Innovative technology helps us communicate in different languages. Will translation apps make learning a foreign language superfluous? How can we rekindle the desire to learn languages? Professors M. Sambanis and H. Böttger share some fascinating findings from neuroscience research on language learning.
By Stefanie Eisenreich and Dr. Paula Scholeman
Ms Sambanis, let's start with a provocative question: What with all the good translation programmes at our disposal, what’s the point of learning a foreign language nowadays?
Univ.Prof. Dr. Michaela Sambanis | © Sambanis
Technology distances us from one another and we suffer as a result
Monolingualism is cultural poverty
What does multilingualism mean to a society?
This single-language dictatorship actually extends worldwide: English has prevailed as the global language.
Learning has to be tangible and useful in everyday life
Unlike English, German and French are considered hard languages to learn. Do such preconceptions influence foreign language learning? What makes learning a language appealing?
Michaela Sambanis: We know from research in education and psychology that attitudes are a key factor here. But we mustn’t forget that English is very present in our day-to-day lives. It’s the language of the Internet and the media. It’s part and parcel of youth culture. It feels familiar and we can’t help noticing how useful it is in everyday life. Other languages are generally less present, which makes English classes at school all the more. In this connection, there’s been some very striking research on boredom. High school students were asked how boring they find various subjects at school and why. Music classes come off badly, followed by physics and mathematics. English, on the other hand, is rated more favourably. Students find the subject useful and can directly apply what they’ve learnt. They can express their opinions and discuss current issues in English class, and they can see its relevance to everyday life. These were the factors that informed their evaluations. We can draw on them to reach some conclusions: learning has got to be tangible, useful in everyday life and, above all, relevant.A gift for languages can be taught
How important is it to be endowed with a gift for languages? Can it be measured in the brain?
Michaela Sambanis: One of the leading researchers in this field is Dr Jentschke, a psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Bergen in Norway who’s doing research on music and language mapping and processing in the brain. According to Jentschke, so far there is no robust evidence of an innate aptitude for languages. On the contrary, two factors seem to make the difference: first of all, how early in life you start practising a language. And second, how much time you put into learning and practising it. The latest research points against any innate aptitudes and towards the development of something that lies dormant in all of us, but doesn’t get kissed awake in some of us. Still, I’d affirm that a genetic make-up does exist and corresponds to a sort of bottleneck structure. If I don't have wings, I can’t fly. Besides the time factors (when you start learning a language, how long you study it and how frequently you practise it), the decisive factor for us educationalists is the quality of interaction.How can we overcome existing language barriers?
Michaela Sambanis: The brain is mutable and you need plenty of positive thinking to rewire it. So the idea is to create lots of opportunities to drive home the awareness: "Hey, I can do that!” You can rewire your brain through small steps, examples and positive role models. But you need patience because an aversion to learning foreign languages is rooted in a whole network that has built up in the brain. And it’s emotionally fraught. So basically you’ve got to disassemble this network and put together a new one, which has to be even stronger than the old one you’re replacing or compensating for. Positive impressions, gratifying experiences that give us a sense of achievement help break such vicious circles.