47
votes
Accepted
How can I prevent myself from forgetting a language?
Speak to yourself!
Narrate yourself as you do housework, as you drive, etc. Speak your thoughts out loud.
When I'm alone, I'll converse with myself in Spanish. Depending on how good your imagination ...
- 4,935
40
votes
Accepted
Have there been any studies into detrimental effects of language learning?
Yes, there have been studies showing some disadvantages.
Bialystok (2008) notes that
It is now well documented that bilinguals generally control a smaller vocabulary in each language than ...
- 848
28
votes
Have there been any studies into detrimental effects of language learning?
According to this paper, in general, bilinguals have smaller vocabularies for each language. They also match pictures to words and list common words at a slower pace. Most of the disadvantages fall ...
- 479
18
votes
Are there any studies which address the effectiveness of studying multiple related languages simultaneously?
According to The Polyglot Dream,
Choose two languages that are distinct from each other. Languages that
are similar can overlap by way of words, grammar, emotions, memories,
and other factors, ...
- 9,047
13
votes
Are there any studies which address the effectiveness of studying multiple related languages simultaneously?
For young children learning similar languages simultaneously usually is not a problem, however for adults this could be a challenging. This mainly depends on the methodology being used, certain ...
- 734
13
votes
How can I prevent myself from forgetting a language?
Even if you don't have the time to actively study a language, a little upkeep can go a long way.
It can be beneficial to recognize you're not studying actively for now, and decide not to study grammar,...
- 1,827
13
votes
Is maintaining a L2 detrimental to learning a L3?
Well, there is an entire study on this!
Salaberry concluded that the participants with advanced knowledge of their L2 outperformed the participants with low L2 proficiency in the acquisition of past ...
- 5,308
13
votes
Explaining the difference between 'very' and 'too' to native Chinese speakers
Sometimes an image speaks to people. Maybe try something like this.
- 131
13
votes
Are there studies showing that learning an L2 makes it easier to learn an L3?
Yes, there are studies, and yes, already knowing at least two languages does make it easier to learn another.
According to a study from the University of Haifa, being bilingual does make it easier to ...
- 4,935
12
votes
Have there been any studies into detrimental effects of language learning?
Barely
Language learning has many benefits but I could find a few:
Anxiety is the biggest one I found. Language learning can be a difficult process and it doesn't come as easily to some people. When ...
- 1,078
12
votes
Are there any studies which address the effectiveness of studying multiple related languages simultaneously?
I found some interesting articles instead of the studies, but they should suffice.
The first article by FluentU lists five major advantages in learning multiple languages at the same time: good for ...
- 5,308
12
votes
Accepted
What is the impact of studying a third language in a second language?
Generally it's easier to learn new languages from your native language, whether you're learning L2, L3, L4, etc.
Learning L3 using L1
You will understand things better when they are explained to you. ...
- 1,701
12
votes
Accepted
What makes a language propaedeutic?
Having studied several languages including some Esperanto myself: The most obvious factor is if two languages are similar, either in vocabulary or grammar, already knowing one will make the other ...
- 415
12
votes
Accepted
How to maintain three foreign languages (polyglot)?
Apparently, this question comes up often on YouTube channels maintained by polyglots.
For example, in the six-minute video Maintaining multiple languages Vladimir Skultety explained how he maintained ...
- 19.5k
11
votes
Accepted
What are some techniques to better differentiate between the two languages?
Here are a few tips that should help avoiding mixing up languages:
At the start of a learning session for a specific, listen to some audio in that language. This exposes you to that language's ...
- 19.5k
11
votes
Does learning multiple languages make you more intelligent?
Literature on that matter is plentiful. Before you browse randomly on the Internet I would suggest you start by having a look at the references on the website of the American Council on the Teaching ...
- 1,449
11
votes
Accepted
Is there an online resource that show which languages share the same alphabets?
Omniglot.com is a good resource to look at for writing systems and for getting general information about various languages. They have an Index of languages by writing system.
There's also the ...
- 1,185
11
votes
Accepted
What are the most widespread languages besides English, Spanish, and French?
If you are interested in languages that you can practise in more than one country, then simply looking at the number of speakers is not sufficient;
you also need to look at where the language is ...
- 19.5k
10
votes
How can I prevent myself from forgetting a language?
To prevent yourself forgetting the language, you should basically use it on daily basis.
Here are few ideas how to do it:
use flash cards and keep them visible around your work place,
use some ...
- 734
10
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to understand what person in front is saying in different language, but yet cannot speak it
Yes, it is possible to understand a language without speaking it. This often happens in when children are brought up bilingually. If children are exposed to two languages, but one is dominant - that ...
- 1,827
10
votes
Accepted
How does translanguaging work?
Translanguaging is defined as:
“the ability of multilingual speakers to shuttle between
languages, treating the diverse languages that form their
repertoire as an integrated system”
(Quoted from ...
- 978
9
votes
Accepted
How can I quickly learn to understand a Latin text if I know Romance languages?
Romance languages' vocabulary is already similar to Latin, since they all evolved from Vulgar Latin, but Latin's grammar is quite different and more complex with all of its cases and conjugations. ...
- 5,036
8
votes
Have there been any studies into detrimental effects of language learning?
There has been quite some research into the influence of a second language on a speaker's first language. A collection of papers on these topics has been edited by Vivian Cook (Effects of the Second ...
- 658
8
votes
How can I deal with previously learned languages' vocabulary confusing me when I am learning a new language?
I can sympathize with you; that wonderful frustrated feeling... no thank you!
Scientific community's thoughts
With regards to language-mixing in children simultaneously learning two languages:
"...
- 4,935
8
votes
Is it possible to understand what person in front is saying in different language, but yet cannot speak it
Yes, it is possible, at least partially. This is called Mutual intelligibility.
You can find a list of mutually intelligible languages.
As for the only known example to me, Spanish - Italian, it's ...
- 511
8
votes
Accepted
Does native Finnish and literacy in another language give literacy in Finnish?
Based on personal experience I would say no.
I grew up bilingual swedish and finnish while living in sweden with one finnish speaking parent. While I did speak finnish almost exclusively with on ...
- 196
8
votes
Should I start learning another language even if I haven't mastered the last one?
In some countries, this is how many people learn foreign languages at school. This was the case when I was attending school in Belgium in the 1980s and early 1990s: we started with French in the fifth ...
- 19.5k
7
votes
Accepted
Why can't I think of anything to say when someone asks how many languages I can speak?
Unlike subjects such as chemistry, history or linguistics, language as such does not have a specific focus or topic. You can use it to speak about anything, or at least anything that is within the ...
- 19.5k
7
votes
Accepted
What is the better way for structure the learning of 5 languages in 1 year and 6 months?
Evgenia Kashaeva claims she reached the following level after her one-year program:
German: B2
Spanish: A1
French: A2
Chinese: B2
Czech: A2
Czech was the only new language; she had been learning ...
- 19.5k
6
votes
How can I prevent myself from forgetting a language?
Use the language consistently and with passion!
Languages will often be forgotten if they are not used frequently. Slowly, piece by piece, the language will start to disappear as you no longer use ...
- 5,308
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