Q. I watch spy movies in which the spy is able to speak a foreign language with a native accent. Is that really possible if a person learned the language as an adult, or is that only a Hollywood fantasy?

A. While it is not impossible for an adult learner to develop native-like proficiency in a foreign language, your skepticism about the spies in the movies speaking foreign languages with native-like accents is certainly justified if we assume that they were recent learners of those languages.

Research in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has provided strong evidence that most learners whose first exposure to a second language occurs after puberty fail to acquire native-like pronunciation regardless of motivation and intensive instruction. Such research supports at least some version of what has been called the Critical Period Hypothesis, which holds that there is a biologically or neurologically based period for acquiring native-like proficiency, ending around the age of 12.

The Critical Period Hypothesis, which has been prominent in SLA research for more than four decades, is still being refined and challenged. Recent studies have suggested this critical or “sensitive” period for acquisition is a complex phenomenon, involving more than simply neurological changes. More attention is being given to the interaction of age and a number of other learner variables, such as the desire to sound like a native speaker, high motivation and the types and amounts of second language instruction or immersion.

In addition, while it is true that age of first exposure to a second language is a major factor in the acquisition of a native-like accent, those who learn second languages as adults can develop native-like abilities in other linguistic areas, such as syntax and vocabulary.

Fortunately, for those of us who want to learn additional languages as adults, it is not as critical to sound like a native speaker as it would be for those spies!


Jan Frodesen is director of the English as a Second Language Program and a senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at UC Santa Barbara.

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