authentic listening practice and vocabulary to  help you improve your language skills. I'm Rob…

Watashi no namae wa Neil desu.  And that means 'my name's Neil'.

So Neil, here's a question for you – can  

you speak any languages other than  English of course? I think you can!

Un poco de español that means a  little bit of Spanish. Some Japanese,  

which I tried at the beginning and also a bit  of Czech language - Dobrý den, jak se máš?

Very impressive. So what tips can you give  for learning to speak another language?

Well, practise, practise, practise – and don't  be afraid of making mistakes as I no doubt have.

Of course. Well my aim this year  is to master the Spanish language.  

Master means to learn thoroughly.

Muy bien! Well you're not alone. A survey by the  British Council found learning a language is a new  

year's resolution for about one in five Britons  in 2018. So learning Spanish is a good start Rob  

but do you know approximately how many languages  there are in the world altogether? Are there…

a) 70 

b) 700 c) 7,000

Well I know there are many but  surely not 7,000 so I'm going to say  

b) 700 – but don't expect me to learn all of them.

I won't Rob. But I will give you the answer later.  

So, we all know learning another language is  a good thing – it brings us many benefits.

Yes, we can communicate with  people from other countries  

and when we're travelling we can understand what  signs and notices say. So we don't get lost.

That's right – but many scientists also  believe that knowledge of another language  

can boost your brainpower. A study  of monolingual and bilingual speakers  

suggests speaking two languages can help  slow down the brain's decline with age.

All good reasons. But Neil, learning another  language is hard. It would take me years and  

years to become fluent in say, Mandarin – by  fluent I mean speak very well, without difficulty.

Well this depends on your  mother tongue. In general,  

the closer the second language is to  the learner's native tongue and culture  

in terms of vocabulary, sounds or sentence  structure - the easier it will be to learn.

But whatever the language,  

there is so much vocabulary to learn – you  know, thousands and thousands of words.

Maybe not Rob. Professor Stuart Webb, a  linguist from the University of Western Ontario,  

may be able to help you. He  spoke to BBC Radio 4's More  

or Less programme and explained  that you don't need to do that…

For language learners in a foreign language  setting – so for example, if you were learning  

French in Britain or English in Japan,  

students may often really struggle to learn more  than 2,000, 3,000 words after many years of study.  

So for example, there was a study in Taiwan  recently that showed that after nine years  

of study about half of the students had still  failed to learn the most frequent 1,000 words.  

Now they knew lower frequency words but they  hadn't mastered those most important words.

So Rob, don't waste your time  trying to learn every single word.  

Professor Webb spoke there about  research that showed students  

knew lower frequency words but weren't  learning enough high-frequency words.

Right, and frequency here means the number  of times something happens – so the important  

words to learn are the high-frequency  ones – and how many are there exactly?

Here's Professor Stuart Webb again…

For example, with English, I would suggest if  you learn the 800 most frequent lemmas – which is  

a word and its inflections – that will  account for about 75 per cent of all of  

the English language. So that learning  those 800 words first will provide  

the foundation for which you may be  able to learn the lower frequency words.

Fascinating stuff. And good to know I just need to  learn about 800 words – or what he calls lemmas.

Yes, a lemma is the simplest form or base form  of a word. And the inflection here refers to  

how the base word is changed according to its  use in a sentence. Knowing these things give  

you a foundation – the basics from which  you language learning will develop. Simple

Thank goodness I am learning  just one new language!

But how many languages could you potentially  be learning Rob? Earlier I asked you,  

approximately how many languages there  are in the world altogether? Are there…

a) 70 b) 700 

c) 7,000

And I said 700. Was I right?

No Rob, you were wrong. There are around  7,000 recognised languages in the world  

but UNESCO has identified 2,500 languages  which it claims are at risk of extinction.

A sobering thought Neil. Now  shall we remind ourselves  

of some of the English vocabulary we've  heard today. Starting with master.

To master a new skill, in  this context, means to learn  

thoroughly or learn well. "Rob hopes to master  Spanish before he starts a new job in Madrid."

That's news to me Neil! But it would be  good to be fluent in Spanish – or any  

language – or to speak it fluently – that's  speaking it well and without difficulty.

Now our next word was frequency. Here we are  referring to high and low frequency words – so  

it means how often they occur. Examples of a  high frequency word are 'it', 'the' and 'and'.

And our next word is inflections. These are the  changes to the basic form of words according to  

their function in a sentence. Such as adding  an 's' to the end of a word to make it plural.

And don't forget lemma which  is the simplest form or base  

form of a word before an inflection is added.

And finally foundation which means  the basics your learning grows from.

That just leaves me to remind you  that you can learn English with  

us at bbclearningenglish.com. That's  it for today's 6 Minute English. We  

hope you enjoyed it. Bye for now.  Na shledanou. Hasta luego. Ja-ne.

And in English, goodbye.

Goodbye. Hello. This  

is 6 Minute English from BBC  Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Georgina

Can I ask you something, Georgina…?

Mm-mm-hmm.

Georgina? I said, I want to ask you  something… are you listening to me?!

Mm-hmm, just a second, Neil, I'm texting a friend…

Ah, has this ever happened you?  Someone too busy texting to talk.  

With the huge rise of mobile phones in  recent decades, communicating by text  

has become more and more popular and scenes  like this have become increasingly common.

…and send! There, all done!  Now, what were you saying, Neil?

In this programme, we'll be investigating  why people often choose to text,  

instead of talk to the people  in their lives. We'll be asking  

whether this popular form of communication  is changing how we interact with each other.

And, of course, we'll be learning  some related vocabulary as well.  

Now, Neil, what did you want to ask me?

My quiz question, Georgina, which is this. Young  people are often the biggest users of mobile  

phones, but in a 2016 study, what percentage  of British teenagers said they would prefer  

to send a text rather than speak to someone,  even if they were in the same room? Is it:

a) 9 percent?, b) 49 percent?, or, 

c) 99 percent?

That sounds pretty shocking! I can't  believe 99 percent of teenagers said that,  

so I'll guess b) 49 percent.

OK, Georgina. We'll find out later if that's  right. In one way, the popularity of texting,  

sometimes called 'talking with thumbs',  

is understandable - people like  to be in control of what they say.

But this low-risk way of hiding behind a screen  may come at a cost, as neuroscientist, Professor  

Sophie Scott, explained to Sandra Kanthal, for  BBC World Service programme, The Why Factor:

When we 'talk with our thumbs' by  text or email or instant message,  

we're often prioritising speed over  clarity and depth. But when we can't  

hear the way someone is speaking it's all  too easy to misunderstand their intention.

So if I say a phrase like, 'Oh shut  up!' - has a different meaning than,  

'Oh shut up!' There's an emotional thing  there but also a strong kind of intonation:  

one's sort of funny, one's  just aggressive. Written down  

it's just aggressive – 'Shut up!' - and you  can't soften that. […] We always speak with  

melody and intonation to our voice and we'll  change our meaning depending on that. You take  

that channel of information out of communication  you lose another way that sense is being conveyed.

When reading a text instead  of listening to someone speak,  

we miss out on the speaker's intonation – that's  the way the voice rises and falls when speaking.

Intonation, how a word is said,  often changes the meaning of  

words and phrases - small groups of words  people use to say something particular.

Reading a phrase like, 'Oh shut up!' in a text,  instead of hearing it spoken aloud, makes it  

easy to misunderstand the speaker's intention  – their aim, or plan of what they want to do.

And it's not just the speaker's intention that  we miss. A whole range of extra information  

is conveyed through speech, from the speaker's  age and gender to the region they're from.

Poet, Gary Turk, believes that we lose  something uniquely human when we stop talking.  

And there are practical problems  involved with texting too,  

as he explains to BBC World  Service's, The Why Factor:

If you speak to someone in person and they  don't respond right away, that would be rude.  

But you might be speaking to someone in person  and someone texts you... and it would be ruder  

for you then to stop that conversation and speak  to the person over text… yet the person on the  

other side of the text is getting annoyed – you  haven't responded right way – it's like we're  

constantly now creating these situations using our  phones that allow us to like tread on mines – no  

matter what you do, we're going to disappoint  people because we're trying to communicate in  

so many different ways. Do you prioritise the  person on the phone? Would you prioritise the  

person you're speaking to? Who do you disappoint  first? You're going to disappoint somebody.

So what should you do if a friend texts you when  

you're already speaking to someone else in  person – physically present, face to face?

You can't communicate with  both people at the same time,  

so whatever you do someone will get  annoyed – become angry and upset.

Gary thinks that despite its convenience,  texting creates situations where we have  

to tread on mines, another way of  saying that something is a minefield,  

meaning a situation full of hidden problems  and dangers, where people need to take care.

Yes, it's easy to get annoyed when  someone ignores you to text their friend…

Oh, you're not still upset  about that are you, Neil?

Ha, it's like those teenagers in my  quiz question! Remember I asked you  

how many teenagers said they'd prefer to text  someone, even if they were in the same room.

I guessed it was b) 49 percent.

Which was… the correct answer! I'm glad you  were listening, Georgina, and not texting!

Ha ha! In this programme we've  been discussing ways in which  

texting differs from talking with  someone in person – or face to face.

Sending texts instead of having a conversation  means we don't hear the speaker's intonation – the  

musical way their voice rises and falls. A phrase  - or small group of words - like 'Oh shut up!',  

means different things when  said in different ways.

Without intonation we can easily misunderstand a  

text writer's intention – their idea  or plan of what they are going to do.

Which in turns means they can get  annoyed – or become irritated,  

if you don't understand what they  mean, or don't respond right away.

All of which can create an absolute minefield  – a situation with many hidden problems,  

where you need to speak and act carefully.

And that's all we have time for  in this programme, but remember  

you can find more useful vocabulary, trending  topics and help with your language learning  

here at BBC Learning English. We also  have an app that you can download for free  

from the app stores and of course we  are all over social media. Bye for now!

Bye!

Hello. This is 6 Minute English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

Now Sam, I assume that you know your alphabet.

Of course, Neil – you mean my ABCs? We  learn that at a very young age, you know?

Sorry to sound patronising. But you do you know  

why the letters in the alphabet  are in that particular order?

No, I don't. That's really interesting. Why?

I don't know either, I was hoping you might!  But seriously, no one really knows how the  

order became established. However, some  research has shown that if your surname,  

your family name, begins with  a letter later in the alphabet,  

you could be at a disadvantage at school and  in life. Before we get in to that though,  

a question. Where does the alphabet  come from in its earliest form? Was it…

a) Ancient Egypt b) Ancient Greece 

c) Ancient Rome

What do you think, Sam?

Well, we refer to the English alphabet as having  Roman characters, so I'm going with Ancient Rome.

OK. I'll have the answer later in the programme.  In the BBC radio programme Fry's English Delight  

there was a feature about the alphabet and how it  can have a negative impact on your school life.  

Can you remember all those years  ago when you were at school?  

What's the first thing that the teacher  would do at the beginning of the day?

She would take the register – that's what we call  it in the UK. You can also call it the roll call.

Yes, this is when the teacher calls out the  names of the students to check that they  

are all there. This is where the problem starts,  according to, ironically, Professor Jeffrey Zax,  

from the University of Colorado. The  further down that list your name is,  

the less noticed you are by the teacher.  Why is that? Here's Professor Zax.