In their early years, children have the ability to accurately produce all sounds of all languages, to mimic a near-perfect accent, which makes it an optimal time for learning a second language.
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Learning languages early makes multilingualism “normal” in classrooms and playgrounds, and builds curiosity and even modest mastery.
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Can you become fluent with just a language app? Here’s what the research says.
Swearing can come more easily to people in their second language.
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Ethical decisions deliver less emotional impact when presented in a second language, study finds.
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Coverage of a new study suggests it’s impossible to become fluent in a foreign language after age ten. But that’s deeply misleading – and not what the study found.
Hosting sporting events to spark an interest in language and culture is known as ‘soft diplomacy’.
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For South Korea, hosting the Winter Olympics is a great opportunity to engage the world with Korean language and culture.
Making language lessons count.
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Young children have little time set aside to learn a foreign language. They must make the most of it.
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The crisis in modern language teaching.
The languages children learn in school might not be the most useful for their future.
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There is usually a historical reason why schools teach certain languages. But as new economies emerge, such languages may no longer be the best ones to learn.
Black South African students need fewer excuses and more support from universities.
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Students from South Africa’s public school system battle to cope with the rigorous demands of any university degree without genuine, committed support.
Learning a language in a classroom is best for early teenagers.
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The classroom setting is better for early teenagers, while self-guided language learning is better for adults.
Children at a refugee camp in Greece.
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Child refugees need to have access to quality language programs so they have a chance at doing well at school - and teachers also need to be given appropriate training.
The idea of a ‘native speaker’ creates bias.
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The belief in the linguistic superiority of the ‘native speaker’ is often based on assumptions of ethnicity.
Why learn a new language?
Timothy Vollmer
Language learning can make people more open to seeing a new way of doing things and develop a greater level of comfort with unfamiliar situations.
The way you talk to your baby makes a difference.
Elvis Kennedy
Babies first learn to recognize the rhythm and intonation of language. The process begins in the womb, where the intonation patterns are transmitted to the baby through the fluids.
School pupils can learn far more about modern languages than just words with the support of mentoring.
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A unique mentoring project has helped school pupils learn the cultural, professional and personal benefits of languages.
What makes some individuals good at learning languages?
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Researchers have found that some individuals have a ‘language aptitude,’ which depends on how their brain is organized.
How does music training in early childhood help the developing brain?
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Several brain regions engage in an amazing symphony to produce music. What then are the benefits of music training on a child?
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Worried that a shortage of language speakers could be a security risk, the army now gives soldiers cash incentives to learn them.
Education provides a way out of rural areas – but the transition to city life can be very hard.
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Students who move from rural areas to cities to pursue university degrees grapple with what it means to “leave behind” their home languages.
Learning any language is difficult – even if you already speak a variation of it at home.
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There are many layers of complexity at play in the way that South African schools use and teach languages.