At What Age Does Our Ability to Learn a New Language Like a Native Speaker Disappears?
Curated from: scientificamerican.com
Ideas, facts & insights covering these topics:
4 ideas
·5.84K reads
18
Explore the World's Best Ideas
Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.
Learning a foreign language
Research shows that children are proficient at learning a second language up until the age of 18, roughly ten years later than earlier estimates.
It also shows that it is best to start another language by age ten if you want to achieve the grammatical ability of a native speaker.
220
1.78K reads
The decline in language learning
There are three possible reasons why the ability to learn a language decreases at 18.
- Social changes: At 18, late teens typically graduate high school and may no longer have the time, opportunity or learning environment to study a second language.
- Interference: The rules of a first language may interfere with the ability to learn a second language.
- Continuing brain development: Changes in the brain that continue during the late teens and early 20s may make learning harder.
183
1.27K reads
Learning a foreign language later in life
There are many examples of people who pick up a language later in life.
Our ability to learn new vocabulary appears to remain constant, but most of us will not be able to master grammar like a native speaker.
180
1.42K reads
Learning through immersion
Research shows that people who learn via immersion are notably more fluent in a foreign language than those who are learning it in a class. If you have the choice between starting language lessons earlier or learning through immersion later, an immersion environment seems to be better.
200
1.36K reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Carson 's ideas are part of this journey:
Learn more about problemsolving with this collection
How to practice effectively
The importance of consistency
How to immerse yourself in the language
Related collections
Similar ideas
8 ideas
The Hard, But Effective Way to Learn a New Language
scotthyoung.com
9 ideas
9 ideas
6 Best Way to Learn a New Language in 2023
productive.fish
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates