Did it improve your mother tongue?

I've been reading some psychology articles lately and one article I saw in the suggested section was about learning languages where it says that we're supposed to also improve our skills in our first language if we're studying a foreign language. I find this very interesting because frankly, I didn't feel any change or improvement in my first language at all. And I tried to think about how is this possible and in what could it improve but I really can't think of any.

I've read about this on the website of Oxford University press:

I liked the article that tackles why learning a foreign language is important. One of the things mentioned though is that doing so would also improve our mother tongue skills. I couldn't help but ponder about this. As we start to focus on the mechanics of the second language, we get a better insight to our mother tongue making us more effective communicators and writers. There's no further explanation about it though.

Better insight of my mother tongue? I didn't seem to have this as I'm learning a new language. I've searched more about this kind if improvement but sadly I wasn't able to find any.

So now I'm curious if could there be any truth behind this even with out own observation. Any chance you had any similar experience like this?

It made me think about Noam Chomsky and his "universal grammar". When you learn other languages you start recognizing common patterns among them, it means you get more aware about human language itself.

Besides that, there are differences which can only be explained through grammar comparison, so it would make you more aware of your mother tongue when you are forced to look at it in a more analytical way.

I feel like it did improve my native language, in the sense that I'm fairly good at speaking and writing because I've practiced speaking and writing so much for the needs of learning my foreign languages. I think some of those skills are universal for all languages, like confidence with public speaking or the sense for writing a good essay.

I also think that having to think a lot while using a foreign language you're learning makes you think more when using your mother tongue as well, and you figure out new and better ways to say stuff. When I learn how things are supposed to work in a foreign language, it just naturally makes me think about the nature of my own language and understand it better.

There's the other side of the coin though, when I accidentally mash up English words into my Serbian or Danish words into my English and end up sounding like a doofus haha. But it's a small price to pay for everything I get out of learning.

I feel it temporarily makes me more aware of grammar in my own language, but that awareness disappears when I stop studying grammar in the language. conversation wise, it definitely drops my level in my native tongue a bit, although that affect too seems temporary. So imo, no it doesn't really help.

Valeria.Fontes wrote:

It made me think about Noam Chomsky and his "universal grammar". When you learn other languages you start recognizing common patterns among them, it means you get more aware about human language itself.
Besides that, there are differences which can only be explained through grammar comparison, so it would make you more aware of your mother tongue when you are forced to look at it in a more analytical way.

Hey I thought of this thoroughly and this perfectly makes sense! I think you're right about. I'm always curious of things so I did my own grammar sentence structure comparing the language/s I'm learning and of course my native language. There were some similarities. I'm sure I just can't figure out how to construct the grammar correctly because I haven't really been good in speaking or understanding the foreign languages. Still I can see it and that's something amazing. Maybe there is really truth about it after all. 

Kosta.Cirkovic wrote:

I feel like it did improve my native language, in the sense that I'm fairly good at speaking and writing because I've practiced speaking and writing so much for the needs of learning my foreign languages.
I also think that having to think a lot while using a foreign language you're learning makes you think more when using your mother tongue as well,
when I accidentally mash up English words into my Serbian or Danish words into my English and end up sounding like a doofus haha.

Yeah I suppose so. I mean even now when I'm constructing sentences in a new foreign language I'm learning, I can't help but mention the words that I'm about to say in my min through my native language. Interesting. And yes, had conversations with mashed up words as well. Kinda embarrassing but it's really hilarious! :)

leosmith wrote:

I feel it temporarily makes me more aware of grammar in my own language, but that awareness disappears when I stop studying grammar in the language. conversation wise, it definitely drops my level in my native tongue a bit, although that affect too seems temporary. So imo, no it doesn't really help.

Temporary awareness, that's interesting. I know I had this feeling before but I can't exactly tell whether it's for a better cause in improving my native language or the opposite.

ZairaI.Uranga wrote:

I think learning a language and its grammar consciously sometimes makes me wonder about how my own language works... I would say that too actually improve in your mother tongue you have to put conscious effort into it.

Yes I think that's it because before I mention a sentence in the foreign language I want to, I first construct it in my native language to see if it actually makes sense at all. Once I get it right, that's when I push through in completing the sentence.