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The theory has often been extended to a critical period for second-language acquisition (SLA). David Singleton states that in learning a second language, "younger = better in the long run", but points out that there are many exceptions, noting that five percent of adult bilinguals master a second language even though they begin learning it when they are well into adulthood—long after any ...
The results of the research highlight that language acquisition is a process of learning through statistical means. Moreover, it raises the possibility that infants possess experience-dependent mechanisms that allow for word segmentation and acquisition of other aspects of language. [ 40 ]
During the language acquisition process, a child may require a greater amount of time to determine a correct referent than a child who is a monolingual speaker. [16] By the time a bilingual child is of school age, they perform equally on naming tasks when compared to monolingual children. [ 17 ]
Statistical language acquisition, a branch of developmental psycholinguistics, studies the process by which humans develop the ability to perceive, produce, comprehend, and communicate with natural language in all of its aspects (phonological, syntactic, lexical, morphological, semantic) through the use of general learning mechanisms operating on statistical patterns in the linguistic input.
There is evidence that the acquisition of language begins in the prenatal stage. After 26 weeks of gestation, the peripheral auditory system is already fully formed. [ 19 ] Also, most low-frequency sounds (less than 300 Hz) can reach the fetal inner ear in the womb of mammals. [ 20 ]
It is often assumed that young children learn languages more easily than adolescents and adults. [2] [5] However, the reverse is true; older learners are faster.For example, a study of 17,000 British students showed that those who started learning French aged 11 performed better than those who started learning it aged 8. [6]
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language. In other words, it is how human beings gain the ability to be aware of language, to understand it, and to produce and use words and sentences to communicate. Language acquisition involves structures, rules, and representation.
Much of the early work using statistical learning paradigms focused on the ability for children or adults to learn a single language, [1] consistent with the process of language acquisition for monolingual speakers or learners. However, it is estimated that approximately 60-75% of people in the world are bilingual. [23]