language learning

Breathing second life into language teaching

harminka — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:45:11 -0500

An international team has developed a wireless virtual reality environment that can help promote language learning and let students practice. The researchers have demonstrated their Collaborative Virtual Reality Environment with Mexican engineering students carrying out listening comprehension practice in English as a foreign language.

Babies raised in bilingual homes learn new words differently

harminka — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:59:00 -0500

Infants who are raised in bilingual homes learned two similar-sounding words in a laboratory task at a later age than babies who are raised in homes where only one language is spoken.

Baby DVDs, videos may not help, infants' language development

harminka — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 08:59:08 -0500

Despite marketing claims, parents who want to give their infants a boost in learning language probably should limit the amount of time they expose their children to DVDs and videos such as “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby.”

US Writer Teaches Language Through Fairy Tales

Dinka — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:17:07 -0500

In our global world, writer David Burke says, Americans must improve their language skills, and should start at an early age. VOA's Mike O'Sullivan spoke with the author, who has taught American slang to foreign English learners, and is now using fairy tales to teach foreign languages to American children.

Ability of Learning second language

harminka — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 03:20:06 -0500

Think you haven’t got the aptitude to learn foreign language? New research led by Northwestern University neuroscientists suggests that the problem, quite literally, could be in your head.

New study shows children innately prepared to learn language

harminka — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 07:38:23 -0500

To learn a language, a child must learn a set of all-purpose rules, such as "a sentence can be formed by combining a subject, a verb and an object"Â that can be used in an infinite number of ways. A new study shows that by the age of seven months, human infants are on the lookout for abstract rules - and that they know the best place to look for such abstractions is in human speech.