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{{Short description|Proposed method for teaching foreign languages,}}{{Expand Esperanto}}
The '''Paderborn method''' is a proposed method for teaching foreign languages, originally conceived for children's education. It consists of first teaching a student a simple language (usually [[Esperanto]]) for two years, then teaching them a second language for several years after that. The time spent studying Esperanto helps the student acquire the second language more quickly, such that they end up more proficient in the second language than if they had spent the first two years studying it instead of Esperanto.
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The idea that Esperanto might prove helpful in acquiring foreign languages was posited in a 1922 report to the League of Nations. It was given as a potential reason for children to study Esperanto, but the only study that had been conducted at the time, an experiment in the Girls' Secondary School at Bishop Auckland, was inconclusive.<ref>{{cite book |title=Esperanto as an international auxiliary language |date=1922 |publisher=General secretariat of the League of Nations |pages=51–53 |url=https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Esperanto_as_an_international_auxiliary_language._Report_of_the_general_Secretariat_of_the_League_of_nations_adopted_by_the_third_Assembly,_1922_(IA_esperantoasinter00leagrich).pdf |access-date=2022-05-12}}</ref>
The educational benefits of Esperanto for children were subsequently studied by researchers at Columbia University,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Eaton |first1=Helen |title=Experiments in language learning |journal=The Modern Language Journal |date=Oct 1934 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=1–4 |doi=10.2307/315418|jstor=315418 }}</ref> the University of Sheffield,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halloran |first1=J. H. |title=A four year experiment in Esperanto as an introduction to French |journal=The British Journal of Educational Psychology |date=Sep 1952 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=200–204 |doi=10.1111/j.2044-8279.1952.tb02826.x}}</ref> and the Egerton Park Country Secondary School.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Norman |title=A language teaching experiment |journal=The Canadian Modern Language Review |date=Dec 1965 |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=26–28 |doi=10.3138/cmlr.22.1.26 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_canadian-modern-language-review_1965-10_22_1/page/n5/mode/2up |access-date=2022-05-12}}</ref> Many of these experiments' findings were compromised by unclear objectives, brief or anecdotal reporting, and a lack of methodological rigor. However, they consistently suggested that the study of Esperanto provides advantages to primary-age children that the study of natural languages does not.<ref name="springboardtolanguages">{{cite book |last1=Tellier |first1=Angela |title=Esperanto as a starter language for child second-language learners in the primary school |date=2013 |publisher=Esperanto UK |___location=Great Britain |isbn=978-0-902756-35-9 |edition=second}}</ref>{{rp|11–12}}
===Experiment at the University of Paderborn===
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Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain how the Paderborn method works. It is generally accepted that the learning of any language makes the learning of all subsequent languages easier.<ref name="charters">{{cite journal |last1=Charters |first1=Duncan |title=The teaching and learning of Esperanto |journal=Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems |date=2015 |volume=13 |issue=2 |page=295 |doi=10.7906/indecs.13.2.7 |url=http://indecs.eu/2015/indecs2015-pp288-298.pdf |access-date=2022-05-01}}</ref> Norman Williams argues that Esperanto provides this benefit to a greater degree than natural languages because of its simplicity and its familiarity to [[English language|English]] speakers, stating that Esperanto is six times easier to learn than [[French language|French]] or [[German language|German]], and that 89% of Esperanto roots are recognizably related to words in English.<ref name="egertonpark">{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Norman |title=A language teaching experiment |journal=Canadian Modern Language Review |date=December 1965 |volume=22 |issue=1 |page=26|doi=10.3138/cmlr.22.1.26 }}</ref>
Helen Eaton argues that some of Esperanto's benefit comes from the vocabulary and grammar that it shares with the target language. Lexical analyses have found that 80% of Esperanto roots are similar to the corresponding [[Latin language|Latin]] root, 20% to the corresponding German,<ref name="eaton27">{{cite journal |last1=Eaton |first1=Helen S. |title=The educational value of an artificial language |journal=The Modern Language Journal |date=November 1927 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=90,91 |doi=10.2307/314175 |jstor=314175 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/314175|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and 66% to the corresponding [[Italian language|Italian]].<ref name="smideliusz">{{cite book |last1=Smidéliusz |first1=Katalin |title=Analisi comparativa del lessico italiano esperanto ed ungherese a fini didattici |date=1997 |publisher=COEDES |___location=Milano |isbn=88-85872-09-3 |pages=47,48}}</ref> Eaton also notes that Esperanto grammar has [[Agreement (linguistics)|noun-adjective agreement]] and an [[accusative case]], which are also found in the grammars of French, German, and Latin.<ref name="eaton27"></ref>
Angela Tellier argues that a key factor is the positive attitude toward language learning that Esperanto provides students. Experiments consistently suggest that a student of Esperanto can reach proficiency faster than a student of a natural language.<ref name="maxwell">{{cite journal |last1=Maxwell |first1=Dan |title=On the acquisition of Esperanto |journal=Studies in Second Language Acquisition |date=February 1988 |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=59 |doi=10.1017/S0272263100006951 |jstor=44487440 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44487440 |access-date=2022-05-01|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This rapid progress reinforces the student's self-confidence as a language learner<ref name="springboard">{{cite book |last1=Tellier |first1=Angela |title=Esperanto as a starter language for child second-language learners in the primary school |date=2013 |publisher=Esperanto UK |___location=Great Britain |isbn=978-0-902756-35-9 |pages=11,12 |edition=second}}</ref> and their enthusiasm for language learning,<ref name="eaton27"></ref> both of which encourage them to persevere in their future language learning endeavors.
==See also==
{{Portal|education|Constructed languages}}
*[[Psychopedagogy]]
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