TooSoon？：ThreeistheBestAgetoStartLearningaSecondLanguage

趙晨迪

There was an interesting phenomenon that a Chinese young child who immigrated to England，who had no choice，and must start to learn the new language，English as soon as he arrived.His parents felt anxious about it.Nevertheless，several months later，they amazingly noticed that communicating in English was a piece of cake for their child.This child language development far exceeded his parents expectation.It could take up one or two years for him to reach the level of a native English speaker.This story demonstrates that young children are the best language learners.But what age is the best to start a second language？

Preschool children，who are in the language exploration period，tend to be willing to imitate others.This imitation leads children to second language acquisition.“Second language acquisition refers to the process in which people acquire second language consciously or unconsciously，which is subconscious.” Krashen once said.They have the creative sensibility as well as curiosity and strong thirst for knowledge.They have the aspiration for expressing themselves.At this period，substantial comprehensive language input helps them make progress，which is similar to the procession of learning mother tongue.From the teaching practice，the beginners who are seven to eight years old are more afraid of saying wrong things and shy to open their mouth.Preschoolers are less disturbed，for they do not notice the mistakes about words and grammar.Daring not to speak is surely detrimental to language learning.“Dumb English” is very common in Chinese，even in the English department in the universities.Students memorize large vocabularies every day and read a great number of articles，but fail to interact with foreigners.The majority of Chinese students begin to learn English in grade three of primary school when they are about ten years old.Students are required to master the complex grammar system by rote，which is quite different from childrens natural learning.It is particularly those individuals who were exposed to the new language at early age tend to have a complete language system.So starting to learn the second language too late would cause the disability of language sense，which is one of the most significant factors of language concerning ability.Besides，learning from the early period enables individuals to accumulate more expressions.

Research in psychology，physiology and the brain neurology indicated that three to six years old is the key period of the development of childrens verbal intelligence.If provided sufficient language stimulation，it can promote brain synaptic development.Accepting a second language in this period would also help children with brain control language development.According to the new study released by Ohio State University，young children have much more powerful memory than teenagers.They have different memory patterns.B.S.Blooms curve about intelligence and age in Figure 1 tells us that childrens intelligence develops most rapidly under the age five.Young children prefer visual and imaginal memory.Children tend to memorize pictures and languages clearly.Besides，young children have boundless potential and creativity.Three years old is the most significant stage in individuals life，which is the sensitive period of development of thinking，observation and perception abilities.So it is a huge waste to let their brain in the blank.The key stage would influence individuals whole life.So adolescents will need to spend much more time to study language than children.

Starting to learn the second language too late would cause phonological disorders to various degrees.Some specialist in the field of second language acquisition proved that adults experiences are much greater difficult in learning a foreign language in contrast to young children，especially in the area of pronunciation.For preschoolers，the vocal organs have not finalized，which are flexible and plastic.The coordination of childrens oral muscles is better than that of adults.So tongue stiffness is a general problem for adult learners.It is inevitable for adult learners to bring the syllables from the native language to the second language.

However，starting the second language too early would hinder the development of the mother tongue.It will result in failures of both languages.Learning two languages at the same time is likely to cause confusion，frustration and logic chaos.Children under the age of three would use the first languages vocabulary and pronunciation into the second language by mistakes.Whereas after three years old，they could make it clear that the two languages are two independent systems of each other.Besides，the mode of thinking of every language is different.So it is harmful for children to form their own mind.To some extent，it is possible to discourage children.

As a result，three to six is the golden period of language learning.Taking advantage of this key stage could allow children to win at the starting line.