Language and brain fascination

magic79

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Nov 7, 2005
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I have always been fascinated with the operation of the human brain. It's sort of like "the final frontier", as we know so little about it's operation despite the fact we all have one!

I'm married to a Vietnamese woman. She speaks English very well (she's been here 16 years). I find Vietnamese the most difficult language I have ever tried to learn even a bit of.

One year ago last March, her brother and family emigrated (LEGALLY!!!!).

They have two children: a 7 year old boy and a 15 year old daughter. After one year, the daughter (straight A student) has pretty good English skills, but a strong accent. The son, however, has very good English skills...and the point of this post... NO accent. It's especially apparent in pronunciation of my name ('Mark'). I can even detect American dialects by the pronunciation of my name. (New England 'Mock'; Chicago 'Merk'; Southern 'Maaauuurrkk", etc)

So...it seems that a 7 year old can assimilate a language WITHOUT ACCENT, but a 15 year old cannot! I am intrigued that something in the human brain must change between 7 and 15 that makes it impossible to learn a language without accent. Even the best 'adult learners' have some accent (with very, very rare exceptions).

Have any others seen this amazing manifestation?
 

Led_Blind

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I remember reading somewhere that after adolescence is finished with us sometime in our early 20's we are stuck with the accent we have and have great difficulty changing our language 'style'...

Perhaps i can find that article again, i will go looking
 

atm

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My brother's wife is Spanish and they are raising their kids to be bilingual. Apparently the brains of kids raised with more than 1 language end up being physically 'wired' differently to those of us with one main language only. Their ability to pick up new languages throughout life is greatly enhanced.

According to this very interesting article this ability to become fully multi-lingual exists up until about age 9. Seems to correlate well with your experience.

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/oela/summit/Petitto.htm

I agree with you Magic, fascinating stuff.

Andrew

Edit: another interesting article; http://www.pinky-mychild.com/features/baby/bilingual.html
 
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nisshin

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Dec 22, 2003
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There is something called the critical period hypothesis about the accent issue (Critical period). It can also be related to a "fossilized interlanguage," that is, the learner simply has learned enough language and does not progress after that (Interlanguage). As one grows older, less attention is paid to language, as many other issues tend to demand their time. Younger children tend to play word and language games more than older children, so they get used to language patterns better.
 

greenLED

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Mar 26, 2004
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Yup. English is a "second language" in my family, but none of us who learned it before age 5 have an accent. I feel "second language" is sort of a misnomer in my case; I don't feel like my brain processes it as a "different" language at all. Funny thing, though, when my second kid was born I had to "force" myself to speak to him in English - in didn't feel natural at first. Now I switch back and forth between both languages with him (actually, we all do that at home). It's soooo cute to hear him call things in one language one day and another a while later (plus, he signs!). :D

From my experience, adults are more prone to having some type of accent when they learn another language later in life. I find it relatively easy to distinguish and imitate certain sounds from other languages although I can't speak them (Chinese, for example).

Have you guys read Steven Pinker's books (The Language Instict, How the Mind Works)? Fascinating stuff.
 
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