In an increasingly smaller world, language acquisition and teaching methods are important global concerns.

A Harvard professor recently will have her research on how language is learned published in January’s Psychological Science.

The results of her study may help teachers and adoptive parents know how to best serve foreign-born children.

“[The study] definitely tells us that there’s nothing too different between learning at [age] four and learning at one,” said Jesse Snedeker, assistant professor of psychology at Harvard.

According to ScienceDaily, Snedeker and her colleagues observed children between the ages of 2.5 and six years old during their first year living in the United States after being adopted from China, comparing their method of learning to that of infants learning English as a first language.

All the children in Snedeker’s study fell under what is normally considered a critical period for language acquisition, so questions about adolescent and adult abilities in language learning remain a separate category of inquiry.

However, the idea that children in the “critical period” seem to learn language by the same means from infancy to preschool is illuminating.

How, then, do they learn?

If you’ve been around young children, Snedeker said, you’ll have noticed when they first start talking, they use a lot of nouns – “ball,” for example – and social words such as “hi.”

As they get older, they begin using verbs and adjectives – more grammatical words, which allow their sentences to be more complex.

In looking at the children in Snedeker’s study, a significant difference between the two groups of learners might have easily been expected, since children’s cognitive abilities develop with age.

However, the process is the same across the board – nouns and social words before grammatical words.

The practical implications of this study have yet to be fleshed out, but Snedeker said the insight it brings can help people in thinking about what can be expected of foreign-born children.

In addition, Snedeker said, the tests used to evaluate such children can be potentially improved as a result of the knowledge she and her team have brought to light.

Regardless of what the best way is to teach, learn or evaluate language ability, Snedeker understands that the process is always just that: a process.

“Language learning always takes a while,” she said.

The most obvious practical application of Snedeker’s study is in teaching foreign languages, said Carol Chapelle, professor of English at Iowa State.

“We are all predisposed to develop linguistic means [of communication],” she said.

There is also a need to develop learning materials, particularly on the Internet, she said.