Good news for adult language learners!

Per this article, adults can learn languages to a high level nearly as fast as children.

One popular belief about language learning is that if you start learning it as an adult, rather than as a child, it will be much harder to reach a high level. It turns out that it is harder on the average, but not much, and there are plenty of adult-starters who perform as well as child-starters.

I found this article (and the study it references) to be very interesting because it covers native-like fluency, rather than just the lower levels, and tests people with decades of experience. In fact, very few learners reach this level in less than 10 years.

Another thing that is mentioned is learners can reach a very useful level in a language in a year or two. Although it will take over 10 years to be native-like, you can get 80% of the way there in 20% of the time (80/20 rule).

I hope that the results of the study will encourage adults to stop thinking that they cannot learn a language, and start learning!

That's really reassuring, I've seen many adults who stop learning anything new for that fear, so that's really nice.

Interesting. I think as adults, we tend to think we can no longer learn or develop skills because we're set on our ways or sometimes we're lazy or doesn't really have time to learn. But this study shows that if we set our minds to something, we can actually learn another language. 

Thats so nice sir Leo.

I am lazy to learn languages in my age now. But now I'm not lazy to lean more languages because of this. :) 

Maryjoy.kuta wrote:

Thats so nice sir Leo.
I am lazy to learn languages in my age now. But now I'm not lazy to lean more languages because of this. :)

I think a lot of younger students have their hands forced, they learn a language with little more intent than to attend the class they have to go to, or maybe their parents are pushing them it isn't from their own drive or ambition (for the majority) whereas as an adult learner you make the choice so you decide how important it is to you. Perhaps that is why they succeed? That said, there are so many older people here in Spain that speak little more than 'please and thank you' and are of the opinion they are too old to learn. So this is a really eye-opening graph!