Am I too Old to Learn a Second Language?

Actually, there is no credible evidence to show that the older one becomes the more difficult it is to learn a foreign language. This belief is almost an urban myth and is not linguistically sound. There used to be a theory on “brain development” from the 1960′s that taught that there was a “crucial period” an individual had before the brain lost its “plasticity,” making learning a second language too difficult. (Lenneberg, 1967) unique Rocket German review The adult’s brain is more mature in its ability to absorb vocabulary, grammatical structures, and to make more “higher order” generalizations and associations. The biggest obstacle for the adult is the emotional factor. Adults have bought into the myth that they just cannot do it.

30 June 2009 | Arts