Language is one of the most complex areas of human existence. Even more fascinating is the way our brain processes it. On our last quiz I had some difficulty with the issue of speech segmentation, and the physical energy of conversational speech. Amazingly enough, our brain tends to perceive speech in a “continuous flow”, and does not recognize pauses between words. While we may perceive these breaks via our auditory system, our brain recognizes them by several components. Familiarity with a language, meaning of the words, pronunciation, and context of the word in the sentence all aid our brains in identifying the spaces between words (Goldstein, 2011, p. 299). Due to our understanding of a language, we can generally fish out the separation between words. As we recognize a word, we can often formulate the cut-off between the next word begins. The way our brain processes sentences is truly astounding. Prior to reading the chapter on language, I never would have imagined our brains would process speech this way, mainly because I never really thought about how our minds accomplish this everyday task.
Anyone who has ever listened to or tried to learn another language can relate to the brain’s elaborate process of sorting out words. During my three consecutive semesters of Spanish and one summer course of German, I was convinced that the native speakers in the recordings were simply talking too fast for me to understand. I would often replay the recordings several times, picking out a few familiar vocabulary words, yet still finding quite a few to be unrecognizable. It was extremely difficult to differentiate between words because I was not familiar with the language or the context in which words were being presented. From my perspective, it seemed like the entire sentence could have been one long word! So it was not so much that I was hearing the sentence incorrectly, but more because my brain did not recognize the language, and thus could not space out the words. As I learned more vocabulary, I was able to discern between words and fill in the pauses to make sense of the statement’s structure.
To aid in the understanding of non-native languages, there are several plug-ins and tools that have been created to aid in speech segmentation and grapheme to phoneme conversions. One such plug-in, dubbed EasyAlign, translates text and word pauses by scanning a transcript (Goldman, J.P., n.d.). Another similar and widely available segmentation tool is distributed by Microsoft’s Hidden Markov Toolkit. Segmentation tools such as these allow non-native speakers to interpret audio sentences and text, so that the learner can easily understand sentence breaks and contexts (Goldman, J.P., n.d.)
Gaining a better understanding of speech segmentation, morphemes, and phonemes has allowed me to realize why learning a new language is such an arduous challenge. Not only does an individual need to learn new vocabulary terms, but also must process where pauses occur in sentences that were previously unfamiliar. Learning a new language is no small task, but dedication and review will eventually allow our brains to process the auditory or written information automatically, rather than just perceiving the sentence as one continuous word!
References:
Goldstein, B. E. (2011) Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. Belmont: Wadsworth.
Goldman, J.P. (n.d) EasyAlign: A Friendly Automatic Phonetic Alignment Tool Under Praat. Retrieved November 28, 2014 from http://latlcui.unige.ch/phonetique/easyalign/easyalign_unpublished.pdf
It really is amazing how language works. I have often thought about how words came to be. Who invented them anyway? I have also struggled through language classes. I took 6 years of French in high school and have taken Spanish twice in college. I’m fluent in neither of them. If I’m really pushed then I can remember much of what I learned though. More relevantly though…I can understand what I read in those languages more than what I hear. I can definitely understand more than I can speak. A friend of mine that is fluent in both English and Spanish and knows moderate French uses movies she is familiar with to strengthen her French vocabulary. She watches the movie in English (or Spanish) and then watches it in French using Spanish subtitles. I suppose if you hear enough of the same things then you will be able to start to hear the breaks in between the words. Similar to you…I always have to listen to things in French or Spanish multiple times before I catch enough of the words to form a sentence that makes sense to me.
There’s another situation with language that has always made me curious. I have three different friends that have Spanish as their first language but are also fluent in English. They speak both English and Spanish to their children. None of the six children (total) speak Spanish though. If they are spoken to in Spanish then they will all respond in English. Every one of them refuses to even attempt to speak Spanish. Well, when I researched this I found out that the two situations really aren’t that different. At least…the solutions aren’t. According to an article by “Bilingual Monkeys” on what to do if your bilingual child won’t speak your language, it is explained that if the child doesn’t have a necessity to speak the minority language then she/he won’t. In the cases of my friends’ children that makes sense because everyone also speaks English. It also makes sense in our cases because we don’t NEED to speak another language, we just want to.
Another story (I have a lot of bilingual friends, it appears)…I have a friend that was a foreign exchange student in Brazil last year. Prior to going to Brazil she didn’t know any Portuguese. Her first six months there she didn’t learn Portuguese because everyone spoke to her in English (because it was easier for them instead of teaching her.) However, she eventually switched schools and found herself surrounded by people that did not speak English (or chose not to) and she picked up on Portuguese pretty quickly that way. She had no choice.
Bilingual Monkeys (2013) Bilingual Monkeys: What to Do When Your Bilingual Child Won’t Speak Your Language. Retrieved on December 1, 2014 from http://bilingualmonkeys.com/when-your-bilingual-child-wont-speak-your-language/
Your example of learning a foreign language rang true to me: I remember thinking I was never going to learn enough Spanish to pass my class, much less actually communicate. I have a further handicap: I’m Southern. I have an “accent” which can make my English difficult to understand sometimes. I also remember listening to recordings over and over again, picking up on words or parts of words I recognized, then using context clues to go from there.
I never considered that some of the problem may be in the way the sentence flows in a foreign language…I simply thought I could NOT understand what they were saying and I was doomed to be in the dark eternally. I still have trouble speaking it effectively, but my espanol medico es perfecto.
Thanks for enlightening me and giving me hope, and for showing that I was not alone in my technique to understand!