Age and Language Learning

Start with age and acquisition

The mind map Age and Acquisition is a starting point for exploring the critical period hypothesis. It includes neurobiological considerations, biological timetables and hemispheric lateralization. Use its branches to make a list of the ideas you want to investigate as you study the other resources.

There is also a note created from an age and acquisition mind map. You can read it alongside the maps and compare how the material is organized. The resources were made by GoConqr users, so their approaches and emphasis may differ.

Explore children’s language learning

Next, open How Do Children Learn a Second Language? It introduces simultaneous and sequential language learning. How Children Learn a Second Language also covers these approaches. Compare the two maps to see how each presents the distinction.

For a different perspective, look at the map on children learning a foreign language that discusses the zone of proximal development and what a child can do with skilled help. Another map on children learning a foreign language refers to Piaget, Vigotsky and Bruner. Note the ideas each map brings into focus.

Compare ideas and check your understanding

Children vs. adults in second-language learning presents common beliefs about younger learners. Other maps examine assumptions about whether age makes a difference, including arguments about a critical period. Read these alongside the first map and distinguish the claims being discussed from the questions you still have.

To check your understanding, turn map headings into questions, then return to the branches to check your answers. This topic is part of the Language Acquisition and Second Language Acquisition unit in Education and pedagogy (incl. teaching methods, curriculum, educational psychology). Explore another map to connect the ideas you have found.