Love the mention of adults vs. children's abilities to learn a language. While I have a lot of problems with the critical period hypothesis in general, I feel especially strongly about the fact that we tend to overemphasize accent as the main marker of language proficiency (while even "native" English speakers, for example, vary drastically when it comes to accents, from speakers who grew up in Glasgow to those who grew up in Alabama). Not to mention that adults consistently outperform children in speed when it comes to acquiring a second language, particularly in the earlier stages of language learning. A fascinating subject!
Completely agree with you. Accent is put on a pedestal when, in reality, it has nothing to do with actually ability in a language. I've had amazing written conversations online with other non-English native speakers who had a quite "bad" English accent (hear "different from US/UK/other English-speaking countries").
It is indeed a fascinating subject! But I also find it quite frustrating whenever I meet someone who absolutely refuses to acknowledge they could acquire any language just as well as they did as a child (if not better).
Very interesting. It reminds of the hundreds of hours I spent listening to John McWorther's lectures on Audible. Will definitely have a peek at your posts, Mathias
Love the mention of adults vs. children's abilities to learn a language. While I have a lot of problems with the critical period hypothesis in general, I feel especially strongly about the fact that we tend to overemphasize accent as the main marker of language proficiency (while even "native" English speakers, for example, vary drastically when it comes to accents, from speakers who grew up in Glasgow to those who grew up in Alabama). Not to mention that adults consistently outperform children in speed when it comes to acquiring a second language, particularly in the earlier stages of language learning. A fascinating subject!
Completely agree with you. Accent is put on a pedestal when, in reality, it has nothing to do with actually ability in a language. I've had amazing written conversations online with other non-English native speakers who had a quite "bad" English accent (hear "different from US/UK/other English-speaking countries").
It is indeed a fascinating subject! But I also find it quite frustrating whenever I meet someone who absolutely refuses to acknowledge they could acquire any language just as well as they did as a child (if not better).
Very interesting. It reminds of the hundreds of hours I spent listening to John McWorther's lectures on Audible. Will definitely have a peek at your posts, Mathias