Young language learners can acquire native-like fluency as easily as they learned to walk

• Learning a second language young is a natural as learning to walk
  
  
• Children learn naturally, building a second language system alongside, not through the first
  
  
• Children absorb the sounds, structures, intonation patterns and rules of a second language intuitively without rote memorization or grammar drills
  
  
• Children mimic a native-like accent flawlessly

Young language learners can acquire native-like fluency as easily as they learned to walk, in contrast to an adult language learner. Where adult learners have to work through an established first-language system, studying explicit grammar rules and practicing rote drills, the young learner learns naturally, absorbing the sounds, structures, intonation patterns and rules of a second language intuitively, as they did their mother tongue. The young brain is inherently flexible, uniquely hard-wired to acquire language naturally.

Older learners lose the ability to hear and reproduce new sounds by age 8-12 estimate experts, resulting in a permanent foreign-sounding accent in any language. Younger learners benefit from flexible ear and speech muscles that can still hear the critical differences between the sounds of a second language, as well as reproduce them with native-like quality.