CRITCAL PERIOD EFFECTS

          In Linguistics, the critical period hypothesis was achieved in a way to support first language acquisition, but it has also been extended to second language acquisition (SLA). Although the theory still continues to be a controversial issue it claims that there’s a direct relation between the subject and his age to learn a second language and the way to obtain information must be through studies or tests. So different studies and tests have tried to corroborate the hypothesis and although the results have achieved no general results of what is at all expected, it’s clear that in most of the cases the process of learning a second language has been identified as a common process in human beings and it’s supposed to end, whatever it is, with the onset of puberty.

          Here, it’s important to say that the evidence thrown by the tests in which subjects have been tested in order to know if children are better than adults to learn a second language is still a case that leaves certain doubts about if this might be considered as a unique platform of results in all the subjects who are tested.

          It’s also supposed that older learners of a second language rarely achieve the native-like fluency that younger learners display, despite often progressing faster in the initial stages. Here is also important to mention that researchers have found that there are exceptions among adults who learn a second language well into adulthood and they achieve success while speaking. On the other hand, the age of a learner may also affect or have influence over certain linguistic aspects, but as we have seen it varies on each subject.

           It’s possible that the decline of language learning ability doesn’t exactly occur during the puberty at all because the studies have drawn widespread attention on it and have had, although close similarity, some variety in the results. The preponderance of the evidence is consistent with the view of the critical period effect is pervasive in L2 acquisition. Brown’s answer to the question about of whether there’s an age-related limitation on the learning of a second language, is that since the time of Lenneberg’s book; focusing particularly on the acquisition of phonology and grammar. The studies appear to contradict one another; some have been said to demonstrate an adult advantage, some a child advantage.

          Other factors that Brown and Gonzo consider as pervasive and points of arguing are those that may be considered when learning a second language and that may affect learning, such as the fact that an adult is less motivated that children to learn the language fully, he or she is more self-conscious about speaking and doesn’t have the cultural identification with the host country necessary to become fluent. On the other hand, from the different studies achieved by researchers trying to get closer to the answers to certain empirical questions about critical period effects in second language learning and to clarify and refine theoretical proposals regarding a critical period for language acquisition, Brown achieved one of this studies based on the latter ideas and found a sort of results that displayed a striking effect of age of acquisition in the test of English syntax and morphology which are important factors or elements that support acquisition and age.

           We must mention that in an experimental and observational study applied to a number of people who were interviewed for reaching the evidence that age plays a significant role while learning a second language, certain judgment tasks had to be considered, all of them (12 in total) were framed to test 12 types of rules of English and they were described as Rule Types Tested in Grammaticality Judgment Task. Thus, the following tasks, which are really interesting because of the reflection they present, have certain complexity in which subjects have to show their knowledge in English, they are; past tense, plural, third person singular, present progressive, determiners, pronominalization, particle movement, subcategorization, auxiliaries, yes/no questions, WH questions, and word order. But, it’s also important to mention the characteristics of the group of people who were tested. They were, among others, Chinese or Korean speakers who learned English as a second language, exposed to English by native speakers in the States, had to have lived in the States for an unbroken stay of at least three years prior to the time of the test and they were form age 3 to 39. In addition, the subjects were tested on their knowledge of English syntax and morphology (different types) and motivational and attitudinal measures were also taken.

          Some of the results of the test gave evidence that subjects who began acquiring English in the United States at an early age obtained higher scores than those who began later. According to some scales used to show scores, there appear to be a strong linear relationship between age of exposure to the language and ultimate performance in that language, up to adulthood. But in my opinion, it is still a controversy especially after detecting that the study was based on certain and specific languages such as Asian ones. Although evidence for second language learning has shown this relation, I can say that what is clear is the fact that children learn L2 easier than most adults and so children have an advantage over adults because of the results which gave a fairly good generalization due to the large range of ages.

          According to the results but now specifically based on age, the generalization in the acquisition of a second language also showed that subjects who arrived in the United States before the age of seven reached native performance and those arrivals after that age showed a linear decline in performance up through puberty.

          Finally, it’s important to mention that Lenneberg hypothesized that normal language learning was possible during the period from infancy to puberty with a loss of abilities after puberty, but it was a little difficult to say with certainty the exact point at which a decline in learning begins for second language acquisition.

Ruben

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DOUGLAS BROWN, H. and SUSAN GONZO. (1994) Reading on Second Language Acquisition. Prentice Hall.http://idiom.ucsd.edu/~goodall/119SLA.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2920538

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_period