| Have you ever wondered why some non-English | | | | Early language exposure for young children gives them |
| speaking people have a difficult time pronouncing | | | | a unique advantage. |
| different sounds of the English language (or any two | | | | Babies brains are different, they have more brain cells, |
| languages really)? A recent study found out why: | | | | more potential. The sounds that they are exposed to |
| "adults learning a language speak with a more | | | | determine what connections in the brain develop and |
| native-like accent if they overheard the language | | | | which do not. A developing brain is more dynamic then |
| regularly during childhood than if they did not."(1) | | | | an adult brain. "By adulthood, most people have trouble |
| So, how did they get people to listen to a language | | | | distinguishing sounds that are not in their languages. For |
| consistently but only during early childhood? They | | | | example, people who learn Japanese as children often |
| tapped into an existing population: people who were | | | | confuse the "r" and "l" sounds of English, pronouncing |
| adopted into one country after they spent their early | | | | "lake" as "rake," because the "l" and "r" sounds are not |
| years in a different country. Then they had regular | | | | different in Japanese."(2) It is essential to expose your |
| people who were not directly tied into the study listen | | | | children to the sounds of many languages if you want |
| to this adopted group after they learned the language | | | | them to speak more clearly in other languages when |
| as adults and compared their accent to native | | | | they grow up. |
| speakers of that language and to people who learned | | | | 1) From Overhearing a Language During Childhood, A |
| the language as adults without having been exposed | | | | study by Terry Kit-fong Au, Leah M. Knightly, Sun-Ah |
| to the foreign language. The people who were | | | | Jun, and Janet S. of the University of California, Los |
| exposed to the language consistently during early | | | | Angeles |
| childhood spoke more like the people who spoke that | | | | 2) From Better Brains for Babies, Building Baby's Brain: |
| language as their first language than those who did not. | | | | Learning Language by Dr. |