Can we Acquire a Language Naturally as Adults? Kann man als Erwachsener eine Sprache auf natürliche Weise erlernen? Can we Acquire a Language Naturally as Adults? ¿Podemos adquirir una lengua de forma natural cuando somos adultos? Peut-on acquérir une langue naturellement à l'âge adulte ? Possiamo acquisire una lingua in modo naturale da adulti? 大人になって言語を自然に身につけることができるのか? Kunnen we als volwassenen op een natuurlijke manier een taal verwerven? Czy możemy nauczyć się języka w sposób naturalny jako dorośli? Podemos adquirir uma língua naturalmente na idade adulta? Можем ли мы овладеть языком естественным путем, будучи взрослыми? Yetişkinler Olarak Doğal Yollardan Dil Öğrenebilir miyiz? Чи можемо ми вивчити мову природним чином у дорослому віці? 我们可以像成年人一样自然地习得一门语言吗？ 我們可以像成年人一樣自然地獲得語言嗎？ 成年後我們能自然地習得一門語言嗎？

The key issue is not deliberate or not deliberate. Ključno pitanje nije namjerno ili nenamjerno. 重要な問題は、意図的でないか、意図的でないかです。 關鍵問題不是故意的或不是故意的。

Once you've decided to learn a language, you're gonna take some deliberate steps

to, you know, acquire that language.

Hi there.

Steve Kaufmann here uh, and today I want to talk about, you know, how deliberate

should we be in learning a language?

Should we deliberately study the language or do we just acquire it naturally?

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So this subject comes up.

You hear people say, well, you know, we just learned the way kids do.

Uh, obviously children, especially say young children that move to

a new country uh, they acquire the language quite naturally.

They don't study, they don't deliberately try to learn it, uh, and sort of, um,

compelling input, if we're driven by our interest in the subject matter, 主題への関心に駆り立てられた場合、説得力のあるインプット、 令人信服的投入，如果我們被我們對主題的興趣所驅使，

we're not so conscious let's say of sort of a deliberate effort to learn. 私たちはそれほど意識的ではありません。つまり、意図的な学習努力のようなものです。 我們沒有那麼有意識讓我們說某種刻意的學習努力。

Certainly in my experience now with Persian, where I had a lot of 當然，根據我現在使用波斯語的經驗，我有很多

interesting content I was mostly pursuing this sort of interesting

content about Iran and I wasn't sort of consciously learning, but, but is it

true that we don't deliberately learn?

I think we do as adults.

If we decide to learn a language, we make a decision.

We are deliberately deciding to learn.

So, uh, we're not like the child who's surrounded by friends and will gradually

and naturally pick up the language.

Also, if we don't do something quite deliberate just by being

in the environment, we aren't going to learn the language.

We have, uh, Spanish on, uh, in the background, Spanish

radio while we're working.

And we don't understand anything of what we're listening to.

We're unlikely to acquire very much of the language or it would take forever 我們不太可能掌握太多的語言，否則需要很長時間

to acquire the language that way. そうやって言葉を身につける。

Typically again, if a person moves to a country where that person would like 典型的には、その人が希望する国に引っ越した場合

to learn the language, whether that be France or Japan or places where I

have lived, the, whether it be expat or if, you know, immigrant or whatever

has to make a deliberate effort to learn the language, the language

is not just gonna come naturally.

So then the question is, you know, how deliberate should

our learning activities be?

So at one extreme, you could say that if, if you have this deliberate 所以在一個極端，你可以說，如果你有這個故意

learning activity, which consists of reading the dictionary, that's 辞書を読むことからなる学習活動、つまり 學習活動，包括閱讀字典，那是

probably not gonna get you too far. 可能不會讓你走得太遠。

In other words, it's gonna take forever to be able to use those words and

to acquire vocabulary in that way.

If you have a deliberate learning activity, such as say, doing a

lot of grammatical exercises and studying grammar, uh, I think it

depends on the person, but in my own view, I think it would take a

long time to learn the language.

When we learn the language, we're actually trying to acquire new habits.

So there is this aspect of the sort of natural acquisition that in the case of 所以自然習得的這一方面

young children who are uninhibited, who are surrounded by their friends, speaking 不受拘束、被朋友包圍、說話的幼兒

the language, young, you know, children, they don't care about making mistakes.

They gradually correct their own mistakes.

The brain develops these new habits.

They don't really need any correction.

You know, I, I, I think it's kind of amusing when I hear people say that the Znaš, ja, ja, mislim da je pomalo zabavno kad čujem ljude kako govore da

mother corrects the child in learning, uh, you know, their first language.

That's simply not true.

Uh, because again, Uh, the, uh, children of immigrants, even if the

parents can't speak the language, the children acquire it very quickly.

So it's not true that the parents, you know, correct their children

and therefore the children learn the ch children learn naturally.

But as adults, it's a little more difficult.

We're not as uninhibited as the children.

We don't get as much exposure as the children get.

So we have to have some degree of deliberate study, but

how deliberate should it be?

In other words, uh, doing grammar exercises personally,

I find uninteresting.

So, uh, I, I don't find any meaning there.

I don't find that to be a meaningful activity.

I don't find reading the dictionary to be a meaningful activity.

however, if I'm starting into a language, uh, using our mini stories

at LingQ, I find that to be meaningful.

It's a story, not a tremendously captivating story, but it's a story.

So there is some meaning there.

I can spend some months on the mini stories because it is meaningful to me in

the sense that I have deliberately decided that I want to acquire this language.

So through repetitive listening and reading I acquire enough vocabulary

that I can eventually start exploring more meaningful content.

And so, so to me, the key issue is not deliberate or not deliberate...

once you've decided to learn a language, you're gonna take some deliberate steps

to, you know, acquire that language.

And the key thing there is meaning, and, and this gets back to what Dr.

Krashen always saya: we learn the language from meaningful messages where we're

motivated to understand the message, but there again, if we go back to the

example of just listening to Spanish in the background, if you can't, if you

have no way of trying to understand what is being said, then it's gonna be very

difficult to learn from that experience.

That's why, when I listen, I like to have access to a transcript so that I have a

chance of understanding of, of finding meaning in what it is I'm listening to.

It doesn't have to be a hundred percent meaning, but there has to be some meaning.

And, uh, so that, to that extent, it's deliberate.

Now, do we need correction for example?

So there's another deliberate strategy.

You get a teacher who corrects you.

Personally I find that that's not necessary.

It's certainly possible that when I'm fairly advanced in the language there

are errors that I will continue to make.

And if someone were to correct me, I might stop making those errors maybe,

but presumably I will develop certain habits that it will be difficult for me 但大概我會養成某些對我來說很難的習慣

to correct, but it won't dramatically inhibit my communication in the language.

So on the question of, do we need correction?

I would basically tend to come down on the side of, we don't need correction. 私は基本的に横に下がる傾向がありますが、修正は必要ありません。 В принципе, я склоняюсь к тому, что нам не нужна коррекция.

If you get corrected fine, but we don't need it.

Corrections can inhibit this other thing that's so important for language 修正は、言語にとって非常に重要なこの別のことを阻害する可能性があります

acquisition that is confidence. 獲得即是信心。

So if I'm, uh, say I'm, uh, visiting a country, I don't know a Czech Republic

and I go in a bookstore and, uh, in my best Czech I ask something

and the sales clerk there begins my by correcting my Czech.

Or, you know, Chinese or whatever it might be.

If that happens a couple of times, then I'm gonna be less

willing to speak in the language. готовы говорить на языке.

Whereas if the, if the sales clerk, you know, needn't be Czech, it can

be Portuguese, it could be anything.

And the sales clerk immediately understands what I'm saying and, uh,

answers my question then I'm encouraged.

And so that builds up my confidence, uh, and builds up my fluency.

So I, I would tend to say that if correction is, is a form of

deliberate instruction, then I think correction is not a good idea.

Uh, I think, uh, I've said this before, comprehension questions are

not a good idea because it spoils the fun, uh, of listening and reading. nije dobra ideja jer kvari zabavu, uh, slušanja i čitanja. 這不是一個好主意，因為它破壞了聽力和閱讀的樂趣。

I, I, I was, uh, thinking the other day, you know, when I read, uh, you

know, Treasure Island by, uh, Robert Lewis Stevenson, there were terms in

there I didn't understand Jacob...

Jacob..., I didn't know what that was.

I'm still not entirely clear on the history of that period in, in

Scotland, but it doesn't matter, you know, you can, you can understand

60%, 70% and still enjoy it.

So comprehen comprehension questions, no, I'm not in favor of. Так что осмысление вопросов понимания, нет, я не за.

Uh, A lot of the sort of deliberate learning strategy, teaching strategy

that is used in schools I'm not really in favor of, but it's not true to say

that we don't have a deliberate strategy.

And I think it's up to every person to find the strategy that suits them.

And it'll be sort of a mixture of, uh, what I would call the sort of big picture.

Which is listening and reading and, and engaging with the language 這是聽力和閱讀，並與語言互動

and eventually watching movies.

And, and you're getting that whole language into you and getting

used to it, to, to the language.

And that's the big picture learning.

But you probably need to spend a little bit of time on the nuts and bolts. Ali vjerojatno ćete morati potrošiti malo vremena na matice i vijke. Но вам, вероятно, нужно потратить немного времени на гайки и болты. 但是您可能需要花一點時間在具體細節上。

So I have, uh, you know, regularly refer to grammars uh, it's thin grammars that Так что я, ну, знаете, регулярно обращаюсь к грамматикам, это тонкие грамматики, которые

I found on the internet that I download.

And I refer to them when I already have some understanding

of how the language works.

I might have a quick passover initialy. У меня может быть быстрая пасха изначально. 最初我可能會有一個快速的逾越節。

But then I, I find myself going back and going back because there

are things that I notice in the language that I don't fully understand

how they work and I look them up.

So that, to some extent, some emphasis or some, you know, looking at deliberate

study of the nuts and bolts, you know, is a worthwhile thing to do. изучение гаек и болтов, знаете ли, стоит того.

So is that 80/20?

I don't know, 90/10?

It's sort of a part of it is that overall big picture, getting the language

in you getting the brand used to the language, but there is some deliberate,

I mean, not the least of which is looking up words when I'm on link.

I look up a word.

I don't know what it means.

I have to look it up.

So there are various deliberate learning activities that,

that we need to indulge in. 我們需要沉迷其中。

And of course, the overall decision to learn a language as an adult adult is a

deliberate decision, uh, which is, as I said, not the case with children who are

simply, you know, at the age of five, they're put into an environment and,

and hardly noticed that all of a sudden they're speaking the local language.

So deliberate.

We make a deliberate decision to learn a language.

We make a deliberate decision to stay with it, uh, and, uh, hopefully move

to where there's more and more meaning.

And it seems more and more natural.

It seems to acquire less effort and we gradually start to acquire the language.

So, uh, I have dealt with this subject of the details versus the, 所以，呃，我已經處理了這個細節的主題，而不是，

you know, getting the language in you through input, uh, previously. 你知道，通過輸入獲得你的語言，呃，以前。

And I found two videos that are almost 10 years old.

So if you're interested, you can have a look to see whether I contradicted

today what I said 10 years ago.

Thanks for listening.

Bye for now.