“Many people believe that learning new languages is best done when they are young and that it gets tougher as they get older. The ability of the brain to create and reorganize synaptic connections, known as neuroplasticity, is the basis of this idea. Although it is true that as one gets older, this ability declines, many researchers today hold the opinion that learning a foreign language at an older age may have other benefits that contribute to the overall well-being of older individuals […].

    The findings of this review indicate that learning a foreign language can bring several benefits to older people, such as subjective satisfaction (Klimova et al., 2021a, 2021b; Pfenninger & Kliesch, 2023; Pikhart & Klimova, 2020; Pikhart et al., 2021), enhanced cognitive skills (Grossmann et al., 2023; Grossmann et al., 2021), and motivation why to study a foreign language (Pfenninger & Kliesch, 2023; Sandal et al., 2019). Similar findings were confirmed by other research studies. For example, Klimova (2018) in their study explains that bilingualism plays an important role in delaying cognitive decline and supports it with findings from the experimental studies by Bialystok et al. (2007) or Kroll and Dussias (2017). However, the main incentive why older people study a foreign language is not their desire to achieve excellent results, but the incentive to share their acquired knowledge and experience with peers of the same age and simply, engage in socializing with them (cf. Klimova et al., 2021a, 2021b; Pfenninger & Kliesch, 2023). On the contrary, the findings of this review indicate several drawbacks which hinder foreign language learning among older individuals. The results (Hertzog et al., 2020; Sandal et al., 2019) show that older people at a later age are not able to reach a high level of a foreign language. This is due to several reasons, e.g., physical impairments (problems with hearing, eyesight, or movement), language training being less effective than relaxation training (Berggren et al., 2020), as well as lower self-esteem, or short-term memory (cf. Antoniou et al., 2013).

    As far as the teaching approaches are concerned, Sandal et al. (2019) suggest that teaching materials and methods should be adapted to older learners' needs. This was confirmed also by other research studies in this review, such as Grossman et al., (2023). Generally, doing the needs analysis in foreign language classes is the first step that helps identify the learners' needs, desires, prerequisites, and learners' language background and thus, ensures successful learning outcomes (cf. Axmedovna et al., 2019). Klimova et al. (2021a) expand that teachers should consider their personalities and learning preferences. Furthermore, the authors report that older people need more time to do tasks and remember individual language structures, words, or phrases. Thus, more drilling exercises and scaffolding should be employed while teaching them. This is true not only for teaching individual language skills, such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking but also for instructions. Older people usually welcome to have instructions in their native language (Klimova & Sanda, 2021). In addition, due to their physical impairments, learning materials also should not be dense and written in small font (cf. Klimova & Sanda, 2021). Research also suggests that rather than introducing a great amount of new information and learning techniques, it may be more beneficial to stimulate older learners to retrieve and rely on previously acquired knowledge and consolidated learning approaches (Bosisio, 2019). More recently, research has shown that younger older people also tend to use technologies when learning a foreign language (Olson et al., 2011; Yap et al., 2022), which can enhance their learning in informal settings, as well as connect them with their peers online. According to Mora et al. (2018), the main language learning approaches of older people in learning a foreign language are primarily metacognitive ones, which are related to reflecting on, organizing, evaluating, and monitoring one's own learning process. Teachers should also recognize elderly people's efforts and successes in learning a foreign language, and provide them with positive feedback to boost their confidence and motivation (Seven, 2020; Thohir, 2017).

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