Researchers Explain Why Adults find it Hard to Learn New Languages

A study explains why adults find it difficult to learn new languages.

It is well known that childhood is the best age to learn new skills and languages when the brain is still developing and can easily grasp sounds of words and form sentences. Experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also discovered that the superior cognitive abilities in adults act as hindrance in the process of learning new languages. They add learning artificial language can be more difficult for adults who may have a tough time fathoming the structure of words and sentences like root words, suffixes and prefixes.

 Their study tested 66 participants who were made to listen to meaningless words having two syllables for almost 10 minutes. Half of the subjects were instructed to complete a puzzle to ensure they wouldn't overanalyze the language while, the rest were simply asked to identify exact words from the meaningless phrases. This task was called word segmenting. It was observed that both performed well in the task and underwent another test where they had to identify correct word sequences from the list of phrases they previously heard.

In the final part of the trial, the researchers played three word sequences that had a new word which the participants had not heard before but matched with one of the three options. The performance of all subjects was very poor and they were unable to relate the word to any of the three choices.

The study explained different parts of the brain involved in procedural and declarative memory are associated with learning languages and other activities. Declarative memory helps retain information and facts used while learning grammar and vocabulary. Procedural memory deals with tasks that are mastered without being aware of it like riding a bike. Areas concerning declarative memory are more active during childhood making children better at picking up new words and grammar rules in a particular language.

"Adults are much better at picking up things that are going to immediately help them like words and things that will help them navigate a supermarket. You can learn language functionally as an adult, but you'll never sound like a native speaker," said Amy Finn, study author and psychologist at  MIT's McGovern Institute from Brain Research, reports the Time.

More information is available online in the journal PLoS ONE.