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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==
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