What is self evident has taken years to find out.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 19, 2009) — Why does a human baby need a full year before it can start walking, while a newborn foal gets up on its legs almost directly after birth? Scientist have assumed that human motor development is unique because our brain is unusually complex and because it is particularly challenging to walk on two legs. But now a research group at Lund University in Sweden has shown that human babies in fact start walking at the same stage in brain development as most other walking mammals, from small rodents to elephants.

The findings are published in the journal PNAS.
The Lund group consists of neurophysiologists Martin Garwicz and Maria Christensson and developmental psychologist Elia Psouni. Contrary to convention, they used conception and not birth as the starting point of motor development in their comparison between different mammals. This revealed astonishing similarities among species that diverged in evolution as much as 100 million years ago. — Humans certainly have more brain cells and bigger brains than most other terrestrial mammalian species, but with respect to walking, brain development appears to be similar for us and other mammals. Our study demonstrates that the difference is quantitative, not qualitative, says Martin Garwicz.
Based on knowledge about development in other mammals it is therefore possible to actually predict with high precision when human babies will start to walk. This is a very unexpected and provocative finding.
The notion that humans have a unique position among mammals is not only deeply rooted among lay people, but is also reflected in fundamental assumptions in different research fields related to human development and human brain evolution.
“Our study strongly contradicts this assumption and thereby sheds new light on theories in, for instance, evolutionary and developmental biology,” says Martin Garwicz. “On the other hand, our findings fit well with the substantial similarities between the genomes of different mammals. Perhaps these similarities are after all not that surprising — although the end products ‘human’ and ‘rat’ may be very different, our study suggests that the building blocks and principles for how these building blocks interact with one another during development could be the same.”
The study originated in an attempt by the group to translate behavioral milestones of motor development between two distantly related species. The similarities in relative developmental time courses between the two species were so striking that the scientists started to wonder whether the regularity applied to other mammals and ultimately also to humans.
The Lund group has now compared 24 species, which together represent the majority of existing walking mammals. Some, like the great apes, are closely related to us evolutionarily while others, such as rodents, hoofed animals, and elephants, diverged from our evolutionary path about 90-100 million years ago.
Despite this, and regardless of differences in various species’ brain and body size, gestation time, and brain maturity at birth, the comparison shows that the young from all species start walking at the same relative time point in brain development. Humans may be unique, but not in this particular way. When the nervous system has reached a given level of maturity, you learn to walk, whether you are a hedgehog, a foal, or a human baby…
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091215160851.htm

Looking for a way to generate media coverage about your cause, your candidate or your business?  Don’t overlook Facebook and other social media tools.

In early December, Mimi visited China as part of a fact-finding delegation from the Alexandria City Public Schools.  During the trip, she regularly updated her Facebook page with photos and trip highlights.

One result?  The Alexandria Gazette published a front-page story about the trip.  The article, by Micael Pope, included quotes from her Facebook status updates and photos she took with her iPhone and posted online.

How are you using social media tools to generate awareness and media coverage?  Contact us today to learn how you can use Twitter,  Facebook and other tools to reach your audiences and build word-of-mouth buzz.

KMZ4E2HFM3WN

Author : SULISTIO, ELITA

This thesis is a study of Indonesian misspelled words produced by the second graders of SDK Santa Maria in Tulungagung. The Indonesian language as the object of investigation in this study is considered as the second language. Thus, this study deals with the second language acquisition. In this study, the writer observes the type of errors on Indonesian misspelled words produced by the second graders of SDK Santa Maria in Tulungagung. The writer categorizes the type of errors into three categories; vowel category, consonant category, and diphthong category. The purpose of this study is to reveal the second graders of elementary school errors in spelling Indonesian words based on the pattern of syllables. Thus, in order to solve the problem, the writer relies on some theories of second language acquisition, error, and error analysis. This is descriptive study and the source of the data is taken from the respondent?s semi dictation test which took form written data. Through the analysis, the writer found that most of the respondents make errors by changing the pattern of the syllables. They change the pattern of the syllables by adding a consonant between two vowels, adding a consonant between two consonants, adding a consonant and a vowel between two consonants, adding a vowel between a consonant and a vowel, adding a vowel at the end of the word, changing a vowel with a consonant, changing a vowel with other vowel, changing a consonant with a vowel, and deleting a consonant or a vowel in front of word, in the middle of word, and at the end of word. Besides, the respondents make errors by changing the pattern of the syllables; they also make errors by replacing a consonant with other consonants, and also replacing a vowel with other vowels that have the same pronunciation. Further, the writer found that the errors mostly occur in the consonant category. The pattern of the syllables in this category is more complicated than the two others category (vowel and diphthong). That is probably the reason why the learners make most errors in the consonant category. Moreover, the highest percentage of the errors type that mostly occurs in the consonant category is the errors caused by changing the pattern “KVK” (type D) into the wrong patterns “KV”, “KK”, “VK”, “KKVK”, and “KVKVK”.

Keyword : language acquisition, misspelled words, sdk santa maria

Sumber : http://repository.petra.ac.id/2105/

This question comes up again and again. Perhaps my experience as an ALG student many years ago is instructive. When I began, I took about three months to settle into the program. The first three months were frustrating as it was a complete paradigm shift – from hard work, home work and study, to entertainment, and letting the brain do whatever it does. It’s not that I was passive – My role was to actively guess about what was going on, and to avoid trying to speak or even think about words. This I have done since that time and I’ve never wanted to go back to the old ways.

What I found was that I understood many easy words, such as ‘then’ and ‘but’ only after a very long time – which I believe if I was translating at any level, would not have been the case. Also, early on I began to understand the gist of things better than my friends who had studied the language, even though I didn’t know equivalents of any words. This later became a very accurate understanding of both the intended meaning and later the language, and without any apparent conscious connection to anything in English, my native language. I actively turned off the adult tendency to connect languages. Therefore, it’s my understanding that I have acquired Thai without any form of translation. (David Long)

Level 3-4

(description) Level 3-4 is now getting into more abstract and advanced Thai. The classes are generally held within a particular subject for about 6 weeks. Students will feel a jump from 2 to 3-4 just as was felt from 1 to 2.

(feelings) Longer plateaus and shorter increases characterizes your feelings at this level. You may wonder if you’ve advanced at all. Many students report a sense things went very well in level 1 and 2 but not things are not going well at all. It is a time when many students opt to join other programs, study with tutors, or practice on their own.

(pitfalls) Getting this far, and becoming impatient is not the way to advance for the most benefits. In fact, you’ve come to a halfway mark, and you can easily get along with whatever you can say already. Don’t let the fact of your not being able to speak be a problem. Don’t follow those who quit. Get in touch with friends from level 5-10, write David, email, or visit him in his office. Discuss what you’re feeling with your teachers.

(recommendations) Remember language is very complex and it will take time. The reason for a sense of plateaus now is as the amount of language you are acquiring may be increasing at the same rate as in Level 1, compared to what you already know, it’s now a trickle. You can never make things go faster by focusing on words and phrases. The principle of experience is still the key – language comes from experiences – not memorized words and phrases. Also, try visiting a Level 1 or 2 class – you will be surprised at how much you have improved. You can do this in our classrooms or at http://YouTube.com/algworld.

Level 2

(description) This level is a transition level between 1 and 3. The format is more advanced than level one, and focuses primarily on stories. The subject matter still changes every day and can be quite challenging at times.

(feelings) The level may feel like a big change for you. Many students report it’s a great adjustment. The format will tend towards less games and more stories. The vocabulary increases because you’re understanding is increasing. You will feel frustration when you are in classes you cannot follow. Sometimes, this is due to your focusing on words rather than the whole experience. Sometimes it’s due to an unfamiliar topic. It may be you arrived to class late. Don’t stress. Gain through guessing. You may also be feeling you’ve done things the ‘right way’ according to everything we’ve said, but are the slowest in the class.

(pitfalls) The increases of understanding are still enough to carry you forward. Don’t give in to concerns about your inability to speak. There are a growing number of words you understand, but also an even bigger number of words which are foggy or still not clear, even though you understand them in a general context. It’s a mistake to grasp at these sounds and words.

(recommendations) Let the foggy words become clear in their own time. This will enable you to avoid the problems of advanced traditional students who are unable to distinguish between words with only slight differences of tone or sound, but with completely different meanings. Also, don’t waste time comparing yourself to other foreigners. This is not only a waste of time, but those who study using other approaches should have different results. One of the main visible differences at this point, is they can say things, and you can’t. Do you want the benefits of fluency? Remember there’s no shortcut, and forcing speaking now will limit your end result.

Level 1

(description) This is the most basic entry point. It is designed for those with little or no understanding in Thai. It is not for those who have studied previously or have practiced Thai. Each class has two teachers, and they interact together and with the student through games, simple stories, and activities of all kinds.

(feelings) You may feel a strange combination of hope and doubt at the same time. You will sense rather than really know that you are improving and you should feel good from the vast amount of language you are being exposed to.

(pitfalls) Following your peers’ advice may lead you down a wrong path. The fact is, unless they’re already fluent, they probably don’t know how to advise you. Get to know a few level 5-10 students who started at Level 1 – they’ll understand what you’re going experiencing.

(recommendations) At this level, adjust from a focus on listening to a focus on watching. Guess about what’s going on and don’t try to hold on to words, especially when you begin to recognize them. Don’t waste time writing, looking up in dictionaries, and don’t practice outside of class. Gain understanding and don’t worry about speaking. You’ll do better communicating in your own language, just as our teachers are doing with you anyway. If you absolutely need to speak a few phrases or words, limit it to as few as possible, and memorize them.

Note: Our measurement of your progress includes things you do outside of our program. We will ask, or you can inform our office staff about input you receive outside of AUA. For example, you may live in a Thai household, surrounded by Thais all day, or you may work in an office where most of what’s going on around you is Thai. Treat every experience as if it were a class and you will be surprised at how fast you begin to understand what’s happening around you.

Both children and adults alike naturally record what happens to them. Try forgetting a bad experience if you don’t think so! Somehow, whatever happens to us becomes a part of us. This isn’t something we must apply effort to – things naturally work that way.

Are YOU too old to do what the child does? Can you do what the child does?

When we experience things that include a language, that language is naturally recorded as a part of the whole experience. We don’t need to think about it – we don’t need to try to remember anything. It simply happens. In fact, trying to remember specific things during an experience limits what we gain from that experience. In other words, by focusing on a part, we fail to gain the whole. The strength of the ALG program is only seen as students gain the whole experience. What’s important to understand is this: When we try to remember specific things, we are mostly not successful, but when we experience things, we remember all kinds of specific things without even trying!

This is the main difference between adult and child language learning. Adults are all the time trying to remember specific things, and to accumulate enough to say something worthwhile – while chidlren are just going about collecting happenings without any focus on trying to remember anything specific at all. In the end, children become fluent while adults always struggle to get things right.

To be sure there are problems with what the child does. For example, he can’t make up sentences and try to impress others. He can’t express things verbally for a rather long time – normally about 1 year of exposure (experience collecting). But when he does begin to express himself verbally, the child is always better than the adult who has studied and tried for that same amount of time.

Combining the Adult way and Child way…

While we might think that by combining the adult focus on specifics with the child’s focus on happenings we can gain better results, this is never the case. What happens is simple. If you’re focusing on a specific part of an experience, you’re missing out on most of what’s happening! It’s impossible apparently, for our brains to do both. The best way to gain the most from an experience seems to be to NOT focus on any particular part. Can you remember a time when you were so focused on one thing, that you had no idea what else was happening around you? At ALG, we want you to do the opposite!

If you really want to learn Thai, collect as many experiences as possible, both in an outside of our classrooms. Do not focus on specific words or phrases. In this way you will become fluent naturally, as children do the world over.

ORIENTATION

Take some time to understand what we’re doing, and to get the most benefit from our program, every student should view the “David Long on the ALG Method” videos.

For students who began in level 1 and are now in level 3, I’d encourage you to go visit a level 1 class on http://youtube.com/algworld. If you’ve not done this yet, you’ll be amazed at how much you have improved!

BLOG

Specific and valuable information is available that pertains to AUA Thai Program students: follow our blog at: http://auathai.blogspot.com
You may also want to ask questions, offer answers or insights here as well.

If you’d like a more personal perspective on things, follow David’s LongInAsia Blog.

INFORMATION & UPDATES

Do you use Twitter? Follow us at @auathai for reminders of holidays, blog updates and special events. Http://twitter.com/auathai

If you’re on Facebook, join the “AUA Thai/Japanese Program” group and interact with others, share photos, and have discussions.

How much does it cost?

The basic price is 107 Baht per hour. There are discounts, and other promotional bonuses as well. The details are available at: http://www.auathai.com/tuition.html

When can I begin to study?

Our program is not based on terms. Students may begin study at any time. Classes at all levels are always available, except during our holidays.

How do I apply?

The application process is simple. Come into our office, fill our a simple basic form, and visit a complimentary class. If after that, you choose to enroll, pay for the number of hours you choose and that’s it.

How do I obtain an ED or Student Visa?

We can help you with this process. The requirements and conditions are found on our website here.

How long before I begin to speak?

Each person is different. By ’speaking’ we mean the ability to form a unique sentence, without forethought or rehearsal. If you allow the natural process to take place, this generally takes as long as 700 to 1000 hours of input. (Not only input from our program but other ways as well) If you ‘push’ yourself as most adults do, you will speak sooner, with less satisfactory results. This is evidenced the world over in the differences between children and adult language learners.

How Do We Measure Progress?

We record the hours of attendance, methods of listening,, and understanding of meaning, for each student individually. We also factor in outside influences, other study or sources that help or hinder growth. Based on these things, we calculate the ‘growth rate’ or language acquisition of every student. These assesments are available when a student moves from level to level in the program. The appropriate level for a particular student is determined through consideration of the teachers’ and staff evaluations as well as student self-evaluations.

Q – “What books do you recommend to learn Thai?”

A – The answer will all depend on your purpose for studying Thai. I will try to outline some typical reasons here for you.

1. ALG was designed for real language acquisition. We don’t use, nor recommend books at all, as authentic language cannot be gained from books. Once an ALG student is able to speak somewhat, we then used books for teaching reading and writing.

2. You already have a working knowledge of Thai, (i.e. able to communicate verbally and understand what is said to you) and you want to develop in reading and writing.

3. You want to pass a test or exam. In this case, the books I would recommend are dependent on the exam and your individual needs.

4. You plan to spend some time in Thailand and want to develop a basic working knowledge of the language. I would find any book that would give me about 10 words or short phrases, memorize these, and then stop. It can be very gratifying to use a little “Thai” but realize that learning in this way is never a basis for authentic language, and it is limited by your ability to remember details about language.

Taken from Long in Asia – david long: Culture Shock

“One thing I realized as a student in the AUA Thai Program is that through sharing their lives, our teachers gave us more understanding of culture than was even imaginable. I realized that in fact, understanding culture was more important than being able to use Thai, and preliminary to being able to use Thai as a Thai. There is so much added value in that, the for me, becoming fluent in Thai was merely a by-product.”

E equals MC Hammer

Apparently, when Albert Einstein was a child, he was a lake talker, which worried his parents. Finally, one day at supper, he spoke his first words: “Die Suppe ist zu heiss.” (The soup is too hot.)

His parents were greatly relieved, and asked him why he hadn’t spoken up to that time. The answer came back: “Bisher war Alles in Ordnung.” (Until now, everything was in order.)

Via MeFi.

Conclusion: Overall, the findings suggest that distinct styles develop slowly and that early style-dependent differences in children’s speech are unlike those observed in adult clear and casual speech. Children may not develop adultlike styles until they have acquired expert articulatory control and the ability to highlight the internal structure of an articulatory plan for a listener.

from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research

When toddlers view an event while hearing a novel verb, the verb’s syntactic context has been shown to help them identify its meaning. The current work takes this finding one step further to reveal that even in the absence of an accompanying event, syntactic information supports toddlers’ identification of verb meaning. Two-year-olds were first introduced to dialogues incorporating novel verbs either in transitive or intransitive sentences, but in the absence of any relevant referent scenes (see Yuan & Fisher, 2009). Next, toddlers viewed two candidate scenes: (a) two participants performing synchronous actions, (b) two participants performing a causative action. When asked to “find mooping”, toddlers who had heard transitive sentences chose the causative scene; those who had heard intransitive sentences did not. These results demonstrate that 2-year-olds infer important components of meaning from syntactic structure alone, using it to direct their subsequent search for a referent in a visual scene.

from Cognition

Recent evidence from adult pronoun comprehension suggests that semantic factors such as verb transitivity affect referent salience and thereby anaphora resolution. We tested whether the same semantic factors influence pronoun comprehension in young children. In a visual world study, 3-year-olds heard stories that began with a sentence containing either a high or a low transitivity verb. Looking behaviour to pictures depicting the subject and object of this sentence was recorded as children listened to a subsequent sentence containing a pronoun. Children showed a stronger preference to look to the subject as opposed to the object antecedent in the low transitivity condition. In addition there were general preferences (1) to look to the subject in both conditions and (2) to look more at both potential antecedents in the high transitivity condition. This suggests that children, like adults, are affected by semantic factors, specifically semantic prominence, when interpreting anaphoric pronouns.

from Language and Cognitive Processes

Thank you Kevin, for your question: “What advice could you give me regarding my incorrect approach to learning Spanish by talking from the very first day, and not receiving correct input. I also translated word for word and still have a lot of problems having to think about almost every word before speaking. Any tips would be appreciated.”

I don’t know of any way to undo what’s been done, however we are all learning new things all the time. Will your study get in the way of acquisition? Yes. It is this point that draws the most criticism from the language teaching community. The problem is, we see it all around us.

So let’s not worry about what’s happened already. Past is passed.

Let’s think about improving from where you are.

The only way to acquire a language is to gain more input. See my blog: The Airside and the Brainside of Language. We must find ways to gain experiences in that culture/language.

What can thatinput be? What can you do to gain input?

Follow your interests in the society – Do you like football? Get together with others who like football too. Listen in on their conversations. It’s much less important what those interests are – in other words, don’t worry too much about balance.

Watch movies in the culture/language. Watching with subtitles will focus your attention on the words, rather than the whole experience and thus keep you from developing your ability to “hear”.

Use Crosstalk. One way you might use this is to make regular appointments with Spanish speaking people who want to learn English, or any other language you may be fluent in. You use that language with them, while they use Spanish in communicating with you. For a very short period, your ears will need to adjust, but you’ll soon be surprised at how much you can communicate in this way. The key to using crosstalk successfully is to never give in to the tendency to translate something. If it’s not readily understood, always look for a way to ’show’ them rather than to use verbal language.

The basic rule is this – input that leads to acquisition must be understandable, and interesting for you. It can be any sort of happening, direct involvement, or third party observation. Don’t focus on language however, because that will detract from the happening!

Good luck to you!

I’d like to say thanks to “choaphray” for these questions on our youtube channel: “hmm do these classes actually work? how long before i get to understand what they are on about?”

In 1987 I entered the Thai Program and these were my two big questions. They are often asked and so I’d like to address them here.

Q. Do these classes really work?

Before going into more detail, I’d like to answer this first question with a great big YES! These classes have been working very well for me and countless others for the past 24 years. Nature works now for you as it always has – the problem is that your education and understanding about what learning is probably getting in the way.

No one wants to spend money or time on something that doesn’t work. My motivation came from the fact that I knew that traditional classes didn’t work! This is true of over 90% of those who study language. (What it is about people that keeps them from asking whether the traditional language classes work?)

Is our approach any better? I think that there are a couple of things that must be considered. One, are you doing what we say you must do? Secondly, what else are you doing in addition?

Everywhere you look, young children pick up second languages without effort – and without fail. Adults seldom do. We believe that there are natural things at work here. All that ALG is seeking to do is utilize that natural process. So, does nature work? Yes! Will it work for you? That all depends on you. Are you doing things naturally or not?

For starters, just about everything that adults do to ‘learn’ language is unnatural. If you don’t think so, just look around and see how many young children are doing those things.

For more about what we think you should be doing, check out my blog “Automatic Language Growth and ‘Study’”

Q. How long before understanding?

Try this out – pretend that you’re unable to translate for a minute. Watch the video, (don’t worry about what you’re hearing) and see if you can follow what’s going on. Normally, when I ask people to do this they’re amazed. From feeling as if they don’t understand a thing, their understanding of what’s going on increases dramatically.

I think of it like this – there are two options for us as adults. To filter everything we experience through language, or to experience it alongside language. Filtering our experiences through language is the normal, educated, adult practice – and it should be obvious by now that the returns on the investment of time and money are very low. Experiencing life alongside our own language, simply means that we focus on the experience rather than the language, and we gain the whole thing.

Try it – you cannot do both at once. When we focus on what’s happening, language is then free to emerge as your brain connects the experiences, without being trapped inside your own previous culture/language.

Are there drawbacks? Sure. For starters, you’ll need to learn to guess about things that aren’t clear. It’s quite fun once you get used to it. Secondly, you will not have the tools to speak at first. This takes time, because language is hugely complex. If it doesn’t take time, then it’s not natural and you will be limited in your ability to use it.

What are the benefits? Speaking without thinking about it, just like in your native language is one very nice benefit. Also, if you have been exposed to native speakers, your speaking (and thinking to some degree) will be more like theirs.

So… the logical thing that many people think at this point is: Ok – so I will listen to the ALG classes for part of my day, and then study in the adult manner as well! While this may seem logical at one level, we’ve never seen good results from doing this. For a few years, we even offered such a program. Many if not most of our students do this very thing as well. In every case I know of, they all do more poorly for it. In short, study of a language must be held after acquisition, not tandem with it. I think of it as trying to look in two directions at one time.

The Star is supposed to find pronouns confusing. Someone who is ’she’ in one situation, can suddenly start being ‘you’ or ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘they’ or possibly even ‘he’ in another. “But my name is ‘you’,” the Star is assumed to be thinking. “What’s going on?”

So you have spent the last seventeen months sounding as though you are commentating someone else’s life, as if it wasn’t enough that you are now forced into talking constantly about every last detail of the weather. The colour, texture, smell and taste of food on its way down and up and out. The movement of squirrels, dogs, passers-by, cars, buses, taxis, vans, motorbikes, trains, boats, planes, helicopters and leaves. The shape of your ears. The exact amount of pain you feel when the Star yanks your hair, bites your leg or pinches your cheeks. The reason why crapping on the carpet or widdling on the kitchen floor is not a good idea. The correct method of washing up. How to separate clothes for washing. Why books should not have pages ripped out. The fine art of putting toys away. And the importance of sleep.

By this time the Star has heard his immediate family’s names ever and over and over again. Yet oddly enough, despite being able to respond confidently and accurately when asked to point to any number of everyday objects, the three words the Star seems to have trouble with are ‘Mama’, ‘Papa’ and ‘Babushka’.

He can be relied upon to point at B when asked where his Mummy is and you for his Daddy. Or sometimes at you for both or B for both. Sometimes he just points at his Babushka. Sometimes he points at you when asked where his Babushka is. Or B. Very occasionally he gets it all right, but you can’t help but think it’s a fluke.

You wonder whether it’s because he just sees you three as interchangeable food and fun producing units.

Or whether it’s because he can’t separate each of the people around him out because you are using names, which doesn’t allow for a clear distinction between self and others.

Use of precise consonantal information while learning new words has been established for onset consonants in previous studies, which showed that infants as young as 16 to 20 months of age can simultaneously learn two new words that differ only by a syllable-initial consonant (Havy & Nazzi, 2009; Nazzi, 2005; Nazzi & New, 2007; Werker, Fennell, Corcoran, & Stager, 2002). However, there is no systematic evidence to show whether specific phonetic information in other positions within the syllable can be used while learning new words. To the contrary, Nazzi (2005) found that when tested using the same task, 20-month-olds can learn two words that differ only by a consonant, but fail to do so if they differ only by a vowel, leaving open the possibility that specificity is limited to syllable-onset positions. Accordingly, the present study evaluated 20-month-olds’ ability to learn two words that differ only by a consonant in either onset or coda position. Infants succeeded for both positions, ruling out the possibility that only syllable-onset positions are specified. This further suggests that the previously reported consonant/ vowel asymmetry cannot be fully explained by syllable-onset positional effects. Additionally, the present study evaluated whether words following a predominant labial-coronal pattern would be easier to learn than less frequent coronal-labial words. It failed to obtain any such evidence.

from Language and Speech