Path: utzoo!attcan!lsuc!maccs!cs4g6at
From: cs4g6at@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Shelley     CP)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Early Language Learning & Ancient Language
Keywords: intonation, language learning, babbling babies
Message-ID: <26613091.16461@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: 28 May 90 14:07:13 GMT
References: <2648275E.18657@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca> <1990May22.122714.14445@hri.com> <5513@netxcom.DHL.COM>
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 22


  The statement that people cannot produce sounds which are not differentiated
in their own language seems odd to me.  I have "spoken" with people who have
been deaf from birth and yet have been trained to talk out loud so that they
are at least understood.  They have never "heard" a word of any language but
can still speak well enough!  It requires competent training and many hours
of hard work, but it is possible.

  Perhaps the reason most people who learn a foreign language speak with a
"thick" accent or never learn to produce the foreign sounds properly is that
they do not spend enough time or their teachers are not equipped to overcome
this.  Speech acquisition is naturally very fast in infants, but adults can
be trained, by the right methods, to speak foreign languages with a
relatively small accent - but it takes much longer.  The fact that most
people don't do this does not mean it isn't possible.


-- 
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* Cameron Shelley   *    Return Path: cs4g6at@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca         *
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