Since Penfield (1953) settled an optimum age for language learning within the first decade of life, the idea that children have an advantage over adults in foreign language acquisition has been widespread until present days. Further researches, as Lenneberg’s critical period concept (1967), stated that language capacity was determined by neurological basis situated at puberty. Krasen (1979) stated that adults and older children carry on through early stages of syntactic and morphological development faster than young children, while students who are naturally exposed to a second language during childhood generally achieve higher proficiency on that language, rather than those beginning as adults. It is clear then the relationship between three main factors: age, amount of exposure and eventual accomplishment in second language acquisition.
As mentioned in the Teaching English as a Third Language Cenoz paper, early introduction of English at schools has no negative effects on the acquisition of other languages (referring to L1 or L2) or overall cognitive development. I’m going to develop the arguments deeply in the following paragraphs as well as refute some myths widespread about age influence on foreign language learning.