100 Language Learning

Topic 100 Language Learning 4 September 2020

1. Are you a good language learner? What makes you believe that?

2. What have been some of the high point and low points in your language learning journey?

3. Why are English speakers, as a group, such terrible foreign language learners? In English speaking countries, 95-98% of people who begin to learn a foreign language never achieve a useful ability to speak it.

4. What is the best language learning method for a beginner? For an intermediate level learner? For an advanced learner?

5. What is the hardest skill to learn for foreign English language students?

6. Do you need classroom teaching to learn a foreign language? Can you do it all online? Is is best or necessary to live in a country where the language you study is spoken by everyone?

7 Which foreign language should Australians study? English is used worldwide. However, Australians are often confused (and de-motivated) about choosing a foreign language to learn.

8. In Australia, what is the best way to get maximum English language practice? What do you do?

9. Some countries have many languages, even hundreds of languages. This creates many problems. However, people are very emotional about keeping their mother tongue. It gives them an identity. How can the competition between local languages and national languages be solved?

10. Most countries have prestige dialects and "low" or "working class" dialects. Using the right dialect can get you jobs, friends, even a marriage partner. What are some different social dialects you know about a) in English; b) in your mother language?

[note: Languages come in language families. Two languages are different if the speakers of one language cannot understand the speakers of the other language. Dialects happen 'inside' one language. Even though the dialects of one language are a bit different, the speakers of one dialect can still understand the speakers of the other dialect. Of course, the language/dialect difference is not black and white. There is a lot of grey, where understanding is not complete] .