In my freshman check up the other day, my advisor expressed the benefit to being fluent in a 2nd language. With the countless years I spent taking Spanish classes, you would think one would become proficient and fluent in a language. This is not the case although and made me think is there a certain time in our lives where we learn 2nd languages the more quickly and efficiently?
According to an article in Psychology Today, the is a common notion some people believe is that a child cannot become bilingual if they are not taught two languages in their youngest years. This is supported by another theory that a second language is easier obtained and learned by younger children. Although, Dr. Grosjean says this belief is not completely true. With Grosjean’s speculation, I began to consider the possibility of this belief to be a fluke.
In addition, I will be researching to prove either the null hypothesis that would be younger age doesn’t affect the ability to learn a language, and the alternative hypothesis that it does.
In one study at Stanford University, an experiment testing 200 kids between the ages of 6-15 who were learning English in the American public school as their 2nd language was conducted. The study defines this testing as an oral production test to determine the children’s ability to become proficient in English in the areas of understanding and producing it otherwise explained in terms of morphology and syntax.
The controlled variables were defined as the division of students who had been in the United States for 1, 2, and 3 years. Other controlled variables was that some schools had a 2nd language program offered. The study found that older children (11-15) showed higher performance in the areas of morphology and syntax than younger children (6-10). This was seen through a a p-value less than 0.1%. As for learning phonetics, the younger age group excelled more than the older with a p-value of less than 5%. According to this study, age has an affect of language, but it can’t be determined very significant since the study is relatively small. Also, uncontrolled variables such as maturity, physiological, and environmental factors among the children were not attested for.
Although, there have been other studies with the same kind of results. According to researchers at the University of British Columbia, humans have been influenced by three fallacies of becoming bilingual. They first point out the previously stated theory that younger learners are better at learning 2nd languages. They then point out in accordance with the study at Stanford that older learners have certain skills over younger learners in areas of cognitive abstraction, generalization, and classification. All these skills are seen in retaining a 2nd language.
This is then seen in another study at Harvard through English speakers learning Dutch. The older children (12-15) were seen as quicker learners but they also noted that as age increased, it might be more difficult to practice a more native tone and accent when speaking the language.
Back the 2nd fallacy claimed at Harvard, it is claimed that becoming bilingual uses a different part of the brain than learning a 1st language. This was seen as a fluke although by a neuropsycholinguist who proved that acquiring a 2nd language is through the same neurons as a first languge. The final fallacy is noted that failure to become bilingual is consistent in older learners. This can be denoted since motivation and support are serious factors that play apart in their success to obtain proficiency. These factors may the vary from person to person, affecting their success.
With the studies I acquired, including the fallacies a false negative conclusion could be possible since researchers and scientists in many studies saw consistency that in fact younger learners aren’t better at obtaining the a 2nd language but in fact older learners are more likely excel at this. But with the correlation that phonetics are better obtained at a younger age the null hypothesis has to be accepted since there is too much variance. Although, in real life there is something going on with these results, making it negative.
In addition, I have noted another confounding variable; the type of language and difficulty of that language may play apart in the results. Although this conclusion could be argued, There is still an insignificant amount of consistent data present to make any final conclusions.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201309/how-early-second-language
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1975.tb00244.x/epdf