Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!necntc!ames!sdcsvax!nosc!humu!uhccux!stampe
From: stampe@uhccux.UUCP (David Stampe)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.lang
Subject: Re: Language Learning (anecdotes)
Message-ID: <1117@uhccux.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 13-Nov-87 02:08:38 EST
Article-I.D.: uhccux.1117
Posted: Fri Nov 13 02:08:38 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Nov-87 06:47:52 EST
References: <1966@uwmacc.UUCP> <12400009@iuvax>
Organization: U. of Hawaii, Manoa (Honolulu)
Lines: 39
Summary: Followups to sci.lang
Xref: mnetor comp.ai:1108 sci.lang:1687
In-reply-to: merrill@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu's message of 11 Nov 87 23:06:00 GMT


John Merrill writes:

>Incidentally, language is not the only area in which a crystallization
>effect has been hypothesized.  I've heard of claims for such a
>phenomenon in musical performance (specifically cello,) and other
>motor behavior.

The violin pedagogue Suzuki tells a story about Ben Franklin, who,
during one of his trips to Paris, was congratulated on his violin
playing.  Franklin replied that anyone could play as well, if they
began early and applied themselves diligently.  He was asked when
he began to play.  Why, at fifty-five, he replied.

Jakob Bronowski, in his PBS series "The Ascent of Man", remarked that
he learned English in college in England, and later had forgotten how
to speak his mother tongue, Polish.  However, he noted, echoing the
accepted opinion of this matter, if it had not been for Polish, he
could not now have spoken English.  This opinion seemed to be born
out by the heavy Polish accent with which Bronowski spoke English.

Some linguists are envied for their ability to learn new languages
apparently as fluently as children.  I think of Ken Hale, Paul Garvin,
Alexis Manaster-Ramer, Stan Starosta, and a few others.  They are also
exceptional in that, whereas the fluency of the average adult language
learner fades quickly when he/she is no longer in contact with the
language, their fluency seems not to fade.  Starosta and I as adults
almost twenty years ago both learned a difficult language of India
called Sora.  About four years ago I spent six months speaking the
language exclusively.  Within a year after that, my fluency had mostly
faded.  But Starosta, who hasn't used the language for twenty years,
is fluent as ever.

  I don't think that anyone doubts that they are exceptional, except
maybe the individuals themselves, who often seem surprised that it
isn't so easy for everyone.  Obviously they don't learn exactly as
children do, i.e. no one speaks "mother talk" to them.  Perhaps it
would be worth studying how such virtuosos learn languages, and keep
them alive, or whether their fluency is actually as comparable to that
of native speakers as it seems.