Did speaking really cause damage, or was I being unrealistic? Hard evidence had to wait three years. In July of 1987 we started the first year-long class of more than a thousand hours, and there were four students eager enough to go the distance: Paul, David. Peter, and Charly. Paul and David never spoke; but, in spite of all our warnings, Peter and Charly did right from day one. They finished the course, they all settled down in Thailand, and they all dropped in to see us over the years. After a few years, Peter and Charly were struggling with broken Thai like all long-time foreigners. But Paul and David had passed me up. Me! The original guinea pig of practice and 40 year resident of Thailand!
Monday, August 03, 2009
does speaking cause damage?
Here is an excerpt from Dr. J. Marvin Brown's book, From the Outside In
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ReplyDeleteI don't know. I started speaking after 200 hours of listening Spanish stuff, and I think I'm doing good. I've also read about ALG and I was afraid too that if I started speaking too early I would never become really fluent, but after a while I overcame this problem. Now, when I study, I speak and I listen 50/50.
ReplyDeleteWell, Spanish would have a different required number of hours than Thai. It depends on your native language and culture.
ReplyDeleteReading the book now. Really good read! Thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteThat's not exactly a scientific experiment... That small of a sample size doesn't mean anything, especially since the only criteria was 'are friends and want to learn the language.'
ReplyDeleteHe may very well be right, but it's merely anecdotal evidence at this point, not proof.
It's just an excerpt from a BOOK. I suggest you read the whole book.
ReplyDeleteJust finished the book. Really fascinating how he models the brain and how we pick up language (trees/circuits/nodes). I need to go out and get some more Japanese experiences.
ReplyDelete@William
ReplyDeleteThere are enough scientific experiments that prove that speaking soon in your studies can actually damage your later fluency. But often I don't care all too much about stricly controlled experiments. Why?
When I see and hear many stories of people that got fluent by shutting up first, and no reliable story of someone saying he/she learned a language well by speaking it from day 1, I'm going for the silent-period thing.
I didn't read the book yet (will start right now), but always asking 'scientific proof' for a silent-period, without ever presenting living proof of a highly successful person that spoke from day one frustrates me.
There's a lot of 'proof' in the book. If one wants 'proof,' one is well advised to read the book. Dr. Brown didn't hide anything, as far as I can tell by reading the book. He didn't say that all students of ALG will come out the same. But he did analyze and figure out why that is. Because there were some students who didn't speak during the silent-period but didn't turn out as expected. Dr. Brown investigated that and drew a conclusion from his own experience. Dr. Brown has had thousands of students. Dr. Brown tried everything and he had the thousands of students to try different things with. He didn't write this book after observing only 4 students. He tried every method everyone else has ever offered and what he discovered was the best way. He deserves a lot more respect for what he did in his lifetime than the brushoff that William created in his comment.
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