[EDLING:2385] Children are better language mimics than adults

[Francis M Hult]

Via lg-policy...

> Children are better language mimics than adults
> 
> By Leah Rae The Journal News (Original Publication: February 26, 2007)
> 
> Everyone knows that children pick up a second language faster than adults.
> Except they don't, says Samuel Ortiz, an associate professor of psychology
> at St. John's University. Children are just better mimics, he said. Their
> brains are wired to give feedback on how to produce the sounds being
> heard. That changes around age 10, he said, when the brain starts to
> devote resources to other types of learning, Ortiz said. "(The brain) just
> assumes it's heard all the sounds that it needs to hear.  And it becomes
> very difficult - not impossible but difficult - for most people to be able
> to reproduce those later on in life."
> 
> Ortiz said such brain science supports the notion that children who are
> trying to learn English as a second language are better off if they
> continue developing their primary language. It takes children one to three
> years to communicate easily in a second language. And even for
> English-speaking children, it takes five to seven years to be able to work
> with skills and concepts in the language - what's know as "cognitive
> academic language proficiency." A kindergartner coming in without English
> is automatically five years behind that process and needs help in the
> native language in order to keep on par, Ortiz said.
> 
> Bilingual education remains highly controversial, but Ortiz said the
> science consistently supports quality bilingual education over English
> immersion. A long-term study by researchers Wayne Thomas and Virginia
> Collier found even greater success in dual-language instruction, where
> English- and Spanish-dominant children share a classroom and spend half
> the day in each language. But many educators remain unconvinced. "Logic
> and common sense tells me if you want to learn something, you have to do
> it," said Lucille Guttman of White Plains, a retired school psychologist
> and psychology teacher. "It may be painful at the beginning. It probably
> is. But they have to learn it," she said.
> 
> She said she wouldn't discourage families from speaking their own language
> at home, but she believes the school policy should be "English at the
> door." Guttman opposes White Plains' decision to offer a dual-language
> kindergarten in the fall. "You had immigrants in this country umpteen
> years," Guttman said. "They had no bilingual programs. They learned
> English." Ortiz said that was a misconception. Previous waves of
> immigrants came through gateways like Little Italy or Chinatown, where
> schools allowed for use of the native language, he said, and Greek, Polish
> and Ukrainian groups have created after-school or Saturday programs to
> pass along their language. "They assimilated in the same way that
> immigrants are assimilating now. It took four generations for that to
> happen," he said.
> 
> http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070226/NEWS01/702260325/1276