I am becoming more and more convinced that as adults we have real advantages in foreign language learning as compared with children. In other words, I don't think it will take us 8-18 years to master a foreign language. And I am more and more convinced that we can reach native-like fluency and cultural understanding...if we provide ourselves correct conditions, opportunities, and patience.
Children are developing in so many ways at the same time that they are developing language skills. For instance, they are developing gross and fine motor skills, problem-solving, reasoning, abstract thinking, sequencing, differentiating emotions, numeracy, memory development, recognizing the sound of the human voice, etc. These are all things we only learn once in our lives.
However, as adult language learners, we are like children in language development wrapped in an adult body. This can be confusing for both ourselves and the society around us. The people in our new culture don't quite know what to do with us or how to treat us. We still have to pay our bills (even if we don't know what the fine print says), we have a wealth of knowledge that we can't communicate, and our peers expect us to be adult-like. Even though we are making many of the same mistakes that children make while they are learning language, we often don't get the same patient, encouraging correction and patience from those around us as children do. It is our responsibility to train those closest to us in this new culture in how to treat us. I will address this issue next week with tips on welcoming correction.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
ReplyDeleteThe opposite of your post is what is considered common sense--that children can just soak up language and it is so hard for adults to learn.
I'm so glad you posted about the advantages adults have. I have studied some of the research on this topic and am convinced it is true that adults are better-suited for language learning faster than children--except in the area of pronunciation as that is connected to mouth muscle development. I believe children are more able to develop native-like pronunciation.