Washington:
The best time to learn a foreign language: Between birth
and age 7. New research by international
scientists is showing just how children's brains learn
so quickly.
Each language uses a unique set of sounds, and
babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of
them. But that ability starts weakening even before they
start talking, by the first birthday.
For example, for the Japanese, the "L" and "R" sounds
of English -- "rake" and "lake" -- sound the same. But
scientists have proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a
7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those
different sounds. By 11 months, however, the Japanese
infant had lost a lot of that ability.
And how DO you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze.
Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever
there's a particular sound. The baby learns to look on
that side when he or she hears a brand-new but similar
sound. Brain scans show how the brain is processing and
imprinting language. As babies grow older, the brain
tunes out sounds that don't fit.
"You're building a brain architecture that's a
perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever
is native, explains Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University
of Washington. Or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with
two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two languages.
Babies being raised in bilingual environments can
learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn
one.
Babies
start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by
18 months.
Scientists hope the new findings will help older
children and adults learn languages more easily.
"We think the magic that kids apply to this
learning situation, some of the principles, can be
imported into learning programs for adults," said Kuhl.
Kuhl is now part of an international team trying to turn
those lessons into more teachable technology.
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