Am I too old to learn a new language?

[Francis Hult]

The Guardian



Am I too old to learn a new language?



Some aspects of language learning become progressively more difficult with age, others may get easier. "Older people have larger vocabularies than younger ones, so the chances are your vocabulary will be as large as a native," says Albert Costa, a professor of neuroscience who studies bilingualism at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Picking up a new language's vocabulary is much easier for adults than learning the rules that govern its grammar or syntax. This is because new words can be easily mapped on to a learner's pre-existing knowledge. But older learners are less likely to have good pronunciation or accent, since the phonemes, or sounds, of a language are picked up naturally by children.



Full story:
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/13/am-i-too-old-to-learn-a-language
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