Methodology

Robert L. Read and Steven D. Brewer explain how Esperanto acts as a springboard for the acquisition of other languages

Who Knows Where Esperanto Might Lead?

In 1887, an obscure eye doctor in ly attain a competency that eluded them in Esperanto, or any language, provides a Poland self-published a little book in Russian. learning an ethnic language or report that they propaedeutic effect in learning a next lan- Over the next several years Lingvo Internacia1 reached a given level of competency in a frac- guage which is similar. appeared in English, French, German, tion of the time required by a national lan- Several factors may contribute to the Hebrew, and Polish. This book, written under guage. Early success creates a virtuous cycle Corder effect, including similarities in vocabu- the pen name Doctor Esperanto, laid the which encourages more study and often leads lary, grammatical structure, and word order. foundation for a new language that would to genuine fluency. Achievement yields positive Similarity of vocabulary has been shown to achieve what no other language project had effects on student self-confidence, insight into be an effective metric for predicting how ever done: establish a living community that the nature of languages in general, and the much knowing one language will help with would go on to survive the death of its cre- structure of their native language in particular. learning another.5 Since Esperanto was ator. Even conservative estimates place the Barry Farber writes in his book How to designed to have a widely recognized vocab- number of active speakers in the tens of Learn Any Language:2 “It’s said that once you ulary and grammatical features broadly thousands, with the number who have master one foreign language, all others come shared across language families, it takes learned Esperanto at some time in their lives much more easily. That’s not a myth. Your first advantage of Corder’s Hypothesis in two into the millions. foreign language, in a major way, is the first ways; it is easy to learn because it is similar Esperanto speakers have long claimed it olive dislodged from the bottle. The rest flow to a language you know, and it is useful to offers many benefits, such as being easy to obligingly forth.” Farber is asserting that learn- study because it is probably similar to a lan- learn. Among the most provocative claims is ing any language at all will make learning the guage you want to learn. that studying Esperanto has a strong next language easier. If this is true, then The creator of Esperanto, Ludwig propaedeutic effect; that is, monolingual stu- Esperanto, like other languages, might convey Zamenhof, designed its initial vocabulary to be dents who learn Esperanto as their second this benefit, but with less effort than other lan- familiar to educated Europeans of his day. language can go on to learn other languages guages. A refinement of the implication of Approximately 70 percent of the basic vocab- with less effort than they would otherwise Farber’s metaphor was explained more formal- ulary has a Latin cognate, 20 percent is have to expend. Some educators believe that ly by S.P. Corder:3 “Where the mother tongue derived from Germanic languages, with the field studies support the claim that time spent is formally similar to the target language, the remaining roots from Slavic languages, learning Esperanto up to some basic level of learner will pass more rapidly along the devel- Yiddish, and Hebrew. Anyone who has been competency is quickly repaid when the next opmental continuum (or some parts of it) than exposed to a European language will find language is studied. where it differs.”4 many familiar words when they study Many students of Esperanto experience a Informally, Corder’s Hypothesis predicts it Esperanto. English, which has both a dramatic success that transforms their per- will be easier to learn a language that is simi- Romance and a Germanic heritage — and spective on language learning. They common- lar to one that you already know. Studying often has synonymous terms from both — 22 http://www.languagemagazine.com April 2009 Methodology

has a vast number of cognates with case. This allows meaning to be largely inde- taught, even though the teachers themselves Esperanto. pendent of word order. Esperanto speakers had little training in Esperanto. In addition to a familiar vocabulary, a from different language groups can form Teaching students about language in gen- remarkably simple and regular grammar completely clear and correct statements with eral via the propaedeutic effect of Esperanto makes Esperanto easy to learn. This regularity the word order most common in their native is the purpose of a pilot program called allowed it to be specified in the first small book language. In fact, some people have joked Springboard to Languages9 occurring now in on Esperanto published in 1887 with sufficient that all of the “rules” of Esperanto are “per- four schools in the U.K. In the words of the precision and clarity to build momentum missions” that let speakers say things the program, “Springboard uses Esperanto not to behind the language. Although quite regular, way they want. produce a nation of Esperanto-speakers, but the grammar of Esperanto has two major fea- If Corder’s Hypothesis is true,6 it seems as a preparation for learning other languages.” tures that are unfamiliar to the English logical that studying Esperanto, which gently The paper “The Rationale of the Springboard monoglot, but common in other languages. introduces features of many language families, Project”10 presents a brief survey of the field Esperanto possesses an agglutinative provides a propaedeutic effect for language studies that support the assertion that study- structure that is a feature of some non-Indo- learning in general. Esperanto speakers, who ing Esperanto has a strong propaedeutic European languages. Complex words are reg- tend to study many languages, provide anec- effect. In the words of one educator associat- ularly constructed from a set of unchanging dotal evidence that it does, whether because ed with the program: “Numerous studies morphemes or word elements. This property of the Corder effect, or simply because it is since the 1920s have confirmed that learning is shared by many languages across the the first olive from Farber’s bottle. Moreover, Esperanto improves the motivation of learners globe, including Blackfoot and Quechua from the propaedeutic benefit of studying (because of their relatively rapid progress in the Americas, Finnish, Hungarian, and Turkish Esperanto is also supported by published sci- the language) and improves subsequent from Europe, and Japanese and Korean from entific studies beginning in 1921.7 learning of other languages. The first docu- Asia. It exists to some extent in English, as Recently, a most impressive, controlled mented experiment was in England — Bishop the famous word anti-dis-establish-ment- field study of the value of learning Esperanto Auckland, 1918-21; later studies, each con- arian-ism demonstrates, but in agglutinative as a language other than English (LOTE), the centrating on different aspects of the ques- languages this is an essential feature. EKPAROLI project,8 was carried out in tion, but coming to broadly similar conclu- Furthermore, Esperanto marks the lexical Australia between 1994 and 1997. sions, have been conducted in New Zealand category of every word unambiguously by its Approximately 240 5th and 6th graders (1924), New York (1931), Manchester (1948- ending, which is a great boon to the begin- were taught one of German, Japanese, ’65), Sheffield (1951), Finland (1963), Hungary ner. Specifically, like literary Arabic, German, Javanese, and Esperanto. The attainment (1970), Germany (1980), 5 European coun- Icelandic, Latin, and Russian, it marks the level and motivation of the Esperanto speak- tries (1990), Italy (1993) and Australia (2000). direct object of the verb, or the accusative ers was favorable to the other languages The 1931 work was by a team led by the April 2009 http://www.languagemagazine.com 23 Methodology

eminent educational psychologist, Edward has a large body of excellent literature, but a was less than ideal, particularly Asians who Thorndike of Columbia University. The plain limited opportunity for speaking. Perhaps sur- had great difficulty in expressing themselves in facts are that young people enjoy learning prisingly, in addition to electronic speaking English, accepted the unequal communication Esperanto; they learn it up to 5 times more and listening opportunities, Esperanto speak- rights imposed on them by the conference quickly than other languages and the skills ers frequently organize conventions at region- organizers. The answer was that the organiz- learned are readily transferable,” said David al, national, and international levels, where ers, mainly British, had not given the matter Kelso — a former HM Chief Inspector of one can easily immerse oneself in Esperanto. any thought, and the non-native speakers, Schools, Trustee and Director for Education of Esperanto speakers are even willing to host from all over Asia, were too polite to protest. Esperanto-UK other Esperantists in their homes in almost A couple of weeks later, at the Esperanto As English-speaking Americans who have every nation across the globe which makes symposium, it was amazing to experience studied Spanish, we can attest that Esperanto traveling inexpensive and authentic for the participants from all over the world communi- was for us many times easier to acquire than Esperanto speaker. Speakers typically join an cating confidently in a shared international Spanish. However, since we studied Spanish international community of people who share language, among them a number of Asians first, some reinforced familiarity with words not only a language, but generally an interest who were manifestly at no disadvantage. As derived from Latin that occur in Esperanto in international dialog and a common set of this even was my first experience of probably made Esperanto easier for us. Far experiences learning Esperanto. Esperanto in action (with interpretation provid- from being a disadvantage, we consider this an The authors can recount amazing stories ed for us non-Esperantists), it was a vivid and advantage of Esperanto. We have experienced about their own experiences with Esperanto. memorable way of seeing at first hand that the propaedeutic effect firsthand, although in One of our most satisfying experiences as an Esperanto is not merely utopian, but a reality the Spanish-to-Esperanto direction. Obtaining Esperanto speaker from the English-centric for those who have chosen to make it part of the propaedeutic effect in the Esperanto-to- U.S. occurred at a conference in Lithuania: their lives [...]” (pg 169) your-next-language direction would be of equal “I dined with people from Japan, Denmark, Learning any language is a big investment or greater value. Since Esperanto is easy to Germany, France, and the Netherlands, dis- with an even bigger potential reward. If learn and makes learning the next language cussing public transportation policy in different choosing which of the many languages to easier, studying it may be a beneficial use of nations. I suspect that only two of the eight of study makes you feel like a kid in a candy the student’s time, even if they do not value us could have conversed fluently in English; but store — daunted by the variety — consider knowing Esperanto inherently. since we were speaking fluently in Esperanto, Esperanto an inexpensive way to get a taste. To give this benefit, a language must be we had no need to investigate the issue!” If you are not sure in which language it is best practical to study. The availability of learning At the same time, the magic and excite- to invest your energies, or which is best for materials and the opportunity to practice it ment of Esperanto is sometimes difficult for you to study next in a life-long commitment to makes or breaks an effort to learn a language. others to see. When one of the authors language learning, Esperanto may be a good For Esperanto, a wide variety of inexpensive attended a scientific conference in Slovakia, use of your time. In addition to providing the high-quality textbooks, websites, podcasts, with faculty from 26 different European coun- intrinsic rewards of the language itself, your radio programs, music, and other audio and tries, there was intense excitement among the time studying Esperanto may pay itself back video material and courses are available. Eight participants to converse freely in their shared in the ease with which you acquire the next hours of high-production value video instruc- language. A visitor from the local town, how- language that you choose to study. tion are freely accessible on YouTube.11 Free ever, couldn’t see what was exciting at all: it email-based correspondence courses taught just looked like a bunch of foreigners speak- References by real people are widely utilized. Over four ing a foreign language to him. 1 Dr. Esperanto’s International Tongue, thousand books can be purchased,12 and Robert Phillipson, a linguist and professor Preface and Complete Method, edited for Esperanto USA13 has an online bookstore with of English in Denmark wrote about his first Englishmen by J. St.. Ludwik _azarz English-language descriptions of one thousand experience seeing Esperanto in action in his Zamenhof. Warsaw, Poland, 1888. of these books on diverse subjects. Project book English Only Europe:15 “In the summer http://www.genekeyes.com/Dr_Esperanto.ht Gutenberg, the multilingual free electronic of 1996, I attended two international confer- ml, http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Unua_Libro. library, has 55 books in Esperanto that can be ences, a Language Rights conference in 2 Farber, Barry. How to Learn Any Language: read completely free of charge,14 including Hong Kong, and a language policy sympo- Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, and On Your original works and translations of beloved clas- sium as part of the Universal Esperanto Own. Citadel Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8065- sics from English, Norwegian, German, Czech, Association 81st World Congress. At the 1271-7. p. 134. Danish, Hebrew, Finnish, and Bulgarian. Hong Kong conference, English was virtually 3 Corder S.P. (1981) Language distance and Modern pedagogy emphasizes speaking the sole means of communication. In the the magnitude of the language leaning task. and aural comprehension as the key to lan- question time of one of the plenary sessions, In Error Analysis and Interlanguage Oxford guage learning, a fact often stated in this a South African participant expressed surprise (pp. 95-102). Oxford University Press. magazine. One might wonder if Esperanto at why those whose competence in English 4 Performance on ESL Examinations: Is There 24 http://www.languagemagazine.com April 2009 Methodology

a Language Distance Effect? Catherine Elder Faculty of Education, Monash University, 15 Phillipson, R. English Only Europe: and Alan Davies NLLIA Language Testing Clayton, Victoria,Australia, 3168 1 Jan. 2009 Challenging language policy. Routledge, New Research Centre, University of Melbourne, http://www.springboard2languages.org/docu York. 2003. 240pp. 147-149 ments/ekparoli_report.htm. Barry Street, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia. 9 Springboard to Languages. 1 Jan. 2009 5 Exploration in automated language classifi- http://www.springboard2languages.org/home.htm Robert L. Read leads a team of developers cation. Eric W. Holman, Søren Wichmann, 10 The Rationale of the Springboard Project. at a software company. He received his Ph.D. Cecil H. Brown, Viveka Velupillai, André Müller, 1 Jan. 2009 in Computer Science from the University of Dik Bakker. http://www.springboard2languages.org/docu Texas in 1995. He has served on the board of http://email.eva.mpg.de/~wichmann/Explorati ments/springboard_rationale.pdf. directors of Esperanto-USA from 2005 to ons.pdf. 11 Pasporto al la Tuta Mondo. 15 Jan. 2009 2008, after beginning to study Esperanto in 6 Linguistic Distance: A Quantitative Measure http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqmBL3v 2003. Steven D. Brewer is an assistant pro- of the Distance Between English and Other WrXw&feature=channel_page. fessor at the University of Massachusetts Languages. Bary R. Chiswick and Paul W. 12 Book Catalog of the Universala Esperanto Amherst and directs its Biology Computer Miller. Discussion Paper No. 1246 of The Assocation (in Esperanto). 1 Jan. 2009 Resource Center. He received a Ph.D. in Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, http://katalogo.uea.org/. Science Education from Western Michigan Germany. Http://ssrn.com/abstract=575090. 13 Esperanto USA, a 501c3 educational University, after majoring in Biology and 7 Propaedeutic value of Esperanto. Wikipedia charity. 1 Jan. 2009 http://esperanto- Spanish as an undergraduate. He has spoken article. 1 Jan. 2009 usa.org/. Esperanto for 20 years and served as vice- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaedeutic_valu 14 Project Gutenberg, books in Esperanto. president of Esperanto-USA. He frequently e_of_Esperanto. 1 Jan. 2009 lectures in the language to international audi- 8 EKPAROLI: Professor Alan J. Bishop, http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/languages/eo. ences at Esperanto conventions.

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