What exactly happens in people that learn to use multiple languages with reasonable skill and comprehension? They are aptly called multilingual, and depending on the time of learning, the acquisition of language is classified into simultaneous or sequential. For example, English and French was taught to a Mandarin-speaking child. English was learned sequentially after Mandarin, and English was learned simultaneously after French. How is simultaneous and sequential learning different from each other? Simultaneous multilingualism occurs when very young children, below the age of two4, or without the essential establishment of their L1, are exposed to multiple languages5. This leads to the acquisition of multiple L1, most often manifesting …show more content…
However, recent developments in neuroscience have given way to a possible cause: Neuroplasticity, the structural and functional changes in the brain driven by training, experience, or even injury13. It implies that the brain does not cease developing, and continues to change throughout the entire lifetime. In context to the critical period, neuroplasticity is maximal in the first few years in a human's lifetime, with the average human having around 7500 synapses at birth, rapidly increasing in the next two years to around double the amount of an adult's synapses, then decreasing gradually due to apoptosis13. Neuroplasticity also is present after the first few years, albeit at a reduced condition. Thus, neuroplasticity had a great impact on the importance of learning during the first 3 years of child development. In addition to cognition, children also exhibit a greater capacity to recover from brain injury compared to adults13, which even Lenneberg's data on the damage to the areas of the brain involved in communication,