Effortless Language Learning?

Yes, but…..

… to learn a foreign language or languages, including your native one in an effortless and spontaneous manner you have to be a child. That's the tough truth. Why? Because – as it has been proven over the years – children have a neurological advantage when it comes to learning languages. How old? Well, opinions differ, but the mainstream idea is that puberty is a turning point in this ability. After a certain age, our brains lose the ability for adaptation and reorganization, thus making language learning difficult and requiring quite a bit of effort on our part.  Some scholars like Penfield and Roberts claim that children under the age of nine can learn up to three languages without confusing them with each other. Nowadays, some linguists argue that there really is no limit: children can easily learn any number of languages that they are exposed to. There are some neurological mechanisms that cause maturational changes in our abilities to learn a language. In infants for example, motor and linguistic skills develop at the same time, but apparently by age thirteen our cerebral functions separate and become set, thus making language learning a much more difficult process.

Got LAD? 

A very prominent linguist known also by his non-mainstream political views Noam Chomsky claims that our brains have what is called the Language Acquisition Device or LAD. Because of this Language Acquisition Device children construct correct grammar without actually being taught grammatical rules, just from "raw input" provided by adults. We, from USCTS observe very young children among our non-English speaking friends and relatives who make grammatically correct utterances in their native language, while adult learners of that language have difficulties coming up with correct grammar. This concept of LAD reflects Chomsky's assumption that some aspects of language, any language are common to all languages and cultures, something he refers to as Universal Grammar. LAD or no LAD, if you happen to have children, now is the time to expose them to a foreign language. They don't need to have a career in languages, but you cannot go wrong by teaching your child a foreign language. It is good for their brain, overall intellectual development and gives them an advantage in just about any future career.