Language learning

Language learning as adults is not so different than as a child

Andrew Lucker – Mar 15, 2017 Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is selling bunk theory. The formal theory is called the critical age hypothesis by Eric Lenneberg(1921–1975), and yes it is no longer canon. All research points in a slightly different and perhaps noncontradictory direction. Adults can learn language like children, just that they don’t and probably will not. Not a satisfying …

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Language learning in children is like a phase transition

Sam Jarman is a freelance writer based in the UK New research suggests that the sudden ability of young children to understand and form complex sentences is comparable to a physical phase transition. Using principles from statistical mechanics, Eric DeGiuli at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris has explained the abrupt transition by comparing a child’s …

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