Communication and Culture: The Benefits of Beginning Foreign Language Study Early :: Research Papers

Communication and polish The Benefits of Beginning Foreign Language Study Early As worldwide awareness increases, American interest in thestudy of wordings other than face increases apace. Unlike earlyprograms which did not teach wordingsprimarily to learn literal/auralcommunication, but to learn for the sake of being scholarly or, in someinstances, for gaining a reading proficiency in the foreign style(Brown 18), the twentieth century began to focus on communicativegoals, and a multifariousness of new theories and methods for teaching were get forth. A common goal has emerged, and new-fangled programs pushstudents towards fluency. Therefore, more rehunt is being conductedinto the best possible ways to create competent communicators. TheLongman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied linguistics definescommunicative competence as the ability not only to follow up thegrammatical rules of a language in order to form grammatically correctsentences but also to know whe n and where to use these sentences andto whom (Richards, Platt, and Platt 65). As scholars search for thebest ways to achieve communicative competence, they emphasize theimportance of inception language study early.The critical period hypothesis first put forth by Lennebergin the late 1960s holds that there is a limited developmental periodduring which it is possible to acquire a languageto normal, nativelikelevels (Birdsong, 1). At the most generous estimate, this critical periodis thought to get across from the age of 2 only until puberty, and someestimates posit a more narrower window (for more information on thepossible causes of the critical period, enamour Birdsong, 7-9). According toKrashen, Long, and Scarcella, although adults and older children ingeneral initially acquire the flake language faster than young person children(oldest-is-better for rate of acquisition), child second languageacquirers will usually be superior in terms of last-ditch attainment(younger-is-b etter in the long run) (574). This eventual attainmentincludes superior pronunciation skills (Fledge 101) when compared withlearners who began their study later in life.Although starting age determines the levels ofcommunicative accuracy achieved, specially in pronunciation (Ellisqtd. in Nunan 41), beginning young has an additional advantage. Theyoung learner has many years of schooling left in which to search thisnew language, and the number of years exposure contributes greatly tothe overall communicative fluency of the learners (Ellis qtd. in Nunan41). Although the pace of the young learner may be slower than thatof the older learner, when language learning begins earlier, it can goon longer and provide more practice and experience, leading ultimatelyto great fluency and effectiveness (Curtain and Pesola, Languages andChildren 3) than is generally achieved when study begins after puberty.