The Myth of Missed Opportunities
A popular misconception regarding second-language learning is that there is a window, or critical period, for learning a second language that shuts down around the onset of puberty. In his article, "Is There a 'Child Advantage' in Learning Foreign Languages?" Brad Marshall points out the harm this misconception can cause. Adults may become doubtful of their ability to learn a new language. Their teachers may become skeptical too, tending to "plod through their classes feeling there is little hope of success." When it comes to learning a foreign language, many believe that the adult brain is in "a state of shutdown" relative to the child's "neurological state of readiness."
Early Foreign Language Instruction is "Not a Magical Tool"
In The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition, David Singleton concedes that in second-language instruction, "younger = better in the long run." But this is a general rule with plenty of exceptions. The exceptions include the 5 percent of adult bilinguals who master a second language even though they begin learning it when they are well into adulthood, long after any critical period has presumably come to a close.
Both research and the informal observations of those who are in
daily contact with second-language learners suggest that an early
start in a second language is neither a strictly necessary nor a
universally sufficient condition for the attainment of native-like proficiency. Given the enormous variation in people's experience of second languages—even (or especially!) in the classroom—this ought to be a truism.
As John T. Bruer, author of The Myth of the First Three Years, states: "One of the dangers of the...emphasis on critical periods, is that it prompts us to pay too much attention to when learning occurs and too little attention to how learning might best occur." Marshall agrees, pointing out that learning a foreign language in elementary school—what most researchers generally agree is the ideal time—is not a "magical tool for creating perfect second-language speakers." Timing, in other words, is not everything.
Many assume that critical learning periods apply not only to second-language learning, but to other school subjects, like math and reading. Such beliefs, writes Bruer, have "raised needless concerns among educators." For instance, once a critical period is over, is "lost academic ground" irrecoverable? Such concerns arise from a simplistic and over-generalized application of critical periods to learning. The extreme view that children must learn a foreign language "early or not at all" grows out of popular images of critical periods as closing abruptly, like windows slamming shut.
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