by Haadiyah Marikar
You have probably noticed that as you grow older it becomes harder for you to learn a new language. If you’re from a bilingual or multilingual background you might wonder how it is you were able to learn the languages you speak so easily when you’re having trouble learning new ones now. To understand this, we need to understand that children and adults learn languages differently because of differences in experience and brain growth.
When do children start acquiring language(s)?
Children start learning languages that they are exposed to from the time they are new-borns. Research shows that the brains of new-borns react to language differently than to other sounds such as music. It also shows us how babies seem to be “wired” to learn the languages they are surrounded by. Babies, need language to make sense of the world around them as well as to make others understand them and typically developing children have a strong urge to communicate and be socially connected. In addition to this, research has shown that the prime age for learning a language is from 0 to 5 years, where children experience significant neurological and cognitive development. During this developmental stage it is easier for children to absorb language in both formal environments, such as the school, and informal environments, such as home. This is because they are exposed to a gradual development in learning as they navigate language structures that are new to them and that they do not have any pre-conceived notions about in terms of grammar, structure, or pronunciation.
It should be noted that adults are at a more stable stage of development than children. You would not consider an adult brain to be a “blank slate”. As adults we have already absorbed certain grammatical structures and language conventions. Furthermore, research indicates that as we near puberty our brain and our learning processes start to change. While young children seem to be wired to learn languages more easily in their first five years, older children and adults need to study and put in the effort to master languages.
Furthermore, children’s’ social environment has learning embedded in them as they are constantly encouraged to develop, grow, and learn by their parents, teachers and relatives. In addition to this, children, unlike adults, do not already have grammatical structures and language conventions imprinted in them. So they are more open or flexible to learning different structures, pronunciations, and conventions of different languages. Through trial and error, exposure to languages, and encouragement by adults around them, multilingual children are able to learn languages to a native speaker level of competence just as well as monolingual children do with their language. Children may mix up the two or more languages, or combine them but as they grow and have more experience and organised help with the languages they will develop the competence and fluency in each. This is because the neurons of a child’s brain develop new structures that accommodate structures of two or more languages at the same time. Thus, it would be easier for a child to pick up two or more languages than it would be for an adult to learn them later in life.
We also need to understand that children have time to progress through the various stages of language learning. A child’s job is to learn, develop, and grow. They are allowed to spend months babbling, then sounding out words, and finally, maybe a year and a half later, combine words and gestures. From the age of one to six years, children acquire extensive skills in using language. Whereas an adult, who has many responsibilities would not have as much time as a child to make such leisurely progress. You would not see adults in a language learning class babbling for first six months or so! Therefore, in addition to the decline in brain development, and other priorities that they may have, adults have to rush through language learning.
If you are worried that the six-year-old next door seems to be learning more languages than you, and faster than you are, don’t fret about it. The child not only has time on their hands; they also have the added advantage that their brain is still growing and absorbing information like a sponge AND they don’t have any preconceived notions on different conventions of language. Keep trying and don’t be too hard on yourself, at the end of the day, it's not the speed that matters, but the end goal.