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Learning a second language has become a sine qua non nowadays. The bulk of people say that learning it at an early age is much better than learning it after puberty. It is clear that children learn languages better than adults do. What is the reason behind that? Why can't adults learn language just as children do?

Critical Period Hypothesis is the hypothesis that claims that learning languages is biologically determined. The hypothesis claims that the early childhood is the best time to learn languages. Children are not born with tabula rasa. They come to the world with certain abilities that make them ready to acquire languages. They possess what Chomsky calls Language Acquisition Device (LAD). This device helps them acquire languages effortlessly. LAD is the answer to what they call the logical problem of language acquisition. In other words, why do children acquire language and speak it fluently even though they are exposed to a limited input data? This is the logical problem of language acquisition that LAD gives the answer to.

Children are born with certain innate capacities that the surrounding environment triggers in order to help them to function. The hypothesis claims that after a certain age, these innate capacities "vanish". To put it rather differently, these capacities are not available to adults. The proof that supports this claim is the case of Genie. The lady who was discovered locked in a bedroom for most of her childhood in Los Angeles. Later, Genie was unable to acquire language. Feral children or undomesticated children are additional evidence that support Critical Period Hypothesis. This is why the generality of people believe that childhood is the best time to learn foreign languages.

The phenomenon of Interference is a clear-cut proof that adults do have access to those innate abilities children are endowed with. Interference occurs when the learner relies on the previous knowledge of his first language (L1) while learning a second language (L2). He transfers from his L1 to construct sentences in L2. Sometimes the structure of the learner's L1 is different from the structure of the L2 as the case with Arabic and English. Therefore, an Arab learner would make some flagrant mistakes when relying on Arabic to construct a sentence in English. This is called Negative Transfer. There are cases in which the structure of L1 is similar to the one of L2 as in the case of French and English. As a result, a French learner of English would come up with correct English sentences. This is called Positive Transfer.

Going back to one's L1 when learning the L2 is said to be the cast-iron evidence that adults have access to those innate abilities or what they call Universal Grammar. Therefore, adults can also learn languages effortlessly just as kids do. Innate abilities are the be-all and end-all. They play a pivotal role in acquiring languages. Since adults have access to these abilities, then they can learn foreign languages easily as kids do. However, when we compare the learning outcome of kids and adults we find that there is a huge difference. Children speak and use the language fluently whereas adults do not. The reason why is that adults do not have that full access to innate abilities children have. That is why they do not reach the same level of proficiency.

For the foregoing, I lean more towards the Critical Period Hypothesis which claims that learning language is linked to age. I would say that the best age to learn language is childhood. This does not mean that one cannot learn and speak new languages fluently after puberty. It is possible to do that, but it will take a great deal of effort and hard work.

Learn more about this author, Mouhcine Azizoun.
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