2009年11月29日 星期日

Second Language

Dr. Susan Curtiss, Professor of Linguistics at UCLA, who studies the way children learn languages, notes that in language development there is a window of opportunity in which the child learns that first language normally. After this period, the brain becomes slowly less plastic and by the time the child reaches adolescence, the brain cannot develop "richly and normally any real cognitive system, including language."

The four- or five-year old learning a second language is a "perfect model for the idea of the critical period." According to Dr. Curtiss:

...the power to learn language is so great in the young child that it doesn't seem to matter how many languages you seem to throw their way...They can learn as many spoken languages as you can allow them to hear systematically and regularly at the same time. Children just have this capacity. Their brain is just ripe to do this...there doesn't seem to be anyjavascript:void(0) detriment to...develop(ing) several languages at the same time.
When children wait until high school to start studying a foreign language, the job is much harder. The task now involves learning the rules of grammar, translating, reading, and trying to develop language learning strategies. The task is a different one than it was for the young child in the sensitive period for language learning. Brain plasticity has been lost, the number of synapses has greatly reduced, and the brain no longer has the same facility to restructure itself that it had when the child was young.

越早開始學外語越好、其實可以幾歳開始呢?

胎兒在母親懐體内第七個月,已能辨認母親的聲音。

『新聞週刊』 2005 年 8 月15 日的科研報導,詳列幼兒腦神經細胞末稍數目在出生後首一年內翻天覆地的變化。語言細胞神經末稍的數目,由出生時的 20% 大幅激增至第八個月的100%巔峰 ,其後急劇回落,用不著的語言細胞神經末稍,大幅被淘汰,辨音能力越是下降。

單語家庭的孩子,到週歲時只剩下70% ,4 歲時只剩下40% ,成年人只剩下約12% 。研究顯示,幼兒有機會接觸多種語言,可以減少語言細胞神經末稍的數目的下降。細胞神經末稍的數目,直接影響一個人的辨音能力,決定有沒有語言天份。

多語地區的孩子,能辨認的語音多,北歐多語地區的孩子,能辨認六十多個語音。多學一種歐洲語言,對英語幫助很大。馬来西亜、新加坡、瑞士、荷蘭、比利時等歐州多語地區的孩子,語言能力遠超單語國家的孩子、亦没有出現語言混淆。

有語言學家認為腦的發達階段大致可分成到3等級。
第1段階-從0歲到3歲左右 「三歳定八十」、三歳時腦神經細胞的線路完成70~80%。這個時候被認為是【模仿的階段】、孩子無條件地學習吸収。特別母親的作用是最大。
第2段階-4歲~7歲左右 小學入學前後。是【自我主張階段】。
第3段階-是10歲前後 是【腦細胞完成階段】。

4年或5歲是學習第二語言的“完美的模型”的關鍵時期。
不論多少種語言,幼兒可以了解許多種語言 若您有系統並定期讓他們經常地聆聽,他們就可以同時學懂說出各種語言!
Dr. Susan Curtiss, Professor of Linguistics at UCLA 語言學教授