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Of all mankind's inventions, none was more
consequential than the birth of language.
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Before its creation each person's
knowledge was limited to what he or she
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experienced directly. Afterward someone
who learned something could share it
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with anybody else. In this video, we'll
look at four things known about language
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learning in general, and then listen to
the story of lucky Lucy and poor Pete to
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understand the importance of language in
everyday life. Our brains foundation is
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built through experiences early in life. Pat
Levitt from the center of the
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Developing Child at Harvard University
studied our brain development over the
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course of our life extensively. He showed
how the brain's ability to change
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dramatically drops in the years of life,
while the amount of effort such change
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requires increases. Another research
showed that at age five 90% of a kid's
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brain has been formed. If during these
years the child is blocked from
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receiving stimulating experiences, the
Language Center and other parts of the
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brain are likely to remain weak for life.
We learn language socially by observing
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and imitating others. Some 1,000 years
ago German emperor Friedrich II wanted
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to prove the opposite and showed that we
develop language naturally, all by
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ourselves.
He made his nannies raise some children.
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they were allowed to feed and clean them,
but not to interact socially, or ever
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speak a word. Not one child learned to
speak, but instead, they all died. For the
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same reason
toddlers can't learn language via tape
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or technology. They need to be motivated
through a human relationship, then they
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pay attention and learn.
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Our language brain growth is strongest
in year one. If we study the brains
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development by the rate of new synapse
formation over the first 11 months of
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life, and then the next 15 years, we can
see how much the first five years matter.
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The growth in the part of the brain
responsible for language peaks between
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birth and age 3. During this critical
period children can learn a new word
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every 90 minutes and several languages
simultaneously. Our sensory pathways
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responsible for vision and hearing peak
before, which makes sense because we need
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to see and hear to imitate language. Four
month old infants for example, if raised
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bilingual by a British mom and the
Chinese dad can already differentiate
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between two languages just by observing
the lip movements of their caregivers.
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Higher cognitive function such as
logical reasoning peaks only once we
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have the words and know the symbols to
make sense of our world. Language makes
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our world: Rich language skills allow us
to really listen, to speak well, to enjoy
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reading and master writing, they can
create an entire world around us. As the
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German philosopher Wittgenstein said: "the
limit of my language is the limit of my
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world". let's take for example the word
"daycare center". Some people think of it
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as a "preschool" the Irish call it "play
school" and the Germans invented the word
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"Kindergarten". Only if we know all three
words can we understand what's possible.
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Now let's listen to the story about
lucky Lucy and poor Pete, two children
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raised in two very different ways.
Lucy is raised by her mother. The mother
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is an average native English speaker who
knows around 20,000 different words.
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Pete's parents hire a nice nanny from a
foreign country. Instead of speaking in
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her native language the nanny is told to
talk to Peter only in English. While her
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everyday English seems okay she actually
knows only around 5,000 words. One
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fourth of what Anne's mom knows. Year one
is when the language brain is developing
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the strongest. iÍf Lucy is awake half of
the time her mom speaks she will hear
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around 10,000 words per day and maybe
2500 being directed at her. Directed
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language is what matters. Whenever her
mom connects a word with an actual
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experience,
Lucy learns its meaning. Pete hears
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English only when the nanny deliberately
speaks to him, around 1,000 words a day.
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But not only is quantity lower but also
the quality. As the nanny is not fluent,
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there is a chance that many words come
across broken. At their first birthday
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both kids can say: "mama" and "papa".
What we don't see is that Lucy actually
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already knows many many words even
though she can't say them. But Pete's
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language universe is more limited.
When Lucy and her mom look at picture
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books, her mom points out what they see: a
little monkey is also a gorilla, an ape,
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a clever animal which uses tools, climbs
trees and lives with his mama and papa
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in the rainforests of Africa. When Pete
looks at a picture book his learning is
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limited by the language of the nanny. The same monkey is just cute and eats
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bananas. To compensate he's given a
language app, but as Pete lacks
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the foundation he doesn't understand a word.
To him, it's just a bunch of new sounds
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strangely connected to colorful
characters. On their second birthday Lucy
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knows already well over 200 words, the
amount where children start to learn
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rules and apply grammar. Pete knows less.
Sometimes he gets frustrated because he
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can't express himself. Lucy likes to go
with her mom into the park. Sometimes
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they watch the old men play chess. She
doesn't understand the game but knows
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that there are pawns, rooks,
knights, a queen and a king, a bishop and
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a horse. One day she will learn the rules.
It will be easy because she sees each
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figure clearly.
Her understanding of their special
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skills is obvious. For a lack of language
Pete sees just a big checkered board and
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some wooden figures which all look quite
the same: pawns, knights, bishops. To
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understand the rules later will be hard
for Pete. All figures look so similar. How
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could they do different things? At their
third birthday both can say their own
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name and form sentences.
Lucy's vocabulary now holds 1500 words.
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Pete's got 500 to make sense of this
world. In year 4 they enter kindergarten.
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When Pete stands in front of the big
shelf he sees different wooden blocks,
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the ball, some old toy, a horse and the
yellow digger. When Lucy stands in front
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of the same shelf, she sees circles,
triangles, squares, a basketball, the red
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pinwheel, the beige rocking horse and the
carton box of the lego technic digger.
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At playtime, Lucy understands what others
are talking about and often takes the
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lead by suggesting a new idea. Pete often
doesn't understand what she means.
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If the group discusses something for
longer, he zones out because he has
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trouble following the conversation. By
the end of the year Lucy knows 3,500
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words, where Pete only knows 1000 words.
Lucy now forms more complicated
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sentences in perfect grammar. In the
evening her mom reads bedtime stories
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to her. Words she's missing, she learns out
of context. As a native speaker, the mom
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can raise and lower her voice, making the
stories exciting. Fairy tales become
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alive in her head and Lucy learns to
imagine and to think creatively. Pete
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still speaks in more simple sentences
and his grammar is not perfect. When his
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nanny reads to him the voice is more
monotone. It's more boring and paying
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attention is more difficult. Words he's
missing, often remain missing. By the end
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of the year Lucy knows 6,000 and Pete
knows 2,000 words.
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To understand why the actual
difference in language abilities between
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the two is even larger than it seems,
let's imagine that words are nothing but
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tools that help us encode the world, form
thoughts, structure ideas and then
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communicate with others. With 6,000 words
compared to 2,000 words
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Lucy's toolbox is now three times the
size. Lucy has a huge head start as she
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is entering elementary school.
Einstein by the way as a child seldom
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spoke one interesting anecdote goes like
this: As he was a late talker and hardly
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spoke at the age of seven his parents
were worried and tried many things to
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get him to speak. At one point they were
afraid that he had learning disabilities.
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At last, at the dinner table one night, he
broke his silence to say: "the soup is too
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hot!", greatly relieved his parents asked
why he had never said a word before?
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The young genius replied: "Because up until
now, everything was in order.". What are
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your thoughts about language learning?
Can someone like Pete still catch up
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later in life or maybe find other good
ways to express himself?
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Maybe our point of view is too narrow
and Pete and Lucy actually balance each
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other out with the different skills they
have? Please share your thoughts in the
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comments below!
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