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Myths and Realities of High Intensity Language Learners Michael Erard

Myths and Realities of High Intensity Language Learners Michael Erard.

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Myths and Realities of High Intensity Language Learners Michael Erard

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  1. Myths and Realities of High Intensity Language Learners Michael Erard

  2. Hyperpolyglots represent a certain type of language learning success.Institutional operational categories (over-)determine theoretical categories in SLA. Working memory (and working memory trainability) have limits. The search continues for measures of the complexity of an individual’s linguistic system and the potential to build complexity. The stories around FL learning, both successful and not, need to be reframed.

  3. Amunts & Zilles, 2004

  4. What hyperpolyglots are like They’ve learned how to learn They’ve discovered methods that fit them They like -- and crave -- repetition They remember what they learn They have a feel for language They find, or make a niche They assert the right to not speak English

  5. Speaking

  6. Reading

  7. Speaking Listening Reading English French Spanish Italian Russian Greek Arabic Turkish Slovak Czech Finnish Languages studied but no contemporary proficiency: Latin, Anc Greek, Esperanto, German, Swedish, Japanese, Guaraní, Danish, Indonesian, Vietnamese Hungarian Chinese

  8. What are the upper limits of the ability to learn, speak, and use languages?

  9. We need them! Migration is rising Tourism is increasing Media is more multilingual English isn’t enough New sorts of multilingualism New conditions for multilingualism

  10. Neural tribe

  11. Neural tribe Neural hypertrophy for language learning

  12. Neural tribe Neural hypertrophy for language learning Environmental selection

  13. Neural tribe Neural hypertrophy for language learning Environmental selection Sense of identity

  14. Neural tribe Neural hypertrophy for language learning Environmental selection Sense of identity Personal mission

  15. Neural tribe Neural hypertrophy for language learning Environmental selection Sense of identity Personal mission Sub-national/extra-institutional status

  16. Corporate governance consulting

  17. What are hyperpolyglots like?

  18. # of people # of langs

  19. People with >6 langs who say learning is easier (n=145)

  20. Geschwind-Galaburda Traits

  21. •Profile yourself •Improve higher-order cognitive skills •Psychoemotional preparation •Manage dopamine (ie., neuromodulate) •Build community •Study >1 language

  22. • How do people get access to resources to build their learner profile? • How do people get guidance in matching their profile to effective strategies? • How do you build community among people with varying levels of proficiency? • How do you sustain individual purpose in the community given varying motivations?

  23. What would FL pedagogy look like if the goal were to produce hyperpolyglots?What would linguistic theory look like if the hyperpolyglot, not the monolingual, had been the foundational language user/learner?How to measure the complexity of a person’s linguistic system without using # of languages as the sole metric?

  24. Spiritualist Materialist Mentalist

  25. Spiritualist Materialist Mentalist

  26. The hyperpolyglot makes visible the myriad strands of our linguistic destinies, whether we speak only one language or many.

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