Questions with this tag are about the acquisition of one or more second languages. In other words any language other than the mother tongue or native language of a given speaker.
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45 views
To what extent do children adapt to a language which is not their mother-tongue?
In following when talking about 'native speaker' I refer to what is considered as 'mother tongue' rather than reaching a level of fluency.
For the purpose of this question think of an average person ...
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2answers
73 views
What language do children think in?
If a child born in Canada is spoken to strictly in another foreign tongue other than english (ie. Italian), it is inevitable that this child will also think in Italian. When this child starts going ...
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0answers
59 views
Which makes more more effective vocabulary practice: L1 -> L2 or L2 -> L1?
Note: Please don't assume that because I'm asking about vocabulary, that my only method of language study is vocabulary memorization.
I'm in the process of learning a couple of new languages, and am ...
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2answers
91 views
What Second Language Confers the Greatest Cognitive Benefit [closed]
If I were to learn a second language which language in the world would confer the greatest cognitive benefit to a native English speaker? Would, say, Japanese confer greater benefit than Spanish due ...
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2answers
94 views
What are some of the disadvantages of learning a language through book-study as opposed to immersion?
I have been told that the best way to learn a new language is through immersion, i.e. placing oneself in an environment in which only the target language is spoken and making constant use of the ...
6
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1answer
86 views
What research has been done on the effects of learning Esperanto on acquiring other languages?
I have recently started learning Esperanto because I thought it would be an interesting exercise to compare and contrast it with the natural languages I speak. Anyone who has done even light research ...
3
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1answer
104 views
How many words do we hear in a day?
With regard to the English language, how many words is the average person likely to hear (not read) on an average day. By "how many words" I don't mean how many unique words. In other words if I hear ...
4
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3answers
132 views
How many “words” do I need to learn?
I am interested in learning a second language. To do this I have created a list of the 1000 most common words and phrases for a given language. I've also established sentences which contains each of ...
6
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3answers
154 views
Do native speakers of one tonal language have difficulty learning a language with more or different tones?
Have there been any studies done on say Mandarin native speakers who learn as adults other tonal languages which have more tones or which have tones different to Mandarin?
I believe for instance that ...
3
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0answers
102 views
Benefits of Learning a Chinese Dialect in Addition to Standardized Mandarin
[This was first asked at chinese.stackexchange before cross-posting here was suggested.]
Studies have shown that learning more than one language helps people of all ages learn each one of the ...
6
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4answers
341 views
Is learning German easier for people who know Sanskrit, and vice versa?
I've heard many times that learning German is easier for those who speak Sanskrit, and vice versa. Is there any linguistic basis for this? What similarities exist between the two languages that may be ...
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1answer
131 views
Are there studies of difficulty to learn particular language depending on learner's native language?
Do you know if any studies were made to classify the difficulty to learn a particular language depending on learner's native language?
There are a lot of discussions about what is the easiest or the ...
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0answers
79 views
What has the study of second language acquisition brought to foreign language teachers?
Learning a second language, either by immersing yourself into the culture that speaks it or by being formally taught by a fluent speaker, is an old practice in history. But the scientific study of ...
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2answers
196 views
How do children learn to speak compared to adults?
Why is it hard to learn a second language as an adult while the children may learn to speak more than one language more easily than adults do? If true, how can the language learning process be made ...
