#languageacquisition — Public Fediverse posts

A rule - een regel
a line (of text) - een regel
To arrange something - regelen (stress on first syllable)
To govern - regeren (stress on second syllable. No, there's nothing foreigners this is a thing, just gotta know it)
to rule - heersen
ruler - lineaal

Dutch is one of the easier languages for anglophones to pick up but also ... it really isn't, sometimes :P #dutch #languageAcquisition #sundayMeanderings

Is anybody working on that? There are many millions of parents, hundreds I know, who are desperate for that all over the world. So their kids can play and learn and work, but....just as in physical space...only in areas their parents think about and allow.

Surely that must exist or somebody has set up something similar?

#foss #kids #school #curriculum #tablets #learning #code #cartoons #LanguageAcquisition #Linux

If this really doesn't exist and somebody wants to do this #startup, DM me.

Learning a foreign language–before you're born

https://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2025/10/03/learning-a-foreign-language-before-you-re-born

#HackerNews #LearningLanguage #BeforeBirth #LanguageAcquisition #BabyBrain #ResearchInsights

#introduction post for my linguistics account, updated as of 2025:

Hi! I'm Daisy, I have my MPhil in theoretical #linguistics from UiT, the Arctic University of Norway. I am academia adjacent and greatly displeased.

My research interests are (adult) second/third/nth #languageAcquisition, #multilingualism and #multilectalism, #nativelanguages, and language revitalization. I'm primarily into #syntax.

My main account is @theklokwerkparallel where I'll probably talk about more general things!

🚀🤦‍♂️ "Oh, #JavaScript, the unsung hero of language acquisition! Apparently, comprehensible input is only comprehensible if you can decode the mysteries of the world's most misunderstood programming language. Who knew fluency required a debugger? 🤔💻"
https://cij-analysis.streamlit.app #LanguageAcquisition #ProgrammingFluency #Debugging #HackerNews #HackerNews #ngated

🚀🤦‍♂️ "Oh, #JavaScript, the unsung hero of language acquisition! Apparently, comprehensible input is only comprehensible if you can decode the mysteries of the world's most misunderstood programming language. Who knew fluency required a debugger? 🤔💻"
https://cij-analysis.streamlit.app #LanguageAcquisition #ProgrammingFluency #Debugging #HackerNews #HackerNews #ngated

🚀🤦‍♂️ "Oh, #JavaScript, the unsung hero of language acquisition! Apparently, comprehensible input is only comprehensible if you can decode the mysteries of the world's most misunderstood programming language. Who knew fluency required a debugger? 🤔💻"
https://cij-analysis.streamlit.app #LanguageAcquisition #ProgrammingFluency #Debugging #HackerNews #HackerNews #ngated

🚀🤦‍♂️ "Oh, #JavaScript, the unsung hero of language acquisition! Apparently, comprehensible input is only comprehensible if you can decode the mysteries of the world's most misunderstood programming language. Who knew fluency required a debugger? 🤔💻"
https://cij-analysis.streamlit.app #LanguageAcquisition #ProgrammingFluency #Debugging #HackerNews #HackerNews #ngated

DuoBook: Generate bilingual stories to learn any language

https://duobook.co

#HackerNews #DuoBook #BilingualStories #LanguageLearning #Education #Tech #LanguageAcquisition

How to learn a language like a baby / The Conversation

Prima di tutto ascoltare e abituarsi alla musica della lingua. Scrivere verrà più in là.

[A new study] ... confirms that the relevant native-language acquisition mechanism remains intact in the adult brain.

https://theconversation.com/how-to-learn-a-language-like-a-baby-250551

#languages #languageAcquisition #languageLearning

Want to learn niche vocabulary without boring memorization? Discover an innovative approach using text-to-speech technology. https://www.mycelium-of-knowledge.org/unlocking-specialized-vocabulary-in-foreign-languages/ #AI #LanguageAcquisition #EdTech

Did you know that pairing text and audio can dramatically boost vocabulary retention? Learn how to apply this technique to any language. https://www.mycelium-of-knowledge.org/unlocking-specialized-vocabulary-in-foreign-languages/ #LanguageAcquisition #Edu

#vr #linguistics #LanguageAcquisition #SecondLanguageAcquisition #SLA
Song et al (2023) - "Optimizing Foreign Language Learning in Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Theoretical Framework Based on Constructivism and Cognitive Load Theory (VR-CCL)." https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/23/12557

New paper with Paul Ibboston, Antje Quick & Nikolas Koch: #Frequency, #redundancy, and #context in bilingual #LanguageAcquisition https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000924000473

The final workshop of our scientific network on Language Contact Phenomena in Multilingual First #LanguageAcquisition #LaCoLA will take place in Leipzig next week Thursday, Oct 24. Here's the final programme of our public workshop: https://lacola.phil.hhu.de/leipzig-24-25-10-2024/

In the lead up to #ALTA2024, we're highlighting #research papers from previous #workshops.

Here, Yu-Kai Lee, Chia-Hui Chang from #NationalCentralUniversity in #Taiwan 🇹🇼 develop a #dialogue module for story co-telling for #ESL students using open domain information extraction techniques and the construction of a #KnowledgeGraph.

Interesting for anyone working in #LanguageAcquisition or #ComputerAidedLanguageLearning #CALL #NLP

🔗 Paper: https://aclanthology.org/2023.alta-1.2/

Lately I've been watching/listening to a lot of content about #ComprehensibleInput regarding #LanguageAcquisition . What's been tripping me up is that most content creators say the Goldilocks range is knowing 95-98% of the words and then a few minutes later they say that you should only be highlighting unknown words once every page or two. If each page has 250-750 words and 2-5% of words on the page are unknown, the MATH says 4-40 words on each page are unknown.
1/2
#languagelearning #langtoot

#xkcd: #LanguageAcquisition

https://xkcd.com/2839/

Got a reminder this evening of a spectacular German word: "Arschgeige" (loosely pronounced "ARSH guy guh"). It's a word used for a person who's a complete screw-up.

Literally translated, it means "ass fiddle."

An example sentence is:

Der 45. US-Präsident ist voll die Arschgeige.

You're welcome!

#German
#GermanWordOfTheDay
#LanguageAcquisition
#IHeartLanguages
#Germerican
#ThirdCultureKid
#TCK

My son grew up bilingually in the UK. We spoke German at home and English outside (at least in the first years, then it got increasingly mixed). I never noticed him changing his baby babbling sounds around English speakers (as per the linked article) but I wasn’t really paying attention to that. What I did notice was how similar all babies sounded, all of them producing more or less the same sounds at first, and how these were actively supported by the grown-ups with different interpretations, the main one I remember being “da-da”. As a German I took that to mean something like “there, there” whereas all English speakers took this to be “daddy”. It annoyed me at the time but looking back it’s actually quite funny. And yes, this is how babies are learning the meaning of sounds through reinforcement.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/09/15/1199739624/baby-babble-isnt-just-goo-goo-and-hearing-2-languages-is-better-than-one

#language #linguistics #Baby #LanguageAcquisition

There is almost no overlap between her spoken and gestural words (one quasi-exception: one of her first gestures was "dog," although I think RAAAAAWR is clearly representing the bark, not the dog).

She shakes her head no and does not yet nod, but she said "yeah" and has no verbal no

#LanguageAcquisition

"Bilingual Perspectives on Language Teaching: The View from the Goal" for the Japan Association for Language Teaching was presented f2f, but I also pre-recorded it with Zoom for asynchronous viewing on YouTube (22 minutes): https://youtu.be/F0zeEIPRIhw

Photos: Zoom screenshot, presentation room in Osaka, and scenes from walking to Osaka Castle after the presentation.

Publications on Bilingualism: https://japanned.hcommons.org/bilingualism
More videos: https://japanned.hcommons.org/multimedia

🦣 groups @Bilingualism @linguistics @edutooters

#Bilingualism #BilingualEducation #Bilingual #multilingualism #multiculturalism #LanguageEducation #LanguageTeaching #LanguageAcquisition #Japan

How to use ChatGPT to learn a language - Ask ChatGPT for definitions, translations and grammar explanation... - https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-to-use-chatgpt-to-learn-a-language #languageacquisition #languagelearning #technology #insights #chatgpt #tips

That's the crucial point: Show me a child that learned it's first language by being "trained on huge datasets of [...] text"... https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/007180 #chatgpt #linguistics #languageacquisition

In the context of our DFG-funded project on child bilingual code mixing, we are advertising a 65% #PhD position at LMU #Munich #jobs #linguistics #CorpusLinguistics #DataScience #LanguageAcquisition #Multilingualism #ConstructionGrammar #München @linguistics https://www.b-ite.com/recruitingmanager/job-postings/share/3tXLeR7M6ihctWsn5Pzfx2MNuaOngaB5BkItq5DlUZLI6IL8NkpT6h7vGSNGgdz7

Some of my fields of interest are

#EnglishForMedicalPurposes #EMP #MedicalEnglish #EnglishForSpecificPurposes #ESP #MedicalEducation #Language #Linguistics #AppliedLinguistics #LanguageAcquisition #ContentAndLanguageIntegratedLearning #CLIL #ICT #eLearning #Academia

#OpenSource #FreeSoftware #FOSS #OpenAccess

#MakingJeans #VintageDenim #VintageJeans #Rugby #BelgianBeer

The Trouble with Harry’s grammar

Alfred Hitchcock’s comedy-thriller The Trouble with Harry (1955), amidst all its talk of murder and romance, has a fun little exchange of sociolinguistic interest between John Forsythe (‘Sam Marlowe’) and Edmund Gwenn (‘Capt. Albert Wiles’):

Marlowe’s correction is notable for being relatively polite. Those who correct others’ speech uninvited often do so in a rude and judgemental way. Marlowe corrects Wiles gently and off-handedly, as though automatically correcting a child. Indeed, Wiles doesn’t even notice and reacts as if Marlowe had merely echoed him. For good measure he adds another nonstandard usage: past tense say for said.

That Miles doesn’t pick up on the prescriptive nudge also chimes with what happens when children have their speech corrected – they tend to repeat what they said rather than immediately adopt the ‘proper’ form. Abby Kaplan, in her excellent book about language myths, Women Talk More than Men, reviews the research and concludes:

Some parents tend to repeat or expand on their children’s utterances, but it is unclear whether children actually use this kind of feedback to correct their own speech. Since there are societies in which this kind of interaction is rare, it is unlikely that repetitions and expansions are absolutely necessary for language acquisition.

Of course, Captain Wiles has already fully acquired his language: it’s just that the variety or dialect he uses differs in some respects from standardized English, prompting Marlowe’s useless intervention.

The script for The Trouble with Harry was written by John Michael Hayes. I don’t know if the same exchange appears in the source novel by Jack Trevor Story, but Hitchcock obviously liked it. He featured another linguistic allusion, to Alfred Korzybski and his General Semantics, in The Birds:

Hitchcock’s interest in usage also manifests in a letter he wrote to Ernest Lehman, writer of North by Northwest, in which he wondered, in a parenthetical aside, if his use of while should be whilst. I covered the whilst, amongst, amidst issue in a previous post.