Why can only very young children learn languages a certain way?

[Sammy-San]

I have a question about the way brain learning ability works.

Usually, the only way its possible for an older child, teenager, or adult (young adult or older ones) to be fluent in another language is by studying it carefully and in detail. Why is that?

How come past a certain age, its mentally almost impossible for people, even kids past a certain age, to just naturally learn a language by hearing it? There are a few cases of adults learning languages almost fluently just by hearing them (I know a few people like that) but that's very rare-an exception to the rule. For the most part, only small children have the mental ability to speak another language without studying it.

Studies on feral children have shown its very rare and difficult for them to become fluent and functional in speaking a language. Even impossible in some cases.

When I was on vacation in Italy, I picked up on quite a few words, but even some words that I picked upon on from listening, my mom told me that I misinterpreted the meaning of the words. Even after listening to the context of word a word was and meant, I still guessed most words wrong.

If I was a little kid, that wouldnt have happened. My cousins daughter doesnt misinterpret the meaning of the words and grammar. It's almost as if little kids have some innate guessing ability to know what a word means.

Is there a scientific explanation for this?

 

[Nick665]

During the first years of life, the brain acts like a sponge ... it sucks up every bit of information possible. And its not just language, its much more , sometimes with unfortunate results.

 

[Elendur]

It's important to mention that the children do in fact get things wrong. All the time.

I personally only remember the slightly NSFW misinterpretations I had from growing up (due to them being embarrassing), but I've heard plenty from others.

Example:
A child of a teacher I had, only one I can remember of the top of my head, thought that everything flying was a bumblebee. Why? Well, she had pointed to a bumblebee and mentioned it, it happened to be flying. Therefore the bird he later saw flying was also a bumblebee, also the plane.

 

[Nithavela]

Other than the developing brain being a marvelous thing, I don't really buy into that notion, too. If someone is put into a place where he doesn't speak the language, he gradually learns it. No matter his age. And remember, even after years of living in such a place, small children get words wrong all the time or pick up bad grammar.

The difference comes from the fact that as an adult, you already have a language, and when you try to learn a new language, you have to translate everything into your own language and back. If you use the other language often enough, you start to speak it naturally, although some accent might prevail.

For example, while I didn't start learning english until 10, I spend so much time on english parts of the internet that sometimes I catch myself thinking in that language.

 

[Radagast]

I have a question about the way brain learning ability works.

Usually, the only way its possible for an older child, teenager, or adult (young adult or older ones) to be fluent in another language is by studying it carefully and in detail. Why is that?

There other ways to learn language that are more like the way a child learns.

However, there is a theory that there is a "language acquisition module" in the brain that children use, but which switches off later in life.

 

[essentialsaltes]

However, there is a theory that there is a "language acquisition module" in the brain that children use, but which switches off later in life.

Yes, I believe brain plasticity is greater in children than adults, and one of its many effects is to allow greater facility in learning language. Though this theory is currently under greater debate and scrutiny.

"Theories of language learning have traditionally been dominated by the “Critical Period” Hypothesis, stating that language learning ability is reduced after puberty, as the result of the loss of neurological plasticity of the brain (Lenneberg, 1967). Developmental speech perception reveals how brain plasticity diminishes as a function of language experience. In the ontogeny of development, adults are beyond the critical period early in life during which the brain is most sensitive to language learning. However, current theories posit that language acquisition patterns are influenced by linguistic experience rather than biological or maturational constraints"

 

[RDKirk]

Studying a couple of other languages, I've come to realize that language is a deeply cultural factor that actually shapes--or is a factor of shaping--a person's logic, epistemology...the basic patterns of how he understands the world around him.

It's not just a function of two difference patterns of sound representing the same mental concept. The two different patterns of sound actually represent two different mental concepts, and those two different concepts have to be reconciled to create an accurate translation.

There was a Star Trek: Next Generation episode that came close to describing this. The crew of the Enterprise met a culture whose entire language was a matter of references to their own cultural literature.

So if someone was righteously indignant, he'd say "Jesus, upon seeing the moneychangers in the temple." Everyone in his culture knew that meant "I'm really upset at what I see going on here," but an outsider merely translating the words would be at a loss.

But even more, a culture that had come to using their own literature as the tool of communicating entire concepts en toto actually thinks differently from a culture that uses words as more functional building blocks of communcation: "Jesus, upon seeing the moneychangers in the temple" conveys much more meaning for those who know the context than merely "I'm upset."

I can read Latin (a bit--I was much better 30 years ago), but it has always caused me wonder to think that men could give commands in the midst of combat using such a language. Waiting until the end of the sentence to get the verb--their minds must have worked in a very different way from mine.

So a person who has learned a particular language into adulthood has to do more than merely learning Language A Word = Language B Word. It entails major shifts in how a person relates to the environment, which is much more difficult for an adult.

 

[Sammy-San]

During the first years of life, the brain acts like a sponge ... it sucks up every bit of information possible. And its not just language, its much more , sometimes with unfortunate results.

How exactly does children having "sponge like" brains" explain their ability to guess the meaning of words and phrases within a language, that even young adults cant do without extensive and deliberate/concious study? Most people past a certain age cant be fully fluent just by hearing another language-they could just learn enough to barely get by.

 

[Sammy-San]

There other ways to learn language that are more like the way a child learns.

However, there is a theory that there is a "language acquisition module" in the brain that children use, but which switches off later in life.

In what way do you think children learn languages?

 

[Elendur]

How exactly does children having "sponge like" brains" explain their ability to guess the meaning of words and phrases within a language, that even young adults cant do without extensive and deliberate/concious study? Most people past a certain age cant be fully fluent just by hearing another language-they could just learn enough to barely get by.

But that's how it is for children, it's just that they practice until they get it right.

It's not that they just listen, they actively practice through speaking as well. So it's not as if they get fluent by listening only.

As for the brain, the plasticity is of an entirely different level if I've understood correctly. As demonstrated by the consequences of removal of half the brain at different ages.

 

[Gracchus]

Consider my post to be an addition to RDKirk's post number seven.

The brain of an infant has lots of connections. As the child learns some of those connections are strengthened. The child associates sounds with situations. Some sounds become meaningful. However, some connections degenerate.
So people who learn languages after infancy generally speak with an accent, because they do not discriminate correctly between sounds. It new connections, it turns out, can be formed, but it is a slow, painstaking process.
Early Latin did not discriminate between the hard "g" and "k". Exposure to other languages that made different discriminations, caused them to add the new letter "g" to their alphabet and Caius became Gaius. Because the Latin "v" was not pronounced exactly as the Greek "y", another modification was needed. Neither did Greek discriminate between the hard "c" and the hard "g", but they did discriminate between the palatal gamma sound and the glottal koppa sound. And then a discrimination was made between consonantal "v" and "v" as a vowel and "u" was added, and then "w". Spanish makes little or no distinction between "b" and "v" and sometimes "u". Thus there is little distinction between, for instance, "Paulo", "Pavlo", and "Pablo".
To speak a new language as an adult one thus has to form new distinctions and associations, whereas for an infant to learn he just has to ignore the non-essential associations and distinctions. So infant learning is facilitated by the elimination of connections, which is less troublesome than forming new connections in the less plastic brain of an adult.