Is There A Critical Age For Learning A Second Language?
There is a common field of thought that there is a critical period for acquisition of a second language; and that this results in very young children learning a language much more easily than adults do. While this may be to a certain extent true, older learns can and do learn languages with native-like proficiency if they are so gifted, motivated or learn in the right conditions. If a person learning English were not living in an English speaking environment, it would require extra special effort, more time and daily exposure in one form or another. This goes for the learning of any other language, if you are not living in the country where the natives speak it on an everyday basis.
