Intelligence and aptitude

[David_Tuggy at SIL.ORG]

     Sergio Meira wrote:

"... one thing that always helped me was a deep and almost intimate
positive feeling for the languages in question. The emotional reaction--
the feeling that 'the language is beautiful', or that 'this specific word
is cool', or that 'this structure is wonderful'-- is such a great
motivation, that I wonder if other people get lower results simply because
structures, words, irregularities (the 'idiosyncratic stuff') doesn't have
this effect on them. People who look at a complicated inflectional system
and say 'uh-oh' instead of 'yummy' may be building
'negative-reinforcement-like' endless loops in their minds that may
dramatically reduce their efficiency at using their foreign language
learning capacity."

     I think Sergio is right on. And it doesn't just hold for
     language-learning, but for learning in general. I think confidence,
     and especially confidence linked with the kind of love for what's
     being learned that he describes, is often, in practical terms, the
     most crucial component of "intelligence". I expect we've all known
     people who lacked nothing in the brains department but who were
     consistently outperformed (scholastically, on "intelligence" tests, in
     the "real world") by others who weren't afraid to guess, to fail and
     look silly, or to be thought ignorant, and who weren't wasting energy
     griping about the inadequate teaching they were receiving, because
     they were having too much fun learning.

     I would ten times rather teach someone who isn't all that "smart" but
     loves to learn, than a genius who couldn't care less.

     --David Tuggy