20 Comments
Jan 11, 2023Liked by Cheryl A. Ossola

I've been terrible at learning languages all my life, but I did take a "Teaching English as a Foreign Language in grad school, and learned a lot, though I wasn't very good actually doing it. My teacher gave us an analogy about learning language that had to do with listening. He said think of it as a vessel fill up slowly with water. When the vessel starts to overflow, the person begins to speak. Fascinating.

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Cheryl A. Ossola

Sorry, no she just recommends making listening a priority.

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Cheryl A. Ossola

Good one Cheryl.

As an ESL English teacher and lifelong learner and language learner especially, language is a deep subject. And learning one even deeper. Add to all of the research on learning that individual differences account for a lot too. I swear age has made it exponentially more difficult for me to learn a language. And yup, I exercise, sleep well and am in excellent health for an oldster. ;)

We have a gal in Lisbon here who has what she calls the Language Unschool. She advocates listening first; listen, read, speak. I wish I had known this when I started to learn Portuguese.

At least in Italian the spoken word correlates to what is written, for the most part.

In Portuguese, not so much. Especially Euro Portuguese. What is spoken is often much different from what is written. They condense and run everything together leaving out lots of words and letters when speaking. Oy! I should have just listened to the language for a year before anything else, like one of her students who is fluent after only 2 years!

As I told one of my relatives, learning Portuguese is like trying to nail Jello to a tree. There is spoken, written, Brazilian and Euro and that is the tip of the iceberg.

And the study continues and will for the rest of my life!

Thanks for your food for thought on this day of thanks. Grazie, obrigada, merci, & danke schon!

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Cheryl A. Ossola

Oh, Cheryl - I don't think you got anything wrong! My heart palpitations were from excitement reading and engaging in a conversation about language development. I haven't been able to do that for about two years now due to family circumstances (a long story for another time).

As for Maria, I would definitely find a competent speaker of her first language to help in assessing her current abilities. I would want to know if her expression/verbal skills are age appropriate in her native language, also taking into account her cognitive abilities. If Maria has adequate expressive skills in her first language, then I would think given enough time she will further develop her Italian expression. However, if Maria demonstrates difficulties with expression in both her first and second language skills, then she has an expressive language impairment. In my experience, it is critical to assess either formally or informally in both languages to figure out an individual's communicative abilities and challenges.

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Cheryl A. Ossola

Be still, my speech language pathologist heart! After a 40+ years of teaching children and adults with speech and language differences and challenges, I am still fascinated with the study of language development. I firmly believe that any language (verbal or visual such as sign language) rests on a foundation of receptive understanding first and slowly proceeds through sound articulation, single word expression, simple grammatical stringing together of multiple words or signs, vocabulary acquisition, symbol/reading development, complex comprehension, expressive and conversational skills, etc. All of these stages are influenced by our individual personalities, cognitive challenges, families, physical surroundings, and culture. Truly a complex system for acquiring and learning to communicate!

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Perfect timing, Cheryl. This week I’m doing a mini Boot Camp every day and reevaluating my strategies. I listen to language tape while I’m driving and there’s a lot of repetitive speaking. The repetition I think is good for me. Even with Duolingo, I have 100 day streak, but keep going back to earlier exercises for repetition, because I keep forgetting things. For me, understanding, other speaking is the most difficult, because, as you mention, Italian speak very quickly. I have been watching movies in Italian and that is overall frustrating, but at least I’m hearing the language. I asked to get an Italian word of the day in my email, which will give me several examples to listen to in sentences and then I repeat it back. Speaking is of course, the most daunting, but then, the most practical and needed. My motivation is absolutely needing to be able to fluently speak with my neighbor and friends in Sicily, with the men who do work on my house, with shopkeepers. Later, my motivation will be to pass my driving test, and that will require different kind of learning!

One Sicilian friend told me in October that Italian isn’t that difficult, surely I would be able to learn it in six months. At the very least, I want to return in February with a noticeable improvement that shows him I am trying!

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Cheryl A. Ossola

Great article. I am so much there. ( How’s that for grammar) Speaking of grammar, for me personally, I obviously did not pay attention in English class, not to mention my classes were 50 years ago, but when my Italian instructor talks about particles and articles, it’s like trying to learn two languages at once. As an aside, I tried to email you using the method you suggested but I’m not sure you received the email? Technology, another learning challenge 😎

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Jan 11, 2023Liked by Cheryl A. Ossola

De nada. (Thx to IG for Int´l Thanks day.)

As any kind of self respecting linguist, fluency in Portuguese is a moral imperative. Non-negotiable for me.

The motivation thing is funny, I have studied German off and on for half my life. I could speak it, but I don´t. A sort of vaffanculo to my pretentious German relatives, lol. Stay strong and carry on sistah!

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