Learning a second language can be a challenging experience for a person of any age. The general population typically believes that second language acquisition or SLA is easier for children than adults. Some regard this as a myth while others insist it is true. Studies show that the way people learn languages at different ages can vary and that can affect the ease or difficulty in ability to learn. People learn a second language for many different reasons: a) individuals may be raised with two languages spoken in their home, b) students at school are often required to learn a second language, and c) adults and young people often decide to learn a new language for their own personal purposes. There is a long complicated history attempting to explain how people actually learn a second language. Most of the theories and philosophies take a psychological approach.
History has provided three different scientific beliefs or theories describing how a second language is acquired or learned: behaviorism, cognitive-computational, and dialogical. The understanding of behaviorism was that a person learned something new by creating and practicing a habit. The procedure involved making a connection between stimuli and responses. (Johnson, 2004, p.10). The cognitive-computational belief was that intellectual procedures were governed by rules and the dialogical theory summarized that there was a structure that took on the existence of multiple realities. Dialogical belief says that these realities happen because people are interacting and open to a variety of sociocultural and institutional settings throughout their lifetime where they gain different voices. (Johnson, 2004, p.16). The first two beliefs were prevalent for many years but the third belief is still commonly believed today.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s there was an increase in the study and research of how people learned and what cognitive procedures went on when a person studied a second language. Research in SLA was influenced by Chomskian who believed that language was a system controlled by rules, that people were dynamic representatives that made up rules for their language production, and that it was a psychological cognitive procedure. There is a presumed understanding that each person has a special, set and logical ‘essense’ that works in correspondence with that which they discover, reason, and perform. (Toohey, 2000. p.6) Some researchers were interested in the intellectual approaches used by those learning a new language as well as the relationships between their personalities, abilities to acquire new knowledge, inspirations and other traits. The different researchers and authors decided that good language learners, kids and adults, used different abilities to acquire new knowledge compared to poor language learners. (Toohey, 2000. p.6).
A famous researcher named, Vygotski, viewed language as a tool. Depending on how someone was using this tool determined how well they could use it. If this tool was used in everyday social setting on a regular basis, it would work much better than if it was not used in that way. How the social realm was organized and the types of interaction also determined how useful the tool would be. Considering language as tool was a radical venture away from the traditional view of what language was in the past. (Toohey, 2000. P.7)
(Bakhtin, 1981. p.293-294) believed that any language a person spoke was only half theirs. They had to have heard it from someone else and then took half ownership when they personally spoke it. (Toohey, 2000. p.7) Most of the research regarding SLA has been from a psychological context. It is viewed as an assortment of never changing intellectual characteristics, emotional focuses, past experiences and other mental procedures. This in turn helps the learner understand, explore, arrange, amass, reclaim and deliver language output or speech. (Toohey, 2000, p.12) There are multiple research and scientific theories of how people learn a language or more than one language. What determines whether a person has full proficiency of a second language?
This question is rather confusing. Many people are able to speak more than one language and they are commonly referred to as bilingual. Most of these people end up typically only using one of the two languages. Sometimes a person can speak two languages but they are really only proficient in one of them and stumble through the other. Others that are familiar with two languages choose to use one for speaking and the other for reading and writing. There is a distinction between a person’s language ability and their language use. (Baker, [Ch.1], 2006, p.3) Bilingualism has many facets.
There are several dimensions or terms describing the use of a person’s bilingualism: a) ability - when a person is able to speak and write equally in two languages, b) use - is when the second language is only used at home, at school or on the phone, and c) balance – refers to the fact that the two languages are rarely used equally. There is also a distinction between children who learn two languages at one time from birth on, versus children who learn a second language around three years of age. The second scenario is considered sequential bilingualism. (Baker, [Ch.1], 2006, p. 3)
Other divisions of bilingualism include: development, culture, contexts and elective. Development bilingualism is when one language is fully developed and the other is in the beginning stages of learning. Cultural bilingualism describes when a person learns enough of another language to get by in using it in another culture. Context bilingualism occurs when someone lives in a community where both languages are spoken on a regular basis and finally elective bilingualism happens when a person chooses to learn a second language for their own personal reasons. (Baker, [Ch.1], 2006, p. 3-4) With such different dimensions and levels of comprehension being bilingual can mean very different things.
Philosophies regarding whether or not to teach children more than one language at a time have changed over the last 10 years. Some used to believe that teaching children two languages had negative effects on the brain. They felt that learning more than one language made them less skilled in the other language. There were also concerns that by learning two languages there would be a negative effect on the ability to think and reason. (Baker, [Ch.7], 2006, p. 143) The old hypothesis offered by Whorf is that the thinking procedures of all people work within a common logical framework that operates before and independently of communication through language is wrong. (Fearing, 1954) According to Whorf's perspective, linguistic patterns themselves decide what people perceive in the world around them and what they think about it. The patterns fluctuate greatly, and therefore speaking distinctive languages will cause people to view everything in the world differently. These beliefs are no longer considered to be valid and being bilingual is commonly considered a useful tool in today’s world. So who learns a second language easier, adults or children?
There are myths surrounding the idea that children can learn or acquire a second language better than an adult. A myth is a partial truth that is accepted throughout a culture or society. The current myth regarding language acquisition is, “the younger the better.” (Scovel, 2000, p. 116). Children in most countries can articulate their native language well. This differs with other learned social skills. Most children are raised around some type of music. However, once those children are grown, more than half of them cannot sing on pitch. On the other hand once children become adults they have difficulty learning a second language even though many can be trained to sing on key. (Scovel, 2000, p. 117) It is a common myth that children can learn a language better and faster than an adult.
Learning a second language is a great way to increase communication skills for both children and adults. Young children have the benefit of being in the process of brain development. Their minds are very pliable and they soak up new information like a sponge. It does not take much conscious effort for them to pick-up a new language. Dr. Paul Thompson discovered that children use a part of their brains referred to as the “deep motor area” to learn new languages. This part of the brain is also used to tie shoes, drink water and is used for unconscious actions. The conclusion is that children do not really have to think about it. The adult brain is already developed and wired. That means that adults need to think about learning a second language and therefore it is much harder. (Tippin, 2011)
Thompson however believes that adults are actually more capable of learning a second language because they have already developed the competence for intelligent learning. He believes that an adult will learn the new language quicker than a child. Children often learn a few words in a new language and people assume they are bilingual. In reality they learn a few words for simple communication. Adults communicate on a much more complex level and therefore it takes a little more time. The level of learning by the adult is however far superior to the level of communication and learning by the child.
Adults learn the grammar and language patterns far quicker than children. Children do not know how to make the same language connections between a first language and a second language. They just do not have the basic comprehension that adults do. People do not expect children to speak with sophisticated sentences and so it often appears that by them using simple words to communicate that they are more fluent than a learned adult who is more conscientious regarding word and sentence choice. (Tippin, 2011) In a large percentage of the population and especially in areas concerning education and politics, people still believe that children learn second languages faster than adults.
In 1998 Proposition 227 was initiated in California. Those promoting the proposition wanted to replace bilingual education programs with a year of English immersion for all foreign language speaking students in California. The promoters believed that within one year immigrant children would attain complete fluency in English. (California Voter Information Guide, 1998, p.75). An article published shortly afterward by TESOL Matters, Crawford (1998) went against the propositions assumptions. The article expressed that it is a myth that many people believe that children learn a second language so easily without any self-consciousness or stress. Although children may procure certain words easily and they may have a quicker acceptance and use of a new language on a basic communication level, they can take a great deal longer to gain a complete understanding of sentence structure, grammatical use and overall proficiency of the language. This can take five to seven years for a child to acquire. (Scovel, 2000, p. 119). The educational system still believes that children of certain ages acquire second languages faster.
The US Department of Education has given monies through Title VI grants for Foreign Languages in Elementary Schools (FLES). These monies are used to promote teaching different languages other than English. (Scovel, 2000, p.121) Some studies that are used as justification show that children learn languages best before they turn ten years old. Other studies show that “the younger the better” idea is still prominent. There are many opinions and yet scientific fact is difficult to assess. Science does not deal with oversimplifications.
Opinions run across the board as to what age is best to learn a second language. But do children learn faster than adults? With the influx of new media and a lack of proper education, junk science tries to answer the general questions of life. Do vegetarians live longer than people that eat meat? Are men’s brains different than women’s brains? Can children master a second language faster than adults? Scientists need to break down these large general questions and come up with more intricate probes until they find calculable questions to research and answer. A big part of this procedure involves classifications and evaluations. (Scovel, 2000, p.124).
In order to classify our questions there needs to be a definite distinction between what is a child versus what is an adult? At what age does the change occur? Other questions in regards to learning a second language, what part of the language skills are being considered, writing, grammar, or just speaking? Another classification question is what level of proficiency is being evaluated? It is important to compare apples to apples. A child does not even have the literacy skills with his or her first language that an adult has so you could not compare a young child to an older adult. A reasonable contrast is to compare kids in a bilingual program with college students taking foreign-language classes. (Scovel, 2000, p.125). This is not the perfect scenario but will give the most accurate evidence in determining whether the myth “the younger the better” is valid.
There is convincing proof against the myth “the younger the better.” However, the proof is also varied. Scholars have lined up on two sides of this equation. The first side is that the myth is totally wrong and the second is that the myth may be correct on some level in regards to learning a second language. No one can disregard the fact that adults are far better at certain linguistic skills than children. Adults can bring the skills they have acquired with their native language to the table in learning a second language. Adults understand context, content and have developed skills on how to respond appropriately through their first language. They have a wealth of knowledge on how to assimilate new information and a more comprehensive understanding of how to do it. Adults are better readers and writers and therefore have a distinct advantage over children. (Scovel, 2000, p.125-126).
Another area of advantage adults have over younger people is that they have a much larger and more diverse vocabulary. Lexical knowledge incorporates many saying and juxtapositions and with the additional vocabulary there is a superior level of grammar. Word-decoding is faster with adults especially in how they relate to the person’s native language. Pragmatics is another area where adults will excel over a child. Children often use the wrong pragmatics in their own native language and so understanding them in a new language is even more complicated. Lastly due to the reasoning abilities and life experiences the wisdom of an adult will give them an enhanced representation of how the knowledge they have will apply to second language learning situations. From all of these obvious examples it is clear that maybe older is better than younger when it comes to learning a second language. (Scovel, 2000, p.127)
So why do some researchers, lay people and educational teachers still believe the myth of “the younger the better”? There is evidence that younger people excel in one area far more than adults. This area is in the ability to pronounce words like a native speaker in a second language. According to research children that acquire a second language under the age of ten have the ability to mimic the sounds like a native giving them this distinct advantage. This can be helpful in causing people to believe that a child is extremely fluent in a second language. Obviously if an adult does not pronounce the words with the correct enunciation or emphasis on the correct part of the word they will not sound as knowledgeable as a child that does pronounce the words with linguistic accuracy. This by no means indicates that the child has a better grasp of the language than an adult but on first hearing it that is an assumption that may be made by a listener. (Scovel, 2000, p.128).
In review of the above information it is easy to see on first glance how people believe that children are able to acquire a second language faster and better than adults. Children pick-up new words quickly and then they speak them like a native. Since a child’s vocabulary is limited it would appear that they have full use of a new language due to the linguistic expectations adults place on them. Children tend to speak more freely using a new language because they are not self-conscious that they will say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Adults view their efforts as “cute.”
When an adult learns a new language they are more concerned about using the language in an appropriate context with the right vocabulary and use of grammar. It can take a little longer at the start of learning a second language but the proficiency level once the initial learning has begun is far superior to a younger person. The adult will have a far better grasp of the entire language and the knowledge of how to use it properly much quicker than a child. The research concludes that adults are better at acquiring a second language than children.
References
Baker, C. (2006a). Bilingualism: Definitions and Distinctions. Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. Clevedon, UK: Mutilingual Matters.
California Voter Information Guide: Primary Election June 2, 1998. Sacramento, CA: Secretary of State.
Fearing. (1954) The First International Electronic Seminar on Wholeness. The Primer Project. 1996. Retrieved from http://www.isss.org/primer/whorf.htm
Johnson, M. (2004). Three major scientific research traditions. A philosophy of second language acquisition. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Scovel, T. (2000). “The younger the better” myth and bilingual education. Language Idealogies: Critical Perspectives on the Official English Movement. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
Tippin, C. (2011). Why Adults Can Learn Language More Easily Than Children. Retrieved from http://www.accuconference.com/blog/Why-Adults-Can-Learn-Languages-More-Easily-Than-Children.aspx
Toohey, K. (2000a). Framing Story: Theory, Setting and Methodology. Learning English at School: Identity, Social Relations, and Classroom Practice. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
