Becoming fluent : how cognitive science can help adults learn a foreign language / Richard Roberts and Roger Kreuz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roberts, Richard (Richard Miller), 1959- author.

Kreuz, Roger J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cognitive neuroscience.

Second language acquisition.

Language acquisition.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (245 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Adults who want to learn a foreign language are often discouraged because they believe they cannot acquire a language as easily as children. Once they begin to learn a language, adults may be further discouraged when they find the methods used to teach children don't seem to work for them. What is an adult language learner to do? In this book, Richard Roberts and Roger Kreuz draw on insights from psychology and cognitive science to show that adults can master a foreign language if they bring to bear the skills and knowledge they have honed over a lifetime. Adults shouldn't try to learn as children do; they should learn like adults. Roberts and Kreuz report evidence that adults can learn new languages even more easily than children. Children appear to have only two advantages over adults in learning a language: they acquire a native accent more easily, and they do not suffer from self-defeating anxiety about learning a language. Adults, on the other hand, have the greater advantages--gained from experience--of an understanding of their own mental processes and knowing how to use language to do things. Adults have an especially advantageous grasp of pragmatics, the social use of language, and Roberts and Kreuz show how to leverage this metalinguistic ability in learning a new language. Learning a language takes effort. But if adult learners apply the tools acquired over a lifetime, it can be enjoyable and rewarding"--MIT CogNet.

Contents:

Contents; Prologue; Acknowledgments; About the Authors; 1 Terms and Conditions; Three Myths about Foreign Language Learning; What Is Cognitive Science?; Mind the Gap; What Does "Meta" Mean?; 2 Set Yourself Up for Success; Well Begun Is Half Done; Caution: Contents May Be Habit Forming; Suggestions for Developing Effective Language Study Habits; A Sense of Self; Trying Hard Not to Try Hard; Getting in the Zone; 3 Aspects of Language; I Before E / Except After C / or When Sounded as A / as inNeighbor or Weigh; Behind the Scenes at the Foreign Service Institute; Measuring Fluency and Proficiency

InterlanguageI Know You Know What I Know; 4 Pragmatics and Culture; The Language, the Culture, and You; Cooperation; Speech Act Theory; Figurative Language; Don't Be a Language Zombie; 5 Language and Perception; Speed versus Accuracy; Can Learning a Foreign Language Prevent Dementia?; Generalization Is for the Birds; Acquiring an Accent; Can You Change Your Accent?; In Praise of Nonnative Speakers; 6 Cognition from Top to Bottom; Hearing Is Also Seeing; Untranslatable; False Friends and Kissing Cousins; Words, Words, Words; Learning to Swim by Swimming

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

0-262-33047-4

0-262-33046-6

OCLC:

919720196