have to recognize grammatical forms. And often the context will tell you, or give hints.

e.g. French has a historical/literary past tense, which is pretty irregular.
So, whenever I see verb from that I don’t recognize, and it’s in the past, I identify it as historical past.
Don’t need to memorize the particular verb forms for the past.

BORING – at this point, I’m bored by grammar and by tapes and courses. I’m eager to read/hear good quality content, things that I’m interested in. More interested in understanding, than in learning a mechanical skill.

One reason to learn grammar – people use it to describe language – teachers use it —

i never do exercises in books – except for pure grammar drill
i don’t think i went through a regular textbook in french, italian, spanish. just records, grammar drill, readers.

The same idea as vocabulary holds true for grammar. Learn the most common grammar and constructions (especially the ones that are different from your native language).

– how to identify plurals
– know how pronouns are used (e.g. in Romance languages, they come before the verb when used as direct and indirect objects).

You could probably figure rules like these out by looking at examples (inductive reasoning). But why bother? Languages give you plenty of opportunity for this, why make it hard on yourself?

I sometimes try to read texts that are far beyond my capability (e.g. by interlinear or dual-language translations), and am often puzzled by grammar. This gives me motivation to work on grammar. Side benefit – even if I don’t understand the grammatical forms, I begin to have a feel for them. This makes it easier when I work on grammar.

On the other hand, much grammar is difficult and not necessary at first.

Theory

Reading “why”. Some people learn better if they understand the Why of a thing. How the languages are related, vowel shifts, why grammar is the way it is. If so, good books on the subject. See books and materials that follow.

Learning languages is NOT a real concept, like knowing the math tables.

grammar — Learning ABOUT language.
an analogy might be musical theory for musicians, how to read music. Can get along without it

What does it mean to “learn” grammar?

– Parrot back rules (though this can be handy)
– Be able to construct sentences (speech or writing)
– Be able to recognize and decode

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Chapter 7: Intermediate

Incorporate language into your life. On to fluency.

Phase description: on to fluency

Managing the phase

Resources

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Chapter 7a: Conversation

Why

How to do it

Drill, immersion, find situations

Put sign up to exchange English and other language.
Speakers of language in your area.
Volunteer opportunities
Involve in that community
Online language learning communties

In other countries

Overseas classes can be very good. Immersion, culture, intense (can be too much), language seems real.

But bureaucracy, cost, unknown quality.

See that the language is REAL, not just a classroom excercise.

An “adventure”. probably best NOT in tourist areas. Calmer and less expensive in secondary cities (e.g. Norwich, Lucca) vs London and Florence.

Best if alone, away from tourists, in contact with regular people (esp kids). Family? Language classes.

But culture shock.

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Chapter 7b: Reading

Why

How to do it

“The lightbulb goes on” – heading
when you can read without the dictionary. For me it was after 3 Musketeers and Simenon in French; Harry Potter in Spanish; Mankell and some commercial potboilers in German.

Get involved in a book at the right level. Get caught up in the story itself.

Be careful about Literature with a capital L. “Let’s try Shakespeare.” Tempting, but not good. Language is often antique, difficult for us. Later.

Reading one book in multiple languages. For example, Harry Potter, Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, etc.

The moment you can read without thinking of English

Spread your wings. A life with the language: news, literature, recreations, TV, profession,

Looking words up in a dictionary is not a learning experience. Wasted time.

Glossary – interlinear – words at bottom of page – dual-language editions.
Yes! You don’t want to waste time paging though a dictionary at first. You have so many words to learn. It’s easy to become frustrated and discouraged. You want the ratio of meaning/looking-up to be as high as possible.

Keep the book around. Page through it. Try reading it here and there. At a certain point, you’ll feel right about reading it. Read a little here, a little there. Want to be able to assess whether it is at the right level for you.

Ideal skill
Gradual approach
Language texts
Bilingual
Music -opera
Context -meaning
Context – word forms, cognates
Context – grammar
Popular fiction – the web

Emphasize reading in this book
That’s what I’m doing, what I like
As Hungarian woman said, it’s always available
When one read fluently, it’s fun to do. Practice is fun.
Helps in other language skills (listening, conversation, writing)
Easier and less stressful than the others

READING is what I concentrate on, because:
1. I enjoy it.
2. Under your own control.
3. Cheap, flexible.
4. Get a deep knowledge of the culture. You become an educated person.
5. Wonderful background if you want to go on to other aspects of the language.
6. I’m tired of rote memorizing. I’ll do it if I have to, but …

don’t waste the time you’ve put into learning the basics
Carolyn C’s advice: vocabulary

You want a certain level of difficulty.
Basically, so you can enjoy the story without having to look up words too frequently.
SEE COMMENTS BY KRASHEN, N+1

(OR DO YOU want difficult texts? With easier texts, you read faster, encounter more words, have more clues for guessing at unknown words and patterns. I’m much more interested in finding interesting texts than whether they are “too easy.” Isn’t this how we make judgments in our native language?)

Process – progress from simple to hard
Use texts, so don’t have to look things up in dictionary
Use dual language – pronounce aloud, pick up vocab, get exposure to good lit (poetry and classics)

Go back and forth – different levels of difficulty
often will read a book partway through… break for something easier for a while
then when i return weeks or months later, it’s much easier

Get in the habit of reading on own.
Figure things out for yourself
Read interesting material
poetry, good literature

Books for students
The glossary makes it faster to look up words
and sometimes a simplified vocabulary – avoid using a full dictionary

(continuing argument for redundancy)
even so, it is key to have reading material (and spoken) that is easy, has more clues.
a created environment – more clues, easier to try things out, doesn’t have bad consequences (e.g. driving a new piece of machinery, with signs in another language.)

Gather materials

library, used bookstore, web

You want a wide selection. Your tastes and abilities and needs will change. I have gotten in the habit of buying good material, even if I don’t need it right away. Because it is often hard to come across.

Important to have a wide variety of materials
– things that interest you, that are at the right level

Libraries – get to know local ones
Used books stores, library book sales — best source for me
many good out-of-print books
often the earlier books are better than current (opinion), anyway, much cheaper
New bookstores – often not much and expensive
College and university towns

Tempting to buy language materials, even if you don’t need them right away.
never know when you’ll have an opportunity to buy them again
Apparently others do this too.

LISTENING
TV and radio
Web and Youtube
Movies (Netflix)
Tapes and recordings – for improving comprehension and accent

DICTIONARY
small one okay at first
but very soon should get a full-size one. very frustrating not to find words.
At a certain point, get a dictionary in the target language (e.g. a French dictionary in French). So you “think” in the new language.

Web

What it’s like discovering the Internet… different universe.

Web – maybe most important
other people interested, doing it
enthusiasm
ideas

Things have moved on since I started 25+ years ago.
Nonetheless think it’s worthwhile to put my ideas down

SOme quick thoughts before I forget

… while preparing this article, I wanted to take a quick look around the Web to see if anything was new. Mistake. Overwhelmed by all the material that’s out there
ideas, free lessons, discussion forums, for-pay lessons, texts, etc.

And yet …
1. Few places where I’d want to stay for a long time. Too noisy, often incomplete or obsolete or broken.
2. Too much! It’s overwhelming. Stayed up late listening to audios, videos, exploring sites.
3. Really, need to settle down with one approach. A good book.
4. Despite all the material, novelty, I think I’d stay with the concepts in this essay. Only difference is that some of the exercises exist online. Many places to try out a language.
5. In particular, seems hard to get the kind of quality reading material that is important to me (nice editions, some with glossaries and notes, works that are still in copyright), and want something attractive to hold, to write in.
6. All the ideas … yes, interesting, but eventually you’ve got to get back to your way of doing things. Pay attention to your way of working, rather than getting distracted.
7. It’s a place for stimulation, new ideas, possibilities …. but not for quiet work and completion.
8. On old languages, I want good books more than anything. (will try listening to audios, especially for new langauges). But really, prefer good books. And I have boxes of them waiting for me. // News sites and articles in languages already comfortable with.

For new books, will try online course materials (e.g. flashcards at Polyglot site). Will try interlinear texts that I found (not easy to find as physical books). Especially good for early exposures. And news sites and articles for articles I already know.

I don’t like reading on the web very much, so I try to get a book or print off the web pages. I find it a strain.

I prefer having a book for grammar or textbook. Get used to its way of doing things. On the web, the quality is unpredictable. I haven’t found anything that I wanted to spend a lot of time with.

But there are loads of material on the web.

Free Language Courses (NOT VERY GOOD)
Foreign Services Institute (FSI) language courses (free government courses)
MIT online courseware (free)
Foreign language courses at MIT with large audio-visual component
Internet Polyglot: Free Language Lessons Online GOOD – useful, flexible
The Linguist (commercial site, but with much free material for learners in different languages – GOOD)
BOOK: The Linguist on Language
Flashcard exchange
Free Language
So you want to learn a language
SITI CON ATTIVITÀ DI ITALIANO PER STRANIERI

Dual-language books
Interlinear
old Greek and Latin texts
(would be nice to have again)

Old textbooks often have easy reading material. Sometimes interesting – for example, for what it says about the society at the time of writing. Example. The self-confidence around the turn of the century.

poetry, opera, special editions (Dover)
Childrens books
Comic books

Plays

Translations – use common vocabulary, rather than obscure words and idioms
I don’t think I’ve seen this Translations suggested before.
By translations, I mean

Detective stories, popular fiction
Simple vocabulary. Description is not detailed. Predictable themes. Readily available. Translated versions are perfect.
Agatha Christie.
Sherlock Holmes.
Georges Simenon

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Georges Simenon

Special place in my heart for George Simenon, author of the Maigret detective novels.
Wrote MANY books
Wiki:
“nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed.”
He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret.

Simple vocabulary.
In Maigret series, many repetitive phrases (he bourrait sa pipe (stuffed his pipe), prenait un petit verre de vin blan (had a glass of white wine), or “un demi” (of beer).

Adult content, French feel,
Suspenseful, hard to put down.
An astonishing variety. Hard to believe that one person wrote them all.

And his non-Maigret books are quite surprising.

Not only would they be good for people reading French, but other languages as well. They are translated in the major languages and should be readily available. Simple vocabulary, translations.

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Dual-language technique

Many books are available in dual-language format. Some are textbooks and language programs.
Others are poetry, some literature. (Often these are not the easiest texts, but they are high quality).
According to an old method, some Greek and Latin classics are available in inter-linear translations.
It would be possible to get the same work in two different languages, and use that as your own dual-language book. I’ve never done it, since it seems awkward to me.

Read aloud the foreign language. Look at the translation. Try to figure out what means what.

What you get
– exposure the high quality literature
– low stress, low frustration
– acquire vocabulary
– exposure to grammatical forms
– you become curious about words and grammar
– get a feel for the language
– helps while you get familiar with a new alphabet
– problem – may not be the easiest texts, some words may be archaic.

Listening-Reading System

On variation is the listening-reading system described by “siomotteikiru”. Getting both original text and a translation into your own language, and an audio recording. Following along.

If you can get access to the original text in the foreign language, a translation into your own language, and a sound recording.

She recommends going through the text several times, since the key to learning a language is repeated exposure.

See the link for complete explanation and a long discussion.
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6366&PN=0&TPN=1

Interlinear

“Learning language the Hamilton way” (BAD LINK)
http://web.mac.com/davidcheshier/iWeb/Humanities%20Blog/Amateur%20Humanist/5EB94947-27A1-478A-8C3B-C3108CB5991D.html

“The Loeb Classical Library and a missed marketing chance”
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/brainiac/2008/12/loeb_classics_b.html

“History, Principles, Practice and Results of the Hamiltonian System”
by James Hamilton (after 1830)
http://www.archive.org/stream/historyprinciple00hamirich/historyprinciple00hamirich_djvu.txt
(p.37-41 passage on reading)

“John Taylor and Locke’s Classical System” (another interlinear system)
http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/westbury/paradigm/stray.html

Interlinear texts

Stories from Italian Writers
At Google Books
PDF

(Also should be able to find interlinear, or dual language in Greek-English for New Testament, and Hebrew-English for Old or Latin-English for both.)

Using the dictionary

small dictionary okay at first
but very soon should get a full-size one. very frustrating not to find words.
then get better at finding the word in the dictionary. Make a good guess where the word is at first. Estimate. Try to find words to gain vocabulary without looking in a dictionary.
one idea– instead of dual dictionaries, it would be handy to have only one.
the full dictionaries are heavy, and tend to fall apart after awhile.
probably worthwhile to get a modern dictionary. the old French dictionary I had just wasn’t up to the modern idioms and meanings.
hard to look up idioms – that’s why it’s good to be able to guess. Give example in French.
Some have advised using a native language dictionary. A French dictionary total;y in French, for example. I can see that, at a certain point. Not that important though – better to see if you can figure out the word without the dictionary.

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Chapter 7c: Guessing

Why

How to do it

Context

Guessing

It’s as if every 20 words there occurred a nonsense word, and we had to fill in the XXXX of the word.

So the skill is learning to appreciate all the clues and to make reasonable guesses based on them. Detective work. Examples:
author’s style
story
previous knowledge of subject matter
word order, parts of speech
endings
words similar to other words in languages we know (native tongue or others)
intonation of speaker
facial expression and body language of speaker
context of consveration

Goldilocks and the three “ursi”

I can’t do it – the problem is too “complicado”

Walking along the street, I see a sign over a pair of doors saying “Uscita”. Curious, I try to open them. A man in a uniform runs over and shakes his head, “Non si deve entrare!” he says sternly.

I notice that improving my skills at guessing in French carried over to other languages.

There are several fallacies about translating which seems to come from traditional language classes.
– Each word has an English equivalent which you must memorize.
– Translate sentences word-for-word.
– You MUST understand every sentence completely, otherwise it is cheating.

Perhaps this comes from the practice of having students translate out loud.

Why Guess?

1. Get tired of looking up words in dictionary
2. A more active process than looking words up, tend to remember better
3. enthusiasm – can read a story for fun, rather than plodding through, looking up all the words you don’t know.
4. A good habit to develop, since you will constantly be faced with texts that contain words you don’t know.
5. This is how we acquired most of our English vocabulary

Guessing, 4 ways:

1. Context — from the context of the story, you can often guess the meaning of a word. Or at least a “good enough” meaning.

2. Grammar — Syntax, inflection — from the word’s position in the sentence, its inflections (e.g. endings), you can guess the part of speech, this helps in guessing the meaning. Parallelism – parallel phrases or clauses.

3. Look-alike (cognate) — the word itself may give a clue. It may be similar to another word you know in the language. Or it may be similar to a word in your native language.

4. Analysis — look at prefix, suffix, root of the word (Romance and German). Other languages would have a different way of analyzing (Hebrew and Arabic have three-consonant roots, Chinese characters are usually made up of other more simple characters. Does not always work, but it can give you clues which you can put together with other clues.

Can guess a lot about the word, usually enough to get by.

give example of
Pflaster in Simenon
Maigret – crate

Look up words?
It depends. Good to be able to vary
sometimes read 20 pages without looking up words – exciting – to get into a book
usually i look up every word I don’t know – try guessing first, seeing if i’m right
hint: you can read texts two (or more) times. First for general ideas. Second, to figure out meanings of words you dont’ know.
Some words do not matter. especially in descriptions. Give example.

Often I’m curious about the words, I want to see if I’ve guessed correctly. It slows down my reading, but I enjoy it.

Hint: helps if you kow something about the subject.

Read about the work, the author, the subject, so you have background. Makes it easier to guess. Read about the plot. Read the work multiple times. Characters, plot, setting, theme. It’s detective work – get as many clues as you can before you start making guesses.

For context, you want:
familiarity with content
logical sequences in content
redundancy
familiar strucutres, e.g. word order.

Word analysis

Analysis of new words: (give examples)
1. Does it look like a word in English (careful – false friends as in Pflaster)
2. Location in the sentence:
3. Endings – grammar
4. Identify root, prefix, suffix
5. Story- meaning
6. Parallel construction

My wife and I read together in French. I read aloud, while Paula translates into English. When she was a student, Paula was a star language student. Unfortunately she learned by the old method which emphasized memorizing vocabulary and grammatical rules. She got good grades, but when it comes to reading on her own, her strategies are sub-optimal.

1. Go word by word, in the order in which they appear on the page
2. For each word, search one’s memory for the English translation
3. If a word is unfamiliar, guess at a translation based on its appearance (e.g. “monter” [to mount, go up] looks like “montrer” [to show])

If something doesn’t make sense, see it as a failure and frustration. The only solutions are the dictionary or brute force memorization of vocabulary.

Not a pleasant experience, because one cannot enjoy the story and feels that one is a failure. Why continue?

It’s especially difficult in French, in which there are many common words which can mean several things, and you can only figure it out by reading more of the sentence or by considering the context.

For example, “lui” can mean “to her,” “to him,” or “to it.”
“En” can mean “in,” “while,” “of in,” “of them”
“Si” can mean “yes” or “if”.

“ne … que” = only
“ne … plus” = not

Spoken French is even more difficult, because it is full of homonyms and unpronounced letters.

An explanation for computer people — one really needs a buffer of about 10 words, in order to make sense of French efficiently.

—
We began to be more analytical about words.
If one sees an unfamiliar word, look at its place in the sentence or its ending. Is it an adjective, noun or verb.

For example, “the cat in the chapeau”

“Chapeau” is a noun, a thing.

By paying attention to context, it was as if P’s IQ went up 50 points. She was often able to guess words that were difficult or unusual. Even if here guesses were wrong, they were usually reasonable. They fit the clues and would usually be sufficient to allow her to continue reading.

Something interesting. These were two very different strategies. Paula sometimes back and forth… the difference is dramatic. It’s usually as she gets sleepy that she falls back into the old way.

Why does guessing work?

Languages have built-in redundancy.
There are multiple clues and redundancies so that even if language is “wrong” or distorted, we have a good chance of making out the meaning.

Four egzampl, I kin mispel wurds, drop lttrs, nd th mesg wil still be undrstandbl.

As language learners we take advantage of redundancy to guess words we don’t know.

Questions

---

Chapter 8: Advanced

Maintenance.

Growth. (avoiding fossilization)

Monitoring self, identifying problems, dealing with them.

Living in the language.

It becomes a part of your life. What do you want to do with it? Get into culture, job, travel, LT stay.

Literature, history, classes.

Take a look at possibilities. Specialties: writing, translating, special domain, academic study, teaching

Learn more languages.

---

Chapter 9a: Stories

My story

different people, different learning styles,
different goals.

Modest claim to polyglottery. but can write about my experiences and conclusions.

My orientation

… interested in windows into other cultures, periods of history. History, literature, culture. For me, reading is most important. Then listening. Only if I’m going to be in contact with people would I start paying attention to speaking and writing.

mine – no problem with grammar,
wanted to learn langs in past
now, reading knowledge – a continuing pleaure
not too interested in speaking, writing. – might change in future
more interested in depth of language rather than many languages

Three phases:
1. Exposure in school, through experiences – interest is piqued
2. Intensive – learning of grammar, basic vocabulary, pronunciation – classes
3. Extensive – incorporated into life, reading, listening, movies. If I were in a position, speaking and listening.

School

Studied French (5th grade, fun, but just exposure). Marched around the room, singing “Quand les saints y vont marche”, teacher put on a beret. Exposure was fun.

Studied Spanish (1 yr in jr high- frustrated with ALM)
Studied Basic Principles of Language (BPOL) in 8th grade. really liked it.
Read Mario Pei, about etymologies, origin of English language

Frustrated by the ALM method of Spanish. It was confusing, inefficient. Memorizing dialogues – didn’t enjoy. Albondigas. A lot of waiting. ALM station with headphones and tapes.

Tried German, really liked it. The grammar made sense. I like the vigor of the style.
Never got to the point of reading on my own. Probably like most Americans who took a language in high school and college. I did get a good grounding in grammar and basic vocabulary.

Nothing in college. I was too eager to do things.

Intensity

Unhappy with American culture. Looking for something else.
Exposure to Europe on my 1974 trip. Loved France and Italy.
Found it in Italian (don’t remember what got me started)
Then once I was underway, I realized that French and Spanish were not that hard.
I think I started while in Berkeley in 1976 – Napa (with Jim) 1977.
Read Loom of Langugage, I think. Read about people who learned multiple languages, was inspired, gave me confidence

Conversaphone – used bookstore. I liked old textbooks.
Conversaphone was cheap, came for many languages, straightforward.
Also, basic grammar workbooks. Why need anything fancy.

In Saint Helena, I took course in Italian from Roy Bissember.
I worked through grammars and readers. Remember reading in the janitor’s closet. 1978.
Took a class with Carolyn in German for wine.

Went to Guatemala to learn Spanish in 1979.
I must have prepared by going through exercises in the Span I, II, etc. books.
Doing some reading.
Very enjoyable.
Mastered the basic grammar and vocabulary, so I could concentrate on talking, reading.
It paid off. Saw others, frustrated, stumbling and unhappy.
For me, it was pleasure. Could talk, read. I know what the teacher was explaining.

Went to France and Italy in 1980. Signed up for language schoosl.
Again, I prepared… expecially for Italian.
Really enjoyed the experience.
They tended to be conservative in grammar, which I liked.
I remember reading “Horsemen of the Apocalypse”?? , Pagnol
Rodari,
I got to the point where I could read intermediate texts, understand Italian,
speak enough to communicate. Same with Spanish, and to a lesser extent French.
Lived in the culture.

At some point, became interested in other langauges
Russian, Greek (modern, classical), Latin.

It was satisfying. Read a lot. Got a feeling for cultures other than American. That need was met.

Pursued these off-and-on, but mostly put langauges aside, since I had other things to do in my life. A career, permanent relationship, other interests.

Met Paula in 1981

My Reading

Languages weren’t really a part of my life for about 25 years. I could read them, spoke a few sentences every so often. Spoke on a trip to Baja California.

Really, a waste of the time and effort I had put into it.

Turning point: visited cousin who was studying a new language for fun

Oct 2006 began reading French.
Some things in Italian.
Studied Latin, Chinese.

Recently, bored with reading in English. Wanted something to relax after working on Energy Bulletin.

Took up a copy of Simenon in French. Didn’t think I’d get very far, but in fact, I could read it all through. Motivated me to keep reading in French, until I was a fluent reader. Bought several boxes of books at books sales. Had purchased some earlier.

Much later (2007 or 8), Chinese, Hebrew.

Then to German again, which I never really got a reading knowlege of.

NOW:
don’t like memorizing. More interested in reading, in getting a complete knowledge that way. also, i find it enjoyable. Even when studying Chinese, rather intersted in doing it by Reading rather than by memorizing. Still, Chinese grammar helps — answers those question.
Chinese proverbs
Hebrew version of Bible.

i don’t speak or write now. i’m not in an environment where it’s necessary or easy. but i could re-activate when it would be appropriate. If I were going to travel, I would have the motivation to speak and understand; I’d be happy to do the drills.

—
MY FAMILY

I was lucky that there were people in my family who loved languages. There were some examples and some support.
Grandfather – Prof of Romance Languages – spinal meningitis
Uncle Eric married a French woman, spoke very well
French cousins
General RC Anderson, the Anderson at Ft. Sumter wh translated artillery manuals,
Uncle Ted and his 100 laps.
Dad les petites pois
Sister Debbie. – PhD in Indo-European languages. we exchange books.
Cousin Josh studied linguistics, learned Swedish for the fun of it
in-laws from other countries – Indonesia, Iran, etc.
Ian’s wife learned Chinese and other languages from classmates at school in Indonesia
(probably won’t include this, more for my own interest)
Paula says, “What about me? Loved Latin. Studied French, Spanish and Italian.
Carolyn Curtis – German PhD, taught German. Studied other languages.
Silvana. Taught Italian as a foreign language.
Italian neighbors
Paula, Julie, Gale, Silvana, Carolyn, Genie, Amanda … all were foreign language buffs or teachers.

Somehow, thinking about family makes it more compelling.

What’s your history? Friends or family members who learned or spoke foreign languages?

---

Chapter 9b:Polyglots

See how real people have learned languages – their own stories, rather than educational theories. In particular, read about polyglots, the people who have learned 3-30 languages. They often have developed habits, attitudes that are superior to the ones in classes. See ACCOUNTS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING.

Polyglots are an interesting bunch. Shows what human beings are capable of.

Interesting to read about their practices, because “they’ve done it.”

Reading them now that the Web makes them available – I see find that many of my intuitions have been confirmed. They are practical, open, non-dogmatic.

Online references.

How many languages?

The polyglot who reluctantly came to the conclusion that he really could not profitably keep current any more than 30 languages. Cardinal who knew xxx. Other cases.

For those of us (most of us) on the lower edge of the spectrum. In my experience, the first foreign language you learn as a non-child takes the most work, because you have to learn what it entails.

The second, third and following languages get to be less work, because you’ve developed your own ways to do it. In addition, you have a template for what’s involved.

Especially easy if you are learning languages in the same language family. For example:

Romance Languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese)
Slavic (Russian, Czech, Polish, etc)
Scandanavian

Acccounts of language learning

Polyglot: How I Learn Languages
by Kató Lomb (Hungarian woman translator)
Full PDF
chatty and light. non-threatening. good advice.

Heinrich Schliemann’s method of language learning”

Cardinal Mezzofanti
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/mezzofanti/index.html
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/mezzofanti/biography/about-book.html
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/mezzofanti/biography/index.html

Alexander Arguelles
very earnest, a language monk.
much material, eager to share
http://www.foreignlanguageexpertise.com/index.html
Interview with Dr. Alexander Arguelles (The Linguist Blogger)
Dr. Alexander Arguelles: A Model of Polyglottery (The Linguist Blogger)
bio
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=300&PN=3
he answers questions on a forum
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=20

Success with Foreign Languages: Seven who achieved it and what worked for them by Earl W. Tevick (book in PDF)

The Linguist on Language – blog about language learning -Steve Kaufmann
The Way of the Linguist (online book)
All Japanese All The Time: 24 hours Japanese

I learned Japanese in 18 months by having fun. In June 2004, at the ripe old age of 21, all post-pubescent and supposedly past my mental/linguistic prime, I started learning Japanese. By September 2005, I had learned enough to read technical material, conduct business correspondence and job interviews in Japanese. By the next month, I landed a job as a software engineer at a large Japanese company in Tokyo (yay!).

I didn’t take classes (except for a high-level “newspaper reading” class…which merely confirmed that classes, um, suck); I didn’t read textbooks and I had never lived in Japan.

So how did I do it? Well, by spending 18-24 hours a day doing something, anything in Japanese (”all Japanese, all the time”). That sounds like a lot of time to invest, but I was almost as busy as you are: a full-time student majoring in computer science at a university in the armpit of the US (Utah), physically far from Japan and Japanese people.

Polyglot Stu Jay Raj Multilingual Presentation (Stuart Jay Raj)
How I would go about Learning Arabic (Stuart Jay Raj) URL CHANGED
Part 1 – Vietnamese – Learning a New Language from Scratch (Kinda) URL CHANGED
How to prepare for and what to expect from Cracking Thai Fundamentals
URL CHANGED
An easy way to learn foreign languages by Luca (“poliglotta80”) on YouTube

Learning a Language Without Lessons (SHORT, GOOD)

About Alexander Arguelles (his site)
Language learning is like falling in love

The Linguist Blogger
How Many Languages Is It Possible to Learn? (The Linguist Blogger)
The Many Languages of Ziad Fazah (The Linguist Blogger)
Interview with the Greatest Linguist Since Mezzofanti – Man Who Knows 115 Languages (The Linguist Blogger)

“In the end, I could say that I studied around thirty languages in regular, official university courses. The rest are self-taught. Someone once said that the first ten are the most difficult. After that, depending on your objective or momentary need, people invent their own method.

---

Chapter 10: Second Language Acquistion (SLA) – Theory

Academics are constrained by the standards of scholarship. They use the jargon of their trade. Can’t use personal experience or simple language.

A brief summary of the history of FL teaching. To show that people in the past had many excellent ideas about how to teach and learn foreign languages. So that we aren’t trapped in the bubble of the present, thinking that the current fasions are the truest and most helpful.

For Europe since Roman times to the mid-19th century, the Latin language has dominated not only foreign language teaching but teaching in general. And there was good sense to it. One needed Latin to get access to science, literature, history, law. It enabled people from different countries within Europe to communicate with one another. It was a living, useful language. Unfortunately, when the Renaissance re-discovered the classic text, they claimed to have found “real” Latin in the rhetorical and artificial language of Roman writers, above all, Cicero. They denigrated the living, spoken language that people actually used, and forced a turn towards grammar and artificiality.

Quote from someone

It’s hard to make generalizations about how it was taught. When Latin was still widely spoken, there was much interaction that we might regard favorably.

Quote about how horribly Latin was taught.

I think we can point to the dry, mindless form of language teaching from that period. When it was divorced from speaking, when there was an obsessive-compulsive attitude towards grammar and accuracy, when it became inaccessible to most people.

But also

Why is the academic approach unhelpful?
concentrating on details, correctness
associated with class and certification
expensive and bureaucratic, inflexible
not interested in what most people are – reading
takes an intellectual, abstract approach
passivity

i don’t think that the common methods in social science work that well (still less, from the physical sciences) with proof and statistics. Much more helpful to see cases, try to understand, look at things historically.

At some point, I’d like to do some research in the field. For right now, just want to report my experiences and observations. Should note that it corresponds with some of the current theories.

interesting theories, apparently hotly disputed.

suggest: look at successful langauge learners (give LINK), see what people did in the past. what worked and what didn’t. governess and tutor seemed to work. classromm with grammar did not. many of the older textbooks still seem useful to me. they didn’t have the resources to make mistakes that we do. so, things are more concentrated.

to see how real people actually learn languages — not an idealized picture, which I think is false.

no magic solutions
a lot of approaches work

summary: the traditional classroom method of grammary, heavy on memorization, has been under attack.

instead: a greater emphasis on exposure – reading and listening, less (or no) emphasis on grammar. some are big on dialogues. the idea of “creating an environment” (access to material)

easy to become dogmatic
no grammar necessary vs grammar critical
no translation

grammar forms ~ among numbers of a language family
but “speaking like a native” is not a helpful goal – it’s about the hardest thing there is, and it’s not necessary

Teachers are under constraints – unwillling students, curriculum, testing, FL researchers. Have to deal with “the field,” with ideas. What exactly did this theory say? Important but largely irrelevant for learners. As learners, we need to pay attention to our own needs and interests. To finding resources, judgming them, etc.

teacher vs learner. Our roles are different.
Teacher: knowledge of subject, different methods of instructions, discipline, guide class, pace course, create or use materials, deal with central authorities.
Learner: set goals, choose paths, responsible for our own learning.

Learning is much simpler than teaching.
Just have to figure out what works for you. Don’t have to figure out how others learn. Don’t have to deal with lack of motivation, behavior problems, discipline, school administrators. don’t have to have a comprehensive understanding of the language, grammar, culture — just enough to achieve your goals.

---

Chapter 11: Wishlist

1. teachers encourage their students (us) to be more active learners – self-sufficient, committed to their own learning. More fun for all. On our part, appreciate whqt teachers have to offer.

A model for other kinds of learning
1. MAP
2. Inexpensive
3. Do what you can yourself, with informal groups. Use teachers and classes for what the do best.

---

Chapter 12: Specific Languages

Chaucer
http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/tr-index.htm

Samples

French

Georges Simenon. The Maigret series.
Le Petit Nicholas
Sherlock Holmes in French
Pagnol
Alexandre Dumas – Three Musketeers. Surpisingly easy.
plays in general.

Italian

Carlo Collodi Pinocchio
Natalia Ginzburg
Gianni Rodari (Favole al Telefono)
opera librettos (often with opera recordings)
http://www.liberliber.it/home/index.php

Spanish
Now much material in our area (California), because of large number of Spanish speakers

Sherlock Holmes in Spanish
http://www.sherlock-holmes.es/descargas/?ir=novelas

Chinese

Sherlock Holmes in Chinese (I think – don’t use, may be a bad site)
http://www.my285.com/zt/kenan/?jdfwkey=lzexk2

ABC Dictionary of Chinese Proverbs
John S. Rohsenow
University of Hawai’i Press
2002
(dual language, interesting content. Pinyin, characters and English)

Picture Chinese: Art as Language
Sukming Lo
Long River Press
2006
attractive explanations of basic Chinese characters
(other books explain the characters, though in a dryer language)

Bible in Chinese-English interlinear
http://www.jidunet.cn/tools/bible/10vb/index.html

ChinesePod

Greek

Interlinear translations of the New Testament

The Axion Esti by Odysseus Elytis.
University of Pittsburgh Press
1974

C.P. Cavafy Collected Poems
translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
Princeton University Press
1975

Latin

The Anchor Book of Latin Quotatations with English Translateions
compiled by Norbert Guterman
Anchor Books, Doubleday
1990

Latinum (online course and resources) BAD LINK

Latin Mass BAD LINK
http://lphrc.org/rmk/Latin/mass.html

Sallust
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uoALAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=sallust+hamilton#PPA9,M1

Virgil
At Google Books

Virgil – GONE
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7773701/The-Works-of-P-Virgilius-Maro

---

Chapter 13: Readings

How-To

Books about Language Learning (“How to Learn Any Language” website)

Polyglot: How I Learn Languages
by Kató Lomb (Hungarian woman translator)
Full PDF
chatty and light. non-threatening. good advice.

Kató Lomb’s Strategies for Language Learning and SLA Theory by Scott Alkire (essay)

Insights of a Master Language Learner by Scott Alkire (another essay on Lomb)

How to Learn Any Language
By Barry Farber
How To Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on Your Own [Pa
(Amazon)
At Google Books (On Google Books)

Farber- brash, idiosyncratic, interesting, encouraging, Hungarian (?), chatty, haphazaard, helpful

How to learn languages and what languages to learn by Mario Pei (Amazon) / TOC

Chatty, useful, old-fashioned attachment to grammar. Good suggestions.

Too Much College or Education Eating Up Life by Stephen Leacock.
Chapter 5 “Parlez-vous francais?” p.81-108 TEXT to be incorporated

The Art and Science of Learning Languages
By Amorey Gethin, Erik Gunnemark
TOC
Learning Vocabulary 1 by Amorey Gethin and Erik V. Gunnemark (edited extract from The Art and Science of Learning Languages)
(Amazon)
At Google Books

Amorey Gethin – bio
Amorey Gethin – interview
Language, Thought, and Communicating Rebellious Ideas by Amorey Gethin (essay on linguistics)
The Fraud of the Global English-Teaching Industry by Amorey Gethin (essay)
The English-Learning and Languages Review (list of articles, some by Gethin)
E.V.Gunnemark’s Mini System: Language-Learning for Beginners (article)
Italian Miniphrase by Erik V Gunnemark and Amorey Gethin

How to Learn A Foreign Language
Graham E. Fuller, 1987, Storm King Press, Friday Harbor, soft cover, ISBN 0-935116-02-5, 102 pages, 130 mm X 234 mm X 8 mm

The Pocket Linguist: A Practical and Highly Effective Guide to Learning any Language by Gregg A Miller (Amazon) under $10

Speak Like A Native: Professional Secrets for Mastering Foreign Languages by Michael Janich. Paladin Press. under $15. (Amazon)

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages by A.G. Hawk. (Amazon) Online at Scribd.
===
Imparare le lingue
Mario Bendin, 1993, Arnoldo Mondadori, Milano, soft cover, ISBN 88-04-37406-3, 243 pages, 130 mm X 185 mm X 21 mm
about $20
===
========
Questo libro vuole essere una guida scientificamente fondata per capire come funzionano il cervello e la mente nell’apprendimento delle lingue, in modo da andare “secondo natura”; cosa vuol dire in realtà “sapere una lingua”, in modo da concentrare l’attenzione su quel che serve davvero; come usare i materiali didattici e quelli autentici, dalle canzoni ai film, per imparare una lingua straniera.

Titolo: Imparare le lingue straniere
Autore: Balboni Paolo E.
Anno: 2008
Pagine: 143 p.
Editore: Marsilio (collana Elementi)
about $15

Cosi Potete Imparare Le Lingue (EU brochure)

=======
Wie lernt man fremde Sprachen
Erhard Dahl, 1999, Fresies Geistesleben, Stuttgard, soft cover, ISBN 3-7725-1508-8, 91 pages, 123 mm X 190 mm X 8 mm

Wie lernt man fremde Sprachen?: Eine Einführung in den Fremdsprachenunterricht an Waldorfschulen (Paperback)(German) Edited by Hans-Joachim Mattke, Edited by Bruno Sandkühler, By (author) Erhard Dahl == about $10

Sprache lernen (k)ein Problem
W. Gruhn, 1984, Leipzig, Berlin, soft cover, VLN 212-475/13/84, 181 pages, 128 mm X 205 mm X 12 mm
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/books/sprache-lernen-ein-problem.html
about $25

Fremdsprachen Lernen by Birgit Kuhn
(Amazon)

Schneller Sprachen lernen
Jens Seiler (Autor), Sandra La Cognata
(Amaon)

Sprachen Lernen
Robert Kleinschroten, 2000, Taschenbuch, Hamburg, soft cover, ISBN 3-499-60842-1, 272 pages, 125 mm X 191 mm X 16 mm
about $10

WEBSITES
How to Learn Any Language
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/index.html

Language Learning Tips
http://www.language-learning-tips.com/

Fluent in 3 Months by Benny (Brendan) Lewis

Language Learning Advisor (a collection of posts and essays)
Language Learning Advisor – newsletter

The Linguist Method (The Linguist on Language)
Getting started in a language – YouTube (The Linguist on Language)

How do you get started learning a language. I used to recommend that people just buy 2 or 3 starter books, either Teach Yourself, or Colloquial or Assimil or the equivalent, and do them all. I now feel that this may not be the only way to go.

I think it is possible to start just with content. That is what I would now prefer to do. I bought a book for learning Rumanian, but it is full of grammar explanations. I am not motivated to start it. I would rather start into a story that I already know in English, but listen to it in Rumanian.

[I’m starting to agree with this]

François Micheloud
A language learner’s guide
Guide to Learn Languages Good suggestions from Francois Micheloud.

The Linguist Blogger
Self-affirmations
My Languages (YouTube) – 3rd one down is in English – a peptalk
Ranking Your Language Ability
Language Immersion Is a Loaded Phrase
The World’s Top 20 Languages
Building an Environment that Teaches You a Language

PROF AA

Spanish French Italian German (YouTube by Prof. Alexander Arguelles)

Dislike the idea of spending so much time on courses. I want to get into interesting reading or listening material as soon as possible. Coursework is a necessary evil.

Selecting Self-Study Foreign Language Materials.

talk: Learning without a method

Foreign Language Learning with Tutors

Foreign Language Study by Prof. Alexander Arguelles

Classroom Foreign Language Teaching

Foreign Language Learning with Tutors

Polyglots

The Polyglot Project: How to Learn Multiple Languages by Claude Cartaginese (sygycycc) (Amazon) / Free download (PDF).

Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners by Michael Erard. (Amazon)

Gift of the Gab by Michael Erard in New Scientist – article on learning multiple languages

Theory and Methods

Seven bad reasons for teaching grammar – and two good reasons for teaching some by Michael Swan

The Loom of Language
By Frederick Bodmer, Lancelot Thomas Hogben
At Google Books

1944 edition is complete online
http://www.archive.org/details/TheLoomOfLanguage
(apparently requires download a (free) DJVU viewer. see site for instructions)
http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php#Texts_and_Books)

Bodmer and Hogben are overwhelming but fascinating (for me). Too much, I suspect, for most people. Probably out of date. His leftism will seem alien to modern readers

L’art d’apprendre les langues, ramené à ses principes naturels
By Mathias Weiss (1808)
At Google Books
PDF

De la manière d’apprendre les langues (GOOD)
By Claude François Lyzarde de Radonvilliers (1768)
At Google Books
PDF

SLA

How to teach a foreign language (Otto Jespersen)
The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom (Stephen D. Drashen and Tracy D. Terrell)
Success with Foreign Languages: Seven who achieved it and what worked for them (Earl W. Stevick)
Second Language Acquisition (Rod Ellis)
25 Centuries of Language Teaching (Louis G. Kelly)
How to Learn a Language: a Book for Beginners and All Others Who May Be Interested (Charles Duff)
Language learning; some reflections from teaching experience (Peter Hagboldt)
Learning a new language (Claude C. Crawford and Edna Mable Leitzell)
The study of languages brought back to its true principles: or, The art of thinking in a foreign language (Claude Marcel)

Teaching French: an introduction to applied linguistics Robert Louis Politzer. New York
Blaisdell Pub. Co., 1965 – 181 pages
Teaching Spanish. A linguistic orientation, Robert Louis Politzer and Charles Neff Staubach) Boston 1961, 1965
Not expecially useful for me. I liked his description of good drills. Good description of phonetics of the languages.

The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Langauages of the World (Charles Yang)
The Polyglot Project (Claude Cartaginese ed.)

Linguistics

An Introduction to General American Phonetics (Charles G. Van Riper and Dorothy E. Smith)
The real Professor Higgins: the life and career of Daniel Jones (Beverley Collins, Inger M. Mees)
Bilingual: Life and Reality (François Grosjean)
Language and Linguisitics: An Introductions(John Lyons)
The Atoms of Language: The Mind’s Hidden Rules of Grammar (Mark C. Baker)
Speaking of Chinese (Raymond Chang and Margaret Scrogin Chang)
Language: The Big Picture (Peter Sharpe)

Stephen Krashen

A Summary of Stephen Krashen’s “Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition” GOOD

“… language acquisition, first or second, occurs when comprehension of real messages occurs, and when the acquirer is not ‘on the defensive’… Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill. It does not occur overnight, however. Real language acquisition develops slowly, and speaking skills emerge significantly later than listening skills, even when conditions are perfect. The best methods are therefore those that supply ‘comprehensible input’ in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are ‘ready’, recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production.”

The Krashen Revolution

The Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis. The distinction between acquisition and learning is the most fundamental of all the hypotheses in Krashen’s theory, since it suggests that language comes to us in two rather different ways. Acquisition is one. You acquire language by using it for real communication. Learning, which he describes as “knowing about” language, is quite a different thing.

… Acquisition is the product of a subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo when they acquire their first language. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language – natural communication – in which speakers concentrate not on the form of their utterances, but in the communicative act. Learning, on the other hand, provides conscious knowledge “about” the target language. It is therefore less important than acquisition for basic communication, but it still plays an important role in language learning.

… The Input Hypothesis. The input hypothesis suggests that people acquire language in only one way: by understanding messages, or by receiving ‘comprehensible input’. According to the input hypothesis, learner’s progress by receiving second language input that is one step beyond their current stage of linguistic competence

Stephen Krashen and language acquisition (audio/video)

The Natural Approach: What Is It? by Vedat Kiymazarslan, 1995. more articles

Krashen SLA notions (PDF)

Krashen handout (PDF)

Extensive Reading: A Simple Technique with Outstanding Results by Thomas Koch

Imparare le lingue straniere (essay by Paolo Balboni)

Ciascun insegnante ha una sua storia di studio della lingua e può convincersi che sia l’unica maniera di essere “bravi studenti di lingue”: l’insegnante dalla mentalità analitica e riflessiva finisce per ritenere caotici e inconcludenti gli studenti intuitivi, olistici – e viceversa – e sceglie attività di insegnamento e di recupero che sono in linea con la sua idea di bravo studente…

Learning to Learn English: A Course in Learner Training/Lerner’s Book by Barbara Sinclair and Gail Ellis (1989 at Google (may be in PA library)

Learner Training (Part I) By Barbara Sinclair

DEVELOPING LEARNER AUTONOMY THROUGH A VIRTUAL EAP COURSE AT UNIVERSITY (PDF)
In keeping with Ellis and Sinclair’s (1989, 2) views, we
believe that students need information about language, the learning process, and
about themselves as language learners, to become aware of language as well as of
learning techniques and processes.

Learner Training

—
Peter McKenzie-Brown in “Language Matters” blog

The Structure of Language
Language Teaching: Some Notes on Method
Aural and Oral Skills
The Krashen Revolution
What is CLT?
Noam Chomsky’s Black Box
Confessions of a Language School Junkie
The Stress-timed Rhythm of English
Words, Words, Words
A Primer on Phonology
Glossary of Language Teaching Terms and Ideas
The Best Place to Learn
A Global Shift to Bilingualism?
Language Triumphant, Language in Decline

Adventures of a Teenage Polyglot (NY Times)
Experience: I can speak 50 languages (Guardian)
The Internet: The Best Place to Learn English
Polyglot Role-models

— the world of the polyglot —
may be intimidating… not in competition with them … but many important things to learn from them. I’m not interested in that world. Much more interested in reading and learning — the content. I think it’s important to be modest about your accomplishments, to describe your experiences truthfully, not try to be something you’re not. Even so, you do have something important to say – some of it is original, much of it is not.

The Art of Mastering Many Tongues

To me, Erard’s experiences in India were particularly interesting. There he met polyglots from families and communities that are ethnically and linguistically mixed, and who therefore speak many languages out of necessity rather than an urge to accumulate. This leads him to distinguish between the multilingual and the hyperpolyglot, or the purely acquisitive language learner. “For multilinguals, learning languages is an act of joining society,” he writes. “There’s no motive, no separable ‘will to plasticity’ that’s distinct from what it means to be part of that society.” But “being a hyperpolyglot means exactly the opposite. The hyperpolyglot’s pursuit of many languages may be a bridge to the rest of the world, but it walls him off from his immediate language community.”

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Chapter 14: Leftovers

Study Circles here

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Connection with peak oil

As I thought about it, I began to see a connection with peak oil.

In the move to sustainability, it isn’t all hard work and organizing and gardening. What do we do with our free time? In fact, this is where we get into a lot of trouble.

ALSO- for education.

An interest that is:
inexpensive, in one place, under one’s own control, pleasurable, meaningful, satisfying.

Can take time , work, practice, study.

Change ideas of what is worthwhile. Lots of stuff, corporate job vs fit, aware, skilled , in relationships.

Typically, we move heavy things long distances (e.g. ourselves in our cars) – as tourists, to go shopping.

Or we buy things made with energy, that come a long way. Lots of things.

This has always been an ugly process. But earlier, society could afford it. The neuroses that accompany consumer society.

– move heavy things long distances
buy high tech things, fashionable things, in general if advertised, plastic

People spend and waste fuel – moving about in search of pleasure, satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment

New gadgets, complicated technologies, bloated bureaucracies.

To generalize:
1. Consumer economy. Bought with money.
2. This is where status resides. This is where we believe that “fun” lies.
3. Typically involves expenditures of energy and resources.

Problem, when they become more expensive. Or we have less disposable income. Both of which seem to be in our future.

If we don’t have an alternative vision, then we see ourselves as poor and deprived. Or fight to get the last bit of resources so we can do things that are fun and bring status. Or we bring ourselves into debt.

Culture Change

Thinking about a future with fewer resources… there’s more than just gardening and recycling and solar panels. the entire culture will look different. in what ways? want to think about it.
– will require less energy, fewer resources
– will be local (won’t require mechanized travel)
– will rely more on humans, minds, bodies – not on machines or bureaucracy.
– in best case, develop human capabilities. physically, mentally, emotionally, socially.
– self-sufficient, rather than manipulating machines and bureaucracy.

What if the goals were not “to have”, but “to be and to do”.
Instead of cars — fitness, physical skill
Instead of high tech toys — friendship, relationships
Instead of passivity and pop culture — skill and knowledge

Vision of humans who develop their different aspects
artistic
physical
languages

Brian Goodwin on Peak Oil – an Interview (Transition Culture)

Q: To what extent do solutions to the energy problem involve action in other, non energy, fields?

… A: [In addition to currency and economics,] the other area is education. Education needs to be fundamentally transformed. I’ve been in Universities nearly all my life, and in my experience University education has now become pretty thoroughly irrelevant to the training that people need to receive in order to make the transition that we are going through. We need a new education. So what is the image of this new education process? I have just been talking about local currencies, well education needs also to ‘go local’. Universities should serve their local communities and they should serve them with the ingenuity that comes out of this concentration of creative energy in Universities in terms of putting together new communities, developing new technologies, so that we develop what I like to think of now as something that Fritjof Capra has introduced into the dialogue here at Schumacher College, looking at the Renaissance, the period of Leonardo da Vinci, which had a workshop culture. A lot of people got their practical skills in workshops. I love this idea. If Universities and schools could become in some sense workshops, playshops, toyshops, whatever you want to call it, but where practical skills are developed for the whole person, and we don’t fragment the world of learning into specialized disciplines. We will still have specialized skills, because people will want to develop high quality abilities in different areas, but that’s up to the individual to choose, and that will give them the creativity to put things together in a new way.

suggested by Adam Grubb

Time to start thinking of a different model:
1. Don’t require lots of resources, money, energy.
2. Hence: local, close-at-hand, not in consumer economy, not part of large bureaucracy. Doesn’t require complex equipment.
3. Hence: self-directed, under one’s own control, in one’s own community. that require skill and time
4. Hence: not publicized or supported by mainstream culture. It’s our particular idiocy not to recognize certain things if they can’t be regulated or marketed.
5. Hence: look at what people did in the past, or do in non-commercial, non-bureaucratic environments.
6. The difficulty will be psychological, sociological. Overcoming pressures, prejudices.

In this paper, I’d like to suggest a model for such an effort.

So languages. Here is something simple, under your own control, low-Carbon, low-energy. Makes you smarter. Useful, an unending source of delight and stimulation.

I’ll describe languages, because that’s what I’m involved in. But same ideas can (and are) applied to many other fields. Crafts, games, sports, outdoor activities.

WHAT are the opposing forces. Snobbishness, bureaucracy, academia, consumerist fantasies, short-cut solutions, mass media passivity. And the psychological effects on individuals: powerlessness, worthlessness, cynicism, materialism, pay attention to possessions/status rather than to own feelings.

Terrific social pressures against homemade activities as vs commercial. Noticed this in outdoor activities, when vast array of devices, clothes — got in the way of the outdoor experience. Buddhism — how it became commercialized, institutionalized – retreats, travel, expensive classes.

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A model for learning other skills

But not everyone is interested in languages. However, can apply the same general ideas to other activities. They can be done without wealth, resources, bureaucracies.

They do require time, encouragement, and a few resources. Can be done on own, or in a community.

For example:
music, arts, crafts, sciences, sports, gardening, cooking, sewing.

I noticed that the people who were the happiest had one or more interests they could pursue on their own, that the would pursue, whether or not they were paid for it

Gardening, weaving, painting, gardening, music, cooking, sports, outdoor activities, science

Not competitive. May or may not be a careeer.
Under their control, do it at their own pace in their own way
Usually generous with the products

(The big issue – the vast cultural apparatus that makes us feel inadequate, unable to compete with the “professionals.” Another subject – but basically, much commercial culture exists “to make us stupid.” TV, for example. Universities. Professional organizations. See Ivan Ilyich.)

Languages and these others are good confidence builders – you can be happy without recourse to the industrial teat.

Under own control, without mediation of bureaucracies, business, consumerism
therefore: happiness, independence

Esp important whent money is in short supplies, big institutions are not looking reliable. need to find sources of happiness closer to home

Resource Use – do not need it to be happy
A culture of independence; of active vs passive
A mature culture vs an infantile culture

Take responsibility for oneself.

My conclusions. Rest of the paper show how these applly to learning a language.

EXCERPTS

Language learning; some reflections from teaching experience (Peter Hagboldt)
University of Chicago Press. 1935.

p.2
“The task of learning a language is far greater than commonly believed. No language courses lead to mastery. All courses are fragmentary; they help us in a part of our difficulties and then leave us to continue our efforts alone, for mastery of a language is a relative concept.”

p. 6-7
“Even teachers of language often disregard the significance of sound as the heart and soul of language. It has been seriously proposed to slight pronunciation in reading courses in order to gain time. We cannot slight pronunciation without losing time.

“In teaching sound we link the known to the unknown, the known being the nearest native sound. Each sound is compared to the nearest native sound, contrasted with it by a simple physiological explanation and then practiced. Constant alternation between listening to properly uttered sound and serious attempts at correct reporduction will eventually lead to success. … Absolute correctness is impossible, for absolute correctness is an abstraction. Not even a native always articulates a given sound in the same way; articulation depends on the general thought of the sentence, the mood of the speaker, and the shade of meaning of the word. We cannot expect more than approximate correctness. As Aristotle says, the wise man reflects his wisdom in not expecting greater accuracy than the subject allows.”

p. 11-12
“Word meanings are learned by an abundance of experience. The various meanings of a word cannot be learned in a single sentence. An infinite number of sentences is required. We learn one meaning at a time. The first meaning we become acquainted with is merely a casual acquaintance. It may be a frequent meaning or a rare one, but unless we find the word again in the same meaning, we forget it. The longer we study a language, the more frequently we shall find the same meaning, and the more different meanings we shall find.”

p.44-5
Against extremism. Speaking only vs immediate intensive reading. He suggests “oral work” – pronunciation, concert drill in pron, expressive speaking aloud – an indispensable means – 1st step to epaking vs speaking – ad ifficult skill.

“Strict adherents to the direct method in its unmodified form present the material to be learned in a purely auditory way. They do not allow their students to read until the material has been thoroughly absorbed by oral exercises. The hypothesis underling this excellent but time-consuming preparation for the first steps to reading is simply that we cannot understand the foreign language adequately unless we can speak it.

“Opposed to excessive demands in regards to speaking are those who favor slighting of the oral aspect entirely and urge immediate intensive reading.

“Neither of these extreme views will withstand scrutiny. Extremists attach an importance to speaking which American conditions and the limitations of time do not justify. They ignore the difference between spoken and written language; they confound a means with an end; they mistak oral work, which is an indispensable means, for speaking, which is an extremely difficut skill. Extremists on the other side of the ocntroversy overlook the greta constructive force in oral work.”

p. 45-6
Recommends in a short course (2 years h.s., 1 yr college)
1. oral work (as above)
2. daily written exercises – simple
3. aural practice – teacher speaks
4. progressive reading to which 1-2 are subservient

p. 86-7
“difficult … to find a middle road between overemphasis of grammare and its neglect. … In brief courses we must, of course, limit grammar to teaching the most important and frequent forms. too hasty and cursory a treament of forms, however, is certain to result in later lack of comprehension of the printed page. …

“Grammar has a definite place in senior high school and college. Presented through langauge and derived from language, it is a device of greatly simplifying force. Grammar shows us the distinct regularlity in a mass of forms which in a grammarless course appears to be an unfathomable chaos of confusing irregularities.”

p. 100
“Each generation produces its own guides. Unfortunately some of these guides believe themselves to be prophets with entirely new and revolutionary thoughts and theories. They are quite sincere in their belief and, therefore, alas, never fail to invent what they proudly call “the best method.” They do not realize that their new ideas are as ancient as our remotest forefathers, and as revolutionary as those of a Tory. The stranglehold of their faith is a total and complacent disregard of the historical development of the various methods.”

p.103
“1. The direct method begins with a thorough training in practical phonetics. By giving clear physiological explanations of each sound of the foreign language it renders imitation far easier and pronunciations far more correct. …

“2. … it limits itself to those [grammatical] rules which are important, frequent, and regular.

“3. It teaches grammar not by abstract principles, but from language itself. It ovserves language, gathers an abundance of examples in demonstration of a single phenomenon, and then derives the rule.

[more features of the direct method]

p. 106-7

“The direct or modified method of the reformers in Germany was developed under and for pre-war conditions [World War I] in that country. The courses lasted from six to nine years. The teaachers were highly trained and had a practical command of the foreign tongue. Their aim was to impart a well-rounded knowledge of the foreign language: aural comprehension and oral expression, reading and writing as well as an appreciation of the culture as manifested in the life and literature of the foreign people. The direct method is excellent and, perhaps, best for the conditions out of which it has grown.

“Transplanted into a class of American students, this superb method becomes ineffective and in certain ways ludicrous. All the factors which determined its features at the time when it was conceived are radically changed. The course does not last six to nine years; it lasts one or two years. Hence the aim cannot be an acquisition of a well-rounded knowledge of the foreign anguage and culture; it must be primarily reading abiity.”

p. 112-3
“Helps for teaching comprehension by ear are:

1. Practical phonetics
2. Speaking in concert
3. Oral exercises (controlled or imitative speaking as well as free speaking exercises)
4. Oral reading with adequate pronunciation, intonation, and expression
5. Silent reading, provided the student’s inner speech be approximately fluent and correct.
6. Listening to gramophone records, radio programs, lectures, and sermons
7. Visiting foreign theater performances and language clubs
8. Associations with natives and residence with a native family”

p. 113
“If we neglect phonetic instruction in a reading course, what will happen is simply this: The student cannot prevent inner pronunciation even when he reads silently. Unaided in his efforts, he is forced to form his own subjective sound system. He bases his system on the sounds of his native language and the knowledge he may have of other languages. Indeed, he originates a dialect comprehensible to no one except himself.”

p. 114
“Through a great deal of practice in rapid silent reading some persons’ inner pronunciation may reach the vanishing point; nevertheless, few if any students are likely to maintain that they can read the foreign language without inner pronunciation.

“For the reasons discussed, oral reading with adequate pronunciation and expression is of great importance. It should precede silent reading and be practiced often at all stages of the course. For the same reasons we must discourage the suppression of inner voice and recommend reading half aloud until the vocal organs can produce foreign sound sequences with reasonable facility.”

p. 117
“… we should not overburden the student’s capacity to assimilate new elements at any one point. His problem is to add to his vocabulary and idiioms slowly and systematically and always within familiar grammatical forms and sentence patterns. If he is given too much on a given page he becomes confused, bewildered, and discouraged; if he is permitted to add slowly, perhaps four words and one idiom per page, finding, moreover, each new element used three to ten times in a short text, he progresses safely and in comfort.

p. 119-120
“In reading a text which has not been used in class for oral and written exercises we decipher and transverbalize. We read every new word letter by letter, every new clause or idiom word by word, and each sentence clause by clause. Subsequent readings improve our comprehension: words become more familiar, clauses clearer, idioms less strange, and sentences convey more directly thoughts and groups of thought. As we read again and again, words and word groups as such become fainter; they seem to retreat behind their meanings. Sequences of sound and movements of the organs of speech fuse with meanings more and more; they are on the verge of becoming identical. Most difficulties of pronunciation have been overcome. Now comprehension is almost spontaneous. Then, if we are blessed with patience and keep on reading, words, idioms, and clauses seem to vanish. Our reading is fluent and effotless. We read words as parts of sentences just as easily as we read letters as parts of words. Idioms are like old friends. Sentences are sentences no longer; they are messengers of thought. Paragraphs convey a central idea modified by numberous detailed statements, each in sentence form. Such is the evolution of direct comprehension in reading.”

p. 121-4 Importance of inference (context)
“[at a certain point, after the student has done some reading], it is wise to explain to him the nature of inference, its possibilities and dangers.

“Inference may be defined as a mental process whereby we are able to determine the meanings of unknown words by aid of those which are familiar. Inference utilizes all the known elements of the subject matter – story, plot, paragraph, sentence, or word – in such a way that the sum total of the known may elucidate the unknown. That there is no comprehensive study concerning this interesting problem is due, no doubt, to its complexity and elusiveness. Yet we can hardly deny that a large part of our native vocabulary is the result of inference in reading not of consulting dictionaries. In the following we shall present examples of different types of inference as possibly suggestive to those who encourage collateral reading. The data were supplied by students of French, Spanish, and German in their first year of study … [all single non-English words are in italics, in sentences, only the word marked with asterisks is in Italics. I’ve used ue and ‘ to transcribe… easier]

a) Etymological inference; some other foreign language gives the key to the meaning:
LAT.: grandis, FR. grand, SP. grande
SPAN.: bastar, GER. Und damit vasta!
FR.: placard, GER. Plakat
DUTCH: oorsaak, GER. Ursache
GER.: Knoten, ENG. knot; GER. Fenster, FR. fene^tre; GERM Moebel, FR. meuble

b) Inference from full or partial cognates is frequent. Full cognates:
GER.: Wind, Hand, Winter, warm
FR.: charlatan, organisation, protection, sensation
SPAN.: pensio’n, vulgar, capital

More frequent than full cognates are parial ones …

Spanish partial cognates which were correctly interpreted are mari’tima, extenso, vanidad, impropiamente, soldado, celeste.

In German partial cognztes often are properly interpreted by their spelling, their sound or a familiar component in a compound word: Ledermappe, Regentropfen, eiskalt, pechschwarz, Westkueste, Giebelhaus, Nachtigall, Fahrweg, Weckuhr.

c. Onomatopoetical inference in which the meaning is connveyed by the sound is comparatively rare; correctly inferred were:
GER: In duerren Blaettern *saeuselt* der Wind.
FR.: le *glouglou* de la bouteille
SPAN.: chirriar, miau, ratapla’n

d. When all the words in a sentence are known except one or two that can be inferred by what preceds or follows, we may speak of cumulative interences: “Cette promenade e’tat un *supplice* pour moi.” Students comment: “From the description which follows I gather that this *promenade* must have been a *task* or a *punishment*” [Daudet, *Le petit chose*].

Under this type may be classified interence from recurrence of an unfamiliar word in one or more of the following sentences. Student’s comment: “I had read that Elsbeth was engaged to Leo and was going to make “Hochzeit”. On the next page I read that Grete who is married speaks about the time when she made “Hochzeit*. I inferred that *Hochzeit* means ‘wedding’ ” [Sudermann, *Frau Sorge*].

e. Inference from activity or functioin to agent or instrument, or the reverse is not uncommon:

“*Leiter*. – I read that a *Leiter* can lie flat on the floor, and that shortly before, it had been put up against the wall. Then I read that Paul went up on it. Thus I inferred that it must be ladder” [Sudermann, *Frau Sorge*]

” … Fruncidas las blanquinegras *cejas*. …” “I knew htat *fruncir* means ‘to frown.’ Hence I construed *cejas* as the facial organs usually connected with frowning, i.e., ‘eyebrows’ [Galdo’s, *Don~a Perfecta*]

“Il fit un *pansement* complet et ordonna le repos.” – “Under the circumstances the doctor would probably put on a *bandage* [Maupassant, *Contes choisis*]

f) Inference from membership in a certain class to a specific member of this class:

“*Kraehe*. This word is preceded by *Adler*, which means ‘eagle’; is is followed by *Taube*, which is ‘dove.’ Since the three words are used in a simile, *Kraehe* must be also some kind of bird. therefore Dutch *Krai* convinces me that *Kru3he* means ‘corw’ ” [Strom, *Immensee*].

g)Inference from situation; event and happenings which are correctly interpreted tend to clear up minor detail:

“Il *bavardera*, c’est inevitable.” – The situation and the following as well as the preceding statements explain this word as meaning ‘he is going to gossip’ ” [Labiche, *La poudre aux yeux*]

” …. hatte der Schulze eine Violine in die Hand genommen und spielte einen lustigen Tonz, und Arnold, die scho3ne Gertrud im Arm, *wirbelte* mit ihr in der Stube *herum*.” – ” ‘Whirled around’ was correctly assumed from the general situation at that moment. *Violine*, *Tanz*, and *herum* aided the understanding” [Gerstaecker, *Germelshausen*].

” … *enderezo’* su sombrero.” – “Since the priest was approaching a public street where he would be noticed he *straightened* his hat. This meaning is supported by the preceding clause, *se arreglo’ el manteo*” [Galdo’s, *Don~a Perfecta].

“Our examples show that inference can be used effectively by intelligent college students. Scholars use inference systematically and on a much broader scale to read themselves into a new language. By reading material of thoroughly familiar content – the Bible for instance – they devote their undivided attention to the mode of expression, to vocabulary, idiom, grammatical, and syntactical form.

“On the other hand, inference has its limitations and dangers. Roots of words are frequently misleading or elusive; idiomatic expressions can rarely be understood without the dictionary or a note; unknown elements may abound to such an extent that no correct surmise is possible until the dictionary has cleared up the most important points in the chain of the unfamiliar. ”

p. 134
“The fundamental principles fora brief reading course are these:

“A thorough training in practical phonetics must safeguard the student’s successful continuance of his study.

“The teaching of grammar must be limited to that which is frequent and regular isnce basic essentials are infinitely more important than minor detail.

“Interesting reading selections which contain the forms and principles of grammar to be taught are to supply the basis for inductive teaching whenever it seems advisable and feasible.”

p. 144
“Writing is an indispensable device in language learning. All students are benefitted by daily written exercises. In writing we analyze each word phonetically and orthographically; we see successively each letter; we pronounce, read, and hear each word, phrase and sentence At the same time we supplement and reinforce this complex of activities by movements of the hand.

“We must carefully distinguish between writing as a means to help imprinting and retention and writing as an end in itself, as composition or as an exercise in the correct and effective use of words, idioms, and phrases in well-consturcted sentences. This distinction is significant: It eliminates the common error of confounding an aid with an end, and helps us in grading and assigning written work according to difficulty.”

p. 150
“… we learn to write by writing, by making mistakes, and by avoiding the same mistakes forever after if we can.”

p. 152
“Translation is a crutch to be used when we must, to be put aside when we can.”

p. 155
“The untold misery inflicted by thoughtless pedants in the name of grammar reflects not upon the clarifying role of grammar but upon the cruel nature of pedants.”

p. 155-6
“The young student saves time by learning language without grammar; the mature studnet loses time by ignoring grammar.”

======================================
How to Learn a Language: A Book for Beginners and all others who may be interested
Charles Duff
Sometime Lecturer at the Institute of Education University of London
Oxford / Basil Blackwell. 1948

p. 12
“The book is based on about forty years of practical experience of learning and using languages, as well as my experience as a Lecturer at the Institute of Education, London University, where for a time it was my work to teach teachers – all of them graduates – the principles of language teaching.”

p. 13
“…there should be some *urge* to learn the foreign language – almost any kind of urge will do, but the stronger it is the better.

p. 13-14
“The imparting of an urge should be the preliminary task to be tackled by the teacher *before* he or she gets down to the first lesson in the language. If the learner who is without a teacher feels that he has no urge to learn, he should abandon language study. A genuine interest in a language can be created by an intelligent teacher who takes a little trouble, and this interest goes a long way towards creating urge. It should be kept up by occasional talks about the people whose language is being learnt; their customes, habits, history, culture and what not.

“All this, of course, applies with equal force to the adult who is setting about learning a foreign languge, with this difference: he ought to have both sufficient common sense and sufficient facilities to create his own interest and nourish it, without the necessity for spoon-feeding by the teacher.”

p.14

“The child is by nature an active and observant listener, and it will learn the language of its environment whatever that language may be. It has no inhibitions whatever about language-learning, and does not care in the least or even know whether grammar or pronunciation or accent are good, bad or indifferent so long as it can do the job of understanding and making itself understood. It just forges ahead at full speed, taking advantage of anybody who cares to stop and talk or play. It is eager and anxious to know the names of all the things around it, and has abundant opportunities to do so – with its mother or nurse always ready to be the sympathetic teacher. It *works and plays* at language-learning during most of its waking hours. If there is nobody about, it will often in the joy of life shout a new word, repeating it again and again until it can say it, as it thinks, perfectly. It begins on the lowest rung of the linguistic ladder by uttering the simplest sounds and words, and makes its own pace in accordance with its inherited cpacity, proceeding gradually from the simple to the complex in those branches of language which we call grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and rhythm…

p. 15
“… our staring point in learning a foreign language must be to emulate the child learning its mother tongue, *as far as possible*. Listening, imitation, experimenting, constant practice even while alone, and lack of psychological barriers and inhibitions – all these account for the rapid success of the child learner. We must try to use them all, and we can do so advantageously – but with some modifications and additions. This is the royal route to language learning, not breaking our heads over grammar and rules. ”

p.27
“Does it really matter very much in that first stage of language learning whether, from the first words, we speak with the grammatical correctness of a native professor? Is it not of infinitely more importance that we should somehow – anyhow – be able to express in terms that are comprehensible what we want to say? … We should all get away as soon as possible from grammatical fetish-worship in our approach, and, so to speak, not care whether our grammar is correct until we have at least passed the point where we can make some sort of sentence which will convey our meaning, which generally comes to *dealing with a situation*. So, expression *first*, grammar *later*.

p.33
[Using Robinson Cruse as an example in language learning]
“… in this account of Crusoe’s teaching and Friday’s learning, Daniel Defoe, himself a good linguist, shows a keen and thoroughly sound insight into the general practical problems of the first phase of both teaching and learning a foreign language.

p. 34
“… there is a common sense about them from which we can learn several things. Friday was keen – he had an ‘urge’ to learn. His teacher did not aim above the essentially practical. He was never confused by interruptions to correct his grammar; his mistakes – unless what he said was utterly incomprehensible – were allowed to pass. The teacher uttered sounds (words) and when possible conveyed their meaning by miming or pointing. The learner repeated the sounds until he could imitate them well enough to be understood and finally to memorize them. And, he learnt as much while going about his everyay work – for the purposes of which he had to learn words – as from ‘evening tuition’. Language drudgery was avoided. It should also be well noted that, if Man Friday did use bad grammar at times, he made himself understood very well and, this is important, he also used a lot of *good* grammar which he had *picked up unconsciously* from hearing it spoken by Robinson Crusoe.

p. 35
“It is possible to learn to speak well almost unconscioiulsy, almost without effort. An the best way of doing this is to learn the language *from a situation* in which those who use the language use it reasonably well.

p. 38
“… what the beginner should learn in the first stage of his studies of *any* language. *He must learn to deal with common situations.* How should he learn *to deal* with common situations? The answer is clear: *by living in them.* He can live in them by going to the country of which he is studying the language. This used to be called ‘finishing’, and it was the method usually adopted by the more enlightened of our wealthy classes, who sent their sons and daughters abroad to ‘finish’ their studies of French, German, Italian, or Spanish or of more than one of them. … The reason is obvious: situations repeatedly occur from morning to night. No need to look for them. No need to create them. They just occur, and so often that the student of the language is forced willy-nilly to deal with them; to speak and undersand or otherwise stand looking on as a spectator who feels rather foolish and ‘out of it’. This is the superb value of going abroad. Even if nothing whatever is known of the language before going, one is forced to learn. The greatest dumbhead can hardly fail to learn something of the language. It will also be obvious that great advantage is to be gained and much saved by [p.39] knowing the rough-and-ready workaday material of a langauge before going to the country. With some such knowledge in his head beforehand, the average person that he makes rapid progress from the moment he arrives.”

p. 44
[bold]
“The learning of a language can be greatly speeded up by combining the learning process with an INTERESTING OCCUPATION which, in the case of young learners, should consist chiefly of PLAY or amusement and, in the case of adults, may be anything which does not too greatly strain the mind – entertainment, a hobby, or some sort of WORK – the tendency in either case being to make the mind function unconsciously or almost unconsciously in absorbing the language, and thus reduce theamount of conscious effort required.”

p. 45
“… this first phase in learning (and in teaching) is full of dangerous difficulties, in the sense that the learner may easily become so tired of the whole business that every scrap of ‘urge to learn’ is banished, a stiff psychological barrier is set up – one afterwards difficult to remove – and he never afterwards becomes any sort of lingust.”

p. 50
“If the learner should happen to be interested in some trade, profession or calling – one for which the language he is studying will be helpful or necessary – he should begin, even in the first stage, to collect the special language-material of that occupation.”

p. 53
“… your very *first* aim must be to achieve at least a passable, and, if at all possible, a good pronunciation – whatever the foreign language may be that you are learning, and whatever may be in learning it.”

p. 56
“For our purpose here – learning the pronunciation of *one* language – the amount of this alphabet [the IPA] that is strange to us which one needs to learn is small: in most cases less than a dozen characters over and above those of our English alphabet. For half my life I learnt languages without the aid of the phoetic alphabet .,.. but now if I have to tackle a new language, the first thing I do is to get the phonetics right with the aid of this excellent alphabet, for with its help one can hardly go wrong as regards the sounds.

p. 57
“… those so-called ‘difficult’ and strange sounds in your foreign language are no more difficult, possibly less so, than many sounds which we regularly make in our own language.

“… it is almost impossible ot ‘unlearn’ a bad pronunciation; and a good one is just as easy.”

p. 67
“One can go to see a foreign film not knowing a word of the language, because we are helped out by the action-sotry and often by printed sub-titles in our own language. Little by little, as we progress in the language, we catch more and more of what is spoken. The ‘feel’ of the language can be appreciated. One becomes familiar with all its sounds, different voicds, a variety of acccents. There, before us, are ‘natives’, the real animals themselves! – speaking and for the most part behaving as human beings – just like ouselves!”

p. 70-3
“For your early practice-material, almost any modern elementary reading-book which has a vocabulary and notes will serve the purpose. It will be rather slow going at first, whatever kind of reader you use and, if you find that it consists of dull little stories or anecdotes, do not be either surprised or dismayed, for there is not much else available and you will not have to put up with this sort of thing very long if my advice is followed. My idea about reading-matter for learners of a foreign language is that, by the time they have mastered Foundation Material, they should already have started to read what native writers of the language have written for their own readers.

… If you can find a bilingual reader – one which provides the original text of an easy author in the language you are studying, plus a close English translation thereof – this is the best starting-point for the sort of reading likely to do most good in every way. It is, perhaps, better that original and translation should be on opposite pages of the reader for the one thing above all others which this rading practice must do is *** to make you think and worry out meanings for yourself as much as possible – only using the translation afterwards either to check what you have done or to help you over otherwise unnegotiable obstacles***. It is easier to cover your ‘key’ when it is printed on the opposite page. For the early stage of some languages, an interlinear translation may be found better – though there is really not much in this to render it superior to the translation *en regard*. Language learners would be well advised not to overlook the admirable and inexpensive bilingual texts of the New Testament and Gospels – original in one column, translation in the one beside it – published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. The New Testament is for the most part written in a close approximation to Foundation Material – or, at all events, in a style so simple, direct and pure that it is ideal for language study. The narrative parts and parables are specially valuable and nobody, whatever his views on religion may be, can say that they are dull and uninteresting. Whatever the choice of the bilingual material may be, the learner is advised to stick to it until he find that he rarely has to fall back on the ‘key’ to help him out. … A good spell of such reading not only drives home all the Foundation Material, but it expands vocabulary and is the essential step towards the acquisition of a well-stocked ‘background memory’.”

p. 74-5
“From the bilingual text to newspapers and periodicals is a very important step, one that may suffice for the majority of studnets. The next step is a plunge into the broader and much deeper literary ocean – that of novels, plays, histories, essays, folk-lore and culture generally. Here the student’s own tastes and inclimations must be his chief guide … but for one wrinkle that is useful for ‘civilized’ languages. Try reading a full-length novel – a thriller, if that is your inclination – but a good one. Try to read it without recourse to a dictionary, and with the one main object of getting the gist of the story. If you find this is too heavy going, here is another wrinkle. Get the text of a novel for which there is available a good English translation and, proceeding as above – that is, trying to get the gist of the story – use the translation to elucidate difficult passages. Do not submit yourself to the drudgery of looking up every unknown word. Forge ahead, stopping to use the key only when a whole passage has defeated you. It is advisable occasionally to go over some chapters or passages twice or three times. But, keep forging ahead so long as you are getting the gist of it all and irrespective of whether or not you feel that you are learning new words and grammar or driving home the familiar Foundation Material. The results will probably surpass all expectations. When the book has been finished, you will find that you have imbibed a vast amount of new material as well as having fixed the old in your mind. And you will have gained a feeing of confidence and freedom in the language, such as might easily have taken months or even years by more orthodox methods.”

p. 79
“During my eighteen years in the Foreign Office, I discovered that although most of the seniior officials had a good academic knowledge of French … hardly any of them could speak it even tolerably well… ‘

p.80
he came to the “conclusion that French is not the best starting-point for English-speaking beginners in language study. And that for this, and a number of other reasons, the learning of SPanish could, with many advantages to beginners, take precedence over the learning of French … ”

p.84-5
[talking about learning Russian with its more complex grammar]
“… the person who approaches Russian for the first time must be prepared to *devote more time to the grammar* than he would to grammar in French or Spanish – there is more of it in Russian – and this notwithstanding what has been said earlier about putting grammar in its place. The way to overcome the difficulty is this: let most of the effort of the first month or so be devoted to learning *words*, the commonest and most useful words and, for the first three months let the learner be satisfied with a rough-and-ready general idea of the grammar than attempt to memorize all its rules. so long as he knows *how it works*, this is enough to be going on with and enables him to reach the reading stage. When this has been reached – a few hundred words and a rough idea of grammar is all that is required to reach it – the practice of reading, plus reference to a text book on grammar, will soon teach all the grammar that is required for ordinary purposes. There are plenty of annotated reading books available for beginners in Russian – annotated readers are essential in the first stage of this language – and, if the learner has a teacher who can put him right about pronunciation, he will be surprised and delighted to find that after, say, three or four months, he will be able to read the simpler stories of Tolstoi, Chekhov and other authors. … When a teacher is not available, learn sounds from records. With the regular help of a teacher, the learning process is generally much more rapid. And it is, of course, very much better in every way to have a teacher – this applies to any language – at all events for the first two or three months after which the learner who is keen can make his own way. Speaking is *entirely a matter of practice* in any language, but in my opinion this *reading method* is very necessary for Russian – with or without a teacher – because of the considerable amount of grammar which has to be known. Read, read, read, and the grammar can be assimilated almost unconsciously. ”

p.88
“Practical linguists are those who can deal with the simple situations which recur again and again in everyday life. The amount of knowledge required to do this is not great …

p. 90
“[A full practical linguist’ should be [bold]able to deal with almost any straightforward situation in almost any circumstance – [/bold] from the limited situations of the soldier to those of normal civilian life, plus the special situations which are likely to arise in connection with his particular trade, profession or calling. This demands more vocabulary, a wider range of material [than the phrasebooks published by the US government for its troops overseas in WW2] and a knowledge of grammar sufficient to make it work. The practical linguist needs all these for **expression**, and, in addition, he will have to have a stock of material in the ‘background memory’ to help him to understand the gist of what is said or written in the ordinary course of life. Not until fluency and ease in using this Fundamental Material has been achieved can anybody reasonably claim to be a practical linguist. What will surprise most people is not **how much** language-material must be carried in one’s head, but **how little**: less than 1,000 ‘expression’ words, a few dozen phrases, plus a skeleton of grammar. … most people, with persistence, are capable of achieving the standard of our ‘practical linguist’ with less than six months of study. This applies to the ordinary, average learners and the ordinary run of languages. The more difficult languages will take longer; and some learners are quicker or slower than others. What I have stated may be regarded as a broad estimate, which is based not only on my own but on very wide experience of teachers and language learners in general.

p. 93 official testimony confirming this
“Apropos the general question of Englishmen learning languages, in the debate on the Foreign Service in the House of Commons on 20 March 1946, Mr. Freeman said: ‘During the war we trained soldiers for posts in the South of Europe in the most complicated Balkan languages with a few months’ special study’; and the Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office added this sensible remark: ‘…despite all the nonsense which we cheerfully accept about [the British] being bad linguists, during the war, in six or nine months, we turned out in the army **first-rate** men in the Central Euopean languages. In this test very few people have failed’.

“There is no reason why anybody, Englishman or otherwise, should fail in learning a language – even a ‘difficult’ one – providing his faculties are normal, he sets about it in the right way and, most important of all, he is anxious to learn it. ” [Last paragraph is Duff commenting on what the Under-Secretary said.]

p. 90-1
” … From the practical linguist to the good linguist is a considerable jump, which cannot be taken easily by everybody and, indeed, is comparatively rarely achieved even by keen students with some facility for languages. I doubt very much whether it is ever possible to become a good linguist without a longish period of residence in the country, plus constant study and wide-range practice.

“Let us, however, first define what is meant here by a ‘good’ linguist: **He is a good linguist who can do in the foreign language anything he can do in his own, and as well. It does not take one long to realize that this is a tall order. Perhaps the definition is too exacting. If so, one might substitute for ‘**as well**’ the words ‘**well enough to put natives completely at their ease**’. It amounts ot this, that when you are in the foreign country you should be able in its language ot deal with all situations – including ‘technical’ ones relating to your business – as competently as a native of your own intelligence. It embraces writing letters, reading literature and the press, listening to radio, enjoying cinema and plays and, should it be necessary, even making a little speech at a function. The person who can do all these reasonably well in a foreign language has a claim to be called a good linguist. … one seldom meets good linguists. …

“A longish period of residence, plus constant study and wide-ranging practice – study and practice to begin before going to the country and continue actively all the time while in it – this seems to be the only recipe for becoming a first-rate linguist. But – and this is important – one should always aim first to become the practical linguist, the one who can deal with the ordinary straight-forward situations of life. When that stage of efficiencey has been reached, each learner will know best whether he is likely to have the inclination, ability, time, and opportunities to go forward with the ultimate aim of becoming the good linguist. He should by that time know what to do, without need of hints from me.
[same paragraph, but here is the BIT ON READING TO MAINTAIN ONE’S ABILITY]
But, whether or not he decides to go forward with this end in view, there is one thing which he **always must do** if he is to keep his hard-won linguistic knowledge from withering away: read in the foreign language. For preference, he should read books, newspapers or magazines which interest him, while avoiding those which do not. Rather than go without reading altogether, he should be prepared to tackle anything in print upon which he can lay his hands. If he keeps on reading he can retain and possibly extend his knowledge, even though he should be years and years away from the country in whose language he has reached the useful standard of what is called the practical linguist.”

THIS LAST IDEA IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THE CHAPTER ON READING

p.98
“What is given in the pages which follow represents the modern approach towards the compilation of what must be regarded as a tentative and, and best, a rough-and-ready ‘guide’ to ‘Foundation Material’ – words, phrases and grammar. … [Its object] is to indicate to the beginner in a language the material which, whatever the language and whatever may be the object in learning it, must be mastered – mastered first, and thoroughly mastered.”

p. 99
‘… the more imperfect (or incompetent) the grammarian, the more rules he makes, the more exceptions he finds, the more nonsense he makes of applying the logic and schemata of one language to another in the futile expectation of clarity. We must often be prepared to make our own grammar, for to do so is less confusing than to pack our minds with rubbish.” [See the book by the US military man on how he learns languages – also the grammar summaries I made for my languages]

“… [the learner’s] first thoughts must always be directed towards simplification down to the barest bones of what has to be said…. In the first stage of learning our goal must be to assimilate the chosen elementary material – and no other – so as to be able to make our way satisfactorily through situations which common sense tells us arise constantly in normal human intercourse. The beginner must accustom himself to the idea that simplicity in expression, far from being a crime, is a virtue.”

===========================================
Learning a New Language
Claude C. Crawford, Ph.D.
Edna Mable Leitzell, M.A.
published by C.C. Crawford, U of Southern California, Los Angeles
1930

Claude C. Crawford : Professor of Education, University of Southern California
Edna Mable Leitzell: Chairman of the Spanish Dept., Horace Mann Jr. High School, Los Angeles

p.75-6
“Extensive reading, on the other hand, results in acquiring a large vocabulary, though it may leave many of the words without an absolutely clear and definite meaning. There is an erroneous idea on the part of many students that extensive reading is something for only the advanced student. As a matter of facr, however, the beginner may profit considerably from it. The following suggestions are intended to help the beginner to get more vocabulary benefits from extensive reading:
1) Read for the thought rather than for the literal meaning of each word.
2) Re-read the same paragraph or sentence two or three times, in preference to looking up unfamiliar words in the dictionary.
3) Do not hesitate to guess at the meaning of a new word, nor to infer its meaning from the meaning of the rest of the sentence or from its similarity to English.

“Reading by such methods frequently becomes as fascinating as a game and as enticing as a puzzle.”

p. 77-8
“The study of derivatives.
Much help in learning new words can be gained by observing their relations to English words which have been derived from them. A study of prefixes and suffixes often the same type of service. The similarity between *introducir* and *producir* in Spanish, and “introduce” and “produce” in English, makes it possible in a moment to determine the meaning of the Spanish words. Frequently the derivative cannot be traced directly from the foreign to the English word, but can be traced from the foreign to the Latin and thence to the English. If the student has some little acquaintance already with the principal suffixes and prefixes and root-stems of a number of English words, he can, without very much difficultry, figure out the meanings of foreign words which he has never seen before.

“Sometimes the knowledge of the meaning of two separate parts which have been combined into one word may be used to interpret the word, as in the case of nouns which are followed by the diminutive endings **ita, ica, illa,** etc., in Spanish. Likewise, once having learned the meaning of the proper suffixes, it is possible to interpret such a word as **relojero**, “jeweler,” from its similiarity to the word **reloj**, “watch.”

[good idea, needs to be explained more clearly]

p. 79
“Analyzing words for literal meanings.
The meanings of numerous foreign words can be discerned by dividing them into small units and translating each small part literally. Thus, the French word **parapluie**, when translated literally, means “for rain.” This serves as a mental link between the word and its English equivalent, umbrella. When a new word is encourngered it may be well to analyze it by some such method as has been illustrated above, and then try to think of the common word which means the same thing or is closely associated in eaning with the parts which have been transated literally. ” [actually, the “para” means “to shield, protect from”]

p.100-1 Guidelines for Listening
“Listening for thought, instead of for words.
When a student makes an effort to grasp the words that are spoken, he is likely to find that the person speaking goes entirely too fast for him. Ordinary conversational speech involves the pronouncing of at least 100 words a minute, and this is more than the beginner in a foreign language is able to comprehend. Consequently, it is necessary to listen for the meaning of word-groups, rather than for the sounds of isolated words. In fact, individual words are often misleading and devoid of meaning in themselves; they convey their message only in so far as they are combined with other words, For example, the two French words **ne** and **pas** are separate, as regards sound and spelling, but are absolutey meaningless when separated, and are never thought of by the French people as two words but rather as one idea.

p.101
“Establishing direct associations between sound and sense.
It is absolutely futile to try to understand the spoken langauge readily by resorting to translation of the foreign words into English as the method of arriving at their meanings. The spoken words must call up the basic images or ideas directly without going through the intermediary stage of English words, or the listening process will be slowed down to such a pace as to be almost worthless.

p. 101-2
“Listening to a variety of voices.
… Voices differ just as faces, temperaments, and personalities do. It is necessary to listen to a large number of different persons before the generalized capacity for understanding the language is developed. In the earlier stages it may be well to concentrate a great deal of the practice upon listening to one individual, such as the teacher, because contact with many voices at the early stage may be somewhat confusing.

p.123
“Imagincary conversations.
The student can do a great deal to improve his speaking ability by carrying on imaginary converations while walking to school or while going through the halls between classes, etc. ”

p. 125
“Affiliating with persons who speak the language.
There are various methods of making contacts with people to whom the foreign language may be spoken. … Students sometimes find it helpful to exchange lessons with foreign students, giving English lessons in exchange for lessons in the foreign language. It is sometimes possible to secure a native of the foreign country as a conversational partner, for an hour or two a day and at a small cost… ”

p.126-7
“Oral reading as practice in speaking.
A student who seriously desires to master the foreign langauge can accomplish much along this line simply by devoting an hour or two a day to oral reading. It is well to get a book of fairly easy material and to read aloud to oneself, for about fifteen or twenty minutes at a time, and three or four times a day. The length of the practice period may be increased, after a few weeks, because the vocal organs will have become better adapted to the language and will not be so readily fatigued. ”

p.143
“II. How to Read
…
Reading for thoughts instead of reading for word units.
The primary consideration in reading must be that of getting the thought. Interpretation should take place with the sentence rather than with the word as the thought unit. The meaning of the story of paragraph should be paramount, rather than the meaning of the individual words.

p.144
“Avoiding looking up words during the reading process.
… Even though a particular word is meaningless when first encountered in a sentence, it may be perfectly clear upon reaching the end of the paragraph. If not, it may clear up at a second reading. If it does not clear up entirely upon further reading, the student may still be able to get a vague or partial understanding of its meaning and thus be able to interpret the paragraph as a whole reasonably well. It is possible to read in English without knowing the exact and precise meaning of every word, and the same may be done in a foreign language.”

p.145
“Rereading passages several times.
Considerable stress should be laid upon the point that is is better to read a selection over and over at the normal rate and in the normal way, than to resort to dictionaries and grammars in order to dig out the exact meaning of one sentence at a time. The first reading may seem to yield practically none of the meaning of the passage. The second may simply give a vague notion of what it is all about. In the third reading some of the simpler phases of the passage may clear up, and eventually all but a few especially difficult parts will be clear.

“It may be necessary after several readings, to resort to outside sources of hep, such as dictionaries and grammars, but these should be postponed as long as possible, and used only after the bulk of the selection has been mastered through rereading. …. rather than working it out in a problem-solving fashion, one sentence at a time.”

p.146
“Extensive reading.
There is much to be gained by reading, in a somewhat hurried and superficial way, a large number of foreign language books instead of concentrating more thoroughly upon a few. This method of reading encourages the getting of the meaning through the context, the reading by thought units rather than word units, and the reading of the language for pleasure. If a student can overcome his conscience and break down his long-established habits of thoroughness enough to read a good novel in this way for the story, rather than as a lesson in the language, he may find it to be an enjoyable pastime and may read other novels when the first one is finished.

p. 147
“Intensive reading.
…There are times when absolute accuracy and precision are essential, and when a vague or indefinite notion of the meaning of a paragraph might even be worse than useless.”

p. 148
“Reading aloud.
… In English, silent reading is considered more efficient than oral, and for most purposes is to be preferred to it. In the foreign language, however, the student is not so well developed in the art of getting the meaning, and frequently is able to understand what he reads more effectively if he says the words than if he simply reads them silently.”

p. 149
“… reading aloud is likely to be a help in the early stages of the study of a language, but that silent reading is likely to be preferable when the student has reached an advanced stage somewhat comparable to his ability to read English.”

p. 149
“Reading as an avenue to new experiences.
Reading … may be thought of as an exercise designed to develop reading ability, and also as an avenue to the securing of new ideas, information, and experience. the student should try as early as possible to reach the point at which his reading will serve the second of these two purposes, rather than merely the first. In other words, as early as possible he should shift his attention from the reading process to the reading content.”

p. 153
“The amount of attention to be given to writing the foreign language should depend upon the kind of ability sought, and the purpose for which the language is to be learned. Since writing is slow, and allows plenty of time to look up words or to think through the problems of grammatical structure, it affords a good training in precision and correctness of use, but it may at the same time cultuivate habits which interfere with ability to speak the language. If the major part of a student’s study of a language is devoted to written exercises, he forms the habit of relying upon grammar rules and dictionary definitions of words, instead of upon his own automatic habitual expresson. For this reason it is important that written exercises should not replace oral practice, but merely supplement it.”

p.157-8
“Reading as a preparation for writing
Reading of the extensive and intensive types furnishes a splendid preparation or foundation for composition work. It not only affords good models of form and style to imitate but also supplies material or ideas which may be used as the basis for written work. Most important of all, it yields a rich vocabulary so that the writer has more words from which to choose when he attempts to express ideas. To write a theme in the foreign language upon a subject that has already become very familiar through reading is a much more interesting and worth-while process than to undertake to put into the language a large number of miscellaneous sentences involving many new and unrelated words.”

p.187
“The study of grammar is … largely an intellectual pursuit as contrasted with a pursuit for the development of skills. Memory and thinking are considerably more evident in grammar study than is motor activity or emotional expression.”

p.193
“The inductive approach.
Grammar should be studied inductively rather than deductively. It should not be the first stop in the learning process; it should come after a certain amount of mastery of specific language usage has been developed, and after a reasonably large number of language expereiences and habits have been acquired. It is difficult to learn the grammar of a language until something is known about the language itself. Grammar should fill out and confirm…

p. 194
“Learning grammar though reading
The learning of grammar resembles the acquisition of a foreign vocabulary, in that it may be accomplished indirectly and more or less subconsciously through the reading context. It is permissible, in reading, to pass by grammatical forms wheich are only vaguely understood, with the hope that later reading of similar forms will gradually build up the required understanding and appreciation. If a particuarly grammatical form is seen again and agin in reading, it gradually becomes firmly implanted upon the memory, and tends to survive and fuction just as naturally as words in the vocabulary function after having been learned from the context. … ”

p. 195
“Much of the grammar which is required needs only to be developed to the point of one’s being able to recognize grammatical forms in reading, rather than of being able to use them in speaking. [In other cases] it will be necessary to look the construction up and get its explanation on a more formal basis.”

p.199
“A home-made [grammatical] rule or a home-made statement of a rule, coupled with a genuine understanding is infinitely better than a nicely phrased statement memorized from the textbook without a due appreciation of its meaning.”

p.202-3
“The selection and use of grammar textbooks.
The beginning student should choose a brief and condensed textbook, rather than a complete and elaborate one. The short grammar ordinarily is short because it contains only the most important essentials, and omits that vast quantity of petty rules and exceptions which must necessarily be treated in the larger book. The trouble with the large and complete grammar is that learning it takes too much time away from reading and devotes too much time to the learning of points which are not used often enough in speaking or in reading to be retained after they are learned. ”

p.215-6
“Reading Latin for the content.
In general, the reading of Latin is done more as an exercise in the art of reading than as a means of securing worth-while information or experiences from what is read. The bright or the advanced student may well hope to achieve such a master of the language as will enable him to get a genuine literary enjoyment from some of the materials which are studied. The average or ordinary student should expect to reach the point at which he will be able to get a richer meaning and satisfaction out of Latin mottoes on public building and other minor forms of Latin usages with which he comes in contact from day to day. ”

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