Introduction
The statistics reporting on the most widely spoken languages worldwide show that 1,500 million people on the globe speak English out of whom only 365 million are native speakers. This means that more than a billion people must have learnt English as a foreign language and can communicate in it to some extent. The United States does not have an official language, but they use English, specifically American English, for legislation, regulation and other official pronouncements. The three other most popular languages in the world are Mandarin, Spanish, and Hindi. (The data below is from 2017)
LANGUAGE NATIVE SPEAKERS % OF WORLD POPULATION
in million
1 Mandarin 935 14.1%
2 Spanish 390 5.85%
3 English 365 5.52%
4 Hindi 295 4.46%
Regarded as the language of international communication, English is being used, learnt and taught all across the globe by people of all ages. However, a very common and widespread belief is that we learn quicker in our younger years. Consequently, parents do not hesitate to spend a lot of money to make their offspring start learning English as early as possible, but is it true that children are speed learners?
As a CELTA teacher, I have been teaching English as a second language for 15 years. During this time I have had students of many nationalities and of all ages (the majority of them 30+ years old) who spoke English at various levels and with various nation-specific accents.
All the observations I have gathered brought me to a quite exciting conclusion which contradicts a common belief that after the age of 20 we start losing our learning capability. I have noticed that adults who are learning English (as a foreign language) undoubtedly learn more quickly and far more efficiently than children and teenagers. Students older than 20 can discuss quite complex issues in a vast range of topics using a foreign language, even if they are merely on the intermediate level. It is also quite clear that the better educated the learner, the faster s/he develops their language skills
Putting all my teaching experience and observations together has helped me to identify the four main reasons that are behind this phenomenon.
- Motivation factor.
Adult learners are highly motivated and have some important reasons to learn and to do it as quickly as possible. Most often these reasons are related to their ongoing professional career and their wish to increase future employment opportunities. Children, in contrast, learn predominantly because their parents want them to do so. The link between present learning and their future life is somewhat vague. The timescale is too long and young learners cannot associate the current education process with future benefits. They can be only motivated by parents who offer them some incentives (or punishment) depending on learning results. Children’s motivation usually does not reach further than a wish to play computer games, use IT and electronic devices or communicate with peers from other countries.
- Financial factor.
Adults pay for their language course and all resources themselves (with money they had to earn first) whereas children’s education is being paid by someone else so, in consequence, they do not value the learning opportunity so much. Also, young learners do not feel the burden related to paying for a course themselves and do not appreciate that it has been provided for them with no effort put from their side.
- Cognitive skills factor.
The third and possibly the most important factor is related to the cognitive functions of the human brain. A new piece of knowledge is assimilated quicker and more efficiently when it is built upon the information that has been already stored in our mind. In consequence, the more you already know (irrespectively of the area of knowledge) the faster you learn new things i.e. your brain “saves” new data. There is a lot of scientific evidence and research data proving that the human brain changes, develops and improves during the learning process. What’s more, in contrast to a computer, memory stick or any electronic devices (that have got a data storage limit) our brain has practically no capacity threshold and the more we learn, the higher our memory capacity becomes. It looks like we have a “tool” that works better, the more it is used. The adult’s brain, having stored incomparably more data than the child’s, acquires new information incomparably faster. Any newly acquired competence brings all kinds of benefits, including improving working memory, better verbal intelligence and expanded language skills.
- Time spent on learning.
The factor that is commonly disregarded when comparing learning results of young and adult learners is the time they spend on learning. Adult learners are usually busy with their jobs and families and have a lot of every day related duties.
To start learning a foreign language (or take up any course) often requires substantial effort, excellent organisational skills and the sacrifice of free time, entertainment and family life. Children, in contrast, have nothing else to do except learning, as it is their primary and most often the only occupation. Young learners spend incomparably more hours on learning per week than adult students, yet they do not exhibit much better results (in fact, they are quite often much worse). A pupil from a primary school needs approximately eight years to reach the level of language competencies that an adult student can achieve in only 12 to 18 months if they study the same number of hours per week.
Conclusion
You should not think that “it is too late” or “I should have done it when I was a child.” Even if you are a professional in some area having an established business position, it is never too late to acquire new knowledge or improve the skills you already possess. The old proverb says: “The devil’s not so black as he is painted”. Come on then, let’s take on a new course, stun your boss, amaze your friends, impress your family. You will be surprised how quickly you can learn and how pleasurable the studying process can be itself.