The Younger the Better? Learning a Foreign Language in the 21st Century

Abstract

This paper presents a renewed perspective on the relationship between the age at which a foreign language begins to be studied and its successful learning. It is universally acknowledged that learning a foreign language at an early stage of life will determine high possibilities of mastering it in the future. Supporters of this thought cling to the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), i.e., a determined period of life where full native competence is possible to acquire. Nonetheless, several studies show that this assumption may not be necessarily true. Experts suggest that adult learners outperform their children at learning languages due to their better knowledge of the world, semantic concepts, memory spam, and their more developed cognitive system. In addition to this, the benefits that this technological era we are living in must be taken into consideration. This means that adult learners have more accessible resources than toddlers. Due to the fact that there has never been a clear-cut positioning, the aim of this work is to rethink the validity of this universal belief and to adapt it to the current times. Thanks to new technological advances, education has been breaking new ground and this will definitely help older students to continue their learning. This, together with their motivation and their abilities mentioned above, will provide them with a successful lifelong learning.