SPEAK early, or forever hold your peace. At last week’s meeting, researchers
revealed that children deprived of language in their first five years never
become fluent.
Scientists think there is a critical window for mastering a second language:
if you don’t nail it down before your early teens, you’ll never sound like a
native. But no one was sure if you had to learn your first language by a certain
age.
That’s because first language acquisition is hard to study. Almost all
children are exposed to language from the minute they’re born, and if they don’t
pick it up in…
