Before its creation each person's knowledge was limited to what he or she

experienced directly. Afterward someone who learned something could share it

with anybody else. In this video, we'll look at four things known about language

learning in general, and then listen to the story of lucky Lucy and poor Pete to

understand the importance of language in everyday life. Our brains foundation is

built through experiences early in life. Pat Levitt from the center of the

Developing Child at Harvard University studied our brain development over the

course of our life extensively. He showed how the brain's ability to change

dramatically drops in the years of life, while the amount of effort such change

requires increases. Another research showed that at age five 90% of a kid's

brain has been formed. If during these years the child is blocked from

receiving stimulating experiences, the Language Center and other parts of the

brain are likely to remain weak for life. We learn language socially by observing

and imitating others. Some 1,000 years ago German emperor Friedrich II wanted

to prove the opposite and showed that we develop language naturally, all by

ourselves. He made his nannies raise some children.

they were allowed to feed and clean them, but not to interact socially, or ever

speak a word. Not one child learned to speak, but instead, they all died. For the

same reason toddlers can't learn language via tape

or technology. They need to be motivated through a human relationship, then they

pay attention and learn.

Our language brain growth is strongest in year one. If we study the brains

development by the rate of new synapse formation over the first 11 months of

life, and then the next 15 years, we can see how much the first five years matter.

The growth in the part of the brain responsible for language peaks between

birth and age 3. During this critical period children can learn a new word

every 90 minutes and several languages simultaneously. Our sensory pathways

responsible for vision and hearing peak before, which makes sense because we need

to see and hear to imitate language. Four month old infants for example, if raised

bilingual by a British mom and the Chinese dad can already differentiate

between two languages just by observing the lip movements of their caregivers.

Higher cognitive function such as logical reasoning peaks only once we

have the words and know the symbols to make sense of our world. Language makes

our world: Rich language skills allow us to really listen, to speak well, to enjoy

reading and master writing, they can create an entire world around us. As the

German philosopher Wittgenstein said: "the limit of my language is the limit of my

world". let's take for example the word "daycare center". Some people think of it

as a "preschool" the Irish call it "play school" and the Germans invented the word

"Kindergarten". Only if we know all three words can we understand what's possible.

Now let's listen to the story about lucky Lucy and poor Pete, two children

raised in two very different ways. Lucy is raised by her mother. The mother

is an average native English speaker who knows around 20,000 different words.

Pete's parents hire a nice nanny from a foreign country. Instead of speaking in

her native language the nanny is told to talk to Peter only in English. While her

everyday English seems okay she actually knows only around 5,000 words. One

fourth of what Anne's mom knows. Year one is when the language brain is developing

the strongest. iÍf Lucy is awake half of the time her mom speaks she will hear

around 10,000 words per day and maybe 2500 being directed at her. Directed

language is what matters. Whenever her mom connects a word with an actual

experience, Lucy learns its meaning. Pete hears

English only when the nanny deliberately speaks to him, around 1,000 words a day.

But not only is quantity lower but also the quality. As the nanny is not fluent,

there is a chance that many words come across broken. At their first birthday

both kids can say: "mama" and "papa". What we don't see is that Lucy actually

already knows many many words even though she can't say them. But Pete's

language universe is more limited. When Lucy and her mom look at picture

books, her mom points out what they see: a little monkey is also a gorilla, an ape,

a clever animal which uses tools, climbs trees and lives with his mama and papa

in the rainforests of Africa. When Pete looks at a picture book his learning is

limited by the language of the nanny. The same monkey is just cute and eats

bananas. To compensate he's given a language app, but as Pete lacks

the foundation he doesn't understand a word. To him, it's just a bunch of new sounds

strangely connected to colorful characters. On their second birthday Lucy

knows already well over 200 words, the amount where children start to learn

rules and apply grammar. Pete knows less. Sometimes he gets frustrated because he

can't express himself. Lucy likes to go with her mom into the park. Sometimes

they watch the old men play chess. She doesn't understand the game but knows

that there are pawns, rooks, knights, a queen and a king, a bishop and

a horse. One day she will learn the rules. It will be easy because she sees each

figure clearly. Her understanding of their special

skills is obvious. For a lack of language Pete sees just a big checkered board and

some wooden figures which all look quite the same: pawns, knights, bishops. To

understand the rules later will be hard for Pete. All figures look so similar. How

could they do different things? At their third birthday both can say their own

name and form sentences. Lucy's vocabulary now holds 1500 words.

Pete's got 500 to make sense of this world. In year 4 they enter kindergarten.

When Pete stands in front of the big shelf he sees different wooden blocks,

the ball, some old toy, a horse and the yellow digger. When Lucy stands in front

of the same shelf, she sees circles, triangles, squares, a basketball, the red

pinwheel, the beige rocking horse and the carton box of the lego technic digger.

At playtime, Lucy understands what others are talking about and often takes the

lead by suggesting a new idea. Pete often doesn't understand what she means.

If the group discusses something for longer, he zones out because he has

trouble following the conversation. By the end of the year Lucy knows 3,500

words, where Pete only knows 1000 words. Lucy now forms more complicated

sentences in perfect grammar. In the evening her mom reads bedtime stories

to her. Words she's missing, she learns out of context. As a native speaker, the mom

can raise and lower her voice, making the stories exciting. Fairy tales become

alive in her head and Lucy learns to imagine and to think creatively. Pete

still speaks in more simple sentences and his grammar is not perfect. When his

nanny reads to him the voice is more monotone. It's more boring and paying

attention is more difficult. Words he's missing, often remain missing. By the end

of the year Lucy knows 6,000 and Pete knows 2,000 words.

To understand why the actual difference in language abilities between

the two is even larger than it seems, let's imagine that words are nothing but

tools that help us encode the world, form thoughts, structure ideas and then

communicate with others. With 6,000 words compared to 2,000 words

Lucy's toolbox is now three times the size. Lucy has a huge head start as she

is entering elementary school. Einstein by the way as a child seldom

spoke one interesting anecdote goes like this: As he was a late talker and hardly

spoke at the age of seven his parents were worried and tried many things to

get him to speak. At one point they were afraid that he had learning disabilities.

At last, at the dinner table one night, he broke his silence to say: "the soup is too

hot!", greatly relieved his parents asked why he had never said a word before?

The young genius replied: "Because up until now, everything was in order.". What are

your thoughts about language learning? Can someone like Pete still catch up

later in life or maybe find other good ways to express himself?

Maybe our point of view is too narrow and Pete and Lucy actually balance each

other out with the different skills they have? Please share your thoughts in the

comments below!

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