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Quantitative Studies About Learning Esperanto?

de bartlett22183, 2014-junio-27

Mesaĝoj: 34

Lingvo: English

bartlett22183 (Montri la profilon) 2014-junio-27 19:51:15

On the AUXLANG mailing list (hosted at Brown University, USA), there is a current thread about how easy (i.e., to what extent) Esperanto is to learn, especially for native speakers of languages other than west-European Indo-European ones. The original poster has asked if there are any quantitative studies, not anecdotes. So far no one has been able to come up with any. Does anyone here know of quantitative studies on the relative ease of learning Esperanto? Thanks.

(Disclosure: I am listowner of AUXLANG as well as a regular participant.)

Kirilo81 (Montri la profilon) 2014-junio-27 20:08:08

I'm writing a project proposal on that topic right now, so I would be interested in any studies (I don't know any; in 125 years of E-o no one bothered to check whether it works at all in real life, funny, istn't it?).
If I get a grant, however, I'll do qualitative research first, quantitative may come later.

robbkvasnak (Montri la profilon) 2014-junio-27 21:01:18

Kirilo, you might want to glance at my dissertation in which I used mixed method. The title is "Belongingness and Integrative Motivation in Second Language Learning". I used Kelly's grid to show my findings.
At this time, I might, however, express a certain doubt as to any quantative results on language acquisition other than comparative statistics (a majority of the subjects showed more.... than.... when .......[completing a specific task]). You might look at Borowitz' studies in comparing native English and native Chinese speakers in the concepts of "last" and "next" as contrasted with "above" (shang) and "below" (xia) [with respective meanings] in second language acquisition.
I am very willing to help you here since this is a subject that is very dear to my heart (having studied Turkish, Mandarin, and Hawaiian).

sudanglo (Montri la profilon) 2014-junio-28 11:43:43

If I tell you that it takes 4 days longer to learn X than Y, this doesn't say much about the relative difficulty. I might be comparing 50 days with 54 days.

But it gets quite difficult to express the proportionate difficulty if I am comparing zero days with 4 days.

Now in the case of Esperanto, it takes zero time to learn the simple past, present and future of any other verb if I have learnt these forms for one verb.

If I have learnt the verb to be in English, I still have a lot more studying to do (and even more so in the case of French) to learn the forms for other verbs. I also have to learn which words can be a verb and which can't, and what they mean as a verb. (In English I can say I cycled to London, but not I trained to London - Esperanto is far less restrictive and also more transparent.)

It is perhaps not so surprising that studies of the time to acquire Esperanto to a certain standard may be lacking, when it is so obvious on a priori grounds that Esperanto must be easier.

Kirilo81 (Montri la profilon) 2014-junio-28 11:56:46

@robb

I've just dowloaded your thesis, thanks alot.
I may turn up again if may proposal gets accepted.

@sudanglo

Yes, it's obvious to those who want to see it, but many don't, and for them you need unrefutable evidence. Furthermore there are real problems in real life communication also in Esperanto, which deserve a study.

bartlett22183 (Montri la profilon) 2014-junio-28 18:31:38

sudanglo:It is perhaps not so surprising that studies of the time to acquire Esperanto to a certain standard may be lacking, when it is so obvious on a priori grounds that Esperanto must be easier.
Yes, but the original poster on AUXLANG, if I understand him and the subsequent thread correctly, is saying that "so obvious on a priori grounds" is simply inadequate for promoting E-o among non-European speakers. Some posts in the thread have asserted that E-o and other conIALs are oversold, with the claim that they are so easy, when they should be presented as easiER than natlangs rather than just "easy" as such. But again, the request is for hard data, if they exist, and not speculations, hunches, and anecdotes.

robbkvasnak (Montri la profilon) 2014-junio-28 19:02:12

One of the problems that is specific to language is that language competence and language performance do not have a constant relationship to each other. I may have the competence but not be able to perform due to many variables - which in language may be physical, psychological or social. In mathematics competence and performance are more highly corelated. Furthermore, native speakers may have differing levels of competence and performance depending on the register used and the situation in which the speaker finds herself/himself. One researcher whose works are on performance is Jim Cummins (his famous BICS and CALP have been partially questioned by himsel) has spent a great deal of his research trying to define the different and differing levels of language usage.
So the first step in unstanding the acquisition of Esperanto is to define usage levels (if this is at all possible). Usage is however socially perceived and described since we are talking about the ability to communicate. I teach English and Spanish to non-native speakers (in both cases). Understanding narrative isone of the biggest stumbling blocks for both groups. You may be able to handle grammaticality and still be incompetent in a language (and under-performing) because your sense of narrative is non-native-like. This is one of the mistakes made by many European politicians who use English. Their pragmatics are off.

noelekim (Montri la profilon) 2014-junio-29 00:12:50

I found these references in a search with Google Scholar.

Karen Roehr-Brackin & Angela Tellier. Enhancing Children’s Language Learning: Esperanto As A Tool. 5th Essex Language Conference for Teachers, University of Essex, 2013. https://faser.essex.ac.uk/langling/documents/elct/...

Angela Tellier & Karen Roehr-Brackin. Metalinguistic awareness in children with differing language learning experience. EUROSLA Yearbook: Volume 13 (2013), pp. 81-108(28) http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jbp/eusy/201...

Adelina Solis. The Contemporary Esperanto Speech Community. 4.2: Practical attractions to Esperanto. 2012 http://fiatlingua.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/f...

The last one in particular refers to the relative difficulty of Esperanto for Japanese-speakers.

jaldrich (Montri la profilon) 2014-junio-29 00:20:34

Great topic and I look forward to the continuing discussion. Unpacking how long it takes to learn Esperanto versus other languages sounds like a straightforward research problem, however further thought reveals the many issues that would have to be considered: defining levels of proficiency; appropriate assessments for pre- and post-testing that work across the languages being studied; controlling for factors like learner age, level of motivation, learner aptitude, teaching methodology, what language(s) the learner speaks and to what proficiency level, etc. Even for major languages the issue of "how long does it take to learn" has been incompletely researched. Perhaps the most frequently repeated measure of language difficulty is from the Defense Language Institute, as a point of reference for how long they train adult motivated English speakers in various languages.

robbkvasnak (Montri la profilon) 2014-junio-29 03:20:00

The term "proficiency level" sounds like a term drawn out of the epistomological toolbox but in reality, in language,it is a bit like trying to define "proficiency level" in playing the violin or in preparing an excellent seven-course meal paired with the appropriate wines. Despite the scienctific side to these endeavors, there is always an element of caprice, yes, artistic or inspirational caprice, that plays a role in this field. If this were not the case, then Google translate would be a great success and would be termed as one of the best language learners our world knows. For example, a good Esperanto speaker should be able to make sense of fuzzy expressions in Esperanto and deal with them. Computational rationis cannot. But humans can often read between the lines and interpret intent based on up-to-now undefined perameter. Partially, this is due to the meaning web that surrounds the Begriffswelt of the individual connected with a certain term and definied somewhat arbitrarily to that person's cultural experiences. Thus, anecdotal findings do indeed find meaning in despribing the preficiency of an individual in SLA. But unlike the sterile tests such as TOEFL, descrete body language and social setting play an enormous role in communivation. Even the time when a conversation is carried one can be differently scanned during one period of social strife and then again in another way ducing times of relaitce peasr.

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