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Not true. Adults are ABLE to learn rules, but they don't NEED to learn them (there's plenty of evidence of adult language immersion). Also, doubt exists whethe

Not true. Adults are ABLE to learn rules, but they don't NEED to learn them (there's plenty of evidence of adult language immersion). Also, doubt exists whether knowing some rules explicitly is of any help when trying to use language in a realtime timeframe. And there's also continuous debate whether it's even possible to "transfer" rules from explicit knowledge into an "automatized" linguistic skill. Some researchers note that "rules" as presented on language classes have nothing to do with the inner representation of language, and are thus of no help. (Except when explicitly "thinking" about language.)

TheSpiceIsLife 11y ago
I agree. This has always been my feeling about learning a second language as an adult. English is my first (only) language. I've been making a half-hearted effort to learn Spanish the past few months. Recently someone was trying to teach me a handful of rules and I kept trying to tell them 'I don't care, it doesn't matter if, at this stage, I use the wrong verb ending, or even if I say araña (spider) instead of naranja (orange), it won't matter so long as you know I'm trying to ask for an orange to eat or tell you there's a spider outside by the door, understanding has been achieved - that's what's important. We are all just trying to understand each other. Maybe children have an advantage because they aren't able to talk properly when they are young due to physical growth limits, so we make a lot of effort to teach them. It takes children 5 year to reach 95% - 100% language fluency, and will go on to learn many new words over the next 15 years, and some will go on to study their mother tongue, read, and learn more about their and, other languages, all their lives. By 5 years of age, anyone (including unfamiliar listeners) should be able to understand the child’s speech in conversation 95-100% of the time.[1] I'm willing to bet $100 dollars anyone in full language immersion will reach at least that stage of fluency in 5 years. And remember, children can be very talkative, so they're always making mistakes and learning. I guess adult language learning is how it is because adults are generally too busy to make that sort of commitment. It then follows as self evident that children and adults learn languages differently. Adults solution space is constrained. We have to try to learn a language around busy adult lives. Children's brains are also still developing, so there's going to be some physical differences also, it's not clear whether that should be an advantage or disadvantage. Maybe being able to map a second language to what you already know is an advantage, we already have a framework. 1. http://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/library/2013Factsheets/Factsheet_Sound_of_Speech_PreschoolSchool-aged_children.pdf http://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/library/2013Facts...

TheSpiceIsLife 11y ago

I agree. This has always been my feeling about learning a second language as an adult. English is my first (only) language. I've been making a half-hearted effort to learn Spanish the past few months. Recently someone was trying to teach me a handful of rules and I kept trying to tell them 'I don't care, it doesn't matter if, at this stage, I use the wrong verb ending, or even if I say araña (spider) instead of naranja (orange), it won't matter so long as you know I'm trying to ask for an orange to eat or tell you there's a spider outside by the door, understanding has been achieved - that's what's important. We are all just trying to understand each other. Maybe children have an advantage because they aren't able to talk properly when they are young due to physical growth limits, so we make a lot of effort to teach them. It takes children 5 year to reach 95% - 100% language fluency, and will go on to learn many new words over the next 15 years, and some will go on to study their mother tongue, read, and learn more about their and, other languages, all their lives. By 5 years of age, anyone (including unfamiliar listeners) should be able to understand the child’s speech in conversation 95-100% of the time.[1] I'm willing to bet $100 dollars anyone in full language immersion will reach at least that stage of fluency in 5 years. And remember, children can be very talkative, so they're always making mistakes and learning. I guess adult language learning is how it is because adults are generally too busy to make that sort of commitment. It then follows as self evident that children and adults learn languages differently. Adults solution space is constrained. We have to try to learn a language around busy adult lives. Children's brains are also still developing, so there's going to be some physical differences also, it's not clear whether that should be an advantage or disadvantage. Maybe being able to map a second language to what you already know is an advantage, we already have a framework. 1. http://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/library/2013Factsheets/Factsheet_Sound_of_Speech_PreschoolSchool-aged_children.pdf http://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/library/2013Facts...