Step to Social Science Fair Project on Learning Hebrew

Are their gender differences in the ability to learn a second language?

Project Research

There are over six thousand human languages, each with their own complex sounds and symbols. Language is the spoken and written word organized in ways to communicate meaning. It is the tangible outcome of our inner thoughts, which give us the power to communicate ideas from person to person and generation to generation. By the time we graduate from high school, we will have learned eighty thousand words, which average to thirteen new words each day. Learning a language is a complex process, but human beings are uniquely designed to accomplish this task.

All language must begin with a structure, the most basic of which is the phoneme. A phoneme is a basic sound, such as “ba”. In total, there are eight hundred sixty nine different phonemes in human speech. Yet, the smallest unit of language that carries a meaning is a morpheme, such as “bat”. Morphemes can then be strung together to form a sentence, using two systems of grammar. The first, called semantics, involves rules for morphemes, such as “ed” endings on verbs, implying past tense.

The second rule, known as syntax, logically orders the words, such as placing the adjective before the noun. To understand how complex this can become, there are forty English phonemes which are used to form one hundred thousand morphemes, creating six hundred sixteen thousand five hundred words, which then combine to form an infinite number of sentences. This illustrates how the complex system of language is built on simplicity.

Although infants start without language, by four months of age a baby can already read lips, discriminate sounds, and start to babble. In fact, babies of all cultures babble the same phonemes. By ten months, the babbling resembles the sounds of the family’s language. By age one year, babies enter a one word stage, where words like “up” communicate meaning to parents. An eighteen month old learns a word a day, so that by age two, a child enters the two word sentence stage of noun plus verb. By preschool age, the child is not only understanding complex sentences, but creating his own logical sentences at an astonishing rate. This occurs without formal instruction of new vocabulary and rules of grammar.

Regardless of our natural ability, scientists have discovered that learning a language is best if started in the first seven years, the critical window. This is why a child in isolation never develops language. However, groups of children will develop their own language, because of the social need to interact.

Scientists have also carefully studied the brain, mapping out the detailed anatomy of the language centers and how they cooperate together to allow us to understand and speak a language. The complex process of understanding and speaking language happens in a rapid, seamless process. When we read aloud, information is first processed in the visual cortex of the brain. Messages are then sent to the angular gyrus, which changes the words into an auditory code. This code is then sent to Wernicke’s area, which understands the code. Information is then sent to Broca’s area, which controls the motor cortex, allowing us to speak. Damage to one of these areas disrupts the flow of messages sent in the brain. For example, damage to Broca’s area results in a person understanding others but not able to speak for himself. Damage to Wernicke’s area allows a person to speak, but in meaningless sentences.

If learning a language is so effortless, then why is it difficult for many to learn a second language? The answer lies in the age that a person learns this new language. Although born with the ability to recognize any phoneme, a ten month old looses the ability to recognize sounds outside of his first language. Unless we are exposed to other languages at an early age, we become functionally “deaf” to sounds outside of our native tongue. This is why Germans have difficulty pronouncing the English “th” sound, and Americans have difficulty pronouncing the German “ch” sound. Japanese people also have difficulty distinguishing the difference between the English “r” and “l” sounds. In addition, those who learn a second language later, will speak with an accent, and never sound like a true native speaker.

Learning a second language is so different, that brain scans reveal that different parts of the brain are utilized. While native speakers access the frontal lobe to recall events they are talking about, second language speakers access adjacent brain tissue. This might explain why people actually think differently depending on the language they are speaking. For example, bilingual Japanese answer personality questions differently depending on whether they are responding in Japanese or English.

In addition, although some studies have shown that females tend to learn language more quickly than males, knowledge of a second language erodes in both groups with time. Studies have shown that three years after high school, students will have forgotten most of the second language they have learned. Unlike a first language, long term memory of a second language fades unless it is used. Therefore, only those that learn a second language early, really learn it best. Wallace Lambert and others have also observed an added “bilingual advantage,” where young children immersed in bilingual programs show better focus, math scores, and overall aptitude.

From simple to complex, the basic sounds of all human languages are organized into sophisticated rules of grammar unique to each tongue. Equipped with an inborn ability, an infant quickly absorbs his native language, so that he can create his own sentences by the toddler years. Brain research has helped to identify five areas of the brain that work together to understand and produce language. Yet a critical window for learning exists, after which acquiring a second language becomes more difficult. Every society has developed language to transmit its history and culture to the next generation. Language not only links us to each other, but fuels our own imagination. It is what makes us uniquely human.

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