Adult Learning

You will sometimes hear statements like ‘Of course, children are little sponges – all you have to do is expose them to a new language, and they’ll just soak it all up in no time at all’. However, even if partially true, this idea is a bit of a negative perspective for older learners, who have presumably lost this capacity. You’ll find a lot of encouragement from people who are trying to sell language courses to adults, but can you really believe them?

This is therefore a pretty important topic in language development, and there are lots of studies and theories. It is also incidentally a relatively easy area to research – all you have to do is identify some people who started learning at different ages, then just test their competence in some way. An excellent review of the area is covered by Major (2014, p 5-33), and a lot of the points below are taken from this.

The main theory about age and language development in general was developed by Lennenberg (1967). According to this, with a first language, you go through a sensitive/critical period from about 2 yrs of age to puberty, during which period language development is optimal. Although Lennenberg developed his ideas to account for first language learning, this period has often been taken as applying to all language learning.

Lenneberg’s ideas have generally received quite a bit of support, in particular with first language learning, where children who miss that key period rarely develop much competence beyond quite simple language structures. With second language learning (I'm including foreign language courses in this), there is also evidence that if you begin language learning during that period, then there is a greater chance of eventually developing native-like fluency.

But, when people begin second language learning at a later age (i.e. above puberty), the initial rate of progress seems to be significantly greater than for people starting in the sensitive/critical period. First language development involves the initial establishment of verbal concepts and general logical principles about how language is constructed. Second language development seems to build on this, and Mayberry (2007) has shown for instance that even the early learning of sign language acts as a basis for later spoken language development.

However, despite this initial gain, it seems that the later second language learning is started, the less likely it is that people can develop complete fluency in the long term. This particularly applies to aspects such as pronunciation.

The more dissimilar the first and second language are, the less the facilitating effect of the first language. Some languages are quite different and take significantly longer to establish. This happens particularly when they embody alien concepts, such as the complex system of social status in Japanese. However, when learning French, with English as a first language, there is considerable overlap of the sound system, structure, as well as a considerable amount of vocabulary. This means there is a lot to build on.

Some people have argued that second language learning in people beyond puberty cannot use the same processes as first language acquisition, which involves more implicit, naturalistic learning. Because of this, some theorists propose that subsequent language development has to involve more conscious and rule-based learning.

However, the alternative perspective, based principally on the work by Krashen (see Theoretical Basis), is that teaching grammar and vocabulary in adults, actually prevents naturalistic learning from happening. If adult learning is slower, then this could be due to the teaching/learning approach, rather than any inherent limitations with the older learner.

If the critical/sensitive period was that important for subsequent language learning, then progress would show a marked discontinuity after puberty. Although many researchers have found evidence to support this, some work such as Vanhove (2013) indicates that any transition (if there is one), is quite gradual. It is also important to take account of variables which could limit progress after puberty, for instance Bialystock (1997) argues that the level of first language development (and the individual's commitment to this) can interfere with the development of a second language (see below for the case of immigrants).

Also, if the early period is critical (absolutely necessary), then there should be NO examples of individuals achieving native-like fluency with subsequent language learning. In fact, many individual cases have been shown to achieve this. The key factor appears to be a high level of meaningful involvement in the new language. For instance, many people achieving this are married to people with the new language, and they also typically live in, and are committed to their new language environment.

Most studies are carried out on young learners, but there is evidence that all learning abilities continue into old age, provided that people are generally healthy. There is some progressive fall-off in the language acquisition rate, but this could be due to a number of aspects. When older people fail to make much progress, and stick at a certain level, this is sometimes referred to as ‘fossilization’. Although this name implies that it is a form of inevitable rigidity, individual cases indicate that it is rather a form of choice not to develop further. Older individuals often have a great deal of investment in their original language and associated culture, which is linked with their identity, extended family etc. Immigrants for instance will also often work for/with other immigrants, and may simply stop when they have enough new language to enable them to communicate well in the key areas which are necessary for them.

One interesting case is Jane Birkin – a famous English actress and singer, who moved to France and married Serge Gainsborough. Despite being intensively involved in French life over many years, she appears to have deliberately retained her English accent – presumably because this has been one of the things which gave her an interesting public identity in France.

Finally, as an older person, I have found that my own progress in French has been reasonable – taking about 2 to 3 yrs to develop French to an independent level. This has been without any significant immersion (time abroad), and avoiding any effortful work on vocabulary or grammar. "Me voilà !"

Adult Learning

Have you left it too late?