Children are better language mimics than adults

[Harold F. Schiffman]

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

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