Learning a Foreign Language Essay

What’s the best age to learn a new language? researchers say that you shouldn’t wait too long before introducing a baby to foreign languages. According to the critical period hypothesis, there’s a certain window in which second language acquisition skills are at their peak. Researchers disagree over just how long that window is — some say that it ends by age 6 or 7, while others say that it extends all the way through puberty — but after that period is over, it becomes much harder for a person to learn a new language. It’s not impossible, but children in that critical period have an almost universal success rate at achieving near fluency and perfect accents, while adults’ results are more hit-and-miss. Because children are so much more skilled at picking up a second language than adults, immersion preschools and elementary schools are a popular choice for parents. Students at these schools have math, story time and social studies the way other students do, but their classes are taught in a foreign language. Not only does this give the students ample time to practice the foreign language, but some research indicates that such a program might have other academic benefits, such as higher math scores and sharper critical thinking skills. And learning a second language at such a young age doesn’t hinder any abilities in the child’s native language — it seems a child’s brain is wired so that all linguistic rules, be they native or foreign, are picked up quickly. However, just because a child becomes fluent in Italian, Russian and Portuguese doesn’t mean that he or she will be speaking those languages 50 years later. Without extended exposure to a language, the child’s abilities diminish, so it’s important to provide continued opportunities to practice these skills. anguage is too complex for children to understand. All the people know that if one wants to learn a foreign language, one must understand its grammars and vocabularies. These things can not be easily understood by a child who does not have enough experience. Children are simply reciting the rules of grammars and vocabularies. The mountain like amount of rules and vocabularies are difficult for every people, especially children. As children are reciting the rules of grammars and vocabularies, they are forgetting them gradually to none. As a result, there is no good result for both children themselves and parents. Not everyone is a genius, and so almost of the children can not hold as many languages as their parents’ hopes. So, from my view children should not begin learning a foreign language as soon as they start school.