learning

Smart people are better language learners.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

Intelligence and language learning success are not correlated. Factors like motivation and self-esteem are associated more strongly with success in learning another language than intelligence. Successful language learners don’t have a special talent for language learning - they are motivated to put in the time and effort to succeed.

Which of the following statements is true about language acquisition?

• At birth, children know the elementary aspects of the language of their parents

• By age one, children typically use about three words consisting of single morphemes.

• Babies learn a language best when they are forced to repeat phrases given to them by their parents

• none of the above

Answer explanation

At birth, human children do not have a language. However, by age one, most have learned the phonemes of their parent`s language and have mastered a few short words. By age 2, a few very simple sentences are used.

The best time to learn a second language is in:

• early childhood

• junior and senior high school

• college

It is best to learn a second language:

• In a classroom where you can focus on the grammar and receive help from a teacher

• Through constant contact with native speakers in their own society

• Both of the above approaches to learning are equally effective.

Answer explanation

This forces you to concentrate on language all of the time. You also are immersed in the culture and learn it simultaneously. This immersion approach can be stressful, but it can effectively get the new language patterns into long-term memory.

Which of the following statements is true about the effect of language?

• Bilingual people usually perform math and other complicated mental tasks with their first language.

• Second languages learned as adults are rarely forgotten even if they are not used regularly.

• neither of the above is true

Answer explanation

Look at the feedback for the first two answers.

When young children begin to learn standard grammar, they tend to over regularize it. What does this mean?

• They consistently use correct grammar in virtually every sentence.

• They excessively regulate or control what they say to the point that they become inhibited.

• They assume that common syntax rules apply in all situations.

• none of the above

Children imitate adults. Their correct utterances are reinforced when they get what they want or are praised.

• Cognitive Theory

• Innateness Theory

• Behaviourist Theory

It is any language that a person uses other than a first or

native language.

• National language

• Medium of instruction

• Second language

Grammar has no place in language instruction.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

Grammar instruction aids in language acquisition. Both extremes - either focusing exclusively on grammar instruction, or avoiding grammar completely (as Rosetta Stone does) are detrimental to language learning. Grammar is just one of many important elements that should be paid attention to while learning a language.

Second languages should be learned in the same way as first languages: by being used in natural, everyday situations, and not worrying about actively learning grammar or vocabulary.

• FALSE

• TRUE

Answer explanation

Learning a second language is different from learning a first language. Babies are flooded with language 24/7 for years, and are surrounded by patient and responsive adults who interact with them and correct them constantly. Second language learners, on the other hand, often have limited access to the language they are learning, and may have little incentive socially and financially to use that language. But they also have more developed cognitive skills as well as knowledge of a first language – these are huge advantages for language learning and make adult learners well suited to classroom instruction.