Critical Period Hypothesis
Many of us have been exposed to language since birth and appear to have picked it up without even thinking about it. But what if we were deprived of communication from birth? Would we still learn to speak? There is a theory that states we will not be able to develop language fluency if we are not exposed to it during our first few years of life. It's known as the Critical Period Hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, there is a critical time period for a person to learn a new language to native level. This stage usually begins around the age of two and ends before puberty. This implies that learning a new language after this critical window will be more difficult and less successful. The Critical Period Hypothesis concerning language acquisition was first introduced by Eric Lenneberg in his book Biological Foundations of Language (1967). He proposed that learning a language to a high level of proficiency could only take place during this time period. Language acquisition outside...