Constructing a Task-Based Reading Activity

The learners: Young adults who are studying English for their personal and professional
improvement. Their first language is Portuguese and they live in a fairly big town in the countryside,
are very interested in the internet and social media.

The task: By reading about hyperpolyglots and how to become one, the goal of this task is to arouse
their interest in learning English and, hopefully, other languages, too. The following activity can be
considered a task because: a) meaning is more important than the language involved (they are not
looking for grammar issues, but learning about a subject); b) there is a communication problem to be
solved (they are going to interview people about the subject); c) there is a link to the real world (they
are going to look for people outside their classroom and learn something from them); d) the
evaluation will be done according to the final result (their ability of conducting a successful interview
in English and reporting it).

Proceed to the next page.

Pre-reading:
Scan the text for the definition of hyperpolyglot. Have you ever heard of any? What do you think is
necessary to become one? Discuss with your class.

How Many Languages is it Possible to Know?

By Arika Okrent

There are millions of people in the US who speak more than one language at home. Competence in
three languages is not unusual, and we've all heard stories of people who had to learn four or five
languages when they moved from one country to another. In India it is common for people to use
five or six different languages in their daily lives. But what about 10, 20, 30, 100 languages? How
many languages can a person know?

Michael Erard traveled around the world in search of hyperpolyglots, people who study and learn
large numbers of languages, while writing his fascinating book, Babel No More. He exposes the
secrets of their success, and explains why it’s difficult to determine how much of a language a person
can know. Here are some of the hyperpolyglots he met:

Graham Cansdale, 14 languages.

Cansdale uses all 14 languages professionally Johan Vandewalle, 22 languages.

as a translator at the European Commission in
Brussels. He has studied more languages.
Lomb Kató, 16 languages.
This Hungarian polyglot said five of these
"lived inside" her. Five others needed at least
a half day of review in order to be reactivated,
and with the six remaining she could do
translation. She claimed confidence was
crucial to language learning. Her study tip: "Be
firmly convinced you are a linguistic genius."
Alexander Arguelles, 20 languages or so.
Arguelles refuses to say the exact number. "If
someone tells you how many languages they
speak, then you shouldn't trust them," he
says. He has studied more than 60 languages
and devotes 9 hours of study every day to
them. Twenty is the number of them in which
he has reading competence.
In 1987, Vandewalle won the Polyglot of
Flanders contest, where he was tested in 22
languages (though he has studied more). The
contest required 10-minute conversations
with native speakers, with 5-minute breaks in
between.
Ken Hale, 50 languages.
The famous MIT linguist said he could "speak"
only three languages (English, Spanish,
Warlpiri), but could communicate others. For
him, the ability to speak a language includes
knowing all its cultural implications. He didn't
like people perpetuating “myths” about him,
though some people say they saw him study a
grammar of Finnish on an airplane and start
speaking it easily upon arrival.
Emil Krebs, 32 to 68 languages.
The number depends on who's counting. He
was a German diplomat who worked in China,
and had such an unusual talent for languages
that after his death his brain was preserved One of his biographers lists them as: 14 which
for study. he had studied but not used, 11 in which he
could have a conversation, 9 which he spoke
not quite perfectly but with a perfect accent,
Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti, 40 to 72 and 30 languages (from 11 different language
languages. families) which he had totally mastered.

From Erard's time among the hyperpolyglots, with the right kind of natural talent, motivation, and
hard work, remarkable feats can be accomplished. The psycholinguists Erard talked to said there was
"no theoretical limit to the number of languages one could learn." There was only the limitation of
time.

Among the hyperpolyglots, 15 seems to be about the maximum when it comes to the number of
languages they are willing to vouch for in themselves.

Adapted from: http://mentalfloss.com/article/49138/how-many-languages-it-possible-know

Task:

Ask around your family or friends if there are any polyglots or hyperpolyglots they know or heard
about. If you can’t find anyone, ask or research online. Conduct an interview, in English, and find out
about their studying routine and practice. We’ll have a presentation in class next month.