外語想學地道? 那最好在10歲前開始學!大綱

There is a critical cut-off age for learning a language fluently, according to research.

研究發現，流利地掌握一門語言有一個關鍵的年齡分界點。

If you want to have native-like knowledge of English grammar, for example, you should ideally start before age 10, say the researchers.

研究人員稱，如果你想擁有比如說像講母語者那樣好的英語語法，那麼最好在10歲前就開始學習。

People remain highly skilled learners until 17 or 18, when ability tails off.

17或18歲之前的人仍然是高技能的學習者，但之後該能力會下降。

The findings, in the journal Cognition, come from an online grammar test taken by nearly 670,000 people of different ages and nationalities. The grammar quiz was posted on Facebook to get enough people to take part.

發表在《認知》期刊的該研究，對近67萬名不同年齡和國籍的人進行了在線語法測試。該語法測驗在臉書上發佈，以便有足夠的人蔘與。

Questions tested if participants could determine whether a sentence written in English, such as: "Yesterday John wanted to won the race," was grammatically correct.

參與者要確定一個以英語寫成的句子，例如：“昨天約翰想贏得比賽”的語法是否正確。

Users were asked their age and how long they had been learning English, and in what setting -- had they moved to an English-speaking country, for example?

用戶被問及他們的年齡，他們學習英語的時間以及學習環境 -- 例如，他們是否搬到了講英語的國家？

About 246,000 of the people who took the test had grown up speaking only English, while the rest were bi- or multilingual.

在參加測試的人中，約有24.6萬人只會說英語，其餘的人則是雙語或多語者。

The most common native languages (excluding English) were Finnish, Turkish, German, Russian and Hungarian.

最常見的母語（不包括英語）是芬蘭語，土耳其語，德語，俄語和匈牙利語。

Most of the people who completed the quiz were in their 20s and 30s. The youngest age was about 10 and the oldest late 70s.

大部分完成測驗的人都是20多歲和30多歲的人。最小的年齡大約是10歲，而最大的則爲70歲。

When the researchers analysed the data using a computer model, the best explanation for the findings was that grammar-learning was strongest in childhood, persists into teenage years and then drops at adulthood.

當研究人員使用計算機模型分析這些數據時，對這些發現的最好解釋是語法學習在兒童時期是最強的，持續到青少年時期，然後在成年時期下降。

Learning a language is often said to be easy for children and to get more difficult as we age.

通常認爲，學習一門語言對孩子來說很容易，而隨着年齡的增長而變得越來越困難。

But late learners can still become proficient, if not seamlessly fluent, say the researchers.

研究人員表示，如果不是十分流暢的話，後期學習者仍然可以精通該語言。

It is unclear what causes the drop in the optimal learning rate seen at about age 18. The researchers suggest it could be because the brain becomes less changeable or adaptable in adulthood.

目前還不清楚是什麼導致最佳學習率在18歲左右下降。研究人員認爲，這可能是因爲大腦在成年期變得不易變化或適應性減弱。