Mxsmanic wrote :
> Hatunen writes:
>> Experiences with the few "wild childs" discovered would certainly
>> give lie to Mx; those found by as late as their early teens never
>> do learn a language with anything approaching fluency.
>
> They were different: they had never spoken at all until late in life. That's
> very different from learning a language very early in life and then learning
> another at some later point.
I second this point of view.
"Wild childs" don't only lack the words, they lack many usual concepts
too and their way of thinking and interests are optimized for an other
world.
I also believe that persons who learnt 2 langages when they were young
developed a definite ability in learning more later.
I am not a foreign language professional but I can attest, from personal
experience, that a large group of adults can be successfully taught a
foreign language in a month or so, and if highly motivated, can reach a
level where some of them -but not all- can really master both an
extended vocabulary and a very good pronounciation. |