Is it easier to learn a second language when you are a child or when you are an adult?
The critical language hypothesis claims that acquiring a second (or multiple) language(s) in a rich language environment is easier for children due to biological cognitive advantages. This hypothesis states that it is ideal to learn a second or third language as a child, and after puberty learning another language is more difficult.
The age when learning a second language becomes more difficult is up for debate. Some claim that learning a second language is more difficult after the age of eight, and others believe that learning a second language is more difficult as one enters adolescence.
Critics claim that the critical language hypothesis is too simple and general, and that there are many factors such as motivation and intelligence that affect second language acquisition.
Critics stress that successful language learning has more to do with the advantages of the individual learning the second language. One advantage may be opportunities for learning the second language. For example, school aged children learn the second language in school, whereas adults may only learn the language once a week for a few hours in a formal language class.
Another advantage is life responsibilities. Adults have responsibilities such as work and taking care of their family which may take away from learning the second language, whereas children do not have these responsibilities. When children learn a second language in a rich language environment (school) when they are young, they are able to maintain and become more proficient in their second language throughout the grade levels.
When I was an ESL teacher, most of the time, the younger the students began learning English, the easier it was for these students to learn English. Teaching young students was easier for me since I did not have to catch the student up to grade level skills as much as I did with students who entered school in the older grades. Also, kindergarten skills in the classroom corresponded to learning beginner English, so the student received extra practice and reinforcement with, for example, learning letter names and sounds.
When referring to children in this post, I am referring to children in early childhood and school aged children who learn the second language in school. It would be different if a young child attended formal language classes along with teenagers or adults. In this case, the teenagers and adults would most likely have the advantage of learning a second language due to metalinguistic and higher level thinking skills.
Acquiring An Accent:
It is widely believed that children who begin learning another language after puberty will acquire an accent, whereas children who acquire a second language before puberty will not speak with an accent. The reason for this is that children are able to physically pronounce sounds from a language (phonology) easier than adolescents because their mouths are more flexible and malleable. After puberty, our mouths become less flexible and more fixed, and it is, therefore, more difficult to produce the sounds of the second language. From my experience, I did find that young children did not acquire an accent, whereas older children did. Personally, I have observed some students, and this is very rare, who retained an accent despite their age.I believe that these students retained an accent in order to affiliate to their native language community. In this case, I respected this decision and never forced a student to speak like a native English speaker without a foreign-sounding accent.