Science News - March 13, 2010

It’s not the advice you’d expect. Learning a new language seems formidable, as we recall from years of combat with grammar and translations in school. Yet infants begin at birth. They communicate at eighteen months and speak the language fluently before they go to school. And they never battle translations or grammar explanations along the way. Born into a veri- table language jamboree, children figure out language purely from the sounds, objects and interactions around them. Their senses fire up neural circuits that send the stimuli to different language areas in the brain. Mean- ings fuse to words. Words string into structures. And language erupts. Three characteristics of the child’s language-learning process are crucial for success: First, and most importantly, a child’s natural language-learning ability emerges only in a speech-soaked, immersion environment free of translations and explanations of grammar. Second, a child’s language learning is dramatically accelerated by constant feedback from family and friends. Positive correction and persistent reinforcement nurture the child’s language and language skills into full communicative expression. Third, children learn through play, whether it’s the arm-waving balancing act that announces their first step or the spluttering preamble to their first words. All the conversational chatter skittering through young children’s play with parents and playmates — “…what’s this…” “…clap, clap your hands…” “…my ball…”— helps children develop language skills that connect them to the world.

Adults possess this same powerful language-learning
ability that orchestrated our language success as children.
Sadly, our clashes with vocabulary drills and grammar explana-
tions force us to conclude it’s hopeless. We simply don’t have
“the language-learning gene.” At Rosetta Stone, we know otherwise.
You can recover your native language-learning ability as an adult
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language-learning ability ou acquired before birth and mastered as a child. By recreating the immer- sion context in which you learned your first language, youunderstand, speak, read and write your new language with confidence and accuracy from the beginning — without transla- tions and explanations. At every step and in every skill, you receive instant, actionable feedback, including speech recognition and analy- sis technologies that prepare you for everyday conversations. And Adaptive Recall® brings back material just when you need it to reinforce and perfect your learning. Every act of learning is an act of play for children and there’s no reason it should be different for learners of any age. With Rosetta Stone® programs, you rediscover the joy of learning
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bers. We see it all the time. A slow smile sneaks across the learner’s
face after just a few screens. It’s a smile of recognition, as though the
brain suddenly recalls what it was like to learn language as a child, as
though it realizes, “Aha! I’ve done this before.” Act like a baby? You bet.
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