Communication and Culture: The Benefits of Beginning Foreign Language Study Early :: Research Papers

Communication and Culture The Benefits of Beginning Foreign Language Study Early As global awareness increases, American interest in thestudy of languages other than English increases apace. Unlike earlyprograms which did not teach languagesprimarily to learn oral/auralcommunication, but to learn for the sake of universe scholarly or, in someinstances, for gaining a reading proficiency in the foreign language(Brown 18), the twentieth century began to focus on communicativegoals, and a variety of new theories and methods for teaching wereput forth. A common goal has emerged, and modern programs pushstudents towards fluency. Therefore, more research is being conductedinto the best potential slipway to create competent communicators. TheLongman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics definescommunicative competence as the ability not only to apply the grammatical rules of a language in order to form grammatically correctsentences but also to know when and where to u se these sentences andto whom (Richards, Platt, and Platt 65). As scholars search for thebest ship canal to achieve communicative competence, they emphasize theimportance of beginning language study early.The faultfinding period hypothesis first put forth by Lennebergin the late 1960s holds that there is a limited developmental periodduring which it is possible to acquire a languageto normal, nativelikelevels (Birdsong, 1). At the most generous estimate, this critical periodis thought to extend from the age of 2 only until puberty, and someestimates posit a much narrower window (for more information on thepossible causes of the critical period, see Birdsong, 7-9). According toKrashen, Long, and Scarcella, although adults and older children ingeneral initially acquire the plunk for language faster than young children(oldest-is-better for rate of acquisition), child second languageacquirers will usually be superior in terms of ultimate attainment(younger-is-better in the long run) ( 574). This eventual attainmentincludes superior pronunciation skills (Fledge 101) when compared with prentices who began their study later in life.Although starting age determines the levels ofcommunicative accuracy achieved, particularly in pronunciation (Ellisqtd. in Nunan 41), beginning young has an additional advantage. Theyoung learner has many years of schooling left in which to explore thisnew language, and the number of years exposure contributes greatly tothe overall communicative fluency of the learners (Ellis qtd. in Nunan41). Although the pace of the young learner may be slower than thatof the older learner, when language learning begins earlier, it can goon longer and provide more practice and experience, leading ultimatelyto greater fluency and effectiveness (Curtain and Pesola, Languages andChildren 3) than is generally achieved when study begins after puberty.