New research the Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT) suggests that if people want to achieve native-like proficiency a new language, they should start learning that language the age ten. The researchers added that children to the age 17 or 18 remain adept learning grammar. There is bad news those who want to pick a new language their late teens. The researchers say this is past the "critical period" when language-learning ability starts to decline. Researcher Joshua Hartshorne said: "As far as a child is concerned, it's quite easy to become bilingual....That's when you're best learning languages. It's not really something that you can make later."
The research was based an analysis results from a 10-minute online grammar quiz. Over 670,000 language learners all ages participated the test. Researchers measured the grammatical ability people who started learning a language at different points their life. Professor Hartshorne focused grammar rules that were most likely to confuse a non-native speaker as a gauge of that person's proficiency. MIT researcher Josh Tenenbaum suggested people simply might be too busy to learn a language later life. He said: "After 17 or 18, you leave home, you work full time, or you become a specialized university student. All of these might impact your learning rate any language.
