Becoming fluent in a second language is difficult. But for adults, is it impossible? Science says no. In this encore episode, Short Wave host Emily Kwong dissects the "critical period hypothesis," a theory which linguists have been debating for decades — with the help of Sarah Frances Phillips, a Ph.D. student in the linguistics department at New York University. Together, Emily and former Short Wave host Maddie Sofia explore where the theory comes from, how it applies to second-language acquisition and what it means for Emily's efforts to learn Mandarin Chinese as an adult.Have a linguistics or neuroscience question? Email us at [email protected] — we'd love to hear from you!Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and guests in this episode?
So, Maddie, you and I have known each other for a while now, and I think we're ready to take it to the next level. Oh, my God.
Are we going whitewater rafting?
No. Are we doing it? No. Not today. But I have brought you something just as invigorating and just as vulnerable, a Kwong family home movie. What?
Yes, I think there's more eggs.
Do you need more eggs? My baby Kwong.
So I'm two years old, and we're on an Easter egg hunt. I got my floral Easter dress. I got my grandparents, Huey and Edgar Kwong, and they are all about this right now.
Here's chocolate for you.
Oh. Oh.
Honestly, you still react that way to chocolate. Let's be real.
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Chapter 2: What personal experience does Emily Kwong share about learning Mandarin?
Mm-hmm. And Sarah says more specifically, because she's a scientist, that I am a developing sequential bilingual, meaning I'm learning a second language after acquiring a first language. But that's really different from a simultaneous bilingual like Sarah, who developed the ability to speak two or more languages in the earliest years of life. Right.
And one of the reasons I never tried to learn my heritage language, honestly, is because of something called the critical period hypothesis. Have you ever heard of this?
I think so. Is that the idea that you can only become fluent in a language when you're young? Like there's this critical window for language learning?
Yeah, it's a theory that dates back to the 1950s and basically argues there's a magic window for a person to learn a first language, somewhere between age two and puberty. Scientists debate the cutoff age, but the key idea is there's a biological window where language learning is the most automatic.
Where this comes from actually starts really early on with work done with zebra finches and how zebra finches and maybe even other types of birds, but the literature that I'm familiar with points to zebra finches where early on in their development, they have to learn certain songs or calls that are particular to their kind. And
These calls are important for things like mating and, you know, detecting trouble. In essence, they're important for communicating certain things that are important for their communities.
Okay. And Maddie, researchers found that if baby zebra finches were separated from adults for long enough, they couldn't produce the same calls as their parents. Which isn't good, right? When you think about how important these calls are for mating and socialization in zebra finch communities. Right.
Dang. Okay, so does the same thing happen with humans? Like, I don't know that you could ethically study that, but I'm curious.
Well, there have been cases where children were denied language before puberty because of abusive parents or extreme social isolation. And when many of those children tried to learn their first language past puberty, they couldn't pick up the grammar.
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