I just finished getting my BA in psychology. I intend to study adult development from biological and cognitive perspectives. To be more specific, I have an interest in adult acquisition of new languages. Next step is graduate school, naturally.
I love learning about new languages and the little things that make them unique! I'm actually currently teaching myself Xhosa. Do you have a language that you like the most? And do you have any solid tips on learning a new language as an adult?
I took German in high school, so as a matter of familiarity, that would have to be one of my favorite foreign languages. Aside from that, I really enjoy listening to Japanese, though I don't actually know how to speak, read, or write it. I also like listening to and learning how to speak with different accents in English. To answer your second question, I'll just copy my response to hanszyme: Another thing you can do is try to speak, read, or write in your target language a little bit every day. Repetition is honestly one of the best ways for you to learn anything.Let me be clear that I don't yet have enough expertise to give you detailed advice on language learning in particular.
That said, there are strategies for learning in general that apply to learning a new language. One big tip I heard I can't tell you how many times is to vary where and when you study day to day. It turns out that people tend to do better on tests when the testing environment is similar to the learning environment. So, by varying your learning environment, you can keep what you learn from being so dependent on the context of where you learn it.
I'm interested in the developmental processes behind the switch from understanding via mental translation to near-native understanding. When people start out learning a new language, they tend to have to translate between the new language and their native language. For example, the German word "Vogel" and the English word "bird" both mean the same thing. An English speaker learning German will start out by translating "Vogel" to "bird" mentally, but can eventually just come to understand that "Vogel" refers to a winged, feathered creature (and even understand the German words for "winged" and "feathered" on the same level). I'd like to study the changes that occur in the brain as this transition takes place. I also have a BA in philosophy, so my interest in language is broader than just its acquisition. In philosophy, linguistic precision is absolutely necessary. One of the first things philosophers do before starting a discussion is define their terms with the intent of sticking to those exact definitions. Because of that, I have actually developed an interest in the imprecision of common language. It is absolutely fascinating to me that there are so many cultural idiosyncrasies in within any given language, but communication is usually not hampered. I'm not sure exactly how I would study this from a developmental or psychological perspective, but I think I have time to figure that out.
Awesome! Sounds really interesting. You might be interested in pragmatics/developmental pragmatics based on what you said in your second paragraph. Humans make crazy amounts of inferences all the time so that we can reduce the cost of communication (being perfectly precise is incredibly costly!). You might be interested in the so-called "tug of war" between quantity (be brief) and informativeness (say enough for your speaker to understand what you're talking about). I think Steve Levinson might have a good review of this, and ofc Grice is always good.
I probably would. As a philosophical stance, pragmatism is very attractive to me, so understanding related scientific concepts should be pretty interesting too. As it happens, that "tug of war" is a common conflict in philosophical and scientific writing. I'm sure you've probably encountered some philosophical works or scientific studies that were just plain wordy.
Let me be clear that I don't yet have enough expertise to give you detailed advice on language learning in particular. That said, there are strategies for learning in general that apply to learning a new language. One big tip I heard I can't tell you how many times is to vary where and when you study day to day. It turns out that people tend to do better on tests when the testing environment is similar to the learning environment. So, by varying your learning environment, you can keep what you learn from being so dependent on the context of where you learn it. Another thing you can do is try to speak, read, or write in your target language a little bit every day. Repetition is honestly one of the best ways for you to learn anything. To that end, as TheVenerableCain said, duolingo might be a decent place to start. I wouldn't suggest trying to use it to learn a whole language, but it can be a good starting place. Also, it's great if you've learned a language before and want to brush up on the basics.
That is fascinating, thanks for the link. It coincides eerily with my experience: I moved to France in March this year, with no French whatsoever. I was also taking a new mood-stabilizer (part of the reason I moved was that I had a bit of a life crisis - end of long relationship, career change etc. etc.).
When I got here, I realized I was picking up the language really fast (I've learnt other languages, so I have something to compare it to), and that my brain felt... the only way I can describe it is childlike. Anyway, it's one anecdote, but it's interesting that a mood-stabilizer might affect how the brain does other things, too. Thanks again for the link.
I definitely can't recommend any drugs for you. For starters, I'm not exactly up on all the drugs there are out there. Besides that, I don't have the qualifications to prescribe/recommend drugs.
Give duolingo a try. I haven't personally done anything with it, but from what I've read, it's a decent starting point. Plus, it's free. Good luck!