Age and language learning - Myth busting

I hear a lot of concerns - mostly "convenient" excuses - about the futility of learning a foreign language as an adult. Everyone assumes they're too old to pick up another language. But in reality, nothing is further from the truth. There is a ton of research out there that shows that adults have every but as much potential to successfully learn a new language as children do. It really bugs me when people toss out phrases like "well, children are just like little sponges, they don't have to try to learn." You are a sponge too! But you have to compare the "water sources" to truly compare. I'll address more issues about age in later posts, but today let's compare opportunity for input and use.

Most children learn additional languages in school. They are in class at least 3-4 times per week, have homework assignments, and are held accountable with grades. Young children are often immersed in the language, even studying content like math and history through it. That means they are surrounded by the language 6-8 hours per day, 5 days per week, plus homework and socializing opportunity with classmates at lunch, recess, etc. That's a lot of input and practice opportunity! So their little "mental sponges" are basically dropped into a bucket of water... no wonder they seem to "soak it up" so quickly!

Adults, in contrast, might take a class once a week, for an hour, with some homework that they probably procrastinate on doing until the night before the next class. Or they buy a computer software program to learn the language, start strong for the first week or so, then get busy and lose motivation, slacking off to once or twice a week, and not practicing in between. There is no direct accountability, no required interaction with people in the language, and no effort to link the current lesson to daily life needs. Adults' "mental sponges," then, are left to sit on the table, and every now and then someone pours a spoonful of water on it. It soaks quickly to the surface, but then dries up again before any more water is added. No wonder it seems like we don't have the "absorbing capability" that children do!

So when we look at the variables of input and practice opportunity, you can see that we are not comparing apples to apples, as the saying goes. It is very unfair to attribute comparative success to biological ability, when there are clearly such powerful external factors at play, tipping the scales against us.

We'll look at more of these factors later, but for now, cross this excuse off your list, and take a proactive step to increasing the frequency of your input and practice opportunities. And remember:

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. There's #1!