Overhearing a second language and cognitive development

Abstract

Despite its significance for understanding language acquisition, the role of early language experience has been examined almost exclusively in linguistic deprivation studies focusing on what cannot be readily learned beyond childhood. Our research focused instead on long-term effects of what can be learned best during childhood. We focused on adult learners of Spanish/Korean who had spoken Spanish/Korean as their native language before age 6 and only minimally, if at all, thereafter until they began to re-learn the language after age 13 years. They were compared with native speakers, childhood (over)hearers, and typical late-second-language (L2)-learners of Spanish/Korean. Although far from native-like, childhood speakers of Spanish reliably outperformed childhood overhearers and typical late-L2-learners on measures of grammar. Both childhood speakers and overhearers spoke Spanish with a more native-like accent than typical late-L2-learners. To date, we have documented benefits of childhood experience with Korean only in the domain of phonology. In a new line of investigation, we explore access to very early linguistic experience by focusing on adults adopted under age 12 months from Korea by families in the U.S. Preliminary findings suggest early learning about ambient language can be accessed in adulthood upon re-learning.