Precerpt from My 20th Language: Adult vs Child Language Acquisition/Part One (Leaver)
Adult Language Learning vs Child Language Learning
(Part One)
All of my languages, except for English, were learned as
adults. Although I was surrounded by French speakers in the small village in
which I spent my first 14 years, our family was anglophone. I started studying
French in high school, and by that time, the brain for language learning is
essentially that of an adult. And though I studied Latin in fourth grade with
my father’s help, he approached it as an adult and therefore so did I. The
difference became quite personally visible when I took my daughter to the
Soviet Union and enrolled her in the public schools while I was doing
dissertation research; her Russian developed in similar ways to Russian
children because she was like them, a child learning to communicate and develop
literacy in Russian. Of course, she had a lot of catching up to do, but within
a few months, she had indeed caught up. Adults do not catch up; they
deliberately learn.
Time on Task
There has been much written and discussed about how children
learn languages than adults. I would disagree. If one considers time-on-task,
which has been shown to be the most critical factor in language acquisition,
then consider that children generally have much more time on task than do
adults. Adults learn language around conducting their daily business and
hence the amount of time on language-learning tasks can be quite minimal.
Children learn language through their daily business: schoolwork, playing with
other children, getting ice cream cones from the local vendor, in other words,
though daily life and hence the amount of time on language-learning tasks can
be maximal (sometimes all their waking hours). If one looks at the relative
time expended, adults can be much more efficient at language learning,
something for which neither the literature nor the mythology give much credit.
Phonology: The Sound Barrier
One of the most striking differences between child and adult
language acquisition lies in phonology—the system of sounds that make up a
language. Children, especially those under the age of seven, have a remarkable
ability to perceive and reproduce unfamiliar phonemes. Their auditory systems
are still plastic, attuned to the full range of human speech sounds. Adults, by
contrast, often struggle to hear distinctions not present in their native
tongue. For example, the French nasal vowels or the Russian palatalized
consonants may be difficult for an anglophone adult to distinguish, let alone
reproduce.
This isn’t merely a matter of ear training; it’s
neurological. The brain’s phonological mapping becomes increasingly fixed with
age, and while adults can learn new sounds, they often do so through conscious
effort—repetition, mimicry, and feedback. Children absorb phonology through
immersion and play. Adults rehearse it. This difference explains why adult
learners may speak fluently but retain an accent, while children often sound
native within months.
Yet phonological rigidity is not destiny. Adults who sing,
act, or engage in intensive pronunciation training can make remarkable gains.
The key, again, is time on task—focused, deliberate time spent listening,
repeating, and adjusting.
Acquisition vs. Learning: Two Paths to Fluency
My daughter’s experience in the Soviet Union beautifully
illustrates the distinction between acquisition and learning, a
concept popularized by Stephen Krashen. Acquisition is subconscious, immersive,
and largely effortless. It’s how children pick up language—through exposure,
interaction, and necessity. Learning, on the other hand, is conscious and
deliberate. It involves grammar rules, vocabulary lists, and structured
practice.
Adults are typically learners. They study language. Children
are acquirers. They live it.
But this binary can be misleading. Adults can acquire
language too—especially when immersed in environments where communication is
essential. The difference is that adults often need to choose immersion,
whereas children are simply in it. Adults must create conditions for
acquisition: living abroad, working in multilingual settings, or forming
relationships where the target language is primary.
Moreover, adults bring cognitive advantages: metalinguistic
awareness, memory strategies, and the ability to transfer knowledge across
languages. These tools can accelerate learning, even if acquisition remains
elusive.
In short, while children may have the edge in phonology and
immersion, adults possess the power of intention. And when intention meets
time, fluency is not only possible—it’s inevitable.
Performance Anxiety: The Courage to Speak
One of the most overlooked barriers to adult language
acquisition is not cognitive—it’s emotional. Children, by nature, are fearless
communicators. They speak with abandon, invent words, misapply grammar, and
still manage to be understood. Adults, however, often hesitate. They weigh
every word, worry about pronunciation, and fear being judged for sounding
“foreign” or “wrong.”
This hesitation is not trivial. It reflects a deeper truth:
adult learners are often evaluated not just on their fluency, but on
their performance. Accent, grammar, vocabulary—these become proxies for
intelligence, competence, even social worth. A child who says “goed” instead of
“went” is charming. An adult who makes the same mistake may be dismissed.
And yet, the most successful adult learners are those who
speak anyway. Who order coffee in halting Spanish, ask directions in fractured
Russian, or join a conversation in French despite knowing they’ll stumble. They
understand that communication is not a recital—it’s a human act. Mistakes are
not failures; they’re bridges.
This willingness to speak “at the drop of a hat” is a kind
of linguistic bravery. It defies the perfectionism that so often paralyzes
adult learners. It says: I may not sound native, but I am here, I am trying,
and I am participating. In truth, this is how fluency is built—not in
silence, but in sound. Not in correctness, but in connection.
For more posts about language learning, click HERE.
To purchase copies of any MSI Press book at 25% discount,
use code FF25 at MSI Press webstore.
Want to read an MSI Press book and not have to buy for it?
(1) Ask your local library to purchase and shelve it.
(2) Ask us for a review copy; we love to have our books reviewed.
VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ALL OUR AUTHORS AND TITLES.
(recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, author advice, and more -- stay up to date)Check out recent issues.
Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC?
Turn your manuscript into a book!
Check out information on how to submit a proposal.
We help writers become award-winning published authors. One writer at a time. We are a family, not a factory. Do you have a future with us?
Turned away by other publishers because you are a first-time author and/or do not have a strong platform yet? If you have a strong manuscript, San Juan Books, our hybrid publishing division, may be able to help.
Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our author au pair services will mentor you through the process.
Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book in exchange for reviewing a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com.
Want an author-signed copy of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.
Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.Steven Greenebaum, author of award-winning books, An Afternoon's Discussion and One Family: Indivisible, talking to a reader at Barnes & Noble in Gilroy, California.MSI Press is ranked among the top publishers in California.
Check out our rankings -- and more -- HERE.
Comments
Post a Comment