Julieta Irons
Question 3. Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams described several SLA theories comparing how children learn a first language and how adults learn a second language.Which view do you hold regarding who is the superior language learner?
Nowadays, speaking a second language is an essential skill for most people, both young and old. For a long time, people have believed that children are better at learning a second language.
It is not that children learn a language better than adults, but adults and children learn language differently. By understanding their learning differences and adjusting the learning process, almost everyone can acquire a second language. The acquisition of a second language is a skill that requires a lot of practice and work, just like the maternal language.
Second language acquisition is not the same as learning the first language or mother tongue. Learning a second language, especially in adulthood, is challenging. There are different factors that can influence the acquisition of a second language. The way the adult brain processes a foreign language to a child’s brain is different.
There is a study by UCLA’s Dr. Paul Thompson, where he used magnetic resonance imaging and animation technology to see what parts of the brains adults and children use when learning a second language. What was found is that children use a part of their brain called the “deep motor area.” The “deep motor area” of the brain is responsible for processes that are not consciously thought of such as brushing teeth or dressing.
The way children acquire their language is a natural process. The process in adults is a more active part of the brain, which means that they create more awareness about language rather than being intuitive. “Children do not wake up one morning with a fully formed grammar in their heads. In moving from first words to adult competence children pass through linguistic stages” (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2018).
Learning a child’s first language is a process that takes years, from articulating their first words until they begin to create relatively compelling sentences and use more elaborate vocabulary. And even then, they still show many deficiencies in the use of their first language.
The same is for children who learn more than one language at the same time. Acquiring fluency in a second language, at the adult level, takes years, too. Thus, when teaching a second language, we need to use different methods depending on whether we teach children or adults because they learn differently and use other parts of their brain to process language.
