Polyglotism

When people meet someone who speaks many languages fluently, the first reaction is often one of slight bewilderment. Multilingualism is generally considered cool yet difficult to achieve, especially if second, third and fourth languages are acquired later in life. As an advocate of language learning, I of course agree that it’s cool, but I challenge the assumption that it’s difficult.

My name is Luca Lampariello. Here I would like to deviate from the well-trodden route to how I learned 11 languages and concentrate on why I learned these languages. Seasoned language learners will all tell you that motivation is fundamental, so where can one find this motivation and how can it be bolstered?

Language learning is about much more than heaps of books and hours of study. It’s about travelling to marvellous places, meeting inspiring people, enjoying delicious food and embarking on innumerable journeys of self-discovery. I derive my motivation to learn more languages from these experiences; the experiences that these languages make possible.

There are three popular beliefs about language learning I can debunk based on my experience:

I’ve learned all of the languages listed above in Italy – a notoriously monolingual country – despite the popular belief that one has to travel abroad to learn to speak a language fluently.

I’ve learned many of these languages as an adult, and I find that I am becoming a better learner as I get older. It’s simply not true that you have to be a child to learn another language, and that adults are not good learners. Many people use their age as an excuse to not make effort.

I don’t spend hours a day studying languages. In fact, when I start off learning a language, I learn – not study – for only 30 minutes a day, but I do this every single day. Learning efficiently is not about hard work, but smart work. You might think I spend a lot of time with my nose in language learning books, but nothing could be further from the truth! I live life through languages, I don’t live to study them.

A Conjecture on Accent in a Second Language
Stephen Krashen
In: Z. Lengyel, J. Navracsics, and O. Simon (Eds.) 1997. Applied Linguistic Studies in
Central Europe, vol 1. Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Veszprem,
Hungary.
Scientists use the term "conjecture" when their generalization is based on such flimsy
evidence that it does not deserve the label "hypothesis." This is such a case. My
conjecture is that accurate pronunciation in a second language, even in adults, is acquired
rapidly and very well. We simply do not use our best accents because we feel silly.
Restated in more respectable terms, we have an "output filter," a block that keeps us from
doing our best, from "performing our competence." This block is powerful and it is
difficulty, maybe impossible, to lower or weaken it with conscious effort. (The output
filter differs from the affective, or input filter. The affective filter prevents input from
reaching the language acquisition device. The output filter prevents us from using what
we have acquired.)
Here is the flimsy evidence. Much of it is based on my own experience, but I suspect,
after presenting these ideas to a number of audiences and getting reactions, that others
have had similar experiences.
1. Variability: Our accents in second languages vary, depending on how we feel. We are
influenced by the situation, especially whether we feel we are being evaluated. When I
speak French to someone who doesn’t speak English (or at least not very well), where
there is no audience, and I am comfortable with that person, I must say that my accent is
not bad. On other occasions I have been told that I speak French without a traced of a
French accent.
Here is an example of the latter, an experience I hope some readers can identify with. I
was visiting Ottawa in the early 1980’s, meeting with former colleagues, discussing, in
French, our work on sheltered subject matter teaching which had begun when I worked
there a few years before. I was very comfortable with the group I was talking with; they
included a close friend and my former French teacher. I was doing very well. While I was
at the chalkboard, making a point, a stranger entered the room. My mind raced: This man
is probably a native speaker of French, or at least much better than I am, and he probably
thinks my French is terrible. My accent and fluency deteriorated immediately and
involuntarily. In other words, my output filter went up.
One of the most accomplished polyglots in the world, Dr. Kato Lomb of Hungary, reports
that she has had similar experiences. Now 88, Dr. Lomb has acquired 17 languages and is
now working on Hebrew. I visited Dr. Lomb several times recently, and we spoke
English (her English is excellent). On one visit, my wife and daughter came with me. Dr.
Lomb remarked to me that she felt her accent in English had been better when we were
alone. She explained that she felt quite comfortable with my wife and daughter, but the
fact that she did not know them as well as she knew me caused a small amount of selfconsciousness
and hurt her performance. Dr. Lomb is an enormously successful language
acquirer and an experienced interpreter; if she feels the effects of the output filter, we can
be sure others do.
2. Our ability to imitate other dialects of our first language, as well as foreign accents.
Given sufficient input, we can all do these things to at least some extent. The point is that
we do not, because we would feel uncomfortable doing so. The output filter holds us
back.
I can imitate, to some extent, a British accent. I have acquired the rules for doing so
subconsciously, and have no idea what kind of articulatory adjustments I am making
when I do it. I do not, however, use a British accent when speaking to someone from
London. My perception is that it would be rude, and even ridiculing, as if I were making
fun of his speech, or as if I were representing myself as someone I am not.
Similarly, we can imitate foreign accents in our first language. Obviously, we do not do
this in ordinary conversation. It would, we feel, be perceived as rude.
There are domains in which the use of these accents is permitted, in plays and jokes, for
example. Even in these situations, however, their use is sensitive. In plays, dialects must
be rendered very accurately, and in jokes their use can be demeaning.
Our ability, yet reluctance to use accents and dialects again shows that we do not perform
our competence fully and that there are powerful affective forces holding us back.
3. The alcohol study. Guiora, Beit-Hallahmi, Brannon, Dull, and Scovel (1972) asked
subjects to drink different amounts of alcohol after eating a candy bar. Not unexpectedly,
they reported that subjects’ short-term memory decreased with greater consumption.
Accent in a foreign language, however, was best after subjects drank 1.5 ounces of
bourbon. It was less accurate with both less and more than this amount of alcohol. There
was, in other words, an optimal point of inebriation. As most of us know, alcohol has the
effect of lowering inhibitions. My interpretation of these results is that alcohol lowers the
output filter, at least temporarily. Too much alcohol, however, disturbs control of the
speech apparatus.
4. Stevick’s example. Stevick (1980) describes a Swahili class he taught at the Foreign
Service Institute that had three students in it. One was at a significantly higher level than
the others. When the top student had to drop the class, the number two student suddenly
showed a dramatic improvement. My conjecture is that his output filter lowered, freed
from the inhibiting influence of the better student.
Discussion
To understand what factors are at work here, we need to consider what language is for.
Sociolinguists tell us that language has two functions: To communicate and to mark the
speaker as a member of a social group. A part of language that plays a major role in
marking us as members of a social group is accent. Accent has little to do with
communication; we can communicate quite well in another language having acquired
only some of the sound system. Accent tells the hearer who you are, where you are from,
in some cases your social class, and in other cases your values. When we identify with
the members of a group, we talk the way they do.
Beebe’s review (Beebe, 1985) confirms this. We do not always imitate the speech we
hear the most. Children usually talk the way their peers talk, not the way their parents or
teachers talk. (In some cases, children do talk like their parents; these children identify
with adult values, rather than those of other children, confirming that it is group
membership that counts.)
My conjecture is that accent is acquired rapidly but is not performed, because we do not
feel like members of the group that uses it; we are not members of the club (Smith,
1988). Either we do not wish to be members or have not been invited to be members.
And even after we feel we are at least partly in the group, we can feel suddenly excluded,
resulting in a stronger output filter.
If this conjecture is correct, it has interesting implications for pedagogy. Despite the
numerous "accent improvement" courses available, there is no evidence that second
language accent can be permanently improved by direct instruction. Even if we could
improve accent through instruction, however, the effect might be harmful. Getting people
to talk like members of groups they do not belong to may be similar to convincing
someone to wear inappropriate clothing - a tuxedo at an informal lunch or a jogging suit
at a formal dinner.
This conjecture does not suggest that all those with accents in their second language who
live in the country where the language is spoken have failed to become members of
society. In fact, it suggests the contrary. Most second language acquirers have good
accents. Listen to them carefully. They are rarely perfect if they began the second
language as adults, but they typically acquire an impressive amount of the sound system.
They certainly do not speak the second language using only the sound system of their
first language. The problem is that we usually make "all or nothing" judgments with
respect to accent. Either it is native-like or "accented." In reality, many second language
acquirers acquire substantial amounts of the second language accent. In addition, it is
likely that we hear them under less than optimal affective conditions: with lower output
filters, they may sound even better.
If this conjecture is correct, another conclusion we can draw is that only our "best"
accents, produced under optimal conditions, should be considered when judging accent
quality or when discussing the limits of adult acquisition of pronunciation.
References
Beebe, L. 1985. Input: Choosing the right stuff. In Gass, S. and Madden. C. (Eds.) Input
in Second Language Acquisition. New York: Newbury House. pp. 404-414.
Guiora, A., Beit-Hallahmi, B., Brannon, R., Dull, C. and Scovel, T. 1972. The effects of
experimentally induced changes in ego status on pronunciation ability in a second
language. Comprehensive Psychiatry 13: 421-428.
Smith, F. 1988. Joining the Literacy Club. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Stevick, E. 1980. Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways. New York: Newbury House.