Foreign languages seem like mountains or oceans ahead ...
Discovering if You really want to climb those mountains in front of You or swim the ocean is the key success to make it happen only if needed. How far You could go is also dependant on Your personal needs as for some reaching the top is a goal and others would be satisfied with the view from a smaller distance than was before ...
“Are the linguistic talents inherited or culturally learnt ?.”
VERSION NUMBER 1: Language in humans has evolved culturally rather than genetically, according to a study by UCL (University College London) and US researchers.19 Jan 2009.
VERSION NUMBER2: Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered that a genetic variation in the FOXP2 gene is strongly associated with the ability to learn a foreign language during adulthood. The FOXP2 gene, expressed in the human brain, has been previously implicated in disordered speech and language.5 June 2015
Language has its place in the brain
Have you ever wondered why it is that humans have that "superpower"
that sets us apart? Of course - it is all about speech.
We have been superbly equipped with the tool with which we can produce and imitate sounds. But the tool itself is not enough. We need a command centre which coordinates what, when and how -we have to say - the Brain.
Thanks to the aforementioned speech centre, we are unique. And now for the key question - what is it? The speech centre consists of two main areas - Broca's field* and
Wernicke* field. The first area was discovered by the French surgeon Pierre Paul Broca and he found that spoken language has its place in the brain. In fact, it is Broca who is called
the father of physical anthropology - his main interest was in the brain.
This is why he became interested in cases of patients with aphasia, a speech disorder
which is a speech disorder caused by brain damage. A person suffering from Broca's aphasia speaks in sentences that are ungrammatical, full of gaps and ambiguities, in search
sentences. Broca also postulated that in the case of an adult, aphasia will persist, whereas if
child suffers a brain injury in that particular area, it is able to acquire the ability to speak. Thus, the surgeon found remarkable plasticity in the young brain.
Moreover, the Frenchman created a new thesis according to which "we speak with the left hemisphere" - this was a revolutionary discovery, as it was previously thought that it was impossible for two hemispheres of the same organ, so similar in structure and close together, could have completely different functions.
The function of Broca's area in the ability to speak comes down to understanding sentences, processing the information contained in them. Moreover, Broca's centre is
active when performing hand actions while speaking (gesturing) - this is most likely due to the fact that the word is spoken by the person. This is most likely due to the fact that word and gesture are highly correlated.
The second area in our brain that deals with our speech ability is Wernicke's area. Carl Wernicke is a German psychiatrist and neurologist who became interested in patients with speech disorders. However, their case did not fit into Broca's aphasia. Therefore, Wernicke started research and discovered that a different part of the brain was damaged and therefore the disorders did not overlap. The area that was damaged was named Wernicke's centre. In contrast to Broca's aphasia, people suffering from Wernicke's aphasia speak very fluently, but their speech is not intelligible to listeners. Often they even suffer from verbosity. Whereas patients with Broca's aphasia are aware of their disorder, patients suffering from Wernicke's aphasia do not see any problem in their speech.
Following the successes of Broca and Wernicke in locating areas of the brain associated with speech, further sites were discovered and identified as the writing centre (S. Exner) and the reading centre (Dejerinea centre). Furthermore, in the mid-20th century, the frontal lobe of the brain was also found to be very important in speech production - a fact confirmed by Penfield, who called the area just outside the upper brainstem the 'seat of consciousness'.
One hundred muscles and one speech
It is important to remember that the speech production process is supported by the entire brain, which is working at full speed. Moreover, the mere act of speaking requires the use of at least one hundred muscles, while at a normal speech rate (i.e. fourteen sounds per second) it takes about 140,000 neuromuscular events per second. This perfectly illustrates the complexity of the speech process and how our brain works.
The speech centre and the work of the brain during language acquisition is still the subject of much research. In fact, many scientists believe that we cannot understand certain mechanisms and the structures that govern them - which does not mean that we cannot try.
Try to verify how You could help Your brain be more fit to speak a new language:
Then check it out how is Your brain gathering information so as You can learn gramma:
Then check how you are planning your actions in life what has something to do with the way You can easily learn new vocabulary of foreign language:
And the last to be verified is in what way You take decisions so as it refers to content understanding with regards to new language acquisition:
ah , whereas You reached the end of this article and have enough patience to read through it here below You can find those 10 tips mentioned in the title of the article:
Be brave enough to fight Your laziness
Be decisive to know what level of language You need to get
Forget about FOXP gene as all is ok with if You can speak Your native language :)
To activate Your Broca centre take some activities when talking in new language
Practice Your verbosity by creating same meanings in few versions
Write down any thoughts - I tried my diary when learning Thai :D
Read articles in new language with passion - of Your interests
Activate Your consious part of thinking - by puzzles in new language
Fight Your resistance to criticism
Practice saying Your opinion loud without fears of being ashamed
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