better in second language

Post Reply New Topic

I just found an Icelandic study describing three high functioning autistics who spoke Icelandic as a first language and English as a second language, and had ongoing language problems in Icelandic while having above-average ability in English.

What could cause this? It's usually thought that disabilities affecting language skills will hit a second language harder than the first, not the other way around. Anyone here better in their second language?

I know I'm not - I speak English and French, and English is both my first language and the one I'm more comfortable in. I've forgotten a lot of French, but even at my best, I preferred English. So this seems really strange to me.

Hey! I speak English and French too. I learned French as a child from listening to opera. I didn't have language delays, but I don't sound quite so stilted in French. But my vocabulary hasn't grown much beyond Carmen et Les Contes d'Hoffmann.

It depends on the complexity or qualities of their native language compared to their 2nd language.

For instance, I read that Italian dyslexics are difficult to diagnose with dyslexia because Italian is less challenging for dyslexics. While in English dyslexics have a difficult time with English because, of course, English is not a phonetic language.

From I what I know, Icelandic and English are in the same language family (Germanic). I've noticed some long Icelandic words with a lot of consonants and few vowels. Perhaps for some Icelandic speakers, English is easy to learn (being related) and simpler than their native tongue.

(I've noticed many English speakers who are challenged by French language verbs. However, because my native tongue is a Romance language related to French, French would be easier to grasp for me.)

English is not my native language, though more grammatically complex, I'd say I am better in (written) English. English is more flexible and more expressive, which are qualities I personally prefer.

I don't think I'm better in Spanish than English, but I do know that I started to acquire Spanish to the point where my English suffered. I have to be really careful.
The more languages I learn, the worse my native tongue gets. I also think I don't sound stilted, but I am pretty monotone, no matter what the language is.

English is my second language, and I'm far more fluent in English than my first language.

_________________
My nephew Coke needs to eat! Obviously we're related.

My first language is norwegian, my second is english. I've lived in Norway my whole life, but I do feel I write english much better and faster than I do norwegian. I read norwegian and english equally fast. I speak norwegian better, however, my english vocabulary are larger than my norwegian. When I write notes while doing research, I write them in english, it's just faster that way.

I blame internet, all my research, my gaming, and the fact that the english language have more precise words.

That's weird this is true for me, especially on the internet, writing in English is far more comfortable to me than in my first language, French.

In the case of Norwegian I once heard (a long time ago, maybe about 10 years) that on average the English language have ten words to every one Norwegian word.

This makes it a lot easier to accurately describe things and generally accurately and precicely express oneself.

The kids in question, as described in the article you link, seem to spend a lot more time using English than Idelandic, and do all their reading in it. So to me this finding is not surprising, and the relevance of their being autistic to the finding, seems to me to be mostly about the autism explaining why it is that Icelandic kids might spend so much more time using English - special interests that are more accessible in English and choosing to interact socially online where there are many more English speakers owing to social isolation in offline life. The current belief of the academic community about language acquisition may or may not be wrong that generally kids with language development delays will have more trouble with a second language than a first, but kids with the interest and motivation to spend more time and effort in acquiring the second language may not a factor they considered.

I am far more proficient in my second language (English) though unlike the subjects of the article I do not believe my early childhood acquisition of my native language was delayed. In my case it is simply because I was educated in English rather than in my native language, which I only used with family, and consequently I have done far more reading, writing, and speaking in English than in my native language. I cannot even talk about my work or areas of academic study in my native language because I do not have the words.

this is likely a simple matter of use and exposure; nearly all of the internet and games, together with most TV, is in english, in my case, i have almost three times the exposure to english as i have to my native language.
aside from that, i also speak to many internationals and i do a lot of my assignments in english, so i also use it more.

for me, this has resulted to me hinking in english and feeling as if my native language is actually my second one...

Although English is my second language that I started to speak in my adulthood, I often find English more comfortable to speak because my first language requires you to speak differently depending on who you are speaking to. I often feel awkward in my first language because of that and tend to stumble/fail to say what I need to say.

English is my first language. It's technically my only language. I've been studying German on my own for about a year now, so I could say that I speak German, but not fluently. Anyway, I feel that German is just straightforward enough that it feels easier than English. It's very much a "you mean what you say" type of language.