How is adult language acquisition different from child language acquisition?
Young children are known to acquire a second language with far greater mastery than adults (Johnson & Newport, 1989). The advantage for early learning is so striking that researchers have posited an innate species-specific language acquisition device which would match language input to a universal grammar (Chomsky, 1995). However, universal grammar has come under attack due to the lack of neuroscience and genetic evidence. Our team suggests that the role of the social-emotional explanations have been incorrectly overlooked due to earlier obsessions with nativism. We suggest that language learning is inherently more rewarding for children than adults. Indeed, research has shown that motivation for learning a second language declines with age (Kormos & Cziser, 2008), making adults very unlikely to master a foreign language or enjoy conversing in their non-native language. Researchers have long proposed that early language acquisition is possible due to a drive for infants to emotionally
