Becoming fluent in a second language is difficult. But for adults, is it impossible? Science says no. In this encore episode,
Short Wave host
Emily Kwong dissects the "critical period hypothesis," a theory which linguists have been debating for decades — with the help of
Sarah Frances Phillips, a Ph.D. student in the linguistics department at New York University. Together, Emily and former
Short Wave host
Maddie Sofia explore where the theory comes from, how it applies to second-language acquisition and what it means for Emily's efforts to learn Mandarin Chinese as an adult.
Have a linguistics or neuroscience question? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!
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