age and SLA.docx

1、age and SLAAbstract Since Lenneberg put forward the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) in First Language Acquisition (FLA), suggesting that puberty was the stop-point of age for completely successful language acquisition, many linguists after him went on with his career and postulated CPH in Second La

2、nguage Acquisition (SLA). And there seems to be a widely-held belief that children are better L2 learners than adults. However, up to now, linguists and researchers are not in agreement concerning whether children have absolute advantages over adults in second language learning. Still a controversia

3、l issue as it is, this essay will not focus on proving the CPH in SLA, but on analysing and explaining the advantages and disadvantages of learners at different age onsets. At the meantime, it brings forward some suggestions which seeks to benefit foreign language teaching and learning as well as th

4、e policy-making for foreign language teaching in China.Key Words: Second Language Acquisition, Critical Period Hypothesis, age differences摘 要 Lenneberg提出母语习得的关键期假说。它认为：青春期以前，学习着由于年龄小，生理和心理处于发育期，大脑的可塑性强，因而比较容易学会地道的第二语言；而成人发育完全成熟，大脑逐渐失去可塑性，过了学习第二语言的最佳年龄，因而较难学会第二语言。人们普遍认为儿童习得第二语言比成人快得多、容易得多。但是关于二语习得是否有

5、关键期，语言研究者和外语教学届长期以来看法不一。所以本文研究的重点不在于找寻学习外语的最佳年龄，而在于了解不同年龄的人学习外语的特点，扬长避短。同时，作者也希望这样的研究能对我国外语教学、外语学习以及外语政策的制定带来一些有益的启示。 关键词：二语习得；年龄因素；教学 . Introduction The effect of age differences has always been one of the most controversial issues and the study focus of linguists in Second Language Aquistition. Th

6、e widespread acceptance that the younger the better to begin studying a second language has inspired a great many scholars, trying to find the optimal age of SLA. acquisition of that language in any way. Some of them claim that second language acquisition is the same process and just as successful w

7、hether the learner begins as a child or an adult and /or that adults are really better learners because they start off faster. Others think the data ambiguous and/or that adults are at a disadvantage onlyin a few areas, especially phonology. Still others are convinced that younger learners are at an

8、 advantage, particularly where ultimate levels of attainment, such as accent-free SL performance, are concerned. Among the theories and hypothesis, a very controversial one about second language acquisition is the Critical Period Hypothesis by Lenneberg (1967), who states that there is a period when

9、 language acquisition can take place naturally and effortlessly, but after a certain age, the brain is no longer able to process language input in this way. In China today, there is a common belief that children should start to learn a foreign language as early as possible. As a result, many parents

10、 send their children to language schools with the hope that their children will be good English learners. At the same time, English training courses for kids mushroom all over the country, and many English textbooks and tapes for kids become best-sellers. All this adds to the confusion of the realm

11、of education and draws the attention of parents and society. This essay will not focus on proving the CPH in SLA, but on analysing and explaining the advantages and disadvantages of learners at different age onsets. At the meantime, it brings forward some suggestions which seeks to benefit foreign l

12、anguage teaching and learning as well as the policy-making for foreign language teaching in China. The Effects of Age on Second Language Acquisition A. The Effects of Age on Rate of Second Language Learning Krashen, Long, and Scarcella(1979) drew a conclusion concerning the effects of age on rage of

13、 SLA :(1)adults are superior to children in rate of acquisition, and (2) older children learn more rapidly than younger children(Krashen, et al,1979). This is supported by Snow and Hoefnagel-hohle(1978)s research. They studied Dutch learning of 51 Americans in Holland in 1978. The subjects were divi

14、ded into five age groups: ten 3-to-5-year-olds, eight 6-to-7-year-olds, thirteen 8-to-10- year-olds, nine 12-to-15-year-olds, and eleven adults. The results of the study implied that 3一to-5-year-olds scored lower than the older groups on all the tests and the 12-to-15-year-olds showed the most rapid

15、 acquisition of all the skills tested. Ann Fathman also made a study in 1982 to examine the relationship between certain aspects of the second language acquisition process and age through an oral production test. The subjects were 200 children (aged 6 to 1 5) from diverse language backgrounds who we

16、re learning English as a second language in public schools. The results indicated that the older children performed better in the production of correct morphological and syntactic structures whereas the younger children were superior in the use of correct English pronunciation. There are some other

17、short-term studies by famous scholars that compare second language learners at different age-onsets, the results of which are in consistence with the hypothesis that adolescents and adults have many advantages in second language acquisition, such as faster speed in language acquisition and strong ab

18、ility to acquire syntax and morphology while children perform much better in phonology. B. The Effects of Age on the Acquisition of Native-Like Proficiency As to the effects of age on the acquisition of native-like proficiency, some scholars carried out empirical studies and a majority of them hold

19、the assumption that the accent of those who arrive at an early age is more likely to approach a native-like level than is that of older arrivals. In a study of 71 Cuban immigrants to the United States, aged 7-19, Asher & Garcia (1969), found that members of a group who had arrived between age one an

20、d six and had lived in the United States for five to eight years were most likely to be rated at the near-native speaker level, thus in general upholding the principle that the younger the child on arrival, the higher the probability of approaching a native accent. Oyama found a linear relationship

21、between age of arrival and the ability to master the phonological system of English by 60 male Italian immigrants who had been in the United States for at least five years. In her study, subjects were required to read a passage aloud and to tell an anecdote from personal experience; the recordings w

22、ere then rated by two judges for degrees of non-native accent. Oyama summarizes her findings as follows: The youngest arrivals perform in the range set by the controls, whereas those arriving after about age 12 do not, and substantial accents start appearing much earlier (Oyama, 1976:272). However,

23、counter evidences are found by other studies, the results of which favor older learners in acquiring native-like proficiency. Take Neufelds(1978) study as an example. In this study, 20 adult native speakers of English were given 18 hours of intensive instruction in the pronunciation of Chinese and J

24、apanese. To test the nativeness of their pronunciation, the learners were then given an imitation test and their utterances judged on a five-point scale from unmistakably native to heavily accented, by native speakers of the two languages. Nine and eight of the subjects were rated as native for Japa

25、nese and Chinese respectively. This study suggests that under the right conditions adults can achieve native ability in pronunciation. The contradictory results above prove that this issue is still a rather controversial one and the verdict remains open. C. The Effects of Age on Learners Second Lang

26、uage Achievement The short-term studies which compare older and younger children consistently show that older children are faster learners of syntax and morphology when the duration of the exposure to the second language is similar. Then comes the question: Do learners who begin learning as children

27、 in general reach higher levels of second language ability than those who start as adolescents or adults? To answer this question, some scholars have done a series of researches and experiments. Burstall et al.(1974), for example, found, in their comparison of British children who started learning F

28、rench in school at either age 8 or 11，that by the time both groups reached age 16, there was only one test result in favour of the early learners: namely, a lightly better performance in listening comprehension. The eight-year-old beginners were no longer ahead in oral production as they had been wh

29、en compared after three years of exposure with an older group. Harley (1986) investigated the levels of attainment of children in French bilingual programmes in Canada. She focused on the learners acquisition of the French verb system, obtaining data from interviews, a story repetition task, and a t

30、ranslation task. She compared early and late immersion students after both had received 1,000 hours of instruction. Neither group had acquired full control of the verb system, but the older students demonstrated greater overall control. After we have reviewed the above studies done by previous resea

31、rches, it can be found out that, older learners have advantages in second language achievement. Explanations for the effects of age on SLA The differences in the three age groups of L2 learners aroused a lot of researchers interests in searching for the creditable explanation for the phenomena. At l

32、east four main types of explanations have been offered for age differences, which include neurological considerations, cognitive difference, affective difference and linguistic difference. A. Neurological difference Neurological difference, that is, lateralization completed at the age of puberty, ma

33、y well explain the observed differences in language proficiency obtained by learners at different onset age. A well-known hypothesis is that there are clear neurological differences between child and adult brains, and that these differences are directly responsible for child-adult differences in language acqu