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This article must have been written in 15 minutes. Painfully lacking in detail. The juicy bits: "A team of researchers looked at the structure of neuron fibers

This article must have been written in 15 minutes. Painfully lacking in detail. The juicy bits: "A team of researchers looked at the structure of neuron fibers in white matter in 22 beginning Mandarin students. Those who had more spatially aligned fibers in their right hemisphere had higher test scores after four weeks of classes, the scientists found." The terrible conclusion: "What language aptitude really is and how it manifests in the brain are complex questions, touching on the nature of attention and even consciousness."

swedrupe 10y ago
Came to the comment section to say the same thing. I think it would have been more worthwhile for us to read the study directly, and draw our own conclusions.
zzzcpan 10y ago
So, by brains wired for languages they actually meant "wired" for teaching methodologies at schools that are known not to be effective for teaching languages to begin with.
- hkmurakami 10y ago
  The first thing I thought was: so they're good at taking tests? How is this related to actual langue.
vacri 10y ago
As a beginning Mandarin student myself, four weeks of classes means absolutely nothing about fluency in the language (assuming the students are native English speakers). It's a very difficult language to learn, and four weeks doesn't have you engaging in unscripted conversations with fellow students. The low n is understandable, but only four weeks of classes is pointless.
jvvw 10y ago
Four weeks seems ludicrously short too. I'm curious about this because my sister is ludicrously good at languages (learned to speak ridiculously early, became fluent in Hungarian in less than six months etc.) but I'm not sure you'd necessarily distinguish between me and her after just four weeks of classes in most languages. Also Mandarin is a tonal language so could be totally different cognitively from non-tonal languages. It depends too on what you are testing - I know after my first month learning Mandarin, I'd have got full marks on a test with pinyin but done terribly on any sort of aural test. Very different skills.

swedrupe 10y ago

Came to the comment section to say the same thing. I think it would have been more worthwhile for us to read the study directly, and draw our own conclusions.

zzzcpan 10y ago

So, by brains wired for languages they actually meant "wired" for teaching methodologies at schools that are known not to be effective for teaching languages to begin with.

hkmurakami 10y ago
The first thing I thought was: so they're good at taking tests? How is this related to actual langue.

vacri 10y ago

As a beginning Mandarin student myself, four weeks of classes means absolutely nothing about fluency in the language (assuming the students are native English speakers). It's a very difficult language to learn, and four weeks doesn't have you engaging in unscripted conversations with fellow students. The low n is understandable, but only four weeks of classes is pointless.

jvvw 10y ago

Four weeks seems ludicrously short too. I'm curious about this because my sister is ludicrously good at languages (learned to speak ridiculously early, became fluent in Hungarian in less than six months etc.) but I'm not sure you'd necessarily distinguish between me and her after just four weeks of classes in most languages. Also Mandarin is a tonal language so could be totally different cognitively from non-tonal languages. It depends too on what you are testing - I know after my first month learning Mandarin, I'd have got full marks on a test with pinyin but done terribly on any sort of aural test. Very different skills.