語言迷思

一直以來，多數人對於語言都存在著一種迷思：天份這種東西到底存不存在？學習語言真的越早越好嗎？許多家長把「英文」視為重要科目之一，信仰著「英文＝國際競爭力」，深怕小孩輸在起跑點上。然而，生長在台灣這片土地上的人們卻常常忽略了存在於台灣寶島上的語言多樣性：中文、台語／閩南語、客家語、各種原住民語言等等。在此先不論英文好是否真的等於有競爭力，但是學習第二外語儼然已是一種無法抵擋的趨勢。下面的這篇文章來自於Hörverständnis entscheidet über Erfolg in Fremdsprache，是一篇德文文章，文章內容所提到之研究探討母語對於外語學習的重要性，我覺得很有趣，也因此花了一點時間翻譯成英文版本。如果翻得不好或是有誤譯的地方，也歡迎指教。

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Listening comprehension decides the success in foreign language:
Good knowledge of mother tongue promotes the language ability

Many people have their hands full with foreign languages, while others acquire more languages at the same time - seemingly effortless and error-free. Listening comprehension of the language might play a crucial role, which was found by the Spanish brain researchers. Tests showed that successful foreign language learners are also superior to unsuccessful ones in differentiating sounds of their mother tongue. The research results were published in the scientific magazine Proceeding of the National Academy of Science. Hans-Jürgen Krumm of the Institute of German Studies at the University of Vienna looked over the results which were done in the research of language acquisition so far. "People who have better proficiency of their mother tongue are more capable of acquiring a foreign language", said the professor of German as Foreign Language in the interview by presstext.

"The ear is the primary source for linguistic input", says Krumm. Language listening and sound comprehension are primarily trained in the first language through language interaction. "The brain develops when learning the pitch of the mother tongue and it is also required in foreign language acquisition." A consolidated ability of a first language in listening, reading and writing is also the prerequisite for the success in acquiring a second or other language. According to Krumm, this may give implications to German teaching to immigrants. "Turkish children would learn German much easier if they first learn Turkish well." However, Krumm also attributes German children’s deficiency in foreign languages to the lack of German proficiency.

Spanish researchers came to their conclusion by investigating students' ability of sound differentiation. As for the test subjects, they chose students studying in Barcelona and growing up in the family where only Spanish is spoken. They acquired their second national language Catalan in a bilingual environmental at primary school. From 126 students who met these conditions, the researchers selected 31 people who had the best and the worst performance in Catalan. Catalan contains several vowels, which are difficult for Spanish speakers to acquire.

The electric resonance was used to test how well these two groups of good and bad Catalan speaking could recognize the difference of each sound in different tone examples. The acoustic signals were vowels of different lengths and constitution: first in Spanish, their mother tongue and then in Finnish, the foreign language which is unknown to all participants. The electrophysical reaction of the brain to different sound types was measured in the form of wave amplitude. Since the amplitude corresponded to the competence of detecting the acoustic alternation, various results from both groups therefore led to the conclusion of different processes of acoustic listening.

The competence in distinguishing sounds in Spanish examples was more significant among people who learned Catalan as their second language well. By contrast, both groups made equal number of erros in their unknown foreign language Finnish. For research director Begoña Díaz, it is therefore clear: "The ability of distinguishing specific phonemes of the mother tongue is a crucial factor in the learning process and the ability to master other languages." This insight was useful for predicting how much each individual is qualified for foreign languages, and how programs serves as a basis for more successful learners of a foreign language.