LANGUAGE LEARNING IN ADULTS
A Review of Diane Ackerman’s Essay “We are Our Words”
by
Enzo Silvestri MA
Diane Ackerman’s essay “We Are Our Words,” opens an enlightening window on
the processes of human Language Acquisition (LA), particularly in the very young. In
these words she is following the findings of many linguists and researchers in recent
decades. She rightfully said, “babies have brains flexible enough to learn any language
they are brought up in,” which is true as anyone can see that by a very early age babies
can mimic what they hear from their parents or care-givers. By the end of this paragraph
she also says, “but by puberty this process becomes ‘heavy lifting’.” Once again one
cannot argue with her assertions because most people who have attempted to learn a
language as an adult will attest to the difficulties that this entails.
Having been raised as a bilingual speaker, acquiring Italian as an infant and then
through immigration to Australia, I acquired English by age 5 so that I now speak both
these languages like a native speaker. Once again this is exactly what Ackerman was
talking about in her essay and again, I agree wholeheartedly. I remember as a child
silently experimenting with different syntax and grammatical structures in both languages
and having no difficulty differentiating between the two (Chomsky, 2005, 3). Some
parents, to their children’s detriment, deny their children born into a bilingual household
the opportunity of growing up hearing both languages through some misguided notion
that they are ‘protecting’ their child from being confused by multiple languages. In fact,
research has shown that a child exposed to multiple languages will not only learn all of
them but will excel at other subjects as well.
I wish however to question Ackerman’s statements that once puberty is reached
that language learning becomes increasingly difficult due to a biological influence.
(Paragraph 6) If we firstly observe how a baby acquires language we can see that for the
first year roughly the baby does nothing but listen to the sounds of the parents. Then
when the infant is ready speech happens according to what they have heard. Why then at
the age of 14 and above is it so difficult to acquire a new language schema. Surely the
brain is more developed at an older age. The speech centers are more complicated and
the learner can understand the grammar and fit new knowledge into an already formed
language schema (Piaget). Should this not enable an adult to acquire a language more
easily? To find the answer I believe it is necessary to go back to the beginning and
examine how a baby learns, and how this differs from adult learning.
An infant comes into the world unable to speak but with faculties in place which
enable it to generate grammar (Chomsky 2005, 1). As the child listens he/she
experiments with diverse structures until rules are established and structures are acquired.
At this time in the infant’s life this is the closest they will be to the concept of Tabula
Rasa. Consequently all the child can do at this time is to listen, to touch, to adjust spatial
vision, and to learn to communicate. The child is essentially without cares and worries
when it comes to the living necessities of life, when hungry, cry, and food comes, when
wet, cry, and dry diaper comes. It is no wonder then that a child can devote almost 100%
of time and learning ability to assimilating new language structures, and consequently
language is acquired seemingly with no trouble at all.
Consider now, the adult or teenage learner of a second language. One must look
at the external issues impacting the learning as well as internal ones.
John Doe, citizen, father, husband, responsible bread winner, bill payer and protector of
family has enough considerations impacting his life and when he takes on another
language, he may devote one, two, or maybe three hours per week to this task. Jane Doe,
citizen, wife, mother, care-giver, bill payer, bread-winner, and protector. John Doe Jnr.,
teenager, high school student, peers, athlete, friendships, teen life, proms, school grades,
girlfriend. The previous lists may be somewhat tedious but they serve to illustrate that
whereas the baby devoted all waking hours, to acquiring language, social-minded humans
must divide their attention between many intellectual pursuits. An adult or teenager has
an infinite number of distractions or extraneous issues that will divide his/her attention,
thereby reducing the amount of memory allocated to LA.
In addition to having all their attention devoted to LA, an infant gets instant
feedback from the care-giver. For example, if a baby says “boll” the care giver will
recognize the word “bottle” and provide it and repeat the word properly so that baby
learns it properly (Krashen). Older learners, especially in Second language Acquisition
(SLA) only have a limited time to practice scenarios and then mostly these scenarios are
contrived, thus the learners have no need to remember. Another drawback to learning is
that the majority of adult learners will gather in their first language social groups and
revert to Native Language speaking. In US high schools the Hispanic students who are
learning ESL rarely socialize with native English speakers. As a matter of course they
would sit together during lunch, on the bus, at social gatherings, so that any English that
was learned in school has no chance of reinforcement because they have reverted to their
native language. It is a vicious cycle in that ESL students don’t socialize with native
speakers and native speakers don’t seek out ESL learners. Conversely, it has been
observed that in those few cases where there is substantial socialization with native
speakers, where the learner has little option but to use the target language, that the SLA is
more efficiently acquired.
This begs the question then, what happens when adults are immersed in a new
language in the same way as children? Research has shown that SLA does indeed occur
at a faster more accurate rate than education outside the milieu. Anecdotally, when an
adult is exposed to only the target language, and not given the choice of reverting to
native language, the target language is acquired efficiently and with almost no accent. I
cite the case of a native English speaker who wished to learn Hebrew like a native
speaker. He went to Israel and obtained work on an isolated Kibbutz in the Negev. On
arrival he asked his Israeli workmates to speak only Hebrew with him and that he would
ignore any English. Within a few weeks he was speaking rudimentary Hebrew and after
6 months he was almost fluent like a native speaker. This is only an anecdotal report and
one must take into account the individual motivation of this learner, which must have
been extremely high. However, this in itself gives credence to the concept of the
Affective Filter. That if a person is highly motivated to learn a language then the
likelihood of that happening is increased.
There is a danger however of the reverse happening in the case of a child who is
totally immersed. There are numerous documented cases of a youth losing their L1
because the family immigrated to a new country and while adults will retain a majority of
their language, a child in a different milieu will not. In USA many children of Hispanic
parents can speak only faltering Spanish when they were fluent in it when they first
arrived, but their English is flawless. The travesty is that if only the parents had spoken
the L1 at home and the child speaks L2 at school then both languages would be
solidified. High schools in Queensland, Australia, and around the world have instituted
programs utilizing Total Immersion (TI) in their primary language programs. This is
where every lesson, not just the target language lesson is conducted in the L2. The
Textbooks are translated to suit and all instruction and interaction is in the L2. Of course
true TI could only occur in the country of the L2 where the milieu would also speak the
target language, but this method of Immersion classes goes a long way in providing a
context for language learning.
SLA in adult language education was observed as being achieved in ESL colleges
in Australia. These colleges had a program of TI, as one would expect, but to ensure that
socialization on campus was in the target language, only the L2 was permitted in lounges,
student areas and stores. Students were encouraged to use the L2 as much as possible,
and to refrain from taking the easy way out by using their L1. With reference to the
above example of TI on the Kibbutz, an adult acquired a new language almost fluently in
a short period, simply because all his extraneous needs, like food clothing, shelter, were
taken care of in his community and he used only the L2 in his work and social situations.
Having grown up as a bilingual speaker, I found that acquiring yet another
language was easier than if I had been only speaking my native tongue. I found that
having assimilated two different vowel pronunciation systems Italian and English,
already, it was not such a great leap to acquire a third, or a fourth, in this case Hebrew
and Spanish. One might respond that Hebrew and Spanish have similar grammatical
rules and acquiring them from a basis of Italian would be an advantage. This may be true
and requires more research but turn then to learning a language like Swedish which has
some Anglo vowel sounds and some Latin vowel sounds. In this case the adult has the
advantage as he/she can recognize cognates in Swedish and English and use this
knowledge to facilitate acquisition.
Once again the brain that has already assimilated more than one language as a
child and therefore has multiple schemas to fit grammar into has a much easier time
assimilating another language. The key is to not be locked in to only one way of
perceiving grammar or language, to realize that the language and culture are tied. To
paraphrase Ackerman, the brain conveys the feeling of being alive to itself and others
through language, memory’s accomplice, (para 14) but if it conveys from multiple
languages then by necessity it conveys to more memories. Whereas Ackerman
accurately describes babies as ‘the ultimate immigrants’, language can still be acquired
after puberty. Moreover, adults have not ‘lost these natural language-learning faculties’,
as Ackerman suggests, (para 6) they are merely buried underneath the myriad of other
tasks and considerations that humans past the age of puberty are concerned with
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Diane Ackerman, “We Are Our Words” from Parade, May 30, 2004. Copyright © 2004.
Appearing in:
Donald McQuade & Robert Antwan., (2006), The Writers Presence. 5th Ed. Bedford/St
Martins: Boston
Chomsky Noam. Linguistic Inquiry, Volume 36, Number 1, Winter, 2005:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Krashen, S. D. Phonemic awareness training for pre-linguistic children: do we need
prenatal PA?. Reading Improvement v. 35 no. 4 (Winter 1998) p. 167-71