Comments on: There goes another myth: Children aren’t “sponges” http://blog.babbel.com/there-goes-another-myth-children-arent-sponges/ Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:32:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Phonelearning » Blog Archive » Los niños no aprenden idiomas como esponjas http://blog.babbel.com/there-goes-another-myth-children-arent-sponges/comment-page-1/#comment-73 Phonelearning » Blog Archive » Los niños no aprenden idiomas como esponjas Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:49:00 +0000 http://blog.babbel.com/?p=236#comment-73 [...] vía [...] [...] vía [...]

]]> By: There goes another myth: Children aren’t “sponges” « ESOL World News http://blog.babbel.com/there-goes-another-myth-children-arent-sponges/comment-page-1/#comment-17 There goes another myth: Children aren’t “sponges” « ESOL World News Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:58:40 +0000 http://blog.babbel.com/?p=236#comment-17 [...] There goes another myth: Children aren’t “sponges” BABBEL BLOG–It’s not just the free-market myth that’s crumbling these days: Anne Sodermann, Michigan State University professor emeritus of Family and Child, spent some hundred hours in a bilingual Mandarin-English Kindergarten in Bejing. In a recent study (Powerpoint-presentation here), watching 3 to 6 year old children from 16 nationalities, she came to full story [...] [...] There goes another myth: Children aren’t “sponges” BABBEL BLOG–It’s not just the free-market myth that’s crumbling these days: Anne Sodermann, Michigan State University professor emeritus of Family and Child, spent some hundred hours in a bilingual Mandarin-English Kindergarten in Bejing. In a recent study (Powerpoint-presentation here), watching 3 to 6 year old children from 16 nationalities, she came to full story [...]

]]> By: Lorenz http://blog.babbel.com/there-goes-another-myth-children-arent-sponges/comment-page-1/#comment-13 Lorenz Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:06:29 +0000 http://blog.babbel.com/?p=236#comment-13 @syz: You're right. We'll try to do an interview with Sodermann in the near future and ask her for a "walk through". My guess is that small children learn a second language because they have to - like a kind of survival skill. @syz: You’re right. We’ll try to do an interview with Sodermann in the near future and ask her for a “walk through”. My guess is that small children learn a second language because they have to – like a kind of survival skill.

]]> By: syz http://blog.babbel.com/there-goes-another-myth-children-arent-sponges/comment-page-1/#comment-9 syz Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:55:03 +0000 http://blog.babbel.com/?p=236#comment-9 Just arrived via LanguageHat and looking forward to the promising new venture you've got here! I'm an enormous fan of myth-busting, especially when it involves Mandarin and, even better, when it involves second language acquisition. But I'm a little confused in this case. Does Soderman's research show that language-learning difficulties manifest themselves in unexpected ways? That would be interesting, but after the "not sponges" quote you have her talking about different motivations. And then the last quote talks about differences between boys and girls. All non sequiturs as far as the headline is concerned. The powerpoint is laconic, the paper is $28 -- it would be nice to get a little more of a walk thru the arguments! Just arrived via LanguageHat and looking forward to the promising new venture you’ve got here!

I’m an enormous fan of myth-busting, especially when it involves Mandarin and, even better, when it involves second language acquisition. But I’m a little confused in this case.

Does Soderman’s research show that language-learning difficulties manifest themselves in unexpected ways? That would be interesting, but after the “not sponges” quote you have her talking about different motivations. And then the last quote talks about differences between boys and girls. All non sequiturs as far as the headline is concerned.

The powerpoint is laconic, the paper is $28 — it would be nice to get a little more of a walk thru the arguments!

]]>