Dave Smith writes:
> It is a well established fact that there are critical periods for language
> acquisition and that people who are taught a second or third language in
> their youth often pick them up without any accent.
Nope, that's just the problem: This is not an established fact at all, but
merely a bit of religious doctrine in linguistics. People always have taken
for granted that it is true, and thus no one has sought to prove it (or
succeeded in doing so). It's a classic example of the self-fulfilling
prophecy. On the one hand, it provides an excuse to adult learners who don't
want to expend the effort to become fluent; and on the other, it discourages
adult learners who want to achieve fluency from even making the attempt. |