Does age of migration matter for how well a child can learn a second language?

In the past 50 years, the number of migrants worldwide has been steadily increasing (United Nations, 2019a, pp. 21) with 82 million in Europe alone in 2019 (United Nations, 2019b). It is crucial to note that about a sixth of those are younger than 20 years old (United Nations, 2019a) as age appears to problematically impact the consequences of migration. To illustrate, migrant youth is more likely to get into contact with the law (van der Gaag, 2019), suffer from substance abuse (Mechlor-Ayala, 2019) and be victimized by their peers (Heine, 2008) which negatively influence health outcomes, such as loneliness (Matthews et al., 2020). This does not mean that people who migrate are doomed to experience adverse effects for the rest of their life. Successful integration diminishes the negative effects experienced as a result of migration (Heine, 2008) and being younger makes it easier to successfully integrate into a new country (Heine, 2008). Thus, although age may be a risk factor in migration, it may also be a protective factor. One aspect which is essential for a successful acculturation process is learning the language of the host country (Heine, 2008). Therefore, the current essay will scrutinize whether the age of migration matters for how well a child can learn a second language.

Age appears to influence the ease of acquisition of language (e.g., Johnson & Newport, 1989). One of the most appalling pieces of evidence for this comes from the case of Genie, a 13-year-old female who spent most of her life in isolation and circumstances of extreme deprivation (Fromkin, Krashen, Curtiss, Rigler, & Rigler, 1974). While she was able to acquire a great deal of vocabulary, she had severe difficulties with syntactic aspects of the language, such as simple grammar rules (Fromkin et al., 1974). Although this suggests the existence of a critical period of language learning, there are significant debates about her overall cognitive ability (Fromkin et al., 1974; Curtiss, 1977; Rymer, 1993), which makes drawing conclusions about language acquisition problematic. Other research since then has found that the first year of life is essential for the development of syntax (Friedmann & Rusou, 2015) and that early life experience with language is indispensable for language development in general (Siegler, 2006). This means that people who migrate relatively early in life will, most likely, not have any difficulties in acquiring the language of the host country as this will either become the native language or the child will develop bilingualism (Bialystok, 2018; Heine, 2008). However, in the case of migrants, the language of the host country will most likely be the second language rather than the first (United Nations, 2019a). This implies that, while age appears to influence the ease of first language acquisition, the same pattern does not need to hold for a second language. Hartshorne, Tenenbaum, and Pinker (2018) used more than 600.000 participants to investigate the learning rate of a second language for non-native English speakers. By employing a complex mathematical model, they found that people’s learning rate for a language tends to decrease with age, starting at age 17. Younger migrants thus have more ease in learning a second language. Though some research has shown that the level of ultimate attainment decreases after adolescence (Johnson & Newport, 1989), Hartshorne et al. (2018) demonstrate that this need not be true as only the ease of acquisition changes with age. Factors other than age may influence the ultimate level of attainment as age is not the sole determinant of this. Given that people who learn a second language before adulthood often do have a greater proficiency (Johnson & Newport, 1989; Hartshorne et al., 2018), it may be that these factors interact with age.

One of these factors which is especially relevant for migrants is difficulties in the acculturation process. This could influence one’s ultimate level of proficiency in a second language. Being part of a minority, as migrants often are, puts one at risk of being victimized and, ironically, this obstructs the pathway to successful integration (Heine, 2008). Matthews et al. (2020) found that being victimized in the form of bullying in childhood while observing other peer relationships as unproblematic and normal leads to a sense of injustice and the perception of being an outsider. This leads to increased feelings of loneliness (Matthews et al., 2020). The feeling of being alienated from the host country could have a direct effect on one’s ultimate language proficiency as these people may minimize their attempts to engage with the host culture, leading to reduced opportunities to practice and learn a new language (Heine, 2008). This is exemplified by Barry’s model of acculturation (Berry, 1997) which states that acculturation strategies that minimize engaging with the host culture lead to negative migrant outcomes, including language learning. Loneliness could also have an indirect effect on language learning as it negatively influences one’s academic achievements (Lin & Huang, 2012). Migrants that have been bullied during development may have more problems in acquiring a second language. However, bullying in childhood may only lead to adult loneliness if one has a genetic predisposition to feel alone (Matthews et al., 2020). Children who are integrated more get victimized less often and integration is easier at a young age (Heine, 2008). This implies that people who migrate before the age of formal schooling will experience more ease in language acquisition as they will be integrated more (Heine, 2008). Although peer victimization is more common for migrants (Eurostat, 2019; Heine, 2008), as Matthews et al. (2020) rightly point out, bullying is not the only form of peer victimization and it is unlikely that every migrant child or adolescent who does not achieve a native level of language proficiency has been bullied in the past and has a genetic disposition to feel lonely. This means that other difficulties in the acculturation process may influence a migrant’s ultimate level of proficiency. For example, though the main reason for migration is seeking economic betterment (United Nations, 2019a), many migrants are at risk of monetary poverty. This low socioeconomic status makes it unsurprising that they live in impoverished areas more often (Eurostat, 2021) and this could complicate the acculturation process (Gracia et al., 2012; Heine, 2008). Gracia et al. (2012) found that experiencing more neighbourhood violence during childhood or adolescence is associated with poor academic achievement or problematic behaviour, which may negatively impact language acquisition (Hartshorne, 2018). Though this likely impacts all age categories, children and adolescents may be more sensitive to a negative living environment due to their stronger connections to the area as a result of having multiple playmates (Gracia et al., 2012). This means that age may moderate the effects of neighbourhood violence on developmental outcomes (Gracia et al., 2012) and this may negatively influence language proficiency (Hartshorne, 2018).

To conclude, the age at which somebody migrates matters for how well a child can learn a second language. Children and adolescents experience fewer difficulties when it comes to learning a second language compared to adults (Johnson & Newport, 1989; Hartshorne, 2018). Since successful acquisition of the language of the host country is essential for the acculturation process (Heine, 2008), age can be a protective factor for migrant children. However, migrants are at increased risk of experiencing negative life events, such as being victimized by peers (Eurostat, 2021; Heine, 2008) or perceiving neighbourhood violence (Gracia et al., 2012) and this may make learning a second language more problematic (Lin & Huang, 2012; Gracia et al., 2021; Matthews et al., 2020). Fortunately, most people who arrive in a new host country before the age of 16 become very proficient in the language of the host country (Johnson & Newport, 1989) though negative life events could make this process more problematic (Matthews et al., 2020; Gracia et al., 2012). While this does not mean that people who arrive after this period will never be able to become proficient in the language of the host country (Hartshorne, 2018), they will have more difficulties with this (Johnson & Newport, 1989; Gracia et al., 2012; Hartshorne, 2018; Matthews et al., 2020; Lin & Huang, 2012). It may be impossible to alleviate all the stressors associated with the acculturation process but it could be facilitated by aiding migrants in acquiring the language of the host country (Heine, 2008) by, for example, providing them with compulsory training. While future studies need to identify more factors that influence language learning for migrants, research does show that in the elegant complexity of language acquisition, age is both a protective and a risk factor (Matthews et al., 2020; Gracia et al., 2012; Lin & Huang, 2012; Johnson & Newport, 1989; Hartshorne, 2018).

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