Esperanto

Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international language. The name derives from D-ro Esperanto (Dr. Hopeful), the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof first published the language in 1887. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy-to-learn and flexible language as a universal second language to foster international understanding.

Esperanto and education

Relatively few schools teach Esperanto officially outside of China, Hungary, and Bulgaria; the majority of Esperanto speakers continue to learn the language through self-directed study or correspondence courses. Several Esperanto paper correspondence courses were early on adapted to email and taught by corps of volunteer instructors. In more recent years, teaching websites like lernu! have become popular.

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Claude Piron, a psychologist formerly at the University of Geneva and Chinese-English-Russian-Spanish translator for the United Nations, argued that it is easier to think clearly in Esperanto than in many ethnic languages (see Sapir-Whorf hypothesis for an explanation on this theory). "Esperanto relies entirely on innate reflexes differs from all other languages in that you can always trust your natural tendency to generalize patterns. The same neuropsychological law Jean Piaget generalizing assimilation ? applies to word formation as well as to grammar." (published lecture notes)

Related Topics:
Claude Piron - University of Geneva - United Nations - Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - Jean Piaget - Published lecture notes

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Several studies demonstrate that, at least for native European-language speakers, studying Esperanto before another foreign language speeds and improves learning the other language. This is presumably because learning subsequent foreign languages is easier than learning one's first, while the use of a grammatically simple and culturally flexible auxiliary language like Esperanto lessens the first-language learning hurdle. In one study (Williams 1965), a group of European high-school students studied Esperanto for one year, then French for three years, and ended up with a significantly better command of French than a control group, who studied French for all four years. Similar results were found when the second language was Japanese, or when the course of study was reduced to two years, of which six months was spent learning Esperanto. See Propedeutic value of Esperanto for other relevant studies.

Related Topics:
Foreign language - Williams 1965 - Control group - Propedeutic value of Esperanto

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