Is there critical age for second language learning

Is there critical age for second language learning? 3308 심리언어학 Steinberg & Schiarini 2006, Chapter 6

Age of acquisition • Characteristics of age - It is easy to define and measure than personality, attitude, or motivation -The relationship between a learner’s age and success in second language acquisition is the subject of much lively debate.

Age of acquisition • What makes the difference between young learners and adults in second language learning? - Differences of accent - Word choice - Grammatical features

Critical Period Hypothesis - A specific time in human development: somewhere around puberty - Developmental changes in the brain - Losing the innate biological ability

Critical Period Hypothesis • Intuition of grammaticality - The earlier the age of arrival, the better the participants perform on the second language learning. Patkowski (1980); Johnson and Newport (1989); Mayberry and Lock (2003)

Critical Period Hypothesis • Intuition of grammaticality - Learners who begin to acquire a language after puberty can reach nearnative levels. Birdsong (1992); Wuijtswinkel (1994); White and Grenesee (1996); Birdsong and Molis (2001); Mayberry and Lock (2003)

Critical Period Hypothesis • Intuition of grammaticality - There is no critical age in terms of acquiring the syntax of a second language.

Critical Period Hypothesis • Mastery of the spoken language - Native-like mastery of the spoken language is difficult to attain by older learners. Mack (1986); Perani et al. (2003); Scovel (1988)

Critical Period Hypothesis • Mastery of the spoken language - Henry Kissinger: 15 years old (German accent) - Zbigniew Brzezinski: 10 years old (Polish accent) - Arnold Schwarzenegger: 21 years old (German accent, born in Australia)

Critical Period Hypothesis • Mastery of the spoken language - Adults can pick up near-native foreign language pronunciation Matsui (2000) - Special brain exercises are even reported to help people regain language functions despite various deficits. Ariniello (2000)

Critical Period Hypothesis • Mastery of the spoken language - - “ a very high motivation. . continued access to target language input. . and intensive instruction in the perception and in the production of the speech sounds…” (Bongaerts et al. , 1995, 1997).