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The story of Al-Asma'i. During some time in history there was a tyrant of king in the Middle East with an exquisite memory, nearly an eidetic, he could remember anything recited to him after hearing it only once. He prized memory over many things and thus his servants were expected to be the same his attendants could memorize anything after hearing anything only twice and his maids after only three times. The king loved all literature and the prosody of poetry was his greatest joy, so thus he decided to hold a contest. He challenged the poets in the land to write an original poem that he had not heard, and if any of the poets succeeded, then he would grant the winner gold equal to the weight of the material the poem was written on.

Many poets accepted the challenge and came to the royal court with the poetry in hand ready to win the prize, but after each poet recited their poem the king then his servants and maids would recite the poem, thus proving that the poetry was not new. As word quickly spread that the challenge was now more difficult a young and talented poet heard of the peculiar challenge. Al-Asma'i thought of a poem that would surely be too difficult to be memorized quickly. He spent days in the hills off of a marble quarry writing his poem. His work was difficult and not easy, but after he had successfully finished the work he himself had memorized the poem.

Al-Asma'i journeyed to the court. He had never seen the immensity of the palace and was astonished at the beautiful artwork and architecture that adorned every space that the eye could journey upon. Vaulted ceilings and high doors with gemetric symbols and cascades of light keeping no corner obscure. Soon he made his way to the royal chamber. The king duly surprised, but ready prepared his court the hear the poet recite his master work.

The poet confident although afraid of the power of the royal court stood quietly, until a servant signaled him to begin. The poet began, "I will recite the song of the nightingale" and he began in Arabic, "Sow too safee bulbulee, heyaa abqul al-thamalee ..." he continued on and the court listened patiently. Dust settled lightly in the silence that surrounded the poet as he recited his poem with rythmic excellence. When he had finished the king began to recite the poem, slowly, but soon his words faltered and he erred. He commanded his servants to recite the poem, they too began the recitation, but soon their worlds also faltered. The maids began for the third time, but their words too became lost in the immensity of the poem.

The king relented. He spoke, "You have been a worthy challenger. So I will thusly reward you gold equal to the weight of the paper the poem was written upon."

Al-Asma'i replied in eagerness, "Ah, yes, but I have not written my work upon paper."

Confused the king replied, "Then where have you written it?"

Al-Asma'i now almost modest in his reply said only, "On the marble in the marble quarry near my village."

The king was duly surprised, but without alternative he was left only to pay the noble poet with all the gold in the kingdom.
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The above is an adaptation of a common story told in the Middle East. It was recounted to me by my friend in Saudi Arabia and then my friend in Kuwait. I have adapted the story a bit, and it's just a rough sketch of what this great story could really be. Enjoy. 

The poem that Al-Asma'i wrote below: 

Blogging is always second on the list of things. I collect lots of interesting things and think, my, wouldn't that be an interesting topic to make a post about, but I never seem to get around to writing an entry for it.

I can't say I've not wanted to write, but in some senses it appears nearly fruitless, but I shouldn't give up this endeavor anyway, because it holds something, or may come to hold something.

Anyhow I will put a few entries in the queue, perhaps it will liven things up on this old blog.

I have been feeling wonderful lately with only the help of a little coffee some music and the most excellent of all dreams. I feel bliss and temporary englightenment. This is how I feel but words cannot describe what I am feeling now. Dreams... 

In an article I wrote a few weeks back I talked about Anxiety in the foreign language classroom and the detrimental effect that it can have for learners, and how they choose to progress their further learning endeavors in a language, especially with Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs). I wanted to share some of the research I found on the subject to back up my claims, as well as to give more adequate information to anyone that has chanced upon this blog.

An article from Jstor: Listening Comprehension and Anxiety in the Arabic Language Classroom by Hussein Elkhafaifi. Link: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3588681

An article from Science Daily: Anxiety's Hidden Cost In Academic Performance
Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090623090713.htm

Recently, I've discovered that there is interest between the differing programs out there to study language. While there are uncounted resources to learn a language some of the most well known and popular programs are Pimsleur and Michel Thomas. These programs have been used over and over, and their price shows that they may have something to offer as well, being that these programs are generally quite expensive.

I'll start off by saying that because these two programs are the most popular it doesn't mean they are the best option for all learners, nor does it mean that they don't have very formidable competitors. Often it depends on what language you want to learn, and why exactly you are learning the language. Linguaphone alltalk is language learning system that has books as well as tapes, which are very useful, since in many cases the learning follows a paradigm of a story, which means you are consistently being prepared for real life situations in which you then learn the necessary vocabulary to survive in these situations. I think Linguaphone is one of the better competitors to the most popular programs, but there are still more out there, which come in handy to different sorts of learners.

The Pimsleur and Michel Thomas programs both offer programs that are designed to give the learner a conversational proficiency. The programs can vary widely in what areas they give conversational proficiency, but generally deal with introductions, ordering food, getting from A to B, human emotion, and perhaps even introducing yourself. Neither of the programs really focus on writing ability or reading ability, although some Pimsleur programs do contain short reading sections, but are not integral to the course, since they can be completed at any time within the course. This also means that both the programs will not help with key reading skills that would be necessary abroad, which for me means that these programs are survival courses meant to keep the learner and traveler abroad agile enough to make their way through most situations without being left in the dust. Both of these courses also make excellent companions to traditional courses in the language, and will augment vocabulary and fluency, which is a definite plus and why I would recommend using one of these programs in addition to traditional courses.

There are some key differences between the programs though. The Pimsleur program was developed by researcher Paul Pimsleur, and through his research found that most learners need to repeat a word an average of 80 times before they can actively use and recall vocabulary. The research also found that learners retained more information in lessons of 30 minutes, and any longer was too much, which means Pimsleur has short and to the point lessons packed with content (information via introduction to Pimsleur programs). Thus, the Pimsleur program stresses memorization, but in such a way that words are repeated in context over a long period of time, which means the learner is forced to actively try to remember, but the memorization isn't a rote process that is painful. The process is actually quite pleasant and not very dull at all. The program follows natural dialogue between a natives and between foreigners and natives. The conversational variety progresses slowly as the program moves on, but  will review old vocabulary on each step of the journey, so once you finish you have a strong foundation of vocabulary that can be remembered with very little effort. The downside to this method is that conversational variety and ability to speak without a scripted pre-formed sentence is not really a skill that is allowed to develop here, another reason why it makes a better companion to traditional study. However, I wouldn't say that this program is at all bad for independent study in other circumstances, because in the right context with an avid and active learner this program is really quite useful.

The Michel Thomas program was developed by a linguist of the same name who learned several European languages, and subsequently developed  courses using the method aptly named the, "Michel Thomas Method," which focuses on conversational variety and immediate fluency in a language based on recognition of cognates in the language similar to the native speakers own tongue. The method seems to be almost exclusive to English, whereas Pimsleur is applicable to other languages, which makes it more usable for learners who do not prefer to learn from English to their target language. In some respects Michel Thomas focuses more on the vocabulary the user already knows and can easily remember, meaning that the method of communication is much simpler, vocabulary acquisition is much faster, and communication is therefore more intimate in some instances than it would be with Pimsleur. This method is particularly useful when the user wants to express emotion rather than survival, although the course does not forget key survival areas such as food and travel accommodations. The strength of Michel Thomas is that is provides the learner with very immediate results and with most European languages an active vocabulary of several thousand words, which are learned with little to no effort, since they are cognates. The program also stresses that the learner is not to actively memorize or try to think of the words, but rather let them flow naturally. This is perhaps a blessing and a curse of the program. While stress and anxiety are poor motivators they are also to an extent necessary in small amounts to get the learner to have a quick memory while speaking.

While I like both of the courses each of them have their own individual drawbacks. The Michel Thomas Method has been developed into many other languages since Michel's death, including languages such as Russian and Arabic, however the efficacy of these courses in languages that don't match the method so easily is quite debatable. Furthermore, the Michel Thomas Method preys on the fact that English is an international language, which makes it difficult for foreigners to use if they aren't familiar with English. While Pimsleur is much less faulted because serious research has given applicable methods that work across languages but the same vocabulary is not as readily applicable with this program as with Michel Thomas. The programs are essentially equal in the applicability and usefulness to the learner. While I can see results more quickly with Michel Thomas, I am much more confident and fluent after have spent time with Pimsleur. I also find the Pimsleur program to be much more mentally stimulating and fun than I do the Michel Thomas program. The Michel Thomas program also has a more sociable aspect to it, which means that during the audio lessons there is regular conversation about the history and development of the language as well as the stress of the learners that learn with you during the course. Although with Michel Thomas it is much more challenging to hear the perpetual mistakes of the learners through the program, than to just learn on your own, and not pickup on the mistakes of the learners. This makes Pimsleur much more personal and accessible, because you are not sharing the experience with others, but rather trying it yourself, instead of with the learners. I find Pimsleur more challenging, yet more accessible than Michel Thomas, because it focuses on retention rather than quick fluency tricks.

In a recent article from New Scientist and one from the BBC  it was reported in a new study that monkeys appear to have the ability to recognize grammatical structures. the study tested the reaction monkeys had to learning the addition of a morpheme either as a prefix or a suffix, and when the suffix or prefix or the established morpheme was added the monkeys established then the researchers threw a curve to see if the monkeys would catch that the pattern was thrown out incorrectly.

The research appears to indicate that this implies that monkeys has an innate ability to recognize grammatical structures. However, I would say more accurately it means that monkeys can recognize patterns, and therefore pick out incorrect attempts to work within these patterns. Although I am not saying that the monkey isn't capable of recognizing grammar, but rather that the experiment does not accurately test or assess the grammar abilities of the monkey.

In a recent article by Scientific American High Fructose corn syrup has been discovered to impair memory. The substance which is in many foods that are processed today is touted widely by corn growers and supporters as perfectly safe, and many ad campaigns in the US have also pointed to the very safe nature of the substance, which of course is dubious, especially when many of the products paired with High Fructose corn syrup also contain carcinogens and preservatives, which really should not be on the market is the FDA had an sense. It is becoming more and more advisable to avoid corn syrup whenever possible and opt out for the healthier choices. Finding products made from real cane sugar really makes sense, although the taste takes a little bit of time to adjust to.

In a related article from Science Daily caffeine has been discovered to reverse effects of memory impairment, and the equivalent of 5 cups a day has been found to help significantly with this impairment, which would mean a very effective treatment for people suffering from Alzheimer's disease. In incredibly interesting thing to think about, which of course makes me even more fond of my morning coffee. Although it does make me wonder what the effects of soda are on the memory overall, does the caffeine and fructose boost help or hinder?

A really nice spoof of the High Fructose Corn Syrup Commercial 

As a long time internet user I am interested in the development that takes places everyday within a virtual world where people have an increasingly limitless method of communication, and each day new surprises and method of communication across borders, cultures, and languages are created. Each day something new surprises me. Technology which once would have been seen as needless and more than superfluous has found our way into the everyday life. It has all created wonderful benefits and other terrible consequences.

I will list just a few of these changes that are taking place on the web:

Twitter: Twitter is one of those programs that has become popular, because it can connect people quickly, and doesn't overwhelm users with too many features. Simplicity is the backing which keeps it going. Recently, this connection tool was used to orchestrate protests in Iran as well as help the media around the world get a very good idea of what was happening in the country. People in Iran could share what their government didn't want them to share. Perhaps most troubling for all governments of the world is that with globalization it becomes almost impossible to have full control over what goes in and out of a country.

Youtube: Youtube has been changing rapidly ever since it began. Now people use Youtube almost everyday to listen to music, see family videos, learn something new, or for entertainment better than the Television. Youtube has allowed us to produce our own entertainment and to publish it so that thousands of people can see it. Building communities around real people and support for every group that needs some. Although trolls will never leave the internet people are able to look past everything that detracts and build real communities around each other, communities that support other people, and have done genuinely good things. More recently, Youtube has announced the introduction of their Beta Channels, which are an increasingly hated *new* feature, although they have been in development for more than a year. These profiles lack a lot of functionality and usability. The motive behind the change is one that is designed to make Youtube more profitable, but also cut down on bandwidth usage, which according to some reports is near $2 million a day. It will be interesting to see how Youtube deals with user discontent over a broken design that needs to be repaired.

The Pirate Bay: This file sharing site has also been a challenge to world institutions, especially copyright, which is in some sense fair and in other senses not. While I believe that paying for art is a good practice many corporations have exploited copyright to make a killing. People are no longer willing to pay more than an album is worth, and the Pirate bay gave people a way to fight back against this injustice. The owners were recently sued and slapped with fines and prison sentences. Unfortunate, considering Swedish law and the injustices that were numerous through the trial process. In a decision that will ultimately lead to the downfall of the bay the owners are arranging a deal to sell it to a gaming company. Of course, the owners were left with little choice in the matter, after their loss in the trial, it will mark a giant change on the internet. However, I hope it will spur people to create a bigger and better network that will back against those that take too much advantage of consumers for their own benefit. In a way you could see an unethical element to both sides, however TBP certainly didn't get a change at a fair fight. Corporations simply don't deserve to win because they have more money.

Livemocha: This doesn't really fit with the other, but why not. I am impressed with this website time and a again. They have introduced paid courses now, which are at an affordable price, and it looks as if they will introduce a paid tutoring system soon  as well. The lessons on the website are not perfect, in fact, they tend to be be filled with some errors which keep learners on their toes, and may be utterly confusing for a novice to comprehend. The website is an excellent supplement to traditional classes or intensive self-study. It is also a wonderful place to make new friends.

  

Recently, I met a Colombian, we met each other through chat at first, and we continued speaking for a while, and eventually I showed him a video of me speaking Spanish, and we has impressed by my abilities and near mastery of the accent. He was also wondering what I thought of his English accent. So we exchanged some clips and I was surprised by the very good accent he had in English, but later he started speaking again in Spanish and I was astounded by the very neutral sound of his accent. It seems that where this speaker lives the Spanish spoken there had a very neutral sound, which makes it easy for speakers to develop an almost natural sounding English accent. This particular speaker was from Santa Marta and as far as I can tell the accent there is quite neutral, which would be a definite plus for leaners of Spanish who would prefer a neutral and less thick way to develop listening skills, while later  making your way through the more thick accents.  

I have finished my 6 week course in Arabic at the University of Utah. Throughout the course I became really interested in how people pickup vocabulary in foreign languages and especially how people deal with stress and the anxiety of learning a Less Commonly Taught Language (LCTL). In the past I have always had a remarkably easy time memorizing and remembering the vocabulary in Spanish and Portuguese. Having learned languages similar to English this is of course an expected outcome for learners.

However, with Arabic I struggled to pickup the vocabulary quickly, especially because the vocabulary was being thrown at me at an incredible rate at about 20+ words a day - more or less- and then I was expected to recognize around half of the vocabulary that was on the list to learn. In addition to this the foreign script and unfamiliar sounds made visualization of the word even more difficult to tackle. So I set out to learn a way to memorize vocabulary more easily.

I researched some of the more common ways to learn vocabulary. With no surprise Mnemonics were the tips topping most lists. Relating the new word to a word you already know seems to be the most dominant way to memorize vocabulary that seems difficult. For example, relating the new word to any word you know that sounds similar to the new word, and then putting a mental image in your head relating the two words together. As an example take the word al-izdham(الازدحام), which I related to the words "his ham," then I imagined people crowding around his ham, and the rest is the magic of mnemonics. This technique in most research seems to be the most effective since the visual and auditory queues help to store the vocabulary more readily in the mind, and eventually the mnemonic device becomes unnecessary.

Another problem that seems to be evident at least within my studies in Arabic and possibly of LCTLs is that the vocabulary is not presented in orderly fashion, which means that the new vocabulary is presented to the student in the form of a story, which means that the new vocabulary is essentially random, and may or may not have any real utility for the student. This is the biggest problem in learning and teaching a language, and the fact is students will not strive to retain any vocabulary that will not be directly useful to them. Useful vocabulary is anything that is used multiple times or information that is necessary for what the student has the desire to communicate, and for the most part the random vocabulary presented may not represent what the student wants to say. I`ve found that the best way to learn the vocabulary with a solid foundation is to use the vocabulary in a contextual environment, which means that writing the vocabulary out in context plays a key role in remembering any of it, and the advantage of reading and hearing the new vocabulary in context from a native text is also extremely useful as well.

I also audited the 6 week course that I took, which means I didn't` have the pressure of a final grade or the stress of failing in a language which was completely foreign to me. More than half of the students in both sections of the course dropped the course, because of emergencies, fears, and a general lack of confidence. Students taking the class for a grade had an incredible time coping with the stress of the class. Although I was auditing the course I tried to keep myself to the same levels as the other students earning a grade, and I did just that, as I kept up with most of the homework during the program, and I didn`t miss a day of the 6 week course. With that said I had a very stressful 10 hour per day schedule. After the first week I was feeling stressed, and came close to dropping the course.

During the course I noticed a fluctuation in the anxiety levels of most of my classmates. During the first week of learning the script and learning to write students were noticeably more anxious and insecure of their abilities. The initial shock of the program also caused the anxiety that lead to most people leaving the course, even a linguistics major, who seemed content on staying throughout the course. From what I've read about anxiety in the classroom, and especially LCTLs anxiety when learning is not a useful strategy. Certainly a healthy amount of anxiety is natural and happens in most classroom situations, but when the anxiety becomes higher, then students tend to underperform, or drop out, and stop learning the language completely.

This underscores an essential problem in learning LCTLs, because the anxiety of learning something completely foreign with a different script and drastically different sound patterns makes learning something more difficult than with the languages that are taught and learned more frequently. Unlike Spanish the Arabic language takes a considerably longer amount of time to master, which means the learner is forced to become much more patient in order to gain even intermediate proficiency. This is a frustrating aspect to learning a language such as Arabic, because the language does not lend itself very easily to foreigners, and is unremitting when it comes to the desires of the learner. Although I should warn future learners that past the initial hurdles of a beginning course there is hope on the horizon, and that you too can begin to understand and speak such a foreign language.

There are of course numerous problems that work against learners of LCTLs. Arabic is one that really requires a fight to gain any proficiency at all and proficiency that lasts and can create an effective communication between you and a native of the language. Arabic is unfortunate in that there are multiple dialects that can vary greatly between countries, and speaking Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) has the tendency to come of as elitist. This means that most learners will at some point need to come in contact and partially master a dialect of the language in order to have a greater and more conversational usage of the language.

I can only say that in order to combat this there are several tactics that one might take to eliminate the numerous problems that exist within teaching LCTLs. My suggestions below, with some reiteration:

•         Script: Teach learners early on not to be afraid of the script, and that as foreign as it looks it is extremely easy to conquer with only a little bit of practice.
  
  

•        Vocabulary: Use mnemonics and present useful vocabulary; make sure to put the vocabulary in context as often as possible. Remember that some people learn vocabulary differently. Some people prefer flashcards, some need kinetic energy to get benefit, others need music, but everyone should use the words in context. Experiment to see what works.
  
  

•         Anxiety: If I were to teach an LCTL my first and primary goal would be to eliminate any initial anxiety about grades. Encourage the students with assurance that their grade is not based on their overall ability in the language, but the effort and time they spend to learn the language. A strict grading scale simply isn't an effective method to keep students learning the language. If students are aware that they aren't expected to be masters they will suffer from less anxiety during the course.

•     Dialect Mastery: This bullet really relates to the fact that learning a language is a task that is more musical than anything else. Learners, who begin to pickup vocabulary and can memorize entire sentences with ease in foreign languages, are usually to the point where they can hear the acoustic qualities and patterns in the language. Production is no longer a recitation of memorized tables, but rather a pleasant and communicative action. To hear the music of a language as it were continual practice and listening of all forms is helpful in mastery of the task.

I've planned to take the Fall course in Arabic at my university as well, and I hope that I will be able to report back the progress that I`ve made from the remainder of my summer and what I happen to learn as the new semester begins. It will be an interesting experience, and interesting to see how far I am able to progress in my studies.