this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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Linguists are still divided on this topic, called the "Critical Period" hypothesis - the question of whether there is a "Critical Period" during childhood when children naturally acquire language better than adults.
The data in favor cited in pop articles often comes from "feral children" like Genie, but as [email protected] mentioned, how much of this inability is due to natural brain development and how much is due to years of unimaginable trauma is hard to know.
Other research has cited brain plasticity differences and brain matter changes that occur during puberty that seems like it may be linked to language acquisition.
Again, however, the counterpoint of "It takes ten-ish years of pure immersion for children to learn a language, and how many adults actually do that" is pretty frequent.
I'm still undecided about what I think - maybe something in the middle, like "humans do lose some neuroplasticity during puberty that may inhibit language acquisition a bit, but adults acquiring native-like fluency is still possible with enough immersion".
There was an old study showing that London taxi drivers develop enlarged hippocampi, the part of the brain used for navigation, to deal with the labyrinthian London streets. The growth continued over several years even in mature adults as they used those navigation and memorization abilities. I'd like to see a study of the brain of an adult prospective language learner over a long period to see if any similar plasticity exists for the brain's language centers.
(I'll admit I'm horribly biased. I was exceptional at picking up new languages as a teen, but let that knowledge decay into nothingness as an adult. I'd hate to have wasted such a useful talent.)