The Optimal Age to Learn a Foreign Language

Author(s): James J. Asher and Ramiro García

Source: The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 53, No. 5 (May, 1969), pp. 334-341
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers
Associations
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334 JAMES J. ASHER AND RAMIRO GARCIA

advanced placement time. It by

also influences
forces the
outside the field of language teaching
teacher and the administration somewhat with and even of education. The curriculum reflects
the changing values of society, and changes in
its advanced placement, especially in methodo-
logy and goals. Both levels influence each other
subject matter in turn influence content as well
if they have conferences which are freely as method.'
at-
tended and participated in by both sides.
Perhaps Politzer is essentially correct when
6 Robert L. Politzer, "The Foreign Language Curriculum
he says that changes in methods and aimsand of its Shifting Foundations," School and Society, Vol.
foreign language curricula are shaped primarily
XCIII, No. 2260 (April 17, 1965), pp. 249-52.

The Optimal Age to Learn a Foreign Language

JAMES J. ASHER, San Jose State College, AND RAMIRO GARCfA,
Prospect High School, Saratoga, California

INTRODUCTION ing hemiplegia for the right hemisphere of the

WHAT is the optimal age to begin studying
a second language? Theories have been
created from which optimal ages have been in-
ferred. Examples would be the brain plasticity
theory,' the biological predisposition theory,2
and an imprinting theory.3 All of these theories
share a common theme which is that something
in the early development of the child maximizes
the probability that the younger the human
organism when he is exposed to a language, the
greater the probability that the individual will
acquire a native pronunciation.
The brain plasticity theory suggests that the
young child's brain has a cellular receptivity to
language acquisition. This receptivity may be a
function of cellular plasticity or elasticity which
is controlled by a sort of biological clock. With
age, the biological clock changes the cellular
plasticity which reduces the organism's ca-
pacity to learn language.
There is clinical evidence for a theory of brain
plasticity which is controlled by a biological
clock. For instance, Penfield has observed in
accident cases that if the left hemisphere of the
brain is damaged, and speech is lost, children
but not adults will tend to enjoy a recovery in
the power of speech. Furthermore, for those
children who regain speech, it can be demon-
strated that the speech function somehow
shifted from the left to the right hemisphere of
the brain. This was shown by injecting sodium
amytal into the child's carotid artery, produc-
brain. Then with aphasia tests it was observed
that speech temporarily disappeared as long as
the right hemisphere was paralyzed with the
drug. The shift of speech from the left to right
hemisphere in children but not adults sug-
gested a greater cellular elasticity for children.
The biological predisposition theory states
that the human organism is born with a unique
capacity to learn language. The theory does
not explain why this special ability should
diminish with age. An intriguing explanation is
possible if the imprinting theory is linked with a
theory of biological predisposition. If, for
example, there is a "critical period" early in the
child's development when imprinting occurs for
language acquisition, then this could account
for the superiority of children.
Imprinting has been demonstrated with
birds, fish, insects, and some mammals. The
1 Wilder Penfield and Lamar Roberts, Speech and Brain-
Mechanisms, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959.
2 J. A. Fodor, "How to Learn to Talk: Some Simple
Ways," in Franklyn Smith and George A. Miller, eds., The
Genesis of Language, Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Press, 1966; Eric H. Lenneberg, "A Biological
Perspective of Language," in Eric H. Lenneberg, ed., New
Directions in the Study of Language, Cambridge: Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1964, pp. 65-88:
and D. McNeill, "Developmental Psycholinguistics," in
Franklyn Smith and George A. Miller, eds., op. cit.
3 Konrad Z. Lorenz, "The Evolution of Behavior,"
Scientific American, Vol. 199, No. 6 (December, 1958),
pp. 67-78.

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 THE OPTIMAL AGE TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 335

classic study with ducklings showedlearned

thatto understand
there Russian in situations in
is a critical period of short duration
whichinthewhich
Russian utterances were synchronized
the infant bird learns to follow its mother. The with physical movement, the adults were
behavior of following its mother is not an in- vastly superior to the children in any age group
stinctive response which automatically occurs (p<.0005 using two-tailed t tests), and the
just because the bird is a duckling. Rather, older children outperformed the youngest
during a certain critical period the response of children.
following is learned. If during this critical time
The superiority of adults to children may
the mother is absent and other objects or per- hold only for listening comprehension. Children
sons are present, then the infant bird may may indeed have a pre-puberty biological
predisposition which enables them to achieve
"imprint" and thereafter follow the object such
as a toy or human in preference to the mother.
fidelity in pronunciation. The data to be pre-
By analogy, the capacity to learn a language sented next are a direct test of the biological
may be keenly operative during some yet to be predisposition hypothesis.
discovered critical period in the early develop-
ment of humans. PROCEDURE
As attractive as these theories are, there is no
Subjects. The experimental group was Cuban
direct evidence that the child has a special
immigrants (N= 71) between the ages of seven
language learning capacity which is absent in
and nineteen, most of whom had been in the
the adult. The superiority of children over
adults in second language learning is a strong United States about five years. This group had
26 boys and 45 girls. In the control group were
belief probably resulting from the common ob-
thirty American children, of whom thirteen
servation that children living in a foreign
country seem rapidly to achieve native-like were boys and seventeen were girls. All the
children, American and Cuban learned their
fluency in the alien language while their parents
may lag far behind. In language acquisition, the
English in the San Francisco Bay Area of
California.
implication is that children have a biological
predisposition for language learning which is Design. The intent was to compare the
Cuban children with the American children in
perhaps related to brain plasticity or imprint-
their pronunciation of English sentences. From
ing.
This belief, however, in the superiority of the comparison we wanted to develop answers
to the following questions: Is our measure of
children for second language acquisition may
pronunciation reliable and valid? What is the
be an illusion. Children may learn the new lan-
optimal age for a Cuban child to enter the
guage in play situations when utterances are
United States if he is to achieve a native-like
synchronized with physical movement (i.e.,
pronunciation? Is there an interaction between
"Come on, Billy, let's run to the corner!") It
the age of the individual when he entered the
may also be that adults learn the new language
country and years of residence in the United
in static, non-play situations in which their
States? Is there a difference between male and
kinaesthetic system is not active and not syn-
chronized with speech transmission or reception female Cuban children in the fidelity of English
pronunciation?
(i.e., "Hello, it's a beautiful day, isn't it?")
If the difference in language acquisition be- In collaboration with several linguists,6 the
tween children and adults is play versus non-
play, action versus non-action, and physical James J. Asher and Ben Price, "The Learning Strategy
of the Total Physical Response: Some age Differences,"
involvement versus non-physical involvement,
Child Development, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 4 (December,
these variables may partially explain the ac- 1967), pp. 1219-1227.
celerated learning of the child. When this idea 5 Appreciation is expressed to the following linguists for
was tested in a controlled situation by Asher their assistance in developing the test sentences: Professors

and Price,4 the results showed a surprising in-
verse relationship between age and learning
listening comprehension of Russian. When
adults and children (ages 7, 11, and 14) all
Elaine Ristinen, Donald H. Alden, and Phillip Cook. We
are grateful also to Professor William D. Moellering of the
Department of Foreign Languages for many helpful sug-
gestions and to Dr. Bela H. Banathy from the Defense
Language Institute, West Coast.

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 336 JAMES J. ASHER AND RAMIRO GARCIA

measure of English pronunciation was

according to age withfour
the nineteen year old Ss
sentences containing a sample ofthe
first, then English
eighteen year old Ss and so forth
sounds which speakers of Spanish down to are most
the six apt
year old children. In each age
to find difficult. Each Cuban and American group, one to three American children were
child was asked to utter the following sentences:
randomly positioned. Each S was identified on
1. I had two hot dogs and a glass of orange by initials only.
tape
juice for lunch yesterday. RESULTS
2. The girls were jealous because we had a
better party. The first question we asked was: "Is our
3. Pat and Shirley are measuring the rugmeasure
to of pronunciation reliable and valid?"
see if it shrank. Without reliability and validity, all conclusions
4. It started to snow when we were about to based on the measure would be in serious error.
leave for the mountains. For each S we had a decision from nineteen
judges. The mode was used to represent the
Before a child's pronunciation of a sentence collective decision by the judges because the
was tape recorded, the child read and rehearsedmode yielded high inter-judge reliability. For
that sentence many times until he felt ready to example, the judges made 1,919 independent
make the utterance on tape. With this proce-decisions on the pronunciations of the subjects
dure, the subject was able to concentrate on one and in 70% of those decisions the judges had
sentence at a time. The pronunciation of Ss was perfect agreement among themselves.
grouped according to age with all 7 year old The mode also resulted in high validity as
children together, with all 8 year old childrenmeasured by how accurately the pronunciation
together and so forth. The Cuban and American measure differentiated native from non-native
children were randomly placed in an age group.speakers in English. For instance, there was
Then each member of a class of American near perfect discrimination because 23 out of
high school students (N= 19) most of whom 30 American children' were identified as native
were Juniors and Seniors, sat in a booth locatedspeakers while all 71 of the Cuban children, no
in the language laboratory at the Blackford matter how long they had been in the United
High School in San Jose, California and listened
States; were identified as non-native speakers.
to a replay of the sentences uttered by theThe second question asked was this: "'What
Cubans and Americans. After hearing a set of is the optimal age for a Cuban child to enter the
four sentences uttered by a subject, the judges
United States if he is to achieve a native-like
made a decision about the fidelity of pro- pronunciation?" From Figure 1, it can be seen
nunciation by checking one of the following that 68% of the children between 1 and 6
categories: achieved a near-native pronunciation while this
A indicated a native speaker was accomplished by 7% of the children be-
B indicated a near native speaker tween the ages of 13 or older. For those between
C indicated a slight foreign accent the ages of 7 and 12, 41% had a near-native
D indicated a definite foreign accent pronunciation.
No child six or under had a definite foreign
The judges, all of whom learned their English accent, but 32% of this group had a slight ac-
in the San Francisco Bay area, were instructed cent; for children 13 or older 66% had a defi-
that a voice would utter four sentences after nite foreign accent and 27% had a slight ac-
which each judge would classify the pronuncia-cent. Of the children between 7 and 12, 16%
tion into one of these four categories: A, B, C,had a definite accent and 43% had a slight
or D. Immediately following this the judges accent.
matched their response with the preferred
classification. The judges listened to an illustra- I The seven American children who were falsely identi-
fied as non-native speakers of English were classified as
tion for each of the four categories into which
having a "slight accent." Four of the seven were ages seven
pronunciation could be classified. or eight and idiosyncratic distortions on certain words may
Then the judges listened to the Ss groupedhave biased the judges' decisions.

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 THE OPTIMAL AGE TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 337

Figure i.
English pronunciation as a function of the Cuban child's
age when entering the U.S.A.
Child's age when
entering the U.S.A.

1-6 A o0%j
(N= 19) B 68%
C 32%

D 0%1

7-12 A 0761
(N=37) B 41%
C 43%1
D 16%1

13-19 A 0%

(N= 15) B 7%
C 27%1
D 66%I

Fidelity of Pro
A Native C Slight accent
B Near native D Definite accent

timeunder
The implication is that if a child was in the United States was an important
six when he came to the United States he had variable. If a child lived in the United States
the highest probability of acquiring a near-
for five years or more he had the highest
native pronunciation of English and if theprobability of achieving a near-native pro-
child was older than 13 he had the lowestnunciation; if the child lived here four years
chance of near-native speech. or less, he had the lowest probability of ac-
The third question was this: "Is length of a near-native pronunciation.
quiring
time in the United States important in acquir-
So far in the analysis, the age at which the
Cuban child entered the United States and the
ing a native-like pronunciation of English?"
Figure 2 indicates that 51% of Cuban children
number of years he lived in this country were
who have been in the United States 5 to 8extremely
years important variables in determining
have a near-native pronunciation while fidelity
only of pronunciation. Next we wanted to
15% of those living in the United States for the interaction between these two critical
know
variables.
four years or less have a near-native pronuncia-
tion. Of those children here 5 to 8 years, Figure
only 3 indicates that 71% of the Cuban
10% had a definite foreign accent and 39% had
children six years old or younger when they
came to this country, acquired near-native
a slight accent. If the child lived in the United
States four years or less, 55% had a definite
pronunciation of English if they lived in the
accent and 30% had a slight accent. United States between 5 and 8 years. If these
The implication is that, indeed, length of lived in the United States four years or
children

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338 JAMES J. ASHER AND RAMIRO GARCIA

Figure 2.
English pronunciation as a function of years
living in the U.S.A.

Length of time
in the U.S.A.

A 00

I to 4 years B 15%
(N = 20) C 30%

D 55%

A 0%1
5 to 8 years B 51%1
(N=51) C 39%

D 10%

Figure 3.

English pronunciation as a function of entry and

length of time in U.S.A.

Child's age when Length of time

entering the U.S.A. in the U.S.A.

1 - 6 1-4 yrs. (N=2) B 50%

5-8 yrs. (N=7) B 71%1

I - 4 yrs. C 50%0/

5- 8 yrs. C 29%

I - 4 yrs. D 0%

5- 8 yrs. D 0%

7-12 1 -4 yrs. (N=9) B 22%

5 - 8 yrs. (N=28) B 46%Y

1 - 4 yrs. C. 45%
C 43%
5--8 yrs.
1- 4 yrs. Q 33%
5- 8 yrs. O lI %

13- 19 1 - 4 yrs. (N 9) B 0%i

B 17%

15--8 yrs. (N=6)

- 4 yrs.
5 i- yrs.
Cc
I11/o 5o%1
S- 4 yrs. D 890/
5- 8 yrs. D 33%

Note: The "A" category for Native Pronunciation was 0%

in all cases.

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 THE OPTIMAL AGE TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 339

Figure 4.

English pronunciation for Males (N=28)

versus Females (N= 43).

Fidelity of
Pronunciation

Near - native Males 25%

Females 49%0

Males 39%0
Slight-accent
Females 37%/

Definite Males 36%]

accent
Females 14%1

Next, are production

less, 50% had a near-native sound Cuban girls better able than Cuban
and 50% had a slight accent, boys
butto acquire
none a near-native
of these pronunciation of
English?
children in this age group had Figure 4 accent.
a definite suggests that this may be
For the children in the 7 true
to 12
since age range itthe boys by 2 to 1
girls outnumbered
in near-native
can be seen in Figure 3 that 46% of those pronunciation.
living About the same
in the United States between proportion
5 andof8boys years
as girls
hadhad a slight accent,
a near-native pronunciation, 43%
but for hadwith
children a slight
a definite foreign accent,
accent and only 11% had a the definite accent.
ratio was three boys forOfevery girl.
those living here 4 years or Will
less,girlsonly 22% had
still outperform boys in pronuncia-
near-native pronunciation while
tion when the45% had
age of the a
children upon entering
thedefinite
slight accent and 33% had a United Statesforeign
is considered? In Figure 5 we
accent. see that of the children who came to this coun-
tryage
Figure 3 shows that for children who were between the ages of 1 and 6, 75% of the
13 or older when they came to the United girls acquired a near-native pronunciation as
States, of those here between 5 and 8 years, compared with 33% of the boys. This compari-
17% had near-native pronunciation, 50% had a son should be made cautiously since there was
slight accent, and 33% a definite accent. If an extremely small sample of boys (N= 3) in
these children lived in the United States four this age range.
years or less, none had a near-native pronuncia-For children between 7 and 12, 50% of the
tion, 11% had a slight accent and 89% had girlsa had a near-native pronunciation as con-
definite foreign accent. trasted with 28% of the boys. If the children
The implications from the data were that werea between 13 and 19 when they entered the
Cuban child had the greatest probabilityUnited of States almost as many girls (62%) as
achieving a near-native pronunciation of Eng- boys (72%) had a definite foreign accent.
lish if he was six or younger and lived in the Finally, will girls have better pronunciation
United States more than five years. A child who
than boys when the factor of time in the United
came to America when he was 13 or older had aStates is considered? Figure 6 shows that of the
small chance of acquiring a near-native pro-children living in this country between 1 and 4
nunciation even if he lived here five years years,
or 80% of the boys had a definite foreign
more. The child who was between 7 and 12 accent as compared with 30% of the girls. In
when he arrived here and then lived here five this group, none of the boys had a near-native
years or more had a 50-50 chance of achieving pronunciation
a as compared with 30% of the
near-native pronunciation. girls.

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340 JAMES J. ASHER AND RAMIRO GARCIA

Figure 5.
English pronunciation as a function of sex and entry age.
Child's age
when entering
the U.S.A.

- 6 8 Moles(N=3) 330/o
Females (N= 16) 75%

C Males 67%
Females 25%1
D Males 0%

Females 0%1
7- 12 8 Males(N= 18) 28%
Females (N= 19) 50%

C Males 44%1
Females 45%'/
D Males 28%

Females 5%

13 -19 8 Males(N=7) 14%

Females(N=8) O%

C Males 14%
Females 38%

D Males 71%
Females 62%

It is between age when the child entered the

interesting t
lived in United States and theUnite
the acquisition of a
differences in
near-native pronunciation. The younger En
boys andthe child, the higher the probability see
girls of
peared pronunciation
to be fidelity. This probability
only
tion thanwas furtherthe boy
increased the longer the child
lived in the United States.
DISCUSSION
For example, of the children six or
The data from the colony of Cuban children younger, who lived here between 5 and 8
living in the San Francisco Bay Area of Cali- years, 71% had a near-native pronuncia-
fornia suggested the following: tion as compared with only 50% of those
1. No matter what the age of the child when living here between one and four years.
he or she came to the United States and no For the older children, those in the age
matter how long the child lived here from range of 13 to 19, nobody (N=9) who
one to eight years, not one of the 71 Cuban lived here between 1 and 4 years had a
children achieved a native English pro- near-native pronunciation, and only 17%
nunciation. of these children who lived in the United
2. However, many acquired a near-native States between 5 and 8 years (N = 6) had a
English pronunciation. The highest prob- near-native speech.
ability of this near-native sound produc- 4. More girls than boys had a near-native
tion occurred when the child was a boy or pronunciation. When age of entry into the
girl who came to the United States be- United States was examined, girls still had
tween one and six years of age and lived in better fidelity of pronunciation for any
this country between five and eight years. age group. This difference between boys
3. There seemed to be an inverse relationship and girls tended to diminish the longer the

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 THE OPTIMAL AGE TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 341

Figure 6.

English pronunciation as a function of sex and

years- lived in the U.S.A.

Length of Pronunciation
Time in
the U.S.A.

I - 4 Near - Males O%
native Females 30%

5 - 8 Males 39%
Females 58%

1 - 4 Slight - Males 20%

accent Females 40%

5-8 Males 50%/o

Females 33%

I - 4 Definite - Males 80%1

accent Females 30%1
5-8 Males l 1%
Females 9%

Note: N=10 for boys and N = 10 for girls living in the U.S.A.
from I to 4 years.
N=18 for boys and N=33 for girls living in the U.S.A.
from 5 to 8 years.

children lived in the United States. As an pronunciation fidelity for second languages.
illustration, of the boys living here 1 toThis4 variable may indeed by biological. The
years, 80% had a definite accent and none curious puzzle is that although the probability
had a near-native pronunciation. In com- of pronunciation fidelity is with the younger
parison, of girls living in the United States
child, some older children-a small group to be
the same period of time, only 30% hadsure-can a also achieve an excellent pronuncia-
definite accent and 30% a near-native tion which implies that biology does not com-
pronunciation. Nevertheless, in time the pletely determine the phenomenon.
sex difference seemed to vanish as, for When this research with Cuban children is
example, when the children lived here 5 to compared with prior work having to do with
8 years, 11% of the boys and 9% of the listening comprehension, there is an indication
girls had a definite accent while 39% of that fidelity of pronunciation and listening
the boys as compared with 58% of the comprehension of a second language are orthog-
girls had acquired a near-native pro- onal dimensions or even inversely related. It
nunciation. may be that two different types of learning are
operating. Pronunciation may be a learning
The data suggest that some variable within
based on copying while listening comprehension
child development is a powerful determinant of
may be learning rules and principles.

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