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PAGE 14

Langrfagecontinued from pege 4

easier to master before puberty.Part of the reason why children more

easil'7 iearn ianguages ir simply the fact thaEwell, t .v think like kids. "lChildrenJ absorb

langui- i and they love language," says

Geiler Ltrgasry. Because they are more play-fui, they end up learning languages indi-rectly through garr,er and songs,

Thor Templin, a graduate student in theDeparfment cf German and theDepartment of 5candfnavian Studies at UW,

agrees. Templin, who has taught German to,:hildren fro'n five to l4 years of age, tyrkidr are iei: afraid to make mistakes. "With

^:duit: lhere'i aiwayr that moment of hesfta-

tron ,here fJrev're trying to process therrarnnar-" he obseryes. 'Adula have thilprobtern where they want to know every-thrng ri.qht away."

A lack cf self-consciousness isn't the onlyieason why chiliren easily absorb languages.

vVhile tne physiological mechanisms of lan-tLr,',_qe ;cquisition are not weil understood,one iheor;i suggesb that the brain is more,r,;rile;bie o'- plasfic when we are young.Safi'ran likens the brain to real estate that

PAGE 20

A physiological theory explaining in{anb' acuii'v iolearn languages ruggerfu thcir brains or more roal-ieable or plaiiic. The rtudy. howe';er, failr tcaddrers their propenliN to eat pl;stic.

hasn't yet been deveioped. As we ierrr. :hebrain becomes cclonizec lnct, once coic,-

nized, u harCer to change.As UW profesror of piychciogy l-Vark

5eidenberg expiains, bv the time or-ir ccm-mand of our fir:t ianquage ir very' good,

MAD]5ON PARENT

urually by five or six years of age, our brainhas lost the flexibility or plasticity to abrorbothers as easily. By pre-pubescence, aroundeight or ten years of age, learning ianguages

becomer significantly more drfficu lt.Yet, 5eidenberg maintains, children older

than frVe have not necessarily rnissed a gold-en opportunity, In fac! he argues, youngerchildren are still so occupied with straight-

Part of the reason whychildren more easily learn

languages is simply iheiact that, well, tl"rey think

like kids.

ening or:t the rvorld that they have pientyenough to di;cover. By five or six, cn theother hand, kiCs knou,nore, such ar theobje,:a to which worCs are referring yetther stili retain a "voracio'-ts capacity- tcie.: i'n. "

M,rreover, the factors that conti'ibute toianquaqe acquisition are not entir'ely bioiog-ic;iJ. Other issuet, what te cails scc;ai cir-crrrnstances and motrvation," are cr:e iil.

continueci o* page 2O

LangUage continued rrom pase 4

These include the amount ofsupport an individuat receives

while Jearning a ianguage, thedegree.of exporure to lhe lan-guage (fmme rsian, for example,acceierates language learning atany age), ;nd whether or notthat exposure war in an isolatedand iimited cornmunity, Ofccurue, individual cases also varydue to what Saffran calls simply"talent."

U nfortunateJy, Saffran point-s

out while we best acquire lan-guages when we are young theAmerfcan educational system

rarely mandates foreign lan-guage study untrl high school oreven college-after the brain'splasUcity is significantly limited.By then, she iaments, "it's waytoo late."

Many language programjnow gear a portion of their cur-riculum toward kids" Berides

growing up in a bilingual house-hold, immerion in eiementaryichoois is the most effectrVe;'neanr cf introducing childrentc another ianguage. But even

cr-;ifu ral pfograrnr, language

':la:ses and language-orientedrne,jia wfil pique a child': inter-est. in and sensitvity to othercu ltu i'es.

Fo,- older kids, txchange pro-grams and language camps canprovide ihem wfth benefit-s thatlast much longer than the expe-rience ibelf, Programs in and

around Maciison cffer a varietyofapprcaches to language edu-cation. 5ome are listed belou/;t Parents of 6-12-month-old

infants interested in partrci-pating in Saffran's rtudy cancontact her at608_263_587 6. or wr,rrv.wais-

man.wfsc. edu / infa ntlea rningifnfant-research. html

* The Madison ChineseLanguage Schooi offersChinese classes to child:'enand adulti:

www. mcll.dc it.wisc.edu. The UniversitT* of Wisconlin's

Division of Continuing 5tudies

offeru a variety ot'languageclasres to children and adults.

608-262-1156. or'vww.dcs.wisc' edu I :lals. s I lan-

guage.htrnl' Concordia Lairguage iriliaqes

in Moorhead, lvlinn. r,fiert 12

cii{ferent language ca;:i1:i for

one, two or iour u'eek riaYl

each summer;www. co rd.e<r'u i ciePt. ch,'. I