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Babel No More / Mezzofanti’s Gift

 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery Post Reply
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michael erard
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United States
michaelerard.com
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24 posts - 106 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 25 of 149
15 July 2009 at 5:18pm | IP Logged 
I appreciate the interest that Prof. Arguelles' posting has sparked in my book project and the survey. Though the
survey is ostensibly intended for people who claim six or more languages, the fact is that I welcome anyone's
participation. Theoretically, those who claim to be better language learners than others and only have four
languages are just as relevant as those who claim 12. Practically, the software allows me to filter out/group
responses. The larger the N, the more meaningful comparisons I can make.

What I will reiterate is the importance of completing all of the self-assessments. I recognize that the survey, as
it's currently set up, doesn't capture information about latent knowledge, the languages one would need to
"reactivate." This is because I don't know of a latency scale that's already been developed. You'll note (if you've
looked at the survey) that the most questions (definitions of a good language learner, the Geschwind-Galaburda
questions, the speaking self-assessments) have all been vetted to varying degrees in various research -- I'm not
piloting them here for the first time.

Back on the latency point: I would suggest that people on this forum could combine their expertise to develop a
functional self-assessment scale for latency in one's languages. How much time with what sort of stimuli do you
need (or think you would need) to reactivate a language for what purposes?

thanks,
Michael
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Iversen
Super Polyglot
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Denmark
berejst.dk
Joined 6462 days ago

9078 posts - 16473 votes 
Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan
Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian
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 Message 26 of 149
15 July 2009 at 5:33pm | IP Logged 
michael erard wrote:
I would suggest that people on this forum could combine their expertise to develop a functional self-assessment scale for latency in one's languages. How much time with what sort of stimuli do you need (or think you would need) to reactivate a language for what purposes?


I think you have to separate two situations:
1) languages which you once knew very well, but haven't used for a while
2) languages which you never have known very well, but nevertheless well enough to use them under certain circumstances (absence of distractions, minor brush up-activities).

I could imagine questions like the following:

Could you discuss politics or another common theme with a native speaker if he entered the room NOW?
Could you sit down and write an essay about such a theme (with or without a dictionary) NOW?

(supplementary question 1: are you scared out of your wits at the thought that it might really happen NOW?)
(supplementary question 2: do you really need a dictionary, or is it just something neurotical?)

Could you do it after watching a one hour program on TV?   .. resp.
Could you do it after having read newspapers or magazines or similar things for an hour?

Do you need even more time / a regular brush-up course to speak/write language X?

Do you 'warm up' (i.e. get better) while you are speaking /writing?

Do you need a person to speak to or a reason for writing something in order to get started?
(supplementary question: does that also apply if you recently have used the language - say within a day or two?)

Can you speak/write language X in X-istan, but not at home?

Can you discuss a theme in language X while somebody is speaking your maternal language(s) in the background? (measures distractability)

Do you mind speaking X to somebody who answers in language Y?

etc etc

good luck with your research



Edited by Iversen on 16 July 2009 at 3:38pm

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staf250
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Belgium
emmerick.be
Joined 5456 days ago

352 posts - 414 votes 
Speaks: French, Dutch*, Italian, English, German
Studies: Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 27 of 149
16 July 2009 at 2:04pm | IP Logged 
Interesting!
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michael erard
Newbie
United States
michaelerard.com
Joined 5873 days ago

24 posts - 106 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 28 of 149
30 July 2009 at 4:16pm | IP Logged 
I've gotten a few notes on the survey asking why I don't ask about skills other than speaking. I agree
wholeheartedly: other skills are important, and often more relevant to massive language accumulators. However,

1. I am using an assessment scale that was developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages. This means it's been vetted and used extensively, and its advantages and drawbacks are all known.

2. I wanted to use a known assessment scale rather than come up with one of my own.

3. At the time that I put the survey together, only the speaking self-assessment scale had been released. Scales
for listening and reading have since been released, but I could not add them to the survey because
a. the survey already takes a lot of time, and
b. adding new variables to the survey midstream wouldn't be scientific.

4. Even if I had added the reading and listening scales, you probably wouldn't like them -- they're very
functional and practical and don't necessarily capture the sorts of skills and experiences that many people on
this forum seem to have.

There is a description of the survey hyperpolyglots-surve.html">here. This description has been up from the beginning and available for
anyone to look at.

Thanks again to this remarkable community for taking the survey. If you've started it, please finish assessing all
your languages, and put any comments to the last page!

Thanks!

Michael



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Fasulye
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2012
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Germany
fasulyespolyglotblog
Joined 5606 days ago

5460 posts - 6006 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto
Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish
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 Message 29 of 149
06 September 2009 at 12:59pm | IP Logged 
FEMALE POLYGLOTS?

Being involved with my forum work of transferring threads to our new subforum about "Learning Techniques" I discovered a very old thread containing a post of Prof Arguelles dated 27 March 2005 where he asked: "Why are there so few female polyglots?" In this old thread also our Administrator was discussing. Perhaps Micheal Erard's survey can also shine some light on this phenomenon. It's very interesting for me to discover that I'm such a minority person. :-)

Fasulye

Edited by Fasulye on 13 October 2009 at 2:19pm

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Paramecium
Tetraglot
Groupie
Germany
Joined 5471 days ago

46 posts - 59 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Russian
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 30 of 149
23 January 2010 at 5:12pm | IP Logged 
Anybody here still keep in touch with Michael Erard? I would like to know more about the current status of the book. Half a year has already passed since his last comment here.

Edited by Paramecium on 23 January 2010 at 5:13pm

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michael erard
Newbie
United States
michaelerard.com
Joined 5873 days ago

24 posts - 106 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 31 of 149
17 February 2010 at 6:03am | IP Logged 
Hello. A forum member asked where I am. Much has happened since I presented the survey last summer: I
completed two versions of my book. I traveled to Brussels to meet Johann Vandewalle. And, most excitingly, my
wife had a baby, our first, and he has kept me busiest of all. In my spare moments I am analyzing all of the data
from the survey and will be sharing the results with people who have requested them.

You can follow me on Twitter for updates on the book (and the baby) at http://twitter.com/michaelerard. I'm going
to be assembling a short series of blog posts about something I discovered in Bologna about Cardinal Mezzofanti -
- I'll announce the series via Twitter.

If anyone has questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Michael
1 person has voted this message useful



Sprachprofi
Nonaglot
Senior Member
Germany
learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6229 days ago

2608 posts - 4866 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese

 
 Message 32 of 149
17 February 2010 at 10:54am | IP Logged 
Hello Michael,

I am sorry I missed this thread and wasn't able to participate in the survey before it
closed. Your book sounds exciting and I hope that you will let us know here when it gets
published. Yes I'm on Twitter as well (nickname Junesun), but I am trying to wean myself
off it because it sucks up so much of my time.

Best wishes for you, your baby and the project,

Judith


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