Age and Bilingualism
The Old Man and the Second Language
I first read Ernest Hemingway’s novella The Old Man and the Sea when I was a teenager. I still remember how moved and inspired I was by the old man’s gruelling fight with a giant fish. His struggles stirred up my youthful passion for change, for making the world a better place. It was a positive forward-looking view for hope and revival.
When I recently re-read the novella in my middle-age, I still felt the anguish of the old man’s battle with the enormous beast. But my attitudes had shifted. The old man was now fighting for validation, for his survival, not only physical but spiritual. He wanted to prove that he still had it in him, the strength, the endurance, the will to keep going as he had done before, even when his older, frailer body could no longer keep up.
Mine was a sobering realization.
My new insight into Hemingway’s novella brought the issue of age and aging back to the forefront of my mind. The old man, Santiago, is not just old and unlucky. He is also juxtaposed with his young apprentice, Manolin, who is full of energy and hope. Thus, Manolin has the choice to work for a luckier fisherman, while Santiago has to fend for himself.
The novella is an apt metaphor for the issues around age and second language learning too. In most people’s minds, youth is the only time when a person has the luck, or the ability, to learn a new language. The arguments I’ve heard for that are numerous: children soak up languages like sponges, everything is easier to learn when you are young, the young brain is more malleable. But is it true?
Speed
Comparisons between younger and older learners are hard to make. In addition to differing in terms of cognitive maturity, the circumstances under which the learning occurs are quite different too. Children seem to learn to swim and ride a bike faster, but we can’t be sure it is true, because by the time most of us reach adulthood, we can already swim or ride a bike. Moreover, some children learn relatively fast, while others take a long time. Case in point; one of my kids took a dozen times the same level of swimming lessons, and stayed in it for over two years. In this case, swimming was neither easy nor came fast.
Similarly, research in second language acquisition has shown that young children are actually slower at learning a new language than teens and young adults. The older learners are able to utilize to their advantage learning strategies that they have already developed and the knowledge they have of previously learned language(s). So, the sponge metaphor no longer suits.
Ease
Context of language learning
How we teach children a language is quite different from how we teach older learners. Young children are often immersed in the language. It provides them with a more naturalistic and meaningful environment in which to learn it. Also, young children are corrected mercilessly. My other child and I worked really hard on the pronunciation of the word “yellow”. At first, the word was yeyow. After I corrected several times by highlighting the “L” sound, it turned into lellow, before eventually reaching the correct target. As a result of this “mind-numbing torture”, albeit highly sensitive to context, children receive helpful input that alerts them to the challenges they have. It helps them to practice in order to improve relatively quickly.
Both the explicit feedback and the practice are essential when learning a new language for older learners too. However, they are more likely to encounter the new language in formal foreign language classrooms. There they learn explicit grammar rules and engage in mindless drills designed to help them remember. How to actually apply these rules in natural conversations is far less obvious—the meaningful context is all but missing. No matter how hard the teachers try, discourse in a classroom is rarely natural.
Success in language learning
We expect far less from younger learners than from older ones. Our conversations with children tend to be cognitively less complex. They tend to revolve around topics or concepts that are present in the immediate environment; such as, what is her favourite toy or colour, why she loves daycare. The child can see them, touch them, manipulate them, has personal experience with them. All of this leads to better retention of new information, or learning.
When a child utters a single word or a simple phrase, it impresses us, and we praise him profusely. In turn, the praise further boosts his confidence in saying more words and phrases, even if slightly incorrect or mispronounced. The positive reward from parents in the form of a smile or a high-pitched praise is guaranteed.
On the other hand, we expect older learners to engage in more sophisticated conversations on topics beyond the here-and-now. They often have to narrate events that happened in the past either to prove a point or to recount an experience. Or they have to predict how events would unfold in the future when they are making plans for the next day or for the rest of their lives. All of these are much more abstract activities and require a greater degree of mental processing, and subsequently, language skill. Therefore, older learners need to utilize more sophisticated grammar and vocabulary in order to clearly express such thoughts. When they make mistakes, these errors often lead to misunderstandings, and ultimately to significant and undesirable consequences. But, for better or for worse, most often they are noticed but ignored.
For example, a former student of mine, who is a second language speaker of English, once said to me, “I admonish you for being so brave.” In fact she meant “admire.” Both are fancy words that are close enough in sound, but almost the opposite in meaning. And unlike my willingness to correct my child, I smiled and thanked the person, instead. I understood what she meant and it would have been awkward to correct her. But I wonder for how much longer she had the two words confused. I could have helped her sort them out sooner.
Brain
People are fascinated by brain research, and let’s face it, the human brain is fascinating! My mother was a neuroanatomist who studied the structure of the brain. She used to say that we have made significant advances in this area. But we still have charted only about a tenth of the human brain. In other words, there is still so much more we don’t understand about it, and we need to learn. But neuroscientists are slowly, but surely, making progress, and there is a lot already to be impressed by.
We now know that children’s brains are malleable, but so are the brains of older adults. Thank Goodness for that! This is what explains the ability of people to recover at least some brain function after a head injury or a stroke. Of course, children brains are somewhat different from adult brains. But thanks to the insights provided by a former Harvard professor of Education, Todd Rose, every single person’s brain is different (you can watch the first couple of minutes of his talk).
Neuroscientists have shown convincingly that brain structure and function change with experience and learning. However, they have not been as good at revealing a connection between these changes in the brain and the actual language proficiency of second language learners. It is possible that the apparent ease with which young children seem to learn a language is a result of their malleable and still developing brains. But it is just as possible that the degree of brain maturity may not explain the full picture of language learning. In other words, older brains are different, but it does not necessarily relate to a lesser degree of proficiency in a second language. As my mother told me, we still have a lot more to learn. And that’s exciting in and of itself.
Ultimate attainment
Researchers in the field of second language learning have engaged in a long-lasting debate, sometimes heated and belligerent. They argue over how the age of first exposure to a new language affects a person’s ultimate success. The term critical period for second language acquisition has been debated and debunked. A new mellower term, sensitive period, was introduced to replace the haggard one. But other than for their theoretical significance, these periods, whether critical or sensitive, do not help anyone learn new languages better, easier, or faster.
Only in the area of pronunciation, the research evidence has indicated that younger is better. We can all agree, that those of us who have learned a second language sometime past the age of six or so, tend to have a degree of foreign accent that is easily discernable by native speakers. But even in this area, there are small exceptions to the rule.
But who cares? As long as the degree of accent does not interfere with comprehension, it is functionally unproblematic. And some of us even choose to retain a discernible accent in order to keep connected to our cultural roots. In all other areas of language, however, the evidence is mixed at best. Many older learners are able to achieve high degrees of functional proficiency in the areas of grammar, vocabulary and pragmatic skills. In some cases, it is equivalent to that of native speakers of the language.
The degrees of proficiency achieved by learners of a second language tend to vary as a result of the factors described above. If older learners seem to be less successful, it is likely because of their experience learning and using the language. Fortunately, calcified reasons that are beyond the learner’s power to control, such as age, are present, but surmountable.
Substantial and continuously growing body of evidence has been accumulating. With the right degree of motivation, explicit language input, and intensive interaction with highly proficient speakers of the language, older learner are capable of achieving the same degree of proficiency, often in a shorter span of time, as someone who has been learning the language since infancy.
After a Herculean and prolonged battle, old Santiago captures the enormous fish. He even manages to impress others with his prey. Young Manolin does not give up on his old mentor; he cares for him instead. Aren’t you inspired to be like Santiago?
If you are, and if you are past the age of sixteen and want to learn a new language well, here’s what you need to do:
- Don’t lay down your arms and accept defeat by admitting that you are too old to learn a new language. Santiago didn’t, and so shouldn’t you.
- Immerse yourself in a naturalistic language environment as much as possible. You don’t need to marry a native speaker of the language. But living in a place where the language is dominant in the society, and you have friends who speak it well, is likely to help you learn it better too. Manolin did not desert his old teacher.
- Learn a language that you feel passionate about, or have a meaningful, practical reason to learn it (you can read my earlier post on bilingualism). Because your motivation has to come from within. You need to believe in the importance of what you do. Santiago believed in himself, despite the scepticism coming from others.
And only then, like Santiago, you’ll see your dreams come true!