Busting A Language Learning Myth

Kids learn languages much, much more slowly than adults do.

People are always surprised when I tell them that, because there's a myth out there that children soak languages up like a thirsty sponge.  I’m a teacher of languages and this is kind of my bugbear!

Well, here comes a fed-up, pinheaded gladiator to destroy that myth once and for all:

The myth is a convenient excuse for us adults not to put ourselves through the pain of learning a foreign language.

Because it is painful: You make yourself incredibly vulnerable when you're first trying to speak a second language.

It can be tremendously disorientating and frustrating, but also immensely rewarding, because you learn so much about the world and other people.

It's frustrating and disorientating for children, too, perhaps even more so than for adults!

To spontaneously speak another language, kids need to hear it at least 30 percent of their waking time.

Getting twenty hours of tuition a year through a school program just isn't going to cut it.  Think about it:  Children have in excess of 10,000 hours of their native language under their belt when they first come to school, and they still can't speak their native language well!

Adults are so much faster at learning languages because we have metacognitive and study skills, not to mention much greater language capacity.

We can understand abstract grammatical concepts and apply them.

We know how to teach ourselves stuff.

And we're not learning a whole bunch of other things at the same time, like how to use a toilet!

The sad consequence of this myth is that children born into families where one parent speaks a different language often FAIL to become fluent in that parent's language - which disappoints and saddens the family immeasurably because they had the unrealistic expectation that their child would learn the language like a sponge.

Children THEMSELVES feel disappointed after they've studied a language for years in school and they STILL can't speak it properly.

Some people would use that as a reason to cut language programmes from schools altogether.

That is the worst possible thing we could do!

Why?

Because the positive side is that those same children - who have a Tagalog-speaking father, or who learnt French at school with a crazy-fun teacher - often become adults who are motivated to learn another language, and who do eventually go on to be proficient second language speakers.

What we should be communicating to children is that it's normal for children not to become fluent in a second language quickly, but also normal for those children to turn into adults who do become fluent.

Learning a language takes time and persistence.  The only way you can possibly fail is if you give up.

Unfortunately, that's what lots of people do, believing they're just naturally bad at languages.

Slow language learning is not a reason to turn school language programmes into culture-only programmes, either.

Why?

Because learning someone's language is the single best thing you can do to understand their culture.

I'm not sure where this myth of the child-sponge started, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that learning languages early in life does make you less likely to have a strong accent, since you're still laying down auditory pathways in the early years.

Personally, I love my accent and wouldn't give it up for the world!

Have I convinced you?  What are your thoughts?  Are you ready to meet the rest of the world half way and learn their languages?

If so, go and enrol in a language class right now, or sign up for Memrise!

Still not convinced adults are faster language learners than children?

Then here's a REAL gladiator to kick that pernicious myth's butt!  (Trust me, he could.)

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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