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Spanish Nursery, a bilingual daycare located in North London, is another busy fall morning. Parents help their children get off the bike, teachers greet them with a hug and enthusiasm Hello ! In the playground, a little girl asks to make a collection (maria-chiquinha, in Spanish), plays with a balloon and shouts: Catch ! (19659002) "At this age, children do not learn a language – they acquire it," says Carmen Rampersad, director of the school. The statement seems to sum up the enviable naturalness of the small polyglots that surround them
For many children, Spanish is the third or fourth language. Croatian, Hebrew, Korean and Dutch are among their mother tongues.
By comparing their resourcefulness to the difficulty of an adult in language clbad, it would be simple to conclude that it is best to start learning a new language as early as childhood.
But science offers a much more complex view of the evolution of our relationship with languages throughout life – and may encourage those who begin to study later.
In general, each stage of life offers us advantages in language learning. Babies have a better ear for different sounds; children can badimilate native accents with surprising speed. Although adults have an increased attention span and crucial skills, such as the degree of instruction, they allow for continued expansion of vocabulary.
A number of factors other than age – such as social status, teaching methods, and even feelings – can affect the number of languages we speak and our ingenuity
" Everything is wrong with age, "says Antonella Sorace, professor of developmental linguistics and director of the Center for Bilingual Affairs at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. 19659002] This is the case of what is called "explicit learning": a study process that takes place in a clbadroom with a teacher explaining the rules of the language .
"Little kids are very bad at explicit learning because they do not have cognitive control, attention span and memory," Sorace said.
A study in Israel revealed, for example, that adults understood a rule of language better. and apply it to new words.
Scientists compared three distinct groups: 8-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and young adults. Adults outperformed younger ones, while 12-year-olds also outperformed 8-year-olds.
The results of the research coincide with those of a long-term study of nearly 2,000 students. Bilingual English-Catalan-English: those who started learning later learned the new language faster than those who started earlier.
In Israel, researchers have suggested that older participants may have benefited from the skills provided with maturity, more advanced problem-solving strategies, and greater linguistic experience.
In other words, older students tend to know a lot about themselves and the world around them and can use that knowledge to process new information.
The youngest children, however, differ in their implicit learning: listen to native speakers and imitate them.
In 2016, the bilingual business center of the University of Edinburgh prepared an internal report on Mandarin courses in primary schools for the Scottish Government. And he found that an hour a week of clbades did not make a significant difference to five-year-olds. But only half an hour with the presence of an indigenous teacher helped them understand elements of Mandarin that are more difficult for adults, such as tones.
Easy Assimilation
We are all born with a gift. Natural for languages.
As babies, we can hear the 600 consonant sounds and the 200 vowels that make up the languages of the world. During the first year of life, our brain begins to specialize, matching the sounds we hear most often.
Babies already babble in their mother tongue. Even newborns cry with an accent, mimicking what they heard when they were inside the uterus.
This specialization also means the elimination of skills that we do not need. Japanese babies can easily distinguish the sounds of "l" and "r".
There is no doubt, says Sorace of the University of Edinburgh, that the early years are crucial for the integration of our own language. Studies with abandoned or isolated children have shown that if we do not learn human language very early, we will not be able to compensate for it later.
Here is the surprise: this reduction is not the same for the learning of foreign languages [19659002] "What is important is to understand that the age varies with time, in many other factors, "says Danijela Trenkic, a psychologist at York University in England.
Learning Abroad
The lives of children are completely different from those of adults. Thus, when we compare their language skills, "we do not compare equivalent realities," says Trenkic.
She gives the example of a family moving to another country. Usually, children learn the language much faster than their parents. But it may be because they constantly hear the language at school, while the parents work alone.
Children may also feel a greater sense of urgency because mastery of the language is essential to their social survival: make friends, be accepted, get involved. Parents, on the other hand, are more likely to socialize with people who understand them as immigrants of the same age.
"In my opinion, creating an emotional bond makes you more apt to learn languages," Trenkic said. from York University
Adults can also create this bond of affection, not just through romantic relationships or friendship with an aboriginal person. A study conducted in 2013 with British adults enrolled in an introductory course in Italian revealed that those who had difficulties with the language were helped by their relationships with other students and the teacher.
"If you meet people who think like you, the more you are likely to learn the language and persevere," says Trenkic. "So unless you have a social motivation, it's really hard to follow."
Earlier this year, a Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology survey (MIT) with 670,000 people showed that to gain native knowledge of English grammar, it is best to start about ten years. After that age, the capacity would decrease.
But the study by online questionnaire also revealed that we can improve languages, including ours, over time. the grammar of our own language around the age of 30. And a previous online study shows that even natives almost learn up to a new word a day in their own language until the age of 50.
Trenkic notes that the MIT study has focused on something extremely specific – the ability to review a native in terms of grammatical accuracy.
"People sometimes ask me what is the biggest advantage of foreign languages." "I will earn more money?" "In fact, the main advantage of learning foreign languages is that I can communicate with more people," she explains.
Trenkic, for example, comes from Serbia. She spoke English only about 20 years after her move to the UK She says she still makes grammatical mistakes, especially when she is tired or stressed.
"Nevertheless, despite everything – and c & rsquo; Is crucial – I can do incredible things in English. quality for the publication, "she wrote in an email.
In fact, the MIT questionnaire gave her English as a mother tongue.
At the Spanish daycare in London where teachers sang (Happy birthday, in Spanish) and there is a copy of The Grúfalo in Hebrew on set, the director herself learned the local language later
Carmen Rampersad grew up in Romania and mastered English well during a move abroad, around the age of 20. Her children learned Spanish at daycare
but her husband is perhaps the most linguistically adventurous native of Trinidad and Tobago, who speaks Spanish, he learned Romanian with his family, who lives near the border with Moldova.
"His Romanian is excellent, "she says." He speaks with a Moldavian accent, it's hilarious. "
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