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Date Posted: 18:13:31 10/17/05 Mon
Author: Vicente de Paulo Gonçalves
Subject: Final draft: The age factor on the acquisition of native-speaker proficiency

Purpose: To show that the age factor on the acquisition of native-speaker proficiency may not be considered as crucial as the Critical Period Hypothesis supports.

Audience: ESL Teachers and Academic Students.

Thesis: Despite the strong influence of the Critical Period Hypothesis, studies have demonstrated that the age factor does not have a fundamental role on the acquisition of native-speaker proficiency.

OUTLINE

I. The Critical Period Hypothesis: Influence
A. Younger L2 learners reach higher levels of proficiency
B. Reasons for the influence

II. The Critical Period Hypothesis: Basis
A. The span of years
B. The brain plasticity
C. The lateralization

IV. The Critical Period Hypothesis: Challengers
A. Krashen (1973); Whitaker, Bub and Leventer (1981): Lateralization
B. Neufeld (1977, 1978): Experiment involving Chinese and Japanese learning
C. Coppieters (1987): Experiment involving French learning
D. Birdsong (1992): Experiment involving other L2 learning
E. Thompson (1991): Experiment involving English learning

V. Conclusion
A. Adult learners can achieve native-like proficiency
B. Young learners may not achieve native-speaker abilities
C. Further investigation is needed

The age factor on the acquisition of native-speaker proficiency

There is a strong belief that younger L2 learners reach higher levels of proficiency than older learners. This belief is widely influenced by the Critical Period Hypothesis according to which there is a fixed span of years when language learning can take place. According to ELLIS (1994) Penfield and Roberts (1959) argued that the optimum period for language acquisition falls within the first ten years of life, when the brain retains its plasticity and the lateralization of the language function to the left side of the brain is completed. Lenneberg (1967) is mentioned as reinforcing this argumentation with his work involving children and adults who had experienced brain injuries or operations. His studies showed that the damages in the left hemisphere caused few speech disorders and was rapidly repaired in the case of children but not adults.

Despite all this argumentation, Krashen (1973) Whitaker, Bub and Leventer (1981) challenged the precise age when lateralization takes place and the neurological basis of the Critical Period Hypothesis what attracted the attention of many researchers. Relevant studies were done in order to find out whether age plays a crucial role on the acquisition of native-speaker proficiency in a second language. Neufeld (1977 and 1978), for instance, took 20 adult native speakers of English and gave them 18 hours of intensive instruction in the pronunciation of Chinese and Japanese. The results suggested that under the right conditions adults can achieve native ability in pronunciation. Coppieters (1987) tested 21 american-native highly proficient speakers of French who had begun learning as adults, and compared their performance on a grammaticality judgment task with that of 20 native speakers. The results suggested that they had native-like performance in language production, although their grammatical competence differed from that of native speakers. Birdsong (1992), in turn, administered similar test involving 20 students who started learning a L2 after puberty. His work demonstrated that at least some learners achieved indistinguishable level of competence from that of native speakers. On the other hand Thompson (1991) was studying foreign accents in Russian immigrants in the United States and found that the learners who had arrived before they were 10 years old had a more native-like English accent than those who came after this age. Nevertheless, in this group, two subjects who had arrived at the age of 4 were found as having a slight Russian accent, suggesting that even if students start studying before they are 10 years old they may not achieve native-speaker proficiency, which also brings problems for the Critical Period Hypothesis (Ellis, 1994).

In summary, it is possible to say that under ideal circumstances learners who start learning a L2 after puberty can achieve native-like proficiency (Neufeld, 1977/78) (Birdsong, 1992). Besides that, there is no guarantee that native-speaker abilities can be achieved even if learners start before they are ten years old (Thompson, 1991). Altogether, the age factor appears not to have a crucial role on the acquisition of native-speaker proficiency as the Critical Period Hypothesis supports. Nevertheless, because of the difficulty of comparing results of experiments that have used different methods, further investigation is needed.

ELLIS, R. (1994) The Study of Second Language Acquisition.
Oxford: Oxford University Press


VICENTE DE PAULO GONÇALVES

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