My sweet little niece has started communicating, forming single words and small sentences. It is so amazing to see her babbling. I eagerly wait for her appointments from her busy schedule of playing and sleeping so that I can connect with her. I often wonder whether she is confused about choosing a language to express herself, as too many languages are involved.
Language acquisition is a fascinating subject. Many theorists have come up with many theories in the vast field of language. We learn language through interactions at a very young age. It is a very medium to communicate, and children naturally learn languages with little guidance, especially their mother tongue. According to Chomsky’s Linguistic Theory, everyone is born with an innate ability to acquire language.
My grandmother (I fondly called her Umma) used to tell me to talk and listen only to good things while I was pregnant. She said to me that the fetus could understand the mother inside the womb, and I laughed at that time. New studies show that unborn babies listen to their mothers’ talk during the last 10 weeks of pregnancy and at birth can demonstrate what they have heard, as their sensory organs and mechanism are developed during that time. Yeh!! My Umma was right!!
Abhimanyu!!!
The sad story of Abhimanyu from Mahabharata narrates the same idea that learning starts from the womb. Subhadra, the sister of Krishna and the wife of Arjuna, heard the practical way of breaking the chakravhyuha while she was pregnant with Abhimanyu. She fell asleep in between the conversation and missed the part of escaping from the chakravhyuha battle formation. Abhimanyu learned how to break the battle formation but missed the strategy to destroy and oust the chakravhyuha. During the war between allies of Pandavas and the Kaurava clan at Kurukshetra, Abhimanyu broke the chakravhyuha but got trapped and killed at the age of 17.
Christine Moon, a developmental psychologist at Pacific Lutheran University and the University of Washington, says that the mothers’ voice, which is accompanied by a synchronous motion for the unborn babies, is also unique because it is the one that is most often available. First exposure to language acquisition occurs in the womb sheds light on the importance of talking in the mother tongue with babies.
So, Is there a time frame for learning a new language?
According to a theory called ‘Critical Period Hypothesis’, we have a time frame for learning a new language, and once that time is over, language acquisition becomes much more difficult. I disagree with this theory. There are many variables why we adults find it challenging to learn a new language. One factor is the different learning styles of kids and adults. The procedural memory of children is way distant from the declarative memory of adults. The attitude of the learner towards the language and its culture is also a hindrance to learning. Many such factors make kids’ language acquisition better than elders.
The benefits of learning a new language in adulthood are countless.
By repetition and exposure to the new language, your memory power improves. While learning a new language, watching movies in that language, listening to podcasts and audiobooks, reading and writing practices in the new language, etc., help in immersing yourself in it.
Benefits of acquisition of language as an adult:
- Your long-term memory and short-term memory get sharpened
- Cognitive ability like intelligence is boosted
- Creative thinking capacity is enhanced
- Verbal and spatial abilities are improved
- Problem solving and decision-making skills are enhanced
- Concentration and focus improves
- Keeps the mind sharper and buffers the brain against aging
- Lowers the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s diseases
Anyone can learn and acquire a new language at any age. My younger daughter, who is a multilinguist, like her father, is now learning Korean and I am working on increasing my vocabulary in Kannada.
Are you planning to learn a new language? Let us know in the comments below
Written by Habeeba Waseem. Content Developer and Writer @mindsonfleek