Education: What Is the Best Age to Start - Essay Example

As second language instructors, it is essential to comprehend that there are various fundamental factors which affect L2 learning which includes: intelligence, aptitude, personality, motivation, learner preferences, learner believes and the most important element is of all is the age of acquisition.        As discussed in the previous lectures, there are two main ways in which people learn a second language i.e. simultaneously or sequentially. Learners who start learning a second language at early age i.e. age 3 years and under and are exposed to two languages at the same time are referred to as Simultaneous learners.

The question to be taken into consideration in this context is “Whether young learners are better than adult learners in terms of acquisition of a second language?” To answer this question, the issue of L2 learning must be looked at from diverse perspectives”. Such a question needs careful deliberation on the part of second language teachers and must not be answered hastily with a “Yes” or a “No”. I specifically recollect a personal experience of one of my cousins – a young child barely two and half years old; who always watched English movies and animations.

She displayed remarkable speaking skills and was able to response respond fluently in English however, after enrolling her in a school where she had the opportunity of formally learning the language she found it so difficult to cope or grasp the language. At the same time, her older brother: a 15-year-old had no such difficulty and could grasp the technicalities of English grammar but could speak with an accent as his sister acquired from watching movies and children’s cartoons.