In the Western world, parents are urged to talk to their infants soon after they’re born — and to keep talking to them. Chat about everyday things, read books, tell stories, sing songs, Australia’s ...

From babies guessing new words without seeing them, to adults struggling with second-language reading, science is uncovering ...

From babbling marmosets to spelling tasks and story-listening brain scans, new research is uncovering how brain growth and connectivity shape our ability to learn and use language. Studies link rapid ...

Lauren: Learning a new language seems like a big challenge in the beginning, and that’s because it is. Many of us started our language learning in the classroom, where we’re taught through ...

Parents often hear the warning: “If your child doesn’t learn a second language early, they’ll never be fluent.” Adults, meanwhile, are told: “It’s just too late for you to learn now.” These claims are ...

Learning a language can’t be that hard — every baby in the world manages to do it in a few years. Figuring out how the process works is another story. Linguists have devised elaborate theories to ...

The long-held idea that language learning is better before adulthood is up for debate. Adults have a number of advantages when it comes to learning a second language, and it comes with major benefits.

While working at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., the late cognitive neuroscientist Ursula Bellugi discovered that, much like spoken language, sign language was made up ...