Language Acquisition

My experiences as a special education teacher working with and observing young children and the knowledge I've gained reading the assigned articles on the subject of language acquisition have given me some insights into language development in children; my years as a computer instructor for adults (largely immigrant poputlation-Haitian & Hispanic) has given me some insight as to how the adult also acquire language.
Children acquire language from incancy to about 7 years old. The immigrant children I've encountered bounce back and forth between 2 language with ease so the assumptions of the readings are true in my opinion. Most children start off picking up language from listening to their surroundings like family and television and the one and two worders we speak directly to them. This also applies to those children in day care. This is the case for the first 1-3 years of their lives. From ages 3 & 4 children have begun putting together basic spoken sentences. Family at this stage has long since stopped with the baby "goo goo" talk and began talking in normal adult language which greatly increases the childs vocabulary and language development skills. At this stage Pre-school is a reality for most American children where further emphasis and enhancement of language skill is taught. Video games and children software packages are also introduced at this stage to most children, another enhancer to language. From ages 5-7 the basis for language stucture is brought into play as almost all children are taught how to speak, pronounce, an pause, as well as how to companion these verbal language with written ones.

Adult acquire language different than children. The adult brain for the most part finds it difficult (but not impossible) to change the way it is used to processing spoken language. Pronunciation and diction are a strugge and must be practiced greatly. Adults that have heard a particular dialect so to speak, or those that have never been taught formal language that they should have learned as a child find learning learning mechanics difficult and may never pick up all that is necessary for proper fluency as the readings insinuate. This is magnified when trying to learn a new language as an adult as this "language barrier" takes great strides to overcome.