Applied Linguistics – LANE 423

Chapter 3: Age and Acquisition

Lecturer: Haifa Alroqi

Introduction
 Today the applications of research findings in first language acquisition are
widespread.

 In language arts education, for example, it is not uncommon to find teacher trainees
studying first language acquisition, particularly acquisition after age 5, in order to
improve their understanding of the task of teaching language skills to native
speakers.

 In foreign language education, most standard text and curricula now include some
introductory material on first language acquisition. The reasons for this are clear:
 We have all observed children acquiring their first language easily and well,

 yet the individuals learning a second language, particularly in an educational setting, can
meet with great difficulty and sometimes failure.

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 Introduction cont.
This chapter addresses some of the following questions:

 How should second language teachers interpret the many and

sometimes conflicting findings of first language (L1) research?

 Do childhood and adulthood, and differences between them, hold

some keys to SLA theories?
 L1acquisition ---------- childhood

 SLA ---------- childhood/ adulthood

Dispelling Myths

The first step in investigating age and acquisition

might be to dispel some myths about the relationship
between first and second language acquisition.

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 Dispelling Myths cont.

H. H. Stern (1970) summarized some common arguments that have

been raised from time to time to recommend a second language
teaching method on the basis of L1 acquisition:

1. In language teaching, we must practice and practice, again and

again. Just watch a small child learning his mother tongue. He
repeats things over and over again. During the language learning
stage he practices all the time. This is what we must also do when
we learn a foreign language.

Dispelling Myths cont.

2. Language learning is mainly a matter of imitation. You must be a

mimic. Just like a small child. He imitates everything.

3. First, we practice the separate sounds, then words, then sentences.

That is the natural order and is therefore right for learning a
foreign language.

4. Watch a small child's speech development. First he listens, then he

speaks. Understanding always precedes speaking. Therefore, this
must be the right order of presenting the skills in a foreign
language.

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 Dispelling Myths cont.

5. A small child listens and speaks and no one would dream of making him read or
write. Reading and writing are advanced stages of language development. The
natural order for first and second language learning is listening, speaking, reading,
and then writing.

6. You did not have to translate when you were small. If you were able to learn your
own language without translation, you should be able to learn a foreign language
in the same way.

7. A small child simply uses language. He does not learn formal grammar. You don't
tell him about verbs and nouns. Yet he learns the language perfectly. It is equally
unnecessary to use grammatical conceptualization in teaching a foreign language.

Dispelling Myths cont.

There are flaws in each of the seven statements

 Sometimes the flaw is in the assumption behind the statement
about L1 learning
 Sometimes it is in the comparison or implication that is drawn
 Sometimes it is in both

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 Dispelling Myths cont.

 These views tend to represent the views of those who were

dominated by a behavioral theory of language.

 As cognitive and constructivist research on first language

acquisition gathered momentum, second language researchers
and foreign language teachers began to recognize the mistakes
in drawing direct comparisons between first and second
language acquisition.

Types of Comparison and Contrast

 The comparison of first and second language acquisition

can easily be oversimplified.

 At the very least, one needs to approach the comparison

by first considering the differences between children and
adults

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 Types of Comparison and Contrast cont.

 It is, in one sense, illogical to compare the first language

acquisition of a child with the second language acquisition of an
adult.
 It is much more logical to compare
 first and second language learning in children
 or second language learning in children and adults.

 Child L1 acquisition and adult SLA are important categories of

acquisition to compare though.

Types of Comparison and Contrast cont.

 The figure represents four possible categories to compare,

defined by age and type of acquisition.

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 Types of Comparison and Contrast cont.

 Cell A1 is clearly representative of an abnormal situation. There

have been few recorded instances of an adult acquiring a first
language. e.g. Genie, a thirteen year-old girl who had been socially
isolated and abused all her life until she was discovered, and who
was then faced with the task of acquiring a first language.

Types of Comparison and Contrast cont.

The other three cells:

1. 1st & 2nd language acquisition in children (C1-C2), holding age constant, and
manipulating the language variable

2. 2nd language acquisition in children + adults (C2-A2), holding language constant, and
manipulating the age variable

3. 1st language acquisition in children + 2nd language acquisition in adults (C1-A2),

manipulating both variables! (Many of the traditional comparisons were of this type.)

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 The Critical Period Hypothesis

 Most discussions about age and acquisition center on the question:

Is there a critical period for language acquisition?

 What do we mean by a critical period for language acquisition?

 A biologically determined period of life when language can be

acquired more easily and beyond which time language is increasingly
difficult to acquire.

The Critical Period Hypothesis

 The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) claims that there is such a biological
timetable.

 Initially, the notion of a critical period was connected only to L1 acquisition.

 In recent years, a large amount of research has appeared on the possible

applications of the CPH to SLA.

 The classic argument is that a critical point for SLA occurs around puberty,
and that, beyond it, people seem to be relatively incapable of acquiring a
second language.

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 The Critical Period Hypothesis cont.

 This has led some to assume, incorrectly, that by the age of 12 or 13,
you are "over the hill" when it comes to the possibility of successful
second language learning.

 Such an assumption must be viewed in the light of

 What does being "successful" in learning a second language really

mean?

 How important is the role of accent as a component of success?

The Critical Period Hypothesis cont.

To examine these issues, we will look at:

 neurological considerations
 phonological considerations
 cognitive considerations
 affective considerations
 linguistic considerations

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 Neurological Considerations

 The study of the function of the brain in the process

of acquisition is one of many promising areas of
inquiry.

Hemispheric Lateralization

 Does the maturation of the brain at some stage decrease the

language acquisition ability?
 Some scholars suggest that the lateralization of the brain is
the key to answer this question.
 What is lateralization?
 Brain lateralization means the brain functions are divided up
between the left and right brain hemispheres.

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 Hemispheric Lateralization cont.

There is evidence in neurological research that as the

human brain matures,
 certain functions are assigned, or "lateralized," to the left
hemisphere of the brain (intellectual, logical, and analytic functions)

 and certain other functions to the right hemisphere (emotional and

social needs).

Hemispheric Lateralization cont.

 Language functions appear to be controlled mainly in

the left hemisphere

 In general, a stroke or accident victim who suffers a

lesion in the left hemisphere will manifest some language
impairment, which is less often the case with right
hemisphere lesions.

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 Hemispheric Lateralization cont.

Second language researchers were interested in finding out:

 How language is lateralized in the brain?

 When does lateralization take place?

 Does the lateralization process affect language acquisition?

Hemispheric Lateralization cont.

 Eric Lenneberg (1967) and others suggested that

lateralization is a slow process that begins around
the age of two and is completed around puberty.

 During this time the child is neurologically assigning

functions little by little to one side of the brain or the
other; included in these functions, of course, is
language.

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 Hemispheric Lateralization cont.

Thomas Scovel (1969) proposed a relationship between

lateralization and SLA:
He suggested
 that the plasticity of the brain prior to puberty enables children to
acquire not only their first language but also a second language
 and that possibly it is the process of lateralization that makes it
difficult for people to be able ever again to easily acquire fluent
control of a second language, or at least to acquire it with an
"authentic" (nativelike) pronunciation.

Hemispheric Lateralization cont.

Much of the neurological argument centers on the time of lateralization.

 While Lenneberg argued that lateralization is complete around puberty,
 Norman Geschwind (1970), among others, suggested a much earlier age.
 Stephen Krashen cited research to support the completion of lateralization
around age five.

 Scovel cautioned against assuming, with Krashen, that lateralization is

complete by age five. He argued, “One must be careful to distinguish
between 'emergence' of lateralization (at birth, but quite evident at five)
and 'completion' (only evident at about puberty).

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 Biological Timetables cont.

 Walsh and Diller (1981) concluded that different aspects of a second

language are learned the best at different ages:

 Lower-order processes such as pronunciation are dependent on

early maturing and less adaptive macroneural circuits, which makes
foreign accents difficult to overcome after childhood.

 Higher-order language functions, such as semantic relations, are

more dependent on late maturing neural circuits.

Biological Timetables cont.

 This conclusion has been supported by more recent

findings.

 So, now we are left with some support for:

 a neurologically based critical period for the acquisition of an
authentic (native-like) accent

 But not very strongly for the acquisition of communicative

fluency and other "higher-order" processes.

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 Right-hemispheric Participation

Another branch of neurolinguistic research focused on the

role of the right hemisphere in the acquisition of a second

language.

Right-hemispheric Participation cont.

Loraine Obler (1981) noted :

 In second language learning, there is significant right hemisphere

participation.

 This participation is particularly active during the early stages of

learning the second language.

 But this "participation," to some extent, consists of what is defined as

"strategies" of acquisition such as the strategy of guessing at
meanings.

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 Right-hemispheric Participation cont.

 Genesee (1982) concluded that there may be greater right hemisphere

involvement in language processing in

 bilinguals who acquire their L2 late relative to their L1.

 bilinguals who learn their L2 in informal contexts.

 While this conclusion may appear to contradict Obler's statement, it does not.
Obler found support for more right hemisphere activity during the early
stages of second language acquisition, but her conclusions were drawn from a
study of seventh-, ninth-, and eleventh-grade subjects-all postpubescent.

Right-hemispheric Participation cont.

 Such studies seem to suggest that second language learners,

particularly adult learners, might benefit from more
encouragement of right-brain activity in the classroom context.

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 Anthropological Evidence

 Some adults have been known to acquire an authentic accent in a

second language after the age of puberty, but such individuals
are few.

 Anthropologist Jane Hill (1970) provided a response to Scovel's

(1969) study by citing anthropological research on non-Western
societies that yielded evidence that adults can, in the normal
course of their lives, acquire second languages perfectly.

Anthropological Evidence cont.

One unique instance of SLA in adulthood was reported by Sorenson (1967), who
studied the Tukano culture of South America.

 At least 24 languages were spoken among these communities, and each tribal group,
identified by the language it speaks, is an exogamous unit (i.e. people must marry
outside their group) and for this, they almost always marry someone who speaks
another language.

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 Anthropological Evidence cont.

 Sorenson reported that during adolescence, individuals actively and

almost suddenly began to speak two or three other languages to which
they had been exposed at some point.

 Field observation indicates that as a person approaches old age, he

will go on to perfect his knowledge of all the languages available for
him.

Anthropological Evidence cont.

Hill (1970) asserts that:

 The language acquisition situation seen in adult language learners in

the largely monolingual American English speech communities may have
been inappropriately taken to be a universal situation

 Multilingual speech communities of various types deserve careful study.

 We will have to explore the influence of other factors such as the social
and cultural ones and of attitudes as an alternative or a supplement to
the cerebral dominance theory.

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 Anthropological Evidence cont.

 Hill's challenge was taken up in subsequent decades.

 Flege (1987) and Morris and Gerstman (1986), for

example, cited motivation, affective variables, social
factors, and the quality of input as important in
explaining the clear advantage of the child.

Phonological Considerations

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 The Significance of Accent cont.

 Given the existence of several hundred muscles (throat,

larynx, mouth, lips, tongue, etc) that are used in the
articulation of human speech, a tremendous degree of
muscular control is required to achieve the fluency of a
native speaker of a language.

 At birth the speech muscles are developed only to the

extent that the larynx can control sustained cries.

The Significance of Accent cont.

 These speech muscles gradually develop

 Control of some complex sounds in certain languages is

sometimes not achieved until after age five (e.g. in
English, the r and l are typical)

 Although complete phonemic control is present in virtually

all children before puberty.

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 The Significance of Accent cont.

 Research on the acquisition of authentic control of the

phonology of a foreign language supports the notion of a
critical period.

 Most of the evidence indicates that persons beyond the

age of puberty do not acquire an authentic (native-
speaker) pronunciation of the second language.

The Significance of Accent cont.

 There have been of course exceptions.

 However, these exceptions appear to be:

 isolated instances

 only anecdotally supported

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 The Significance of Accent cont.

 There are special people who possess the ability to override

neurobiological critical period effects and to achieve a almost
perfect native like pronunciation of a foreign language.

 But in terms of statistics, it is clear that the chances of any

individual commencing a second language after puberty and
achieving a scientifically verifiable authentic native accent are
extremely small.

The Significance of Accent cont.

 There are a number of sample studies on adult

phonological acquisition that appear to contradict the
strong version of the CPH.

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 The Significance of Accent cont.

 Gerald Neufeld (1977, 1979, 1980, 2001) undertook a

set of studies to determine to what extent adults could
approximate native-speaker accents in a second language
never before encountered.

The Significance of Accent cont.

 In his earliest experiment, 20 adult native English speakers

were taught to imitate ten utterances, each from one to

sixteen syllables in length, in Japanese and in Chinese.

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 The Significance of Accent cont.

 Native-speaking Japanese and Chinese judges listened

to the taped imitations. The results indicated that:

 eleven of the Japanese imitations

 nine of the Chinese imitations

were judged to have been produced by “native”

speakers.

The Significance of Accent cont.

 While Neufeld recognized the limitations of his own

studies, he suggested that:

 older students have neither lost their sensitivity to subtle

differences in sounds, rhythm, and pitch

 nor the ability to reproduce these sounds.

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 The Significance of Accent cont.

 In more recent years, Moyer (1999) and Bongaerts, Planken,

and Schils (1995) have also challenged the strong version of
the CPH.

 Moyer's study with native English-speaking graduate students of

German supported the strong CPH: subjects' performance was
not judged to be comparable to native speakers of German.

The Significance of Accent cont.

 The Bongaerts et al. study reported on a group of adult Dutch speakers of
English, all late learners,

 They recorded:
 a monologue

 a reading of a short text

 readings of isolated sentences

 Readings of isolated words

Some of the non-native performances, for some of the trials, were judged to have

come from native speakers.

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 The Significance of Accent cont.

 Scovel (1997) argued that it was also the case that many
native speakers of English in their study were judged to be
nonnative!

The Significance of Accent cont.

 All these studies have thus left the strong CPH

unchallenged.

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 The Significance of Accent cont.
H. Douglas Brown’s (2007) Conclusions
 Upon reviewing the research on age and accent acquisition shows
that there is persuasive evidence of a critical period for accent, but
for accent only!
 It is important to remember in all these considerations that
pronunciation of a language is not the sole criterion for acquisition,
nor is it really the most important one.
 We all know people who have less than perfect pronunciation but
who also have magnificent and fluent control of a second language,
control that can even exceed that of many native speakers.

The Significance of Accent cont.

 A modern version of this phenomenon might be called the “Arnold

Schwarzenegger Effect” (after the actor-turned-governor in California),
whose accent is clearly noticeable yet who is as linguistically proficient
as any native speaker of American English.

 The acquisition of the communicative and

functional purposes of language is, in most

circumstances, far more important than a

perfect native accent.

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 The Significance of Accent cont.

 Perhaps, in our everyday encounters with second language users, we

are too quick to criticize the "failure" of adult second language

learners by nitpicking at minor pronunciation points or grammatical

errors.

 Instead of being so concerned about how bad people are at learning

second languages, we should be fascinated with how much those same

learners have accomplished.

The Significance of Accent cont.

Today researchers are continuing the quest for answers to child-

adult differences by looking beyond simple phonological factors:

 Bongaerts et al. (1995) found results that suggested that certain

learner characteristics and contexts may work together to
override the disadvantages of a late start.

 Slavoff and Johnson (1995) found that younger children (ages

seven to nine) did not have a particular advantage in rate of
learning over older (tentwelve-year-old) children.

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Thank you

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