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All equally gifted for languages

The language ‘gift’

Gifted or not gifted at languages? Clearly, not everyone has the same language learning capacity, which means that some of us will take longer to reach our objectives. Learning a language is not unlike taking up a sport. For most people the aim is not to become a professional sportsman or woman but simply to enjoy playing the game. The same goes for studying a language: What matters is not to speak perfectly, but to be able to communicate effectively, to understand and to be understood, and to enjoy using the new language. One thing is certain: Everyone is able to learn a language. Haven’t we already learnt one, our own? It has nothing to do with IQ, but everything to do with motivation and learning style. Once we have discovered our style and have learned how to learn, progress will be rapid, gifted or not.

Is one language more difficult than another?

In absolute terms all languages are equal in their degree of complexity and subtlety. Language is the mirror of attitude, culture and ways of thinking. Advocating one language as superior to another would border on ‘racism’. Each language has certain aspects that may be considered more advanced than in other languages.

However, it can be said that for each individual some languages are easier to learn than others. For example for a Japanese, the Chinese language is a familiar one. Learning a language in the same family of languages as our own is clearly easier, and once we understand this, we can stop feeling bad about the difficulties we encounter when we try to learn a language that is fundamentally different from ours.

Isn’t age an important factor?

Does a child learn a language faster than an adult? Yes and no. Before Puberty, the child uses the same area of his or her brain for all languages. After adolescence, each language is committed to a different zone. Even if only by a millisecond, a child processes information more quickly than an adult. The adult has to resist the temptation to translate from the target language into a language that he knows better. By contrast, the acquisition of abstract vocabulary, which is difficult for a child, poses no difficulty to an adult.

Therefore an adult with the motivation and the desire to learn can progress as fast as a child. An adult’s commitment to learning, to following a strategy and to saving time can bear as much fruit as a child’s playful and carefree approach to learning.

What is an ideal learning environment?

One of real … dialogue. In a friendly family atmosphere, the most common obstacles to learning begin to disappear: complexes, anguish, stress, fear of failure. To reach their objectives quickly, learners need to be individually coached at every moment. Once they feel liked, respected and listened to, they rapidly develop their self-confidence, and will no longer be afraid of making mistakes. The role of the coach is to nurture this self-confidence, and if necessary, to turn a feeling of inferiority into one of superiority, thus enabling the learners to take control. It is also the role of the coach to make the students independent as soon as possible by giving them the tools they need in order to evaluate themselves. The art of a coach lies in being able to adapt to each learner’s rhythm, to generate interest in them, and to help them get full return on their investment of time and energy in the target language.

In a nutshell, it is all about motivating the learners, teaching them how to learn with pleasure and meeting their individual needs. Each of us is spurred on by a different need: the need to do well, the need to master new tasks and the need to excel. Motivation is our source of energy, and a motivated learner is a gifted one.

 

Claudine & Jean-Luc Godard
info@dialogue.com