Optimal Age For Learning A Second Language
A common question is whether there is an optimal acquisition window for mastering a second language. Obviously, adults and even elderly adults are able to learn new languages, but differences in aptitude and mastery are typically attributable to aptitude for language mastery. Some researchers even believe that adolescents and adults actually have an advantage over young children in language learning, due to stronger cognitive abilities.
Some have argued that the most ideal age range for acquiring a second language is between 8 and 12 years old, when cognition is more developed, but ease of adapting new phonologies ( language sounds) and learning new vocabulary is still significantly more pronounced than for an adult. Additionally, children in the 8 to 12 range are much less likely to rely so strictly on the rules of their first language to formulate the second.
That being said, there seems to be no real evidence that age itself is an impediment to learning a second language, though some data seems to suggest otherwise, especially for languages that are very dissimilar. For instance, native Chinese speakers who start going to school in the US tend to become much more proficient in English if they are immersed before the age of nine. If immersion occurs after this age, these children tend to retain Chinese as their dominant language and never become as proficient in English as the younger learners. This age difference is much less of a factor, however, when the two systems share similar linguistic roots, as is the case with many European languages.
If the motivation isn't there, then it won't matter what age you are; you won't learn.
Personally I agree with those you say that age is an important factor in language acquisition and that younger children learn more proficiently. I recall in a developmental psychology class that I took in university that neural pruning in the first few years of life effect the child's ability to hear phonemes. Once a neuron designed to hear a specific phoneme is pruned, then that individual will never be able to hear that sound later in life. That is why when older people learn a language that uses much different sounds then their native language, it is very challenging to hear and pronounce the subtle differences in accent. In such cases you often hear conversarional exchanges like this - "no it's pronounced this way - (such and such)" followed by the response "that is exactly how I'm saying it."
People cannot say the difference because they cannot hear it.
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Life is too short to learn Dutch..
@pinkspectre, Yes, in my opinion too there is no age specification when we want to learn new and second language it all depends upon the need of learning and how much concentration we are putting to pursue that language. Stay blessed.
What online resources and applications can help you learn English?
I tried to learn English on my own with the help of the Internet, but it didn't give me much results. That's when I came up with the idea of enrolling in a Promova course. They have a cool website where you can find auxiliary information that helps you learn the language. For example, they have sections on their website, even sections like crime vocabulary . I'm very glad I started using Promova because it gave me fast results.