Language learning myths: The best period for quickly and efficiently learning a foreign language is during childhood.

While this seems to be a very plausible argument, with many studies apparently supporting it, there are quite a few issues here.

Children learn their native languages in a fundamentally different way than most adults approach foreign languages. Have you heard of anyone who learned first to read and then to speak in his or her native language? On the other hand, who first memorized the alphabet and then produced sounds? Probably not. Children are granted yearlong periods of experimentation with sounds and grammar before “correct” sentences are expected from them. Adults are impatient and want perfection right from the beginning, becoming nervous when they cannot produce ideally structured sentences after “only three months”.

How can we then compare two completely different methods of learning?

Moreover, even if it were true, that the human brain is more malleable during childhood and adolescence: what are our options? Should we give up, or use it as an excuse for a lack of results? Maybe the latter stems not so much from our adultness, but from the fact that we approach language learning the wrong way, that we do not use suitable strategies and techniques.

Worldwide, there are millions of students, quite unsuccessfully spending years and years of language instruction in public schools, or in what John Taylor Gatto would call, “weapons of mass instruction” committed to “dumbing us down”. On the one hand, there are many adults who achieve mastery of a foreign language later in life. One of my violin teachers started to learn Polish and Ukrainian in his late sixties, just to be able to travel to Poland and Ukraine and to give presentations on old instruments in the respective languages.

And, should we wait for a “definitive” scientific study on the matter before deciding whether to commit or not to a foreign language? Or should we rather heed the advice that the best moment to start something new is gone, and the next best moment is now?

If you like the attitude of these articles, please check out my online courses : at the moment, German for Russian- and Romanian-speakers, as well as on goal-setting.

If you are interested in improving your English in the area of business presentations, I know of no better address than Tom Antion. Please check him out following this link.

Stay tuned!

Gerhard

About the GO Method

The GO Method applies research in psychology as well as principles of quality management to the language teaching process. It conforms to key elements of the ISO 9001 standard, while being more specific on teaching-related issues. Customers get access to easily adaptable document templates.

Check us out at The GO Method.

About me

Psychologist and polyglot from Hamburg /Germany (*1979). Married with children. MA in psychology from the University of Hamburg. More than 15 years of experience as a university lecturer in psychology as well as a consultant for UNICEF, Terre des Hommes, IOM, the EU and private companies. Coordinator of the GO Method network, with representatives in more than 90 countries worldwide.

Connect with me on Linkedin or send me an e-mail.