Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!osu-cis!tut!paul
From: paul@tut.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.lang
Subject: Re: Language Learning (anecdotes)
Message-ID: <2059@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: Sun, 22-Nov-87 11:39:30 EST
Article-I.D.: tut.2059
Posted: Sun Nov 22 11:39:30 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Nov-87 04:02:02 EST
References: <1966@uwmacc.UUCP> <12400009@iuvax> <1117@uhccux.UUCP> <1498@cup.portal.com> <1767@culdev1.UUCP>
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer and Information Science
Lines: 34
Xref: utgpu comp.ai:1091 sci.lang:1618

In article <1767@culdev1.UUCP> yg@culdev1.UUCP (Yogesh Gupta) writes:
< In article <1498@cup.portal.com>, Angelique_N_Wahlstedt@cup.portal.com writes:
< > be a matter of motivation and other factors (for one thing, Asians can't
< > distinguish between the "l" and "r" sounds, as someone in this newsgroup
< > mentioned.)
< 
< I am surprised by the above statement.  I did not see the original (ol
< shourd I be saying oliginar?!).  I know that some Asians have trouble
< distinguishing between the "l" and the "r" sounds but I am certain that
< it is not true for all Asians.

Actually, the 'L'/'R' statement isn't entirely true.  Most speakers
who have not been exposed to a language that distinguishes between L
and R (ie. Asian) don't distinguish them.  I recall, however, a
catagorical perception study in which a group of adult native American
English speakers were tested on a L-R continuum.  They gave (not
supprisingly) a nice CP curve.  A group of adult native Japaneese
speakers, who had very little experiance with English were then
tested, and they got a quite poor CP curve (almost flat
discrimination, poor identification).  The Japaneese speakers were
then given ~3 weeks of intense training at L vs. R distinction.  At
the end of this, they were tested again, and did allmost as well (90
to 95% as effective) as the American speakers: a nice peeked
discrimination curve, and a nice, almost square-wave identification).
I don't, unfortunately, have a pointer to said study.  I'll see if I
can find it... 

The main point is that (1) 'L'/'R' is a learned CP skill, and (2) many
CP skills do _not_ crystalize: adults can learn them.  Some people, of
course, do learn better than others, however.

		 -- Paul Placeway
		    ...!cbosgd!osu-cis!tut!paul
		    paul@ohio-state.arpa, paul@cis.ohio-state.edu