Transcript Welcome to the presentation

Welcome to the
presentation
‘Does age affect L2 learning?’
By Derek Cho
Reference
H. Douglas Brown. ‘ Principal of Language Learning and
Teaching’. Pearson education
Julia Herschensohn. 1999 ‘ The Second time around
Minimalism and L2 Acquisition. University of Washington.
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Rod Ellis. 1997. ‘ The Study of Second Acquisition’.
Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language publishing
company
Jacqueline S. Johnson and Elissa L.Newport. ‘ Critical
period Effects in Second Language Learning: The
influence of Maturational State on the Acquistion of
English as a Second Language’. Cognitive psychology 21:
p.60-99
Critical period Hypothesis
Definition: There is a fix span of years during
which language learning can take place naturally
and effortlessly and after which it’s not possible
to be completely successful (Ellis, 1997).
Definition: Child’s brain has a specified capacity for
learning language – a capacity that decreases
with the passages of years (Penfield and Robert,
1959)
Puberty
Optimum Level
Language
Proficency
Puberty
12-13
Age
Neurological Development
As the human matures, certain functions are assigned or ‘laternalized’
to either side of the brain.
Brain functions
Viewpoint for the critical period
hypothesis

Scovel, Singleton: There is a critical period
not only for first language but also second
language acquisition.

Implication: Children are better learners
than adults.
Opposite Viewpoint for the critical
period hypothesis
Walsh and Diller
Lower-order processes such as
pronunciation are dependent
on early maturing, making the
foreign accents difficult to
overcome after the childhood
Higher-order language
functions, such as semantic
relations are more dependent
on late maturing neural
circuits.
Levels of thinking skills
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Identification
Extracting information
Sequencing
Comparison
Analysis
Application
Version 1
The exercise hypothesis: Early in life, humans
have a superior capacity for acquiring languages.
If he capacity is not exercised during this time, it
will disappear or decline with maturation. If the
capacity is exercised, however, further language
learning abilities will remain intact throughout
life.
 Implication: Second language acquisition should
be equivalent in children and adults.

Version 2

The maturational state hypothesis : Early
in life, humans have a superior capacity
for acquiring languages abilities for
acquiring languages. This capacity
disappears or declines with maturation.

Implication: Children will be better in
second language learning as well as first.
Types of Comparison and contrast
Child
Adult
C1
A1
C2
A2
L1
L2
Research

Subjects: 46 subjects

Early arrivals 23 subjects, late arrivals: 23
arrivals

23 native speakers
Rule Types Tested in the Task
1. Past tense
2. Plural
3. Plural
4. Present Progressive
5. Determiners
6. Pronominalization
7. Particle movement 8. Subcateogoration
9. Auxillaries
10. Yes/No questions
11. Wh-questions 12. Word order
Examples
The farmer bought two pigs at the market.
 The farmer bought two pig at the market.

The little boy is speaking to a policeman
 The little boy is speak to a policeman

Yesterday the hunter shot a deer.
 Yesterday the hunter shoots a deer

The relationship between age of
arrival in the United States and the
total score correct on the test of
English grammar
Correlation between the age of
arrival and test score
Mean percentage of errors on L2
types of English rules
Effects
1. Age of Acquisition and ultimate
performance
 - Children have an advantage over adults
in acquiring a second language.
 2. The effects of age of acquisition before
versus after puberty
 - Subjects who arrived in the United
States after puberty performed more
poorly than those who arrived earlier

Effect
3. Support the maturational state
hypothesis
 - the age effect is present during time of
ongoing biological and cognitive
maturation and absent after the
maturation is complete
 4. Age of acquisition and rule type
 - unclear what part of sentence or
grammar she/he is having problems with

Conclusion: Other factors affecting
second language acquisition
1. Levels of thinking skills
 2. Intervention of L1
 3. Motivational factors
 4. Interlingual identification
(Weinreich,1953)
 5. Storage of L2 information
 6.Personality
