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Learning Language at 14 vs 20 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| sonic23 Newbie China Joined 5000 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: EnglishC1 | Message 33 of 55 29 March 2011 at 2:44pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Kids are much better in learning language, that is a fact, and the so called "critical
age" can be explained in evolution theory. When human beings have acquired the ability to communicate with each other by oral speaking, it is obviously that someone who learns its native language slower than others would be eliminated by evolution process, so it is a very important trait to be able to learn language very fast when people are very young. And we know our acient ancestor organized as independent little tribes, and the population of all tribes is far less than today, they spread all over the continent sparsely. After people in a tribe acquired the ability to speak their mother language, it is not neccessary to learn other tribe's language, cause they are so far away from each other and do not doing transaction (I am saying Stone Age), that means most people in a tribe would not encounter a single person from other tribes in their life time. the ability to learn the second language quickly doesn't give you a competitive advantage in evolution. Some people thought this is the reason human being lose the ability to learn the second language quickly after they grow up. It is just useless! Edited by sonic23 on 29 March 2011 at 2:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5385 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 34 of 55 29 March 2011 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I think you are underestimating the amount of contact people had with other tribes. They probably encountered other tribes on a regular basis, perhaps meeting the same ones several times. There was even contact between various species of humans. It's known fact that humans today still have 5% DNA from Neanderthals. Even if a tribe were isolated, they would still split, reunite, etc., and were likely constantly exposed to language that was either slightly or completely different. From an evolutionary standpoint, I'm sure you can imagine how tribes that could learn to communicate with eachother were less likely to kill eachother. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| delta910 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5879 days ago 267 posts - 313 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, German | Message 35 of 55 30 March 2011 at 12:07am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Actually I find that it is better for me now to learn languages (I am 20 actually) rather than when I was 14. I find I
have much more motivation and discipline than I did when I was younger, which I find to be the main problem with my language learning even when I was a young teenager. Back then I could hardly spend the time to do anything in German. In my opinion, it doesn't matter when you start to learn a language at all. It can be 9 years old or it can be 69. I actually find older people to be better off with learning languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Delaunay Pentaglot Newbie Hungary Joined 4993 days ago 16 posts - 27 votes Speaks: German, Hungarian*, English, Japanese, Dutch Studies: Russian | Message 36 of 55 18 April 2011 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Okay, prepare for a never-ending rant.
First, second language acquisition is not something clear-cut, it's made of many parts which are intervined, but for the sake of simplicity let's say that they are vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vocabulary can be acquired at advanced ages with no more difficulty than when we were younger. I'm not arguing with the fact that children learn vocabulary faster, but that stems from simply not having the necessary words to express themselves, not even in their mother tongue, so it's not truly relevant to language aquiration. One can often hear children ask even strangers 'what does that word mean?' while an adult would probably receive funny looks at that. And we can't really shake off this habit or inhibition, even with foreign languages. Of course, in foreign enviroment, the need to express ourselves is a great incenter, but that applies to children and adults all the same. Grammar and syntax is something that should only become easier as we age. (Well, till senility kicks in at least!) Gitterman has already concluded in his article the lack of relation between syntax, grammar and age. When we are younger we only aquire it slower, seeing how we do not know the theory behind it. Any deviancy could only be the result of the lack of inhibitions on the child's part, or as stated earlier, the foreign enviroment. I would also add, that the hypothesis of critical period was dismissed by Epstein in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and seeing how it was published in 1998 one would think that there wouldn't be so many misconceptions flying around. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Delaunay Pentaglot Newbie Hungary Joined 4993 days ago 16 posts - 27 votes Speaks: German, Hungarian*, English, Japanese, Dutch Studies: Russian | Message 38 of 55 18 April 2011 at 8:19pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
While it might be true, he proved the base argument false, and that's something we can't really argue with. Also, there are others who have noted these incorrections, Scovel, Bialystok, and even Eric just to name a few. Not to mention the fact that modern developmental psychology agrees on the nonexistence of critical period regarding language aquisition. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Delaunay Pentaglot Newbie Hungary Joined 4993 days ago 16 posts - 27 votes Speaks: German, Hungarian*, English, Japanese, Dutch Studies: Russian | Message 40 of 55 18 April 2011 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
That's a little harsh and a tad bit contemptous, but I understand your point of view. Even more so, as what I've written is only about secound language aquisition. But seriously. Don't swear off something without proper research, and even then, saying that noone is allknowing, than giving judgement over the whole school of developmental psychology is notably hypocritical. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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