Welcome to the presentation

1
Welcome to the presentation

• Does age affect L2 learning?
• By Derek Cho

2
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

3
Critical period Hypothesis

• Definition There is a fix span of years during
  which language learning can take place naturally
  and effortlessly and after which its not
  possible to be completely successful (Ellis,
  1997).
• Definition Childs brain has a specified
  capacity for learning language a capacity that
  decreases with the passages of years (Penfield
  and Robert, 1959)

4
Puberty
Optimum Level
Language Proficency
Age
Puberty
12-13
5
Neurological Development
As the human matures, certain
functions are assigned or laternalized
to either side of the brain.
6
Brain functions
7
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.

8
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.
9
Levels of thinking skills

1. Identification
2. Extracting information
3. Sequencing
4. Comparison
5. Analysis
6. Application

10
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.

11
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.

12
Types of Comparison and contrast
Child
Adult
C1 A1
C2 A2
L1
L2
13
Research

• Subjects 46 subjects
• Early arrivals 23 subjects, late arrivals 23
  arrivals
• 23 native speakers

14
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

15
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

16
The relationship between age of arrival in the
United States and the total score correct on the
test of English grammar
17
Correlation between the age of arrival and test
score
18
Mean percentage of errors on L2 types of English
rules
19
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

20
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

21
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