A little about me

Topic Ideas

The topic: Prejudices surrounding language learning

I decided to carry on with this subject, as I feel like after almost 2 years of studying languages it is time for an answer! So let's settle down and start the research journey.

Annotated Bibliography

Does a Language Learner's Motivation Influences Their Success?

This week I found great sources. They are both on the same subject: motivation in learning a foreign language. But, they have completely opposites opinion about it. I can see a really good opportunity here to form an argument about motivation in my essay. I have plenty to do one paragraph since I have 3 sources on the matter which all have strong and different points of view. I'm glad! I can see my final project taking form while just as last week I was scared of not finding enough sources.

Pause: Tentative thesis statement and topic sentences (revised!)

Annotated Bibliography (part 2)

The immersion talk

Having the ‘Immersion Talk’ with Young Language Learners

This article uncovers the "immersion talk", which is a short 20 minutes conversation made in a new student's native language to welcome them into an immersion environnement. It encourages them to find strategies for becoming perfoming members of the learning community of the classroom. A good immersion talk will help ease students into their new adventure by decreaseing their strees and give them concrete tools to succeed. I found this source on "Eric" like many other ones. The author the Dean of language discovery programs who has taught childrens in multiple languages and has also created classroom ressources available in various languages. This is an interesting source because it gives ressources for language learners besides motivation and interest.

‎Borey, Valerie Magna. “Having the ‘Immersion Talk’ with Young Language Learners.” ‎‎ ‎‎Learning Languages‎‎, vol. 25, no. 1, Jan. 2020, pp. 26–‎‎ ‎‎ 29. ‎‎ ‎‎EBSCOhost‎‎,‎‎ ‎‎https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=eric&AN=EJ1274420&site=eds-‎‎ ‎‎live&scope=site

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The Development of Chinese Fluency during Study Abroad in China

This article is part of a longitudinal study on American college students studying Mandarin in China. The main information are drawned form monthly speaking events in chinese with each of the partiticpants similarly to the immersion talk. This showed that the students made significant progress in their fluency developement especially during the first month, speaking chinese inside and outise of class helped with fluency and the ones who did both made more progess than the ones who did not. This source is reliable since it is a part of the Modern Language Journal published by Wiley. This article is relevant to my essay because it directly proves the importance of the time spent with a language, and also relates to the immertion talk because of the monthly check-ins.

‎DU, HANG. “The Development of Chinese Fluency During Study Abroad in China.” ‎‎ ‎‎The Modern Language Journal‎‎, vol. 97, no. 1, 2013, pp. ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ 131–43, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23361742. Accessed 4 Apr. 2022.‎

Thoughts About my Writing

Although I know I made a lot of progress with my english writing skills since I arrived to Dawson, I still have some work to do. I'm coming from a francophone high school, and I learned that the criteria that makes a good english essay and a good french essay are complitely different. In french, it is more poetic with long sentences as in english it is more about going straight to the point. It must avoid clutter and wordiness; a simple way to express complex toughts. When I'll write my final essay, I'll particularily be carefull about wordiness and sentence structure. Also, this essay is 1000-1250 words long which is short considering it will contain a lot of different sources so I'l have to give a special attention to how I organize my ideas. Every word has to count towards my thesis statement. This week workshop was about title so, my title is "Prejudices of `Language Learning: A gift or an acquired skill?"

Blog post #6

Misconception on neuroscience research

Cognitive Neuroscience of Foreign Language Education: Myths and Realities

This paper acknowledges that there's multiple myths on language learning. He depicts two different types: the popular myths without any scientific research and the myths that are misinterpretations of neuroscience research. The first one he explores is that there's a critical period to learn a new language. The author rather describe them as "sensible",so even an adult can learn a new language and speak it fluently. This source is reliable since I found it in Dawson's library. This source will be usefull to help me start my essay and introduce all the other sources.

Thoughts and ideas

Finding this source today was really adequate since\on introductions and conclusions earlier. In the article, the author was focusing on mainly 3 myths which one was not relevant to my subject. But, the first one will be usefull to complete my general idea. The last one could be interesting for a conclusion since its a topic that I haven't made any research on: language learning techniques while sleeping. It says that it doesn't work since the brain has to be fully concsious while learning, but it is another myth that would be interesting to add on

Ali, Nouri. “Cognitive Neuroscience of Foreign Language Education: Myths and Realities.” Research in English Language Pedagogy, vol. 3, no. 1, Apr. 2015, pp. 40–47. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=edsdoj&AN=edsdoj.98704442ed8448b9d9fdee170cdea32&site=eds- live&scope=site. .

Blog post #8

Thoughts and ideas

While Sammy workshopped my essay, she notice how ironic it was that our subjects was total opposites. Mine is about common myths that we could hear everyday and is easy to prove wrong while hers is about neuroscience. She liked my subject and ideas althought there was multiple things missing. For example, my claim wasn't clearly stated and I didn't but topic sentences. She advised me to be carefull about my sentence structure as it sounded very "french" which is a comment that I get often. Yet, it was only a rought draft so there's a lot of work left to do. The bigger part of her comments was about double checking my in-text citations and my work cited page. Thankfully I still have time to fix it!

Blog post #10

Final Essay

Prejudices of Language Learning: is it a Gifted Talent or an Acquired Skill?

“You are currently studying a foreign language? You must be gifted to succeed so easily”. There are notably more prejudices surrounding this trendy hobby since being fluent in multiple languages has become a valuable benefit while searching for a career. Indeed, many popular myths seems to be mostly coming from individuals ignoring or misunderstanding scientific research. Therefore, I’ll unravel 3 common myths on language learning by showing that it only takes small research to prove that there is not such thing as being too late, not skilled enought or lacking a special gift. Our efforts as language learners are often overlooked, yet learning a foreign language is an ability that every human has. Although, their success rate depends on the amount of practice, their commitment to stay motivated and engaged with the language and the culture, along with their language learning profile.

The myth that “it is too late to learn a language as a grown adult since children are better at it” is a misunderstanding of neuroscience research since learning a language is like learning anything else. According to a research paper about myths vs realities of foreign language learning all these myths seem to origin from similar terrain. In this case it’s a misconception of the “critical” period when an infant can hear specific sounds in new languages. Yet, it is true that we lose this ability growing up, this period is more accurately described as “sensible” since a grown adult can still become fluent in a foreign language (Nouri 40). Along the same lines, Gabriel Wyner adds that although it is easy to prove a popular myth wrong, we still have good reasons for believing it. During his Ted Talk entitled “Why We Struggle Learning Languages”, he acknowledges that many of us can relate studying a language for years at school without seeing great progress, and then, meeting a young child speaking it way better than us. Although, we still can’t think they are so exceptionally better than us at learning languages because it is impossible to equally compare the language learning skills of a child with thousands of hours of exposure to their mother tongue with an adult studying a couple hours per week a language that is foreign to them. Therefore, we shouldn’t be discouraged of learning a new language this quickly since we simply don’t have thousands of hours to spend as adults on this one activity. Yet, Wyner admits that we could inspire us of a child’s learning methods by being as fearless of judgement and mistakes as them (0:00-2:40). Halo Neuroscience compares it to learning anything like a new sport, an instrument or even losing weight as it may be difficult at first but with practice it becomes easier each time. The scientific term for this is “plasticity” which is your brain’s ability to create and then strengthen connections between neurons until you become a master at it. These pathways are essential while learning anything new- languages included- until it’s like second nature. In this video, there’s a great imagery representing this mechanism. It starts from an unclear dirt trail throught a dense forest which represents the brain. As the individual gets better by practicing what they’re learning, the path expands to a paved road until it becomes a full-blown highway. This analogy to neural pathways shows the fruitfulness of lots of time and effort putted into learning something new (0:55-2:25). In short, a child might have some advantages over an adult like time and fearlessness when it comes to learning a language. But we are smarter than them: we have learned how to learn, and we can master a language too by practicing just like we would practice a sport.

Similarly, a monolingual who has been studying a foreign language for years at school without worthy results, may think that will never achieve fluency in a second language yet it may be because they are lacking intercultural competence. This recent emergence clearly linked the amount of interest a learner has in the language and culture to proficiency in the foreign language since use more often the language in a social context. Although, the time a student abroad spent interacting with speakers of the language and participated in cultural activities mustn’t be confused with schoolwork as it rather relates to activities done outside of the academic setting. That is because another study proves that the students getting good results in foreign language courses aren’t necessarily the ones spending the more time doing their homework but instead were the ones who had a positive attitude towards them (Watson, Wolfel 57; Chang, et al. 1). Indeed, the learner's motivation affects their success since they are more likely to study until they're fluent in the foreign language. Although, a small minority disagrees. On one hand, some scholars point out that motivation makes the learner more receptive to the new information and is therefore essential to learn a new language which they believe also comes from the teacher and their teaching methods (Ali 62). On the other hand, Kieran Green controversy states that learning languages is something natural that all humans are excellent at. So, motivation is not the key to success but rather how it is taught. My own view is that they are both partially right, the student must be open to participate and learn but the methods of learning must be appropriated for them (Green 70). In other words, the intercultural competence is important to enhance the skills in the foreign language studied, but it shouldn’t be confused with class work since staying motivated by practicing the language in a social environment is more significant for the study’s outcome.

Furthermore, others could believe that they are having a hard time learning languages because it’s a gifted talent which they don’t have. However, the cause of this limited progress may be due the learner’s inadequate learning methods since we all absorb new material differently. Indeed, a journal of neuroscience found “neural fingerprints” which is a dynamic neural network working while learning a new language. As the name “fingerprints” conveys, it is unique to every language learner which also provides an understanding to why success degree varies. Our language learning profiles affect someone's “talent”: pronunciation, sound production but not his ability to learn as they are still accumulating knowledge. (Feng, et al. 7372). According to Steve Kaufmann, a polyglot speaking 16 languages who is also the co-founder of an online language learning platform, this varying ability is the only possible so-said talent for learning languages since the more language you know, the better you get at it. Someone who grew up in a country where there are multiple dominant languages will have a more flexible brain which will be more open to new sounds and structures. This individual will probably have less resistance to learn a new language but, this confidence can be worked upon by anyone willing to put the efforts towards it (1:51-3:30). Therefore, the key to success if finding the learning methods suited for your own needs. A way to help a language learner to find them is by having “the immersion talk”. It is a short 20-minute conversation made in the student’s native language to ease them into their language learning adventure by decreasing their stress and help them find great learning tools to succeed. Valerie Magna Borey, the author of the article “having the immersion talk with young language learners” brings an important asset for students studying a foreign language because it gives them resources that are different from motivation and interest which sometimes may not be enough to be successful (26-28). Furthermore, an article part of a longitudinal study on American college students studying mandarin in China developped further the immersion talk. They turned it into monthly events in Chinese with each participant to get a update on their progress. Again, it showed that the students speaking Chinese inside and outside of the class were more fluent and made the most progress in the first month (Chang 131). In brief, every student learns differently so they should seek for the learning methods that works the best for them, changing them when they feel the need.

In conclusion, don’t let the prejudice of being to old or not able deceive you to learn a language. Then, we also discovered that a polyglot’s secret might simply be to find your own learning methods that makes you enjoy the long and difficult journey of learning a foreign language (Machovà 9:47- 10:40). Finally, there aren’t really such a thing as a special talent either. Its no magic, it’s neuroscience (Halo Science 2:50-2:55)! They’re other myths that I haven’t much expanded on like that if it’s possible to learn languages while sleeping. But remember, as losing weight or learning an instrument, they are no miracles or shortcuts, but staying motivated by recognising every bit of progress might guide you to fluency.

Works cited

Ali Nouri. “Cognitive Neuroscience of Foreign Language Education: Myths and Realities.” Research in English Language Pedagogy, vol. 3, no. 1, Apr. 2015, pp. 40– 47. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=edsdoj& AN=edsdoj.98704442ed8448b9d9fdee170cdea32&site=eds- live&scope=site. .

Borey, Valerie Magna. “Having the ‘Immersion Talk’ with Young Language Learners.”‎‎Learning Languages‎‎, vol. 25, no. 1, Jan. 2020, pp. 26–‎‎ ‎‎29. ‎‎ ‎‎EBSCOhost‎‎,‎‎https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid& db=eric&AN=EJ1274420&site=eds-‎‎ ‎live&scope=site‎

Chang, Charles B., et al. “Relationships of Attitudes toward Homework and Time Spent on Homework to Course Outcomes: The Case of Foreign Language Learning.” Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 106, no. 4, Nov. 2014, pp. 1049–65. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036497

‎DU, HANG. “The Development of Chinese Fluency During Study Abroad in China.” ‎‎ ‎‎The Modern Language Journal‎‎, vol. 97, no. 1, 2013, pp. ‎‎ ‎‎ 131–43, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23361742. Accessed 4 Apr. 2022.‎

Gangyi Feng, et al. “Neural Fingerprints Underlying Individual Language Learning Profiles.” Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 41, no. 35, Sept. 2021, pp. 7372–87. EBSCOhost, dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2325/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0415-21.2021.

Green, Kieran. “The Human Brain Does Not Need High Levels of Motivation to Learn a Foreign Language: MotivationHas Had Its Day.” Advances in Language and Literary Studies, vol. 7, no. 5, Oct. 2016, pp. 70–77. EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=eric&AN=EJ1126953&site=eds-live&scope=site

"Is There a Talent For Language Learning?" Youtube, uploaded by Steve Kaufmann, 15 July 2021, Is There a Talent For Language Learning? https://youtu.be/nNqnUWVtqRM

Machová, Lýdia. "The secret of learning a new language." YouTube, uploaded by TED, Jan, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=o_XVt5rdpFY&list=LL&index=4.

Seven, Mehmet Ali. “Motivation in Language Learning and Teaching.” African Educational Research Journal, vol. 8, Oct. 2020, pp. 62–71. EBSCOhost, dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=eric&AN=EJ1274645&site=edslive&scope=site.

“The Neuroscience of Learning”. Youtube, uploaded by Halo Neuroscience. https://youtu.be/_nWMP68DqHE

Watson, Jeff R., and Richard Wolfel. “The Intersection of Language and Culture in Study Abroad: Assessment and Analysis of Study Abroad Outcomes.” Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, vol. 25, Jan. 2015, pp. 57–72. EBSCOhost,https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=eric&AN=EJ1071129&site=eds- live&scope=site

Wyner, Gabriel. "Why We Struggle Learning Languages." Ted, Dec, 2017. https://youtu.be/iBMfg4WkKL8\

Oral Presentation