Advantages and challenges at every stage of your journey
If you have ever wondered when the best time in life is to learn a new language, then you’re in luck because a ton of study has gone into this.
A lot of older learners can feel like they missed their opportunity, while many parents aren’t sure when to get their children started on the learning journey. We adults might look at how fast young kids pick up language, thinking “Damn, I can’t compete with that”.
While young kids do have an advantage when it comes to learning language, there’s a bit more to the story than that.
The Critical Period Hypothesis
The critical period hypothesis (CPH) is just a complicated way of saying that there is, in fact, an age when our brains pick up language better. For someone to reach true native-speaking status in a language, they need to start learning before the age of nine. But, and that’s a big but, each age bracket has its own strengths.
Young learners who start before nine years old normally have much better pronunciation in the language. This is because the muscles and brain pathways used for speaking are still forming, and once development finishes they will be set to sound immaculately native in the language.
Young learners are quite inefficient and easily distracted though, so learning grammar is tougher for them. That’s where teenagers find their strength, since they know enough about their first language to understand new grammar. But, and again it’s another big but, teenagers often don’t know what they want to do or be, making them prone to losing motivation and quitting.
And that is where the older learners find their strengths. Yes, adults who start picking up a new language will never sound native because the muscles in our mouths are set according to what we learned as children. Our brain plasticity might not be the same as a teenager’s either. But adult learners have a trump card, and that is called life experience.
Having life experience means we know more about what direction we want to head in. We have higher chances of sticking to and achieving goals and can stay motivated by focusing on the bigger picture.
It doesn’t matter how much natural talent someone has if they don’t have the belligerent tenacity to stick to their goals and soldier on for the long term.
If you are an adult thinking about starting the language learning process, don’t expect to sound perfectly fluent, and don’t feel ashamed about it either. All adult learners are in the same boat, it’s normal. The perfect time to start learning is right now, because the sooner you start, the sooner you make progress, and the sooner you will be able to start actually speaking the language.
For someone to achieve native-level proficiency in a language, they need to start learning it before the age of nine, although this is largely about getting perfect pronunciation. Teenagers and adults will likely miss out on perfect pronunciation, but teenagers pick up grammar much quicker due to their ongoing brain development and knowledge of their first language.
Adult learners might not have the same advantages, but we can outcompete younger learners simply by being more driven, stubborn, and actually having a clear reason for learning a new language.
No matter what your age is, be it seven or 70, the human brain has the amazing ability to keep learning new things. Being aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each age bracket just means you know what to expect. Very young learners will struggle with complex grammar, teenage learners will struggle with motivation, and adult learners will struggle with pronunciation.
It’s all very normal, so don’t worry if any of these challenges seem off-putting. So many other people are in the same boat. What’s important is that you chip away at the learning process a little bit every day.
Read or listen to Matt’s Language Series on Coromind here.
Words by Matt Bowden
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