Types Of Second Language Learners

In my experience of teaching, learning, and traveling there seem to be three types of second language learners. 

These are not all encompassing, nor the only options out there. I am choosing to speak about those types I have experience and knowledge. 

The Bilinguals from Birth 

These people learn two languages, or more, from birth. 

Their concept and grasp with the languages are fairly equal, depending on continued use. 

Interestingly enough, their brain processes both languages the same compared to the other types. 

My husband and my boys are in this category, since they all have heard both English and German since birth. 

When people think of fluent, they often think of this group of people. Listening to my husband and his family speak, (since my boys are still learning to talk at all) they will use whichever word comes first. 

They could start the sentence in German, add an English word here, and then go back to German. They don’t think too much about what they’re saying, they just say it. To Bilinguals from Birth, both languages are interchangeable and it shows when they speak. It even shows up on functional MRI’s as Vingerhoets et al. found. (2003)

Early Childhood second language learners

These people learn a second language early in life, but don’t have the same level of exposure or practice as the Bilingual from Birth. 

They might achieve fluency with practice and time, but their brain still processes the languages differently. 

Not significantly different compared to an Adult learning a Foreign Language, but Vingerhoets et al. (2003) found less differences, even with 3 languages in the mix. The brain uses much of the same areas except when reading fluency. The more fluent someone was the more they used their eyes and not language processing.  

This is me! My first language was English but I was introduced to French in Kindergarten, and took it continuously through high school. Neither of my parents speak French, so my only exposure was at school. 

The key for me was, I started before that metaphorical door started to close. 

I then learned German in college, which I spoke with a French accent for 2 years but that’s another story. 

So while I don’t use my French as much today, the pathways for German were laid out which aided my brain in learning. I also applied the same strategies I had learned with French; writing phonetically, forced practice, and associations to name a few.

Adult Learning a second Language. 

This includes teenagers learning one for the first time, because that metaphorical door has closed. 

It’s not impossible to learn a second language in this time period, but it’s not as easy. 

The adult learning a foreign language might have more motivation and learning skills to apply. But those are necessary, as the innate desire to learn has faded compared to 7/8 year olds. 

Wattendorf and Festman (2008) reviewed a number of different studies that looked at the brains of bilinguals doing various tasks. They focused on when they learned that second language. 

They found a number of differences!

People who only speak one language use different areas of their brain than those who speak two, even if they learned that second language later in life. The tasks were language questions and cognitive tasks like puzzles. There’s even a difference in brain density! 

More research on second language learners

A study from 1998 (Perani et al.) looked at brain (PET) scans of people who are bilingual. The scans studied activity in the language center (Wernickes and Broca’s areas). For people who were fluent and bilingual from birth, the activity levels were higher than those who spoke one language. The activity levels increased with someone’s fluency. They also were higher the earlier the person learned that second language.  

These effects are seen across languages, so it doesn’t matter what second language you learn. 

They also found that fluency was more dependent on using your second language than how early you learned the language. So practice! 

References

Perani, D., Paulesu, E., Galles, N. S., Dupoux, E., Dehaene, S., Bettinardi, V., … & Mehler, J. (1998). The bilingual brain. Proficiency and age of acquisition of the second language. Brain: a journal of neurology, 121(10), 1841-1852.

Vingerhoets, G., Van Borsel, J., Tesink, C., van Den Noort, M., Deblaere, K., Seurinck, R., … & Achten, E. (2003). Multilingualism: an fMRI study. Neuroimage, 20(4), 2181-2196.
Wattendorf, E., & Festman, J. (2008). Images of the multilingual brain: the effect of age of second language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 28, 3-24.