He was a scholar in various fields of linguistics, including sociolinguistics, pragmatics, bilingualism and multilingualism, second language learning, contact linguistics and intercultural communication.
If a second language learner relies solely on word associations to learn new vocabulary, that person will have a very difficult time mastering false friends.
Similarly, gray matter changes were also found to correlate with professional experience in musicians, mathematicians and meditators, and with second language proficiency.
Thus, high self-consciousness and a reluctance to reveal their weaknesses and faults, coupled with feelings of vulnerability could greatly impede second language learning.
