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Older Adults as Successful Language Learners

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It is a common belief that the younger the individual, the better a language learner he will be. The fact that he is exposed to a particular language for a long time, as in like several years, will enable him to learn more vocabulary and practice the technical parts of the language structure. This is not entirely true. Despite the stereotyping, an adult can be a successful language learner. Several researches have been done around the world to identify if age has a direct correlation with age and determine the best age to acquire a new language effectively. They state that an adult learner can be successful in acquiring a new language. Krishna, analyses several researches conducted in different countries, who took in consideration subjects of different ages. On one study, 96 students in different ranges of age, from second graders until college students were thought Russian. This students had no previous knowledge of the language. After few trainings the result showed a positive correlation with advancing age. The older the subject, the grade the higher. In another study in Netherlands, considered as an long term assessment, 51 english students of different ages were thought Dutch and compared to native speakers. The new learners were tested many times and their progression was recorded for 4 to 5 months. Each student was tested individually. The results show that the older students and 12-15 year olds showed a better and faster learning acquisition while 3-5 year olds showed worst scores. This studies not only rejects the wrong believe: the younger, the better language learner, it also proves that older adults can successfully learn new language (Krishna). In addition, previous knowledge and experience, developed cognitive skills and learned memorizing methods are important tools that ables the older language learner to be more effective than the younger one. At first, any language learner as an adult, has an origin language in witch he learned to use semantics, grammar as well as differencing phonemes and morphemes. This will allow th

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