VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

************

ENGLISH 3B* - DEBATE

Group 1 – Class 16E1

Name: Nguyen Van Thang

Tran Khanh Linh

Tran Hoang Phuong Thao

Ha Noi, January 2018

 I. Reflection

1. Reflection on preparation

Regarding preparing process, the proposition team did not encounter much difficulty during the
search for reference material because there are numerous research papers supporting second
language learning among children aged 0 to 5. While this had proven to be a great source of data,
such vast body of research also came as a drawback since most arguments proposed are similar;
therefore, it was hard for the team to come up with a novel idea to introduce in the debate
tournament. As a result, in the actual debate, the argument that we proposed was more like research
presentation with statistics to back up rather than reasoning.

As for the preparation of the video analysis, the team were not able to find decent videos for the
topic at first, yet we managed to collect 3 videos of 50 minutes in total to analyze. Note-taking was
carefully conducted by individuals and so as the glossary.

2. Reflection on implementation

With respect to implementation process, the debate was conducted smoothly in a genial
atmosphere. No aggressive situation or verbal dispute occurred, all the speakers expressed their
opinions in an appropriately courteous manner. During each turn, the chairman did not have to
forcefully interrupt any speakers as they were well-aware of the allowed time and the timekeeper
was very dutiful. Moreover, in the face of tension and anxiety, all speakers made their best effort
to maintain their voice loud and clear. During the 1-minute preparation time each turn, our team
managed to cooperate effectively and came up with proper rebuttals or answers. It is a novel
experience to collaborate under such time pressure. However, we appreciate the opportunity to
train our team-working skills and working under pressure. In terms of the audience, they were very
supportive and responsive to the content of the arguments as we received numerous of thought-
provoking questions in the Q&A section.

3. Evaluation on performance

Overall, the proposition side think that our own performance during the debate was quite
satisfactory. Firstly, we can illustrate and prove our own stance clearly with reasoning, example
and statistics. Particularly, we provided a variety of research to corroborate our points of view
quite effectively and persuasively, which is a strong point. By citing research, we did also provide
the audience with useful knowledge related to their field of working. Moreover, all the points were
conveyed as planned and all the members of our side were confident to take the stage. In the
rebuttal part, the proposition side was also relatively satisfied as we could think of the refutation
and present it in a convincing way.

Nevertheless, there were several shortcomings from our side which certainly weakened our
argument. First and foremost, as other friends pointed out, we lacked argument in our debate. This
was due to the fact that we used an excessive number of research findings to back up our argument.
Consequently, both the opposition team and audience found our argument not as persuasive as
expected. This also led to some confusion as they are “bombarded” with statistics and evidence.
Furthermore, our question handling part is not thoroughly satisfactory as well. When we answered
their questions, some of our points were not relevant and persuasive enough to clear up their
confusion. Therefore, we think that we could not meet the audience’s expectations in this section.

II. Individual Reports

1. Nguyen Van Thang

TEDxRainier - Dr. Patricia Kuhl

What is happening in children’ minds is nothing short of rocket science

What we are researching will shed some light on something called the celestial openness of a
child’s mind.

To preserve a language, mothers need to talk to children, not adults.

Children has a critical period for learning a language – baby are geniuses and after 7, their ability
systematically declines

Work in my lab focuses on the first CP – the period when children try to master which sounds are
used in a language.

Experiment 1: Children are trained to turn their heads according to different sounds. If they
perform at appropriate time, light box lights up.

Babies – citizens of the world can distinguish all the sounds from all languages – adults who are
culture-bound listeners can’t do that.

The difference happens before the first birthday.

Experiment 2: English and Japanese children listen to sounds “r-l” important to English but not to
Japanese.

6-8 months they are the same. Two months later, English children were getting a lot better while
the reverse was true for Japanese ones.

Children took statistics on the language while listening.

English has a lot of “r-l” while Japanese has more intermediate sounds. Long exposure to a specific
language is what turns them from citizens of the world to the culture-bound listeners

Adults don’t take statistics – they are governed by the memory taken from early years.

Bilingual people must keep two sets of statistics in mind at once and flip between them.

Experiment 3: Expose English children to Mandarin for 2 months during CP.

Exposure to English doesn’t improve their Mandarin but exposure to Mandarin make children as
good as children in Taiwan who has been listening for 10 and a half months.

 Children takes statistics about language

Experiment 4: to see the role of human beings in this exercise

Children are exposed to the same dosage, the same twelve sections, but over a television or an
audio and a teddy bear on the screen.

Results: Audio: no learning whatsoever

Video: no learning whatsoever

 It takes a human being for baby to take statistics

Experiment 5: Magneto-encephalography – superconducting quantum interference device

As the baby hear a word in her language, the auditory area lights up and then the surrounding areas
related to coordination, coherence and causality are activated.

Summary

Children have the ability to distinguish sounds of different languages but this disappears in
adulthood as they are too familiar with one language only. In the video, many research and
experiments are mentioned to signify the importance of critical period in learning a language.
During this period, children take statistics of the language they hear and accordingly develop that
language faster. Furthermore, research shows that human beings are necessary in helping children
to learn.

How Does Language Change Your Brain?

When you learn a language, the brain needs to make connections

MRI scans showed that when people learn a language at a fast rate, specific parts of the brain
grows in size.

Young adults proficient in 2 languages performed better in attention tests and concentration than
monolingual ones.

Longitudinal studies showed that cognitive functions of bilingual adults were better than decades
earlier – slow down brain aging for more than 3 years.

When a word comes into brain, it starts to populate the rest of the words.

“Culture could be shaped through the prism of language”

The language that you are learning affects your perception and thinking.

Example: tribes using languages for orientation East, West, North, South is much better at spatial
intelligence than others using left or right for direction.

People of tonal languages are better at musical instruments because thanks to pitch and tone
understanding.

Summary

The brain changes when people learn a language. Firstly, more connections are made to store
information and specific parts even become bigger when language is learnt at a fast rate. The
brain’s functions, including executive functioning and memory also become better in bilingual
people. Moreover, learning a language can change how we thinks about other things. To illustrate
these points, many examples are cited, ranging from spatial to musical intelligence.
 Glossary

Phonetic
Word Definition Example
transcription

not rocket science /ˈrɒkɪt saɪəns/ (informal) used to Astrophysics is not

emphasize that something rocket science at all
is easy to do or if you find out
understand about it.

shed/cast/throw to make a problem, etc. This research sheds

light on easier to understand some light on the
cognitive
development of
bilingual children.

culture-bound prevented from going Adults are culture-

somewhere or from bound citizens as
working normally by they do not
culture understand other
languages.

govern /ˈɡʌvn/ to legally control a The physics laws

country or its people and governing all
be responsible for objects are
introducing new laws, universal.
organizing public
services, etc.

to control or influence
somebody/something or
how something happens,
functions, etc.
quantum /ˈkwɒntəm/ a very small quantity Quantum
of electromagnetic energy mechanics is a
really hard realm.

causality /ˌwɒtsəʊˈevə(r)/ the relationship between Whatever it shows

something that happens is controlled by the
and the reason for it same laws of
happening; the principle causality which
that nothing can happen govern nature.
without a cause

no … whatsoever /ˌwɒtsəʊˈevə(r)/ not at all

proficient /prəˈfɪʃnt/ able to do something well I want to be a

because of training and proficient user of
practice English.

monolingual /ˌmɒnəˈlɪŋɡwəl/ speaking or using only Monolingual

one language children fare badly
in some areas
compared to
bilingual ones.

Longitudinal studies /ˌlɒŋɡɪˈtjuːdɪnl/ Studies concerning the Longitudinal

development of studies showed that
something over a period bilingual children
of time has better executive
functioning.
 2. Tran Khanh Linh

Transfer in Child L2 Acquisition

Adults and children pick up languages differently.

Kids are total pros - even if you throw two different languages at them at the same time, they
have no trouble sorting all of that data into two different systems.

Adults pick up another language based on what they have in first language.

 Question: Do child and adult L2 learners just take different paths through the black-
shrouded forest of transfer?

Experiment 1: Dutch native speakers (Group 1) and people pick up Dutch as children (Group 2)
and adults (Group 3) were required to come up with the correct words order (known as
Scrambling phenomenon in Dutch)

 Result:
- Group 1 did the scrambling as they supposed to.
- A portion of Group 2 and all Group 3 have tendency to transfer English grammar to
Dutch.
 It’s possible that these kids were making the same kinds of mistakes as the adults because
they got into learning the language too late.
 New question: Is there a best-before date for your brain when it comes to L2s?

Experiment 2: A study looked at 240 native speakers of Korean who moved to the United States
at anywhere between 1 to 23 years old. The experiment examined their language syntax.

 Result:
- Adults made some mistakes in deciding in whether you could swap “go” for “goes”
- Native speakers who were born in the US and kids who immigrated at up to seven
years old: no differences in the syntax
 It’s possible that there’s just something special about syntax. The rules that structure
language are complex; you really need to have acquired the syntax in your L1, before you
 can transfer it to your L2. And syntax takes a long time to learn! But there are things that
you acquire much earlier, like your sounds.
 New question: When do children start to take in sound? Do little kids show L1 transfer
in their phonology, since they acquire it sooner?

Experiment 3: 6- month old Swedish and American babies were examined to check how they
categorized sounds, using Head Turn Preference Procedure. (They’d turn their heads in the
direction of something cool, and then they would look away when that got boring.)

 Result:
- Babies were way more interested in the prototypical sounds of their. language than
anything else
- When they hear something that's less than ideal, they just assume it’s part of the
random variation that's coming at them all of the time.

 By the time that they're six months old, kids are already starting to craft the phonetic
categories that are relevant for their language
 The correlation between How old when they immigrated and How native-like your
English sounds. Phonology has strong influence on Accent. Sound
 The inventory of your sounds gets figured out really soon after birth, and so it’s much
easier to get stuck with that than the structure of syntax, which is picked up in the early
years.

Summary

Kids picking up a second language still have a lot of learning to do, and their brains have to grow
into their language, through experience and neural development. But even if kids do have an
easier time than adults with new languages, they still have to struggle with some of the same
problems: transfer happens from really early. Transfer for children happens as soon as they’ve
had a chance to establish grammar. Moreover, kids learning a new language before 7 or 8 years
old usually get a lot of the syntax right. Last but not last, phonology transfers earliest because it’s
mastered earliest.
 Glossary

Word Phonetic Definition Example

transcription

Scrambling /ˈskramblɪŋ/ Scrambling is a common term

(linguistics) for pragmatic word order.
Scrambling does not occur
in English, but it is frequent in
languages with freer word order,
such
as German, Russian, Persian and
Turkic languages.

Transfer /ˈtrɑːnsfəː/ Language transfer (also known as

(linguistics) L1 interference, linguistic
interference, and crosslinguistic
influence) refers to speakers or
writers applying knowledge from
one language to another
language.

interchangeable /ɪntəˈtʃeɪn(d)ʒəbl/ - (of two things) able to be The V8

interchanged. engines are all
interchangeabl
- Apparently identical; very
e with each
similar.
other’

best-before date - a date on packaged food

indicating how long it is safe to
keep it
 - the period when it is most
suitable for doing something

syntax /ˈsɪntaks/ - the way in which linguistic Avoid

elements (such as words) are put translating
together to form constituents prompts word
(such as phrases or clauses) for word
because syntax
- a connected or orderly system :
and common
harmonious arrangement of parts
word usage
or elements
vary widely
among
languages.

phonology /fəˈnɒlədʒi/ The system of contrastive Differences in

relationships among the speech phonology can
sounds that constitute the usually be
fundamental components of a associated with
language. the geographic
location of the
speaker.

prototypical /prəʊtəˈtɪpɪk(ə)l/ Denoting the first, original, or A team of

typical form of something. volunteer
architects and
engineers
helped a
community
develop a
prototypical
 building
system,
inspiring
collaboration,
innovation and
hope.

Head-turn experimental methodologies

Preference employed by researchers to
Procedure measure infants' and toddlers'
spontaneous looking and listening
behaviors toward visual and
auditory stimuli.

inventory /ˈɪnv(ə)nt(ə)ri/ A complete list of items such as The paintings

property, goods in stock, or the listed in the
contents of a building inventory
would likely
have been
displayed on
specific ritual
occasions.
 3. Tran Hoang Phuong Thao

Learning Another Language

1000 active languages in the world

Maintain our heritage not prevent from learning other languages, reflect and preserve heritage

The number of billingual are increasing

Second languages are important for historical and economic reasons:

Companies looking for people who can carry out business in other countries => impossible without
second language

Used for talking, writing, listening, speaking => part of the society

Language defines us

Purposes of 2nd language: trade, colonization:

Obvious benefits: career, travel

As English becomes common, another language is considered an advantage

Cultural benefits: cultural awareness => analogy, know the language -> understand, enjoy the
culture

Facilitate the communication between family members

Benefits of knowing more than one language: 2 principles

+ mundane: making a living, allow increase learning

+ leisure activity, like business is globalized

Establish relationship with other people

Not so obvious advantages of bilingualism:

+ learning a 2nd language => area in the brain deals with languages become denser like muscle

+ it’s better to start early => increase the number of thought, allocate more space for it

+ easier for a child than for adult

Cognitive: higher score

Children with more than 4 years of studying 2nd language have higher score for SAT

Maths score increase after studying 2nd language

Enhanced conceptual and processing

Study a 2nd lang and being bilingual are 2 different things

Differences between mono and billing (shown through ERP):

Research shows that people who learn a 2nd language at young age process words just like native
speakers do

Knowledge of a 2nd lang becomes something automatic, when bilingual people read, they process
in 2 languages.

4-year bilingual child performs like a 5-year monolingual => correlate with later academic success

Learning a 2nd lang doesn’t stop you from learning your mother tongue

2nd lang learning can help 1st lang learning

Effective communication

The more you learn, the easier you can acquire

It’s hard to find a disad of learning a 2nd lang

Who can learn 2nd lang? everyone

Factors to consider: Age, previous experience, positive or negative experience

It takes hard work and time to learn 2nd language

Difficulty: sound, writing system => similar to learning a new sports

Learning a new lang brings you surprise, keeps your mind active,

Overall: 2nd lang means: employment capacity, understanding of other cultures, bridges of mutual
understanding

Summary

There are over 1000 languages existing in the world today of which each represents a distinctive
culture. Learning a second language should be encouraged because of its benefits in various fields.
In terms of employment, knowledge of a second equals to higher chance of getting hired.
Regarding academic achievement, bilingual people have been proven to outperform monolingual
people in numerous subjects. Moreover, not only does studying a second language beneficial to
our brain but it also provides us more opportunities to explore the world around us.

Glossary

Word Pronunciation Meaning Example

analogy /əˈnæl.ə.dʒi/ a comparison between things He drew an analogy between

that have similar features, the brain and a vast computer.
often used to help explain a
principle or idea

mundane /mʌnˈdeɪn/ very ordinary and therefore Mundane matters such as

not interesting paying bills and shopping for
food do not interest her

mosaic /moʊˈzeɪ.ɪk/ a pattern or picture made The country is now a cultural

using and social mosaic (= mixture)
many small pieces of coloured due to the influx of different
stone or glass ethnic groups.

credential /krɪˈden.ʃəl/
the abilities and experience All the candidates had
that make someone suitable excellent academic credentials
for a particular job or activity,
or proof of someone's abilities
and experience

conceptu /kənˈsep.tʃu.əl/ based on ideas or principles The main weakness of the

al proposal is conceptual.

syntax /ˈsɪn.tæks/ the grammatical arrangement

of words in a sentence
Reference

T. (2010, December 13). TEDxRainier - Dr. Patricia Kuhl. Retrieved January 25, 2018, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRRiWg6wYXw

How Does Language Change Your Brain? (2015, August 11). Retrieved January 25, 2018, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGITqiG-Ips

Advantage for Life. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2018, from

https://arts.ucalgary.ca/lrc/research/advantage-life

T. (2015, April 08). Transfer in Child L2 Acquisition. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgTEpTJiREA