Mayfield Are your children getting the best second language education they can get? Many acclaimed ling u i s t i experts say they're not! The techniques used for teaching a second language often miss the mark because the criteria many schools use is outdated. Second language education usually starts in middle or high school. However, second grade is a more effective grade to begin learning a second language because the first language is well established and the child is very capable of learning another language.

Some people believe that there is actually a critical period for learning a second language and encourage teaching before school begins. New research indicates that there is not a definite critical period for learning a second language, but there is a critical period for a first language. The critical period for learning a first language starts at about the age of two and ends abruptly when puberty begins. During this time a child must hear and be around speech. If a child does not interact with others by speaking during this period, the child will never be able to comprehend anything beyond common phrases. A famous case that illustrates the Critical Period Hypothesis is the case of "Genie." She was locked in a small room by her father, who thought she was mentally disabled and never let her out. She was found by social services in her baby crib at the age of 13. Up until that age "Genie" had never experienced human contact. Doctors tried to teach her Basic English but were unsuccessful.

Research shows that learning a second language is easier at a young age but can be learned at any age. Learning a second language doesn't end at puberty but is easier before puberty. Dr. Bruer, author of The Myth of the First Three Years, said, "The time for learning a second language is not like a window that closes but a reservoir that dries up."

According to David Singleton, in The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition, "younger = better in the long run." This doesn't mean that an adult can't learn a second language, but that a child will understand it more completely and will be more native in accent and more capable of comprehending it. Drs. Bialystok and Hakuta, co-authors of In Other Words, conclude that the ability to learn tense and other language factors goes down with age; but other factors like word order and syntax are kept throughout life. Dr. Hakuta said, "The amazing human ability to learn grammar remains with us as long as we are human." According to a study by Dr. James Flege, a Professor of Physiology at the University of Alabama, second language phonological acquisition is subject to a sensitive period. He said "the decline in unaccented learning of a foreign language is progressive, and is not characterized by an abrupt change." He also said, "New sounds are easier to pronounce with native-like accuracy than sounds that are similar but not identical to those found in one's first language." Flege and his research team agreed that the sooner you start a second language the stronger you will be at it and the better you will learn it to start with.

"Younger = better in the long run," so teach your children a second language before high school. But, parents and adults, you are never locked in the foreign language closet, so learn a second language!