According to recent research, there is a critical age threshold for more easily learning new languages.
If, for example, you want to have advanced knowledge of the English language and grammar, you must begin studying it before turning 10 years old, scientists claim. (Online English courses)
The Discovery
People retain a high capacity for learning languages until age 17–18. After that, it declines.
The discovery published in the journal Cognition is based on a grammar test completed by 670,000 people of different ages and nationalities.
The grammar test was published on Facebook to enable more people to participate.
The Test
The questions tested whether participants found sentences written in English, such as 'Yesterday John wanted to won the race,' to be grammatically correct.
Users were asked about their age and how long they had been studying English. Also, in what way? For example, had they moved to an English-speaking country?
Around 246,000 of the people who took the test grew up speaking only English. The rest were bi- or multilingual.
The most common native languages (excluding English) were Finnish, Turkish, German, Russian, and Hungarian. (Lessons in English, German, Russian, Greek, and more.)
Most of the people who completed the test were between 20 and 30 years old. The youngest participant was 10 years old, and the oldest was 70.
The Analysis
When the researchers analyzed the data using a computer model, they found that the ability to learn grammar is strongest in childhood. It remains at a good level during the teenage years. And it declines after reaching adulthood.
We have often heard the saying that a language is learned most easily as a child and becomes progressively more difficult with age.
But older learners can also manage quite well. Not necessarily without difficulty, but at a good level – the researchers claim.
It is unclear what causes our ability to optimally learn a foreign language to decline after we turn 18. Scientists speculate that it may be caused by the brain becoming less adaptable to change in adult age.
Opinions and Conclusions
The study's co-author, Josh Tenenbaum, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA, says: 'It is possible that there are biological changes. It is also possible that it is something social or cultural.
Approximately the period of childhood lasts until age 17–18, and this is true for most societies. After that, you leave home, perhaps you work full-time or become a student. All of this affects your ability to learn languages.'
However, this does not mean at all that learning a foreign language after reaching adulthood is useless.
Learning a second or third language is very good for the brain and may one day prevent the development of dementia, according to some research.
Professor Merilyn Viman from the University of York, language and linguistics research department, says: 'The assumption that you cannot learn a language at a native speaker level if you do not start early – is debatable. Such cases are rare, but they are not exceptions and are well documented. There are cases of people over 20 years old who learn a new language at a level to successfully integrate into the corresponding country as spies. There are several such examples.
I do not think there is a critical age window. There is some deterioration in the ability to learn a language after the teen years for most, but not for all learners.'
Dr. Daniela Trenkic from the same University of York points out that the study deals with only one aspect of language – grammar.
'You can communicate wonderfully, even if you do not sound like a native speaker or do not construct all your sentences grammatically correctly.'
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