Acquisition of Second Languages
Contrary to the common belief that the earlier a child acquires a second language, the more fluent they will be in it, children who are introduced to a second language at an older age can learn the language to a very high level of competency, and biological readiness plays a minimal role in this aspect (De Houwer, A. 2017) Stefka Marinova in a paper titled “Three misconceptions about age and L2 learning” argues against the belief that there is a sensitive period for acquiring a second language beyond which the language will not be acquired appropriately. Along with her co-authors, they assert that the lay public has been tricked into believing that young ones are efficient at picking second languages. Studies conducted repeatedly show for the fact that children are immature, unsophisticated, and lack cognitive skills like the ability to generalize and infer that they are critical in acquiring a second language.
Children between the ages of 12-15 were better at acquiring a new language than younger learners. In a study conducted on the learning of Dutch by English speakers, the study found out that children at this age could easily understand the lessons and are more likely to exhibit a quicker process compared to young adults. However, beyond this age, a child will not intrinsically acquire full native-like pronunciation in a second language as a toddler or a baby would. Neuropsycholinguist Jubin Abutalebin expounds further that the neural structures responsible for the acquisition of a first language are the same ones responsible for acquiring a second language (Ou, J., Li, W., Yang, Y., Wang, N., & Xu, M. 2020). Stefka Marinova asserts that although the brain organization of late and early second language learners were different, this can be attributed to language proficiency.
The focus of this proposed study is to examine critically the sensitive part of a child’s age that is most appropriate to introduce a second language. The study hypothesizes that delayed exposure to the second language is mostly associated with the acquisition of a second language. Factors that are to be examined include biological readiness, motivation, support from the environment, and the energy put into these learners.
Thesis Statement
Contrary to the common belief that the earlier a child acquires a second language, the more fluent they will be in it, children who are introduced to a second language at an older age can learn the language to a very high level of competence because of their matured cognitive skills that are critical in acquiring the second language.