Is there an innate ability for the English language? Komarova E.V., Shadova A.S.

Some people find a foreign language easier than others. What abilities directly affect the success of learning? In this article I will share my opinion on this issue.

Hi all! Friends, have you ever thought about what abilities people must have in order to succeed in learning a foreign language? Or can you name them based on yourself? Is English difficult for you?

Anyone can learn English.

I've been learning this language for about two years now. First of all, I will say that everyone can speak English! It doesn't matter how good you are at languages. Many people say that they cannot learn English because of their poor learning ability. They study the language for years and do not see any noticeable improvement. I disagree with this statement. I believe that everyone can learn English if they want to. The only reason for failure is the wrong way of studying. The correct and effective approach to studying is the most important thing.

Depending on , we can do it better or worse. Moreover, I believe that language is something innate. He is already within us from the very beginning. The only thing you need to do is develop it correctly. The more we try to use a language, the faster it develops. It's like a muscle that requires constant exercise to become bigger. An active way of learning is the key to success. It's my opinion.

About language abilities.

But on the other hand, all people are different. And it takes different amounts of time for everyone to start speaking English. Therefore, I also believe in language ability. But what exactly directly influences success in learning?

1. First of all, it is our memory. I can say that I have a good memory. It definitely helps me learn English better. As you know, there are two types of memory - active and passive. The more we accumulate in our active memory, the better we speak English. So, a good memory is definitely very important.
2. The next thing is the ability to understand the structure of language. It's no secret that every language has its own structure. It is very important to understand it from the very beginning. Some people get it quickly, and some take longer.
3. The third important point is the ability to pay attention to what is most important and not waste time on less significant aspects. People who understand what is really important in the language they are learning are more successful in mastering it. Depending on their goals, they clearly understand what needs to be done to achieve them as quickly as possible
4. I also believe that a lot depends on the personal qualities of a person. It is likely that more organized people learn languages ​​better. In addition, the language must be constantly practiced in conversation. Thus, people who are sociable are more successful in learning.
5. The last point is, of course, our experience. If you already know a foreign language, then the next one will be easier for you. Especially if they belong to the same language group. I think that polyglots would agree with me.

This was my personal opinion about language abilities. But once again I would like to emphasize that any of us can learn a foreign language, especially English. And if something doesn’t work out for you, think first about your way of studying. And never say that you don’t have the ability to do this. This is not true at all.

Keep learning English and take care of yourself!

Abilities for foreign languages ​​are, of course, special abilities. But within the framework of this concept, attempts are also being made to identify certain types of it. It is proposed, for example, to distinguish between speech abilities (ability for practical mastery of foreign languages) and linguistic abilities (ability for research work in the field of linguistics). From the point of view of psychological science, of course, the ability to master foreign languages ​​is of greater interest, although such a division should be considered rather arbitrary. It is not easy to imagine a person who has linguistic abilities, but is not able to master several foreign languages. Most likely, the exact opposite statement will also be true: with proper motivation, a person who speaks many foreign languages ​​will be able to make a certain contribution to linguistics.

First of all, it is necessary to consider the totality of those cognitive operations (components of special abilities) that distinguish the most successful students. Researchers have identified a relatively small number of them. Most often, the importance of developed verbal memory is noted, which ensures the rapid formation of verbal associations, their mobility and rate of association, and the effective learning of foreign words along with their equivalents in the native language. High sensitivity to the functions of words in a sentence, speed and ease of formation of functional linguistic generalizations also occupy an important place in this list. And finally, the third group of components covers imitation speech abilities, auditory differential sensitivity, and plasticity of the articulatory apparatus.

A special role in predicting abilities in foreign languages ​​is given to the level of speech development achieved by a person in his native language. After all, people master it in childhood, use it in speech and mental activity, and at first glance it seems that all native speakers have approximately the same level. However, if you ask a randomly selected group of people to name as many words as possible in three minutes, or to come up with a sentence that necessarily includes three of the proposed words, differences will quickly appear. But when mastering the vocabulary of a foreign language, coding and mediation are carried out on the basis of updating stable interword associative connections, reflecting the organization of the native language system. For people who speak several foreign languages, when learning new vocabulary, there is a comparison of the structures of different languages, which, when memorizing, manifests itself in the mediation of material on the basis of previously acquired foreign language systems. For this reason, it is not uncommon for professional simultaneous interpreters who speak several foreign languages ​​to continue translating after some hesitation, but into another language, without noticing it at all.

It should also be emphasized that abilities are a dynamic phenomenon that develops in the process of engaging in relevant activities. In the process of mastering languages, the development of abilities is primarily manifested in the specifics of the organization of verbal memory and the nature of the relationships between language systems. This fact was experimentally confirmed during a comparative analysis of the process of mastering a completely unfamiliar language by people with obviously different levels of proficiency in foreign languages. The experimental group consisted of persons with higher philological education, fluent in several foreign languages ​​and 5th year students of language universities, numbering 9 people aged 22-30 years. Hypothetically, thanks to active foreign language speech activity, they should have developed a specific psychophysiological speech organization that would ensure the rapid formation of skills and abilities when mastering a new language system. The control group consisted of 12 people aged 20-30 years who did not have a special philological education. As one might expect, philologist subjects were more successful in learning artificial words. It took them significantly fewer presentations to learn the words. Apparently, people who speak several foreign languages ​​have more opportunities in terms of sound and semantic differentiation through the use of stable interverbal connections of foreign language systems, greater activity, expressed in the use of various private methods of organizing and mediating the material. Its subjective organization was carried out on the basis of grammatical classification (division into nouns, adjectives, verbs). The success of memorization was facilitated by composing complete sentences from several artificial words. The meanings of words denoting animals were easily learned. The subjects conditionally assigned nicknames to the animals that corresponded to the given artificial equivalents. One might think that the specific speech organization of those who speak several languages ​​represents a unified system of interverbal neural connections within individual language systems, as well as external urgently formed connections between the structures of multilingual systems.

Diagnosing abilities in foreign languages ​​involves searching for more specific indicators based on the set of cognitive operations discussed above. Their number depends to a certain extent on the authors’ points of view on the process and result of learning foreign languages. Among the most common are: a) the pace and strength of learning foreign words along with their equivalents in the native language; b) the speed of formation of associations and associative systems; c) probabilistic forecasting; d) characteristics of an individual dictionary in their native language; e) quality of sound discrimination; f) the effectiveness of establishing language rules and generalizing language material.

Evidence of the existence of special abilities for languages ​​could also come from clinical data on speech restoration in polyglots. However, numerous hypotheses regarding which of them may be the least susceptible to damage or which recovers faster after a brain injury or disease are quite contradictory. In one study, for example, a patient who was fluent in German, Farsi, and English did not speak at all for the first week after injury. Then for five days he used a little Farsi, and for the next three weeks he spoke only German, even if he was addressed in Farsi. Then suddenly he spoke Farsi again, and four days later he had complete control of all three languages. The conclusion is that the violation is possible separately for each language, and any of them can be selectively used as a means of communication in a certain period of time. There is evidence in the literature that the specifics of language recovery after brain injury depend on factors such as the cerebral representation of the second language, teaching method, level of language proficiency, and individual cognitive style. It seems that the use of nuclear magnetic resonance promises significant opportunities for understanding the phenomenon, when it will be possible to conclude which parts of the polyglot’s brain are most active when using different languages.

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About foreign language abilities

The question of what abilities are and how they can be identified has been posed to psychologists more than once. Can you imagine how good it would be if, at the entrance exams to a language university or even to a special school with a language focus, it would be possible to initially select people who have the necessary data?

It is a fact that no one anywhere and ever analyzes abilities in a foreign language, or, for example, in mathematics, or geography, or medicine... When entering any educational institution, only the level of preparedness in a certain number of subjects is checked. The exception is the so-called creative specialties, for which, in the absence of certain qualities, vocational training is simply useless. But even there there are certain difficulties in identifying them: that is why we know many talented actors we all love who managed to enter a professional educational institution not on the first try!

In psychology, all human abilities are divided into general and special. Special ones include, for example, abilities in music or dance. The vast majority of the rest are classified as general.

What type of abilities are abilities for a foreign language - general or still special? Most likely, these abilities combine both. Moreover, here again it is necessary to separate the ability to speak languages ​​and to communicate freely in them. According to statistics, approximately 6% of the total population has the ability to speak a foreign language. But the paradox is that each of us speaks at least our native language! What then happens to 94% of people when they start learning a foreign language?

The fact is that everyone has the ability to communicate freely, unlike the ability to speak languages.

Language is a system of signs and knowledge about them, speech is a way of communication. Only humans have speech and verbal intelligence, while the presence of “language” as a general sign system for transmitting information is noted in any social animal, from bees to elephants.

Therefore, it is obvious that any person is potentially capable of mastering any speech - Russian, foreign, Chinese. At the same time, not everyone can speak a language, even their native one, and thus 6% of “born linguists”. If you have any doubts, try answering the Unified State Exam questions: you will see for yourself that there are significant gaps in your knowledge of your native language!

Free communication may be quicker for some, longer for others, but everyone is capable of it. By the way, many people believe that languages ​​are easier for people with a developed ear for music. If we are not talking about multi-tonal ones, such as Chinese, for example, then this statement is false. Musical and phonemic hearing are based in different hemispheres of the brain! Why then are musically gifted people often more capable of languages? And let's add to mathematics. Because music is one of the most effective tools for brain development in general. By the way, this is why special background music is used in CLP courses: to activate your brain at certain frequencies.

Now there are many methods that promise to teach a foreign language in the same way as your native language in childhood. But is this possible in principle?

This is 100% impossible anywhere and for anyone for one simple reason. Mastering the native language, or rather, free communication in it, occurs before the age of 3 years. Native speech refers to early skills that must be mastered strictly in due time, or they will not be mastered at all: these are the laws of the brain that no one can deceive.

But if native speech was mastered in a timely manner, then certain areas and mechanisms of the brain responsible for mastering native speech did not disappear anywhere. They can be woken up and asked to work, in accordance with the already established individual characteristics of an adult. Then you can learn to communicate fluently in a foreign language at any age! The CLP method managed to do this.

Foreign language ability and how to develop it?

The fact is that not every teacher, let alone students, knows a clear answer to the question about linguistic abilities in a foreign language. The content side of learning, and as a consequence, its result, suffers from this ignorance. Therefore, both the teacher and the person who is going to study a foreign language should be aware of what qualities should be developed and what to rely on. An objective picture reflecting the strengths and weaknesses of a particular student can significantly increase the effectiveness of learning.

All human abilities are conventionally divided into general and special. General ones include universal, wide-spectrum actions associated with memory and intelligence. Special ones, as the name suggests, include more narrowly focused qualities. In practice, general and special abilities are often inextricably linked. For example, in order to paint a picture, one must have not only the ability to draw and a sense of color, but also developed logic, spatial and figurative thinking, that is, certain general abilities.

Foreign language ability also consists of general and special ones. Among the common ones, it is worth highlighting memory, as well as analytical and synthetic functions of intelligence. Special ones include primarily phonemic hearing and imitation abilities.

Phonemic hearing is the ability to hear and sensitively distinguish phonemes (sounds) of a foreign language. Phonemic hearing is not identical to musical hearing and is even located in the other hemisphere of the brain. Therefore, the fact that people with musical abilities often master foreign languages ​​better is not at all connected with an ear for music. This is influenced by the general intelligence abilities developed by musical education. In addition, an ear for music can influence the ability to hear and correctly reproduce speech intonation. The same person can have both types of hearing well developed. But remember: the development of musical hearing in itself does not in any way affect phonemic hearing. There are many more people who hear music well and perceive foreign speech very poorly by ear than those who are equally gifted phonetically and musically. Phonemic hearing is sharply enhanced in infancy. It is the basis on which the perception of the native language is built. Therefore, without a solid foundation in the form of developed phonemic awareness, there can be no talk of any quality education.

Imitation ability is what determines your ability to imitate another person. The imitation mechanism is activated in us from the first months of life and underlies the development of most life skills. By learning our native speech in this way, we imitate the speaker’s facial expressions, intonation, rhythm, and pronunciation. If, when learning a foreign language, you do not similarly learn to imitate the speech of a native speaker, then your learning is like swimming in a pool with no water in it!

Phonemic hearing and imitation abilities are inherent in any person from birth. To a greater or lesser extent, they persist throughout life, sometimes remaining dormant.

The importance of general abilities in the context of a foreign language is quite obvious. Memory allows us to remember new information in the form of words and grammatical rules. Analytical abilities provide an understanding of the structure of a foreign language, synthetic abilities provide the ability to creatively operate with this structure and formulate one’s thoughts using language. These abilities are therefore usually called “verbal”. It turns out that phonemic hearing and imitation abilities are primarily associated with basic mechanisms, with oral speech, which is the first to develop in our natural environment. Verbal abilities are included at the next stage. They are already associated with written speech (reading and writing) and language itself. You can talk about the fundamental difference between language and speech.

Speaking about foreign language abilities, it is necessary to mention another common, but difficult to formulate concept: “sense of language.” It can be defined as the ability to feel the internal harmony inherent in any language, and at the same time distinguish between falsehood and artificiality. This is linguistic intuition, internal ideas about language. There is also a scientific definition for the sense of language - innate linguistic competence (this definition was given by the famous psycholinguist N. Chomsky). Pay attention to the word “congenital”. This means that it is also given to man by nature. Therefore, the inclusion of other natural mechanisms of speech development - phonemic hearing and imitation abilities - also triggers the sense of language. At the same time, studying a foreign language solely based on verbal abilities and logic most likely kills this feeling.

Unlike the special abilities discussed above, the development of verbal skills actively involves

introduced in all traditional forms of language teaching. But not all methods pay due attention to phonemic hearing, imitation abilities and a sense of language. The CLP method purposefully develops them as the foundation for all further training.

Find out your abilities in foreign languages

At the Center for Language Psychology you have a unique opportunity get it for free diagnostics of your abilities and recommendations regarding their development.

This will help you get to know yourself better, learn to use the psychological potential of your abilities and enjoy the process of learning a foreign language.

Regardless of the method and place of study you choose, you will be able to more effective use your foreign language abilities, time and material resources. Which means achieve results faster and easier.

How to start learning

Select a program using the program descriptions on the website.
Take the test to prepare the program: .
Discuss with a specialist all the questions you have about creating your personal course.
We will send you a payment link, and after receiving it we will begin preparing the program. Within 5 days your program will be ready and you will receive a link to download it.
If you have any questions, please contact: [email protected], Nina Bryantseva, linguistic psychologist at the Center for Language Psychology (CLP).

I'll answer the question with a question. Why are some people better at cooking (driving a car, playing a musical instrument, doing crossword puzzles, etc.)? As with many other skills, achieving mastery in learning a foreign language depends on the interaction of various factors. The result can be compared to preparing a complex dish. Neurobiological factors are the ingredients, cognitive factors are the arrangement of the kitchen and the cooking process itself, and affective factors are the desire and motivation to cook something tasty.

As for directly neurobiological factors, the age of language acquisition is critical. A child is born with a large number of neurons, but as he develops, many neurons die off due to the narrower specialization of different parts of the brain, while the axons (the processes of neurons through which the signal is transmitted) in many parts still lack the myelin sheath, which accelerates the propagation of the signal. According to some scientists, people who begin to learn foreign languages ​​before the end of the process of myelination of the speech zones (that is, approximately before the end of puberty) have a greater chance of success. Indeed, as practice shows, the older a person is, the more difficult it is, on average, for him to learn a foreign language.

Many scientists have tried and are still trying to find the “holy grail” - those neurobiological prerequisites for successful language learning that would solve the “Tower of Babel” problem, but the data, alas, are very ambiguous and varied. Geschwind and Galaburd, who studied the phenomenon of polyglots, suggested that a predisposition to languages ​​may be associated with an enlargement of the left hemisphere, which may be influenced by fluctuations in testosterone hormone levels during pregnancy. Other scientists have noticed that polyglots have a more developed area of ​​the brain responsible for the motor organization of speech, and that they have a larger volume of white matter in the parietal and frontal regions of the brain.

Despite the contradictory data, one thing is certain - there is no such thing as “inability” to learn foreign languages ​​(unless it is due to general learning difficulties). Under favorable circumstances, the right approach and methodology, proper motivation and hard work, successful mastery of a foreign language is quite realistic.

I agree with much of what Anya wrote, but it still seems to me that certain psychophysiological characteristics affect language learning abilities. And it seemed to me that the question itself is not about why some achieve greater results and others achieve less, but rather about why the process itself is difficult for some and not for others.

I know a lot of people who have direct motivation, time, and perseverance, but at the same time their language learning is very slow and difficult. I know people who can know perfect grammar, have a colossal vocabulary, live in the very country of the language they are learning... and yet be unable to master pronunciation even a little!

Naturally, all this does not mean that some person is not able to master the language at all, but he may need, say, 5 times more effort and time than others.

In general, it probably depends on the development of the corresponding areas of the brain - the motor cortex, auditory cortex, sensory-speech zone. If these areas have organic damage, it will be difficult to learn the language. How severe it is depends on the extent of the damage.

If the question is more practical than theoretical, then I’ll add a little about practice.

I don't really believe in a complete lack of ability to learn a language. It seems to me that any person immersed in another language environment will learn to express his thoughts in another language. The question is time and how much he needs it.

If without immersion, then you rather need to choose a suitable method of learning the language for yourself, study it regularly and be really interested in the result.

I really like the Polyglot system by Dmitry Petrov. But I would also add a daily expansion of the dictionary. If you are a visual learner, then use signs with pictures (or applications), if you are an auditory learner, then the busuu application and website helps.

foreign language aptitude) One gets the impression that some people master and with enviable ease. I., while for others, even with a high level of motivation, it is given with great difficulty. This suggests that people differ in S. to i. I. Throughout the 20th century. Tests and techniques were being developed that would make it possible to predict the success of a particular person in mastering and. I. It is necessary to distinguish S. to and. I. from the ability to master their native language. The ability to acquire a first language—the “mother tongue”—appears to be a universal characteristic of humans as a species, although individuals may differ in the rate and quality of their first language acquisition. The ability to acquire a first language probably also extends to the simultaneous acquisition of two or more languages, e.g. in a bilingual and multilingual environment. Strictly speaking, S. to i. I. refers to the ability to acquire a second language after a person has already mastered the first language and has passed the age (approximately 5 to 7 years) beyond which the ability to acquire a first language is no longer involved in the acquisition of a second language. In support of the idea that people differ in S. to i. I., one can apparently refer to the results of the study, according to the Crimea, exact measurements taken before the start of the study and. i., significantly - and sometimes quite highly - correlate with the success achieved at the end of its study. This is because people differ in their max. or the optimal rate of assimilation for them and. I. (i.e., high-ability individuals can achieve a satisfactory level of knowledge in a relatively shorter period of time than low-ability individuals, and training can be tailored to their higher potential). This explanation does not imply that people with low abilities are unable to master i. I., which only means that they need much more time to achieve a certain level of knowledge than people with high abilities. As with any attempt to construct an ability test, the researchers began their work by analyzing the mastery task itself. I. in a typical textbook. situations, trying to determine which individual characteristics may interact with this task. The language consists of several. interconnected systems that must be learned when studying it: phonetics (systems of sound units and their combinations from which words and expressions are made), grammar (system of rules for generating meaningful oral statements and written sentences) and vocabulary (an extensive stock of words and idiomatic expressions , which are used in the generation of oral statements and written speech). In addition to this, and. I. usually has a specific writing and spelling system that a person must master if he is going to read and write in that language. It can be assumed that cognitive abilities interact differently with these aspects of the system and. I., and this is true. S. k i. I. are not an indivisible whole, it is rather a set of abilities, having which, a person can cope with various aspects of the task of mastering and. I. To date, several have been created. effective test batteries S. to i. I. These tests measure approximately the same set of cognitive abilities that predict success in learning and. I. Cognitive abilities underlying S. to i. I. Researchers have concluded that there are at least four specific cognitive abilities that underlie successful learning. I. in traditional studies. programs, especially those aimed at teaching spoken language. The ability to phonetic coding (phonetic coding ability) is a type of mnemonic ability, thanks to which a person perceives sounds and. I. and sound forms of words and expressions, “encodes” them in long-term memory and subsequently finds them and reproduces them. Apparently, it does not include the ability to distinguish foreign sounds; The vast majority of students are able to learn to distinguish phonemes with the appropriate learning conditions. Rather, it involves increased attention to the exact phonetic forms of foreign sounds and words and their retention in active memory, especially if they contain phonetic features that are absent in the learner’s native language. This ability can be tested in various ways: loosely, by presenting the examinee with foreign sounds or words and trying to reproduce them after several times. seconds of distracting activity, and more strictly, for example, requiring the examinee to memorize the connections between sounds and phonetic signs. Grammatical sensitivity, or the ability to perceive grammatical relations in and. I. and understand the role of grammar in the production and translation of utterances and sentences. In one form of the test, the examinee is required to perceive cognate grammatical relations in his native language. Mechanical associative memory (rote associational memory) has long been identified in factor-analytic studies. cognitive abilities; its necessity has been proven for the assimilation of a large number of arbitrary connections between words and their meanings, which must be mastered. The presence of this ability can be tested using the method of selective analysis of activity samples, requiring the examinee to memorize a certain number of such arbitrary associations. and then selectively demonstrate their knowledge (for example, using artificial language material). Inductive ability is a general cognitive ability measured in multiples. batteries of tests of cognitive abilities, - the ability to see and derive rules that govern the formation of stimulus patterns. In tests S. to i. I. tests how well the examinee can infer and apply relevant rules and relationships by working with selected material from real or fictitious contexts. I. Indicators of tests S. to i. I. significantly correlate with scores on tests of general intelligence, but this correlation is most likely due to the fact that some of the special abilities necessary for successful mastery of i. i., are also factors measured in intelligence tests. This fully applies to inductive ability, but to a lesser extent to the other above-mentioned abilities. Tests S. to i. I. usually yield higher correlations with measures of achieved success in mastering and. i. than tests of general intelligence, due to the fact that they include the necessary measurements of special abilities. Predictive validity of tests of abilities in foreign languages. Average coefficients of validity of tests S. to i. I. turn out to be one of the highest in the applied area. psychology. Over the course of a number of years, the test scores of S. to i. I. were an important criterion in the selection of volunteers for the US Peace Corps, since most of them required knowledge and. I. to work in host countries. At the same time, validity coefficients on average from 0.5 to 0.6 were regularly recorded. Peace Corps candidates were highly motivated both in passing tests and in the process of studying in intensive courses, etc. I. The degree of predictive validity demonstrated by an aptitude test can be influenced by many variables. Motivation in passing a test and in mastering a language is only one of them. The other is the type of training - intensive, systematic and intense as opposed to lengthy, relatively unsystematic and tolerant of student errors and failures. Most successfully and... i. will probably be mastered by those who have an above average or higher level of development of all or almost all special abilities necessary for success. See also Ability Testing, Cognitive Abilities, Psycholinguistics J.B. Carroll