SCCIIL-seminar: Language learning, perception, cognition and production

Seminar

Abstract: The dominant medium of spoken language is sound. We can hear and talk through walls and over the phone and even babies born blind learn to speak. Linguistic input thus probably primarily enters through the ears. It is processed in parts of the brain and we gradually learn to speak (production). It is probable that training of the articulatory muscles leads to a feedback loop between the auditory input organs, cognitive centers and back to the speech organs.
I propose to show you how my personal experience in trying to learn Arabic proved to become a prime example of how repetitive auditive input after a while can trigger a cognitive process which in turn - and in loops - leads to relatively fluent speech and a near native pronunciation and accent.