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 near-native 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).