At the root of language learning

It's very interesting to hear scholars speak about how language (in all of its aspects) is learned because most of them assume an evolutionary origin for it.  If one follows the logic of evolution, then the reason for its development in the beginning  was to give an edge to the human species for survival purposes.  This it has done because humans now dominate all of the other species.  Through language, humans could hunt, know where to go to get the best kill, make the best tools, and migrate at just the right times.  That stage was followed by knowing what plants would grow, when they would grow, how long and in what regions.  Then came civilization along the river valleys.  At that point, language took a bent it had not had before.  People learned to control others through language.  Other facets for having language surfaced, such as to provide posterity with a record and to serve as a medium for perpetuation of progress.  There are a few other facets as well.

 So, when I hear about learning language (in any or all of its aspects) and the origin for language is excluded, then I have to wonder about the accuracy of such a learning.  At the root, language is learned to survive.  After that need is insured, then other reasons come into play; however, one has to still ask the question of what need is being fulfilled for learning language.  One learns the language of utility in order to survive. Then, there has to be an external and internal motivation involved in learning or nothing would get perpetuated.  The external motivation can be either negatively or positively reinforced.  Beyond that a person might just have an interest in something or a respect for someone or something which creates a need to learn. 

These five governing principles interact with the plethora of inherent personality traits and that dictates how much of a language a person will learn and which dialects/registers one will learn, and everything else about learning a language.  Techniques for learning a language play into language learning very little, maybe not at all.

Even if a person were to negate evolution as the origin for language, there would still be the need to answer the question of why people learned language to begin with and why they still need to learn language.  Answering why keeps one from straying onto the path of trying to straightjacket young people into learning sets of words that are meaningless outside of the context of language learning principles and personality.

Behind the username

I saw this email address today: empty_perspective@____.com.  I don't know what the person had in mind; I could only guess.  At first, besides thinking the address odd, I thought the address was sad.  It looked like someone had nothing to offer.  Then again, the person might have thought (s)he was a blank slate, tabula rasa, waiting to be filled.  Or maybe the person wanted to claim neutrality and didn't want to side with any particular perspective.  I have no idea.  I have chosen usernames before for email accounts.  That is not one I would ever adopt.   I am left to wonder about what kind of person wants to be known by empty_perspective.

Email addresses usually indicate some trait about a person that the person wants to tout or be known by. Some monikers people choose are not traits but just something meaningful.   Some fit the attitudes of the people making them up.  Some monikers are memorable for one reason or another.  And then there are special ones for the people they represent, among them, THEspec1@___.com.  That one never gets lost in cyberspace.

Matrix matching

E-Harmony came at a time when people were exploring a new way to "hook up" with others.  It worked well because it asked its users to fill out a several-hundred question survey about themselves.  Then it placed the information in a matrix and made compatible matches between people.  It was one of the few places to use a matrix for personality traits and connect the dots between people.

Picking up a language, its vocabulary, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics is much the same.  It in great part is due to  personality.  Other factors enter in, such as exposure, but to know what words a person knows or what native nuances a person will use (like the appearance or absence of an s at the end of backward/s, anyway/s, or toward/s) depends not on schooling but on all the blanks that have been filled in on a 20 X 20 square matrix with personality traits.  Someone who is gregarious, for example, might have an eye out for the syntax or phrasing of something that would make her/him desire prestige in someone else's eyes.  Someone who is extremely studious doesn't worry about prestige much, but would want a choice word or semantic meaning that would make him/her look educated or "smart" in someone's eyes.  Response to language learning is dependent on what traits fill those 400 squares.  Get someone to fill that out, then you might have a clue as to the type of language (s)he might use or the type of words (maybe even number of words) (s)he might know.

Personalities that match make people compatible.  Compatibility between people is something I will leave for another day although I believe in it and have experienced it to my good fortune.  Personalites make for a match with language markers, including style and  vocabulary, as well.  Try it sometime. Fill out a matrix, then match it to your vocabulary, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.  It's a match made in Heaven.

Slice of life mirrors

The reality show Jerseylicious has some interesting characters.  It probably shows a fairly accurate picture of people in their early 20s in their relationships with each other.  You have all the different personalities all in the milieu trying to get along with each other and  still coexist at some level of civility.  Olivia seems to have the most going for her.  She seems to have direction and a degree of diplomacy with others.  Anthony seems to have the most moral outlook in that he has a sense of right and wrong and tries to live by his code as much as he can.  One of my least favorite characters is Gigi.  She is definitely still in the late adolescent stage of finding herself even if she is in her 20s.  Her boyfriend is not much better or different. 

You wouldn't think much profundity would come from such a show, but it is such a good slice of life that a person can see something of great value in each episode.  The episode in which Olivia faced up to kicking Tracy in the head was one such episode because it took great character to admit to a not-so-good friend that she was responsible for something that the friend knew nothing about.  Or the episode with Anthony trying his hardest not take employees from his friend and sometimes partner, Gail, was one because he tried so hard to take a stand for what he thought was right.  Then there was one in which Gigi, who had  been away from  Frankie for quite a little while realized she could not live without him.  When she did get together again with Frankie, she told Frankie a person knows when someone is right (Absolutely true!) and she was glad to be together again.

I've learned a few other lessons from watching this reality show.  As complicated as life gets sometimes, there's nothing that replaces the hope one has of things in life that could  really turn out well.  I am happy for the characters on the show when their hopes become realized, and I struggle with them when their hopes go unrealized.  It's a reflection on the lake that I peer into.

Shaking my head

There is an ongoing discussion on the Language Expert group I am a member of right now.  Someone posed the question about how the best way to learn vocabulary was.  I have been amazed at the experts' answers in the group.  It reinforces my already shaded view about vocabulary after a great number of courses in language acquisition (both first and second), after 5 years experience teaching a native language vocabulary course to 17 and 18 year-olds, after raising two children as they acquired language in all its various forms, and after doing first-hand field research in the area.  The experts prefer methods that will only work to get a very basic number of words learned, which is probably why public schools have circulated some very soft research concerning the importance of vocabulary learning for its secondary students (elementary too, for that matter, but the angle is usually a little different).

For the record, it's really, really simple.  Stephen Krashen captured the idea in an eloquent equation on the same order that Eistein captured the eloquent equation to base his theory of relativity on.  V=i+1.  Learning vocabulary is a matter of input +1 more word (or phrase or term or semantic domain).

It's really that simple, but for those who want complex, the second phase of  learning vocabulary is that there are 5 reasons for learning vocabulary.  These reasons govern the entire vocabularies of people whether you talk about reading, writing (typing nowadays), or speaking.  The reason for the soft research is that very few true field tests exist for those learning words above the age of 6.  And there's a great reason for that.  After age 4 really, the backgrounds of children are so different and the personalities of children mixing with those backgrounds are so different, that there is no uniform way to know the true extent of people's vocabularies.  Tests cannot be constructed that fathom the number of words children know, much less know which words they have in common above the 8,000 word level.  So, getting children to learn vocabulary according to a particular method or with an established regimen of lists is ludicrous.  That is simply not how people learn words!!!

Cognitive and memory studies have contributed some to how people learn words, and language acquisition has contributed as well.  These are two areas unknown to most educators.  So, the researching arm of educaton is left to guess basically how words are learned.  They have turned to one of the softest and most recent areas of education to be developed - reading.  Heaven forbid that reading should inform vocabulary learning.  Most of those studies ignore completely how children come to the task of learning to read.  Most reading teachers and scholars ignore Krashen and Richard Gentry (himself a reading expert) and pursue some sort of universal way of reading acquisition model, following Marie Clay usually and Louisa Moates.

I guess I shouldn't care so much.  Reading will be dead in the water in 10 years or less anyway.  It's just that I have friends in education and I hate seeing them bang their heads against the wall.  People's judgments are only as good as their information.  I wish my friends could see the information I have seen, but they are going to have to go outside what is being fed to them by the school systems to get it.  School systems perpetuate circular reasoning,  ideas that feed their preconceived notions.  That's really not a good educational model, but it is an absolutely abhorrent model for word development and the associated subjects using words.

The sorting aid

It's amazing to me how many people want to be your friend, but then not really.  Maslow's hierarchy of needs addresses the need of people to belong, but according to him, it happens before self-actualization.  Of course, Maslow's is just one hierarchy of needs.  There are others.  But, I like his because I think it is accurate of human behavior or at least human development on the path to self-actualization.

My simple test for those who really want to be my friend is how many of their sentences start with "well" when speaking to them.  "Well" can be considered a hesitation at best or a hostile marker at worst.  Its meaning ranges from trying to sort for common ground to being a prelude to a disagreement about a point.  It's not a hedge per se because it is not a filler or because it is not hiding anything.  It is straightforward and people don't hesitate to use it for what it is intended to show - that two people are not on the same page.

So, when people begin a statement with "Well," I know to beware.  They may seem friendly, but they're wolves in sheep's clothing.  Besides that, they will either get stuck in the need for belonging category or move on to self-actualization.  Either way, insincerity is the trademark, and people leave you high and dry, for the group they're stuck in or in realizing they can accomplish goals without you.  I love the word "well."  It sorts out my friends for me.

Horizons yet again

I decided to stroll the beach on the north end of the Boston Harbor about 9 AM on a Monday morning.  Not too far in the distance was a paddle boarder already plying his craft.  A few others walked the beach, but very few.  In the distance where the peninsula intruded somewhat across the bay were the wealthy houses.  They had the money to escape Boston and enjoy the quiet of the waters.

On the other side of the peninsula, 11 miles further, was the skyline of the city.  It would take an hour to travel around the bay by road to the city, but only 20 minutes by ferry from the tip of the peninsula around the harbor's lighthouse.

I could hear the gulls above me, but the small breeze was the only other noticeable sound in my ears.  I had never been to any beach in mid-autumn, much less a Massachusetts beach.  It stretched my horizons yet again.

I generally don't stretch my horizons or let others stretch them for me.  But it happens once in a while.  Sometimes the scene is in the right place.  Sometimes you're with the perfect person.  Sometimes both.  Then it's a beautiful thing, I allow it and willingly say, "Stretch on!"

Course change

Over the years, rivers change courses.  The river supplying the water to Niagra Falls has changed several times.  The river flowing through the Grand Canyon has majorly changed its course at least once.  Fortunately so.  Otherwise we would have the Grand Valley.  And, the Yellowstone River is not even close to the place it started. 

The changes are not geared to human life spans, however.  They operate on a span of their own.  Humans will never live long enough to see a river change.  We just see the evidence it leaves behind.  They are the results of tectonic plate shift, glatiation, wind erosion, meteorite impact, and other forces.

I have a few course changes in my life as well.  You'd have to know me from a time before now or talk to me about the past in order to see the evidences of those course changes.  They happened over time.  They are the result of forces like experience, sudden tragedies, idealism without basis, and other forces. 

Like river changes, the force of change is not pleasant to endure, but once the cracking, moaning, and melting is over, oh what a beautiful landscape is created!  It's true about the landscape of my life, too. And I am due a couple more, probably, just because life is not static.  And if I could pick that course change...






Oh how full of splendor life would be!

Moonlight glints

I was already in a thoughtful mood.  So, when I looked out the window across the bay a little after midnight, I was struck by its inviting, inspiring tone.  The moon was not but halfway to its peak on the horizon.  The sky was clear of clouds, enhancing the brightness in the sky of the moon's reflection of the sun's brilliance.  But the moon was more noticeable as it glanced from the dark Atlantic's waters.  The harbor was silent... no boats, no noises from flights overhead.  It was just the moon reflecting from the Boston Harbor in the early hours of a Monday morning.

Soon the noises would return.  With the advent of day boats and planes would reappear.  The sun would replace the moon.  The dark waters would turn to deep blue.  The beach would emerge from dark shadows.  Reality would break open.

But in this one magical moment just after midnight, in the silence of moonlight glints off the waves of the ocean, I was lost in thought... of the sound of the cheeriest voice on earth, of the sight of the most infectious smile of any face on the planet, and of the awareness of the most pleasant disposition I have ever had.

Immersed in those thoughts, Midnight became 1 o'clock without any time passing, then came slumber.  I awoke a whole new person, having experienced the magic moment of a midnight moon.

Beauty - strength

There's a beauty in the forest.  It's quiet.  It muffles noises.  It creates great think time.  Its leaves provide a scenic panarama during certain times of the year, fall being one of them.  It serves as a boundary around people who make their homes there.  And it sometimes forbids too much commercialization of human markings.  It offers so much to the environment scientifically and aesthetically that it is a force to reckon with.  So there is beauty in a forest, all right, but also strength.  I admire both qualities.  I like being around both the forest and people who share the forest's qualities.

Worthy attributes

Nelson Manela's story is intriguing to me.  I like anyone's story who has helped change the world, but his has an element in it that I greatly respect.

He worked for change all his life.  He was groomed in South Africa to lead, but when he did, he was imprisoned for it.  That jail stint was not just a few months or a year or two.  It was for 27 years.  That's a huge chunk out of someone's life.  The movie Invictus picked up this part of Mandela's story to show the impact of those 27 years.  It inspired South Africa's soccer team to be better than they would normally have been.

But 27 years intrigues me, also, because it is way outside the norm for stamina and patience.  I admire that kind of patience and stamina.  At times I think I have patience and stamina, separately usually.  But, I don't know if I could have done what Mandela did.  That's what intrigues me.  When Mandela got out of jail, due to pressure from the rest of the world put on the government of South Africa (otherwise who knows how long he would have stayed in prison), he still worked for change as he was groomed to do and as was consistent with his personality.

Amazing to me.  27 years he waited, but the taste of his life after that was soooo sweet.  Waiting for something you want is the attribute I am most impressed with.  Very few things are worth the wait, not a 27 year wait.  I know not to say that I would wait on something or someone.  I know that waiting is tiring, and it's easy to give up.  That's why I respect so much what Nelson Mandela did.  Only once have I told someone I would wait.  In that instance, I would join Mandela in patience and stamina no matter how long, hoping for a catalyst as he did.  It all ended well for Mandela.  He's 93, living in the tribal village he grew up in.  Good for him.

Whirling eddies

There's something renewing about a brook that bubbles by your feet when you dangle them just under the surface of the water.  The water swirls by, bubbling sometimes, washing completely over your feet at other times.  Running water is quite renewing.  I think of the swirl of life's events as I watch the eddies float by.  Each eddie represents a different event, but the eddies are all connected by the rocks and water that surround them and cause them to whirl.  And, I really like the events that line up as A=B=C.  Not many of them do, so when several swirling eddies remind me of connected events, I smile. 

I close up for the night with the lingering thoughts of the events that do line up, a smile on my face, and a nod of approval  as eyes close.