Ester Maria - difference between being raised bilingual and learning an L2

[cathmom]

I just came across this quote from Krashen - that children who are being raised in a language are "acquiring" language, and those who are being taught a foreign language are "learning" it.

 

And I thought, "I bet Ester Maria would like that quote!"

[Ester Maria]

That's actually a pretty good wording. :)

 

I like to compare it this way - children born into a language reconstruct it in the process of learning, while children who learn the language are being given the reconstructions to work from in the first place (unless immersion takes place, since immersion attempts to produce the natural reconstruction of grammatical rules... and it often fails miserably with adult learners with regards to accuracy, but that's a whole other problem).

[gordalopez]

Studies show that we use an entirely different part of our brain when we "acquire" a language than when we "learn" it. The window of opportunity for that acquisition shrinks with age.