Foreign Language Learning in Older Adults: Benefits, Challenges, and Suggestions for Teaching

Abstract

When it comes to foreign language learning, researchers tend to pay more attention to children and adolescents than older adults despite the fact that the proportion of older adults worldwide has increased significantly. Even though there is a growing number of studies reporting several benefits of foreign language learning particularly in improving cognitive abilities of older adults (Antoniou et al., Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 37:2689–2698;2013; Antoniou & Wright. Frontiers in Psychology 8:2217;2017, Bak. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 6:205–226;2016; Wong et al., Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 62:2411–2424;2019), older adults have still been neglected as a cohort by researchers in this field. This may be because very few older adults who are over 60 years of age take part in foreign language learning whether in the contexts of formal, informal, or non-formal education. In addition, teaching older adults a foreign language can be very challenging because instructors have to dispel some misconceptions about older adults’ learning abilities and deal with self-defeating attitudes commonly adopted by older learners (Ramirez Gomez. Educational Gerontology 42:136–143;2016). In this chapter, I discuss the benefits and challenges of learning a foreign language in late adulthood and provide some suggestions for instructors to create an educative and collaborative learning environment appropriate for foreign language learning in older adults. In addition, I have included some suggestions on how to integrate technology into foreign language teaching as they could provide a safe learning environment for the elderly amid the COVID-19 pandemic.