Re: (teach) adults learning like children (was Bedtime stories)

Karen wrote:  So, if we consider the capacity of our brain to function in certain ways part of our environment, or at least integral to functioning within a particular environment, I doubt that creating the same environment for adults as for children will bring about the same results.

There are many other differences between adult and child learners. For example: Adults won't tolerate being treated like children for long -- they'll react with boredom and perhaps hostility. Adults won't depend on (or bond with) teachers the way children do. Adults will be immersed in the language learning environment for only a few hours a week (for EFL, or maybe a little more for ESL), not constantly as children are. Children are a "clean slate", but adult learners must be helped to (overwrite?, compartmentalize? choose your own term) their native language.

All in all, the experience of children learning their first language is at best peripherally relevant to adult foreign language learners.

Jim Mahler