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From: marty1@houdi.UUCP (M.BRILLIANT)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Language Learning
Message-ID: <1411@houdi.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Nov-87 10:14:18 EST
Article-I.D.: houdi.1411
Posted: Wed Nov 11 10:14:18 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Nov-87 23:26:38 EST
References: <8986@shemp.UCLA.EDU> <1125@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <1966@uwmacc.UUCP> <1399@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel
Lines: 26
Keywords: Goal Based
Summary: Evidence for crystallization period is now dubious

In article <1399@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>, zwicky@ptero.cis.ohio-state.edu (Elizabeth D. Zwicky) writes:

> ... Children
> do learn second languages; the interesting question is whether or not
> there is a specific point at which children stop being good at learning
> second languages, and the data shows that there is, and it is puberty.
> In the environments in which these data have been collected, there
> is no drastic change in environment at puberty, which would tend to
> suggest that the diffference is not due to factors like lack of time
> and patience, but has some deeper cause.

What was once believed to be quick language learning in children is now
believed to be only quick pronunciation learning.  Children who seem to
know a language well, because they speak it fluently without an accent
in social situations, are not necessarily ready to use it to learn
things they don't already know.

Even pronunciation learning may have nothing to do with crystallization.
The onset of identity crisis might make an adolescent less eager than a
child to adopt a new language.  And an adolescent might be more likely
to recognize that superficial fluency is not enough, and adopt a
halting pronunciation to signal that the language has not been mastered.

M. B. Brilliant					Marty
AT&T-BL HO 3D-520	(201)-949-1858
Holmdel, NJ 07733	ihnp4!houdi!marty1