The Handbook of Informal Language Learning

2Learning Languages in Informal Environments: Some Cognitive Considerations

KIEL CHRISTIANSON AND SARAH‐ELIZABETH DESHAIES

Introduction

Prior to a certain age – let us say the age when formal education begins – all language learning is “informal.” Any discussion of the cognitive underpinnings of informal language learning must therefore include at least some basic considerations of first‐language acquisition. Beyond that, though, it must also wrestle with differences between child and adult second‐language acquisition, and the persistent problem of why children appear to be essentially uniformly adept at informal language acquisition, whereas adult performance ranges from adept to abysmal. Put another way, a discussion of language learning in informal environments needs to address how humans acquire language throughout the lifespan, as well as how the ability to acquire language might change across the lifespan.

Charles Yang, in his book The Price of Linguistic Productivity: How children learn to break the rules of language (2016), sums up language learning thus: “I envision language learning as a search for productive generalizations” (9). One thing necessary, of course, for the success of this search is the ability to identify productive rules, like “add –ed to make English verbs past tense.” There are yet two more necessities, namely the ability to recognize both non‐productivity and, more importantly, to recognize exceptions to or gaps in productivity. In English first ...