In
a special report in TIME Magazine (February 1997), Madeleine
Nash wrote, “There appears to be a series of windows
for developing language... The ability to learn a second
language is highest between birth and the age of six, then
undergoes a steady and
inexorable decline.”
W. Penfield, in his book, The Learning of Languages, says
“If a child, in his first years of life, is casually
exposed to a second language, a child learns it, programming
its basic sounds into his developing brain as he does his
native tongue. He will be able to speak both languages easily,
with the accent he hears around him, and to switch effortlessly
from one to another. But after the age of 10 or 12 a child’s
brain can no longer encode new basic language units in the
same way.”
According to Dr. Susan Curtiss, Professor of Linguistics
at UCLA, “The power to learn language is so great
in the young child that it doesn’t seem to matter
how many languages you throw their way... They can learn
as many spoken languages as you can allow them to hear systematically
and regularly.”
The EMSPAC (Elementary and Middle School Principals’
Association of Connecticut) wrote in 1998, “... The
ability to learn a second language is highest between birth
and age 6, and early
foreign language study results in cognitive benefits and
gains in
academic achievements.”
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