NACELL - Research

From babies uttering their first words, to children chatting freely to their friends in a new country, sometimes it can seem that kids are naturals at picking up languages. But do they really have it easy - is it genuinely a case of the earlier the better for language learning?

In contrast, late learners are shown to perform differently to native-speakers in these linguistic tasks, appearing to possess different intuitions about the grammar, taking longer to process linguistic information and pronouncing⁵ and even perceiving ⁶ some phonemes differently. (Achieving a native-like accent is widely accepted as one of the biggest challenges facing late learners, even those who seem to be native-like in all other aspects of the language⁷.)

But why should children generally achieve higher standards than adults in a second language? That is one of the most controversial questions in linguistics. Some suggest that the success of early learners is the result of a ‘critical period’ for language acquisition – a phase in brain development when neuronal structures are optimally responsive to acquiring language. This theory was developed by the psychologist Lenneberg during the 1960s ⁸ to account for the failure of individuals to acquire a first language after puberty.

However, it has since been applied to second language acquisition, claiming that children attain higher levels of fluency because they are learning at a time when the brain’s window of opportunity for language is still open and additional linguistic systems can fully develop.

The theory also predicts that adult learners find it more difficult because they are learning at a time when the window for language has closed, meaning that they must rely on other, less ideal mechanisms for language learning. As a consequence, the late learned language takes on a different shape to that of early learners and native-speakers, and certain linguistic competencies may remain permanently out of reach.

An emerging body of research seems to support a biological explanation for age effects in second language learning. Neurological studies using PET and fMRI scanning techniques as well as ERP measurements of electrical impulses, have shown that early learners tend to activate overlapping areas of the brain when processing their first and second languages whilst late learners demonstrate increased dissimilarity between active regions for each language ⁹. Such evidence has been used to support the idea that early learners can achieve native-like competence because they use the same mechanism for second language learning as they used to acquire their first.

Whilst the critical period seems an attractive explanation for some, it is by no means the definite answer to the age question. Many factors such as knowledge of other languages, proficiency, amount of usage and length of exposure to the second language can all influence the results of behavioural observations and neurological tests. Whether the cause is entirely biological or not, fluency can never be guaranteed by an early start. Quality language input is essential for any learner and fully developed systems can only emerge from engaging with a rich and stimulating language environment.

This is what makes primary languages such an exciting and important field to work in. As a primary language teacher, you can have a real impact on children’s language success, helping to create exactly the sort of dynamic classroom culture in which young learners can thrive.

And despite the early advantage, it really is never to late learn. As with all trends, there are always exceptions to the rule! Studies of adult learners demonstrate that it is possible to become near-native in a language, even if you learn it in adulthood¹⁰. Whatever the reason for young learners’ success, language learning is not just a part of growing up. As Ellen Bialystok so aptly made the case for young bilinguals, ‘knowing more has never been a disadvantage when compared to knowing less’ ¹¹… which has to be a pretty good motto for any time of life.

1.Krashen, Long, and Scarcella, 1979; Slavoff and Johnson, 1995.

2. Coppieters, 1987; Harley, 1986; Johnson and Newport, 1989, 1991; Newport, 1990; Patkowski, 1980; Sorace, 1993

3.Asher and Garcia, 1969; Munro, Flege, and MacKay, 1996; Oyama, 1976

4. White and Genesee, 1992

5. Sanders, Yamada, and Neville, 1999; Thompson, 1991

6. McClelland, 2001

7. Long, 1990

8. Lenneberg, 1967

9. Dehaene et al. 1997; Perani et al., 1996; Yetkin et al., 1996

10. Abu-Rabia and Kehat 2004, Birdsong, 1992; White and Genesee, 1992; Sorace, 2003

11. Bialystok, 2001

References

Abu-Rabia, S. Kehat, S. (2004). ‘The Critical Period for Second Language Pronunciation: Is there such a thing? Ten case studies of late starters who attained a native-like Hebrew accent.’ Educational Psychology 24.1: 77-98.

Asher. J. and Garcia. G. (1969). ‘The optimal age to learn a foreign language.’ MLJ. 311: 334-341.

Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy, and cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Birdsong, D. (1992). ‘Ultimate attainment in second language acquisition’. Language 68: 706-755.

Coppieters, R. (1987). ‘Competence differences between near and near-native speakers’. Language 63: 544-573.

Dehaene, S., Dupoux, E., Mehler, J., Cohen, L., Perani, D., van de Moortele, P.-F., Lehérici, S., and Le Bihan, D. (1997). ‘Anatomical variability in the cortical representation of first and second languages’. Neuroreport 17: 3809-3815.

Harley, B. (1986). Age in second language acquisition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Johnson, J. and Newport, E. (1989). ‘Critical period effects in second language learning: the influence of maturational state on the acquisition of ESL’. Cognitive Psychology 21: 60-99.

Johnson, J.S. and Newport, E.L. (1991). 'Critical period effects on universal properties of language: the status of subjacency in a second language.’ Cognition 39: 215-68.

Krashen, S. D., M. A. Long, and R. C. Scarcella (1979). ‘Age, Rate and Eventual Attainment in Second Language Acquisition.’ TESOL QUARTERLY 13: 573-582.

Lenneberg, E.H. (1967). Biological Foundations of Language. New York: Riley.

Long, M. (1990). 'Maturational constraints on language development'. SSLA 12: 251-86.

McClelland, J. L. (2001). ‘Failures to learn and their remediation: A Hebbian account’. In J. L. McClelland and R. S. Siegler (Eds.), Mechanisms of Cognitive Development: Behavioral and Neural Approaches.

Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 97-211.

Munro, M., Flege, J. and MacKay, I. (1996). ‘The effect of age of second-language
learning on the production of English vowels’. Applied Psycholinguistics 17: 313-334.

Newport, E.L. (1990). ‘Maturational constraints on language learning’. Cognitive Science 14: 11-28.

Oyama, S. (1976). ‘A sensitive period for the acquisition of a non-native phonological system.’ Journal of Psycholinguistics Research 5:261-285. 4.

Oyama. S. (1978). ‘The Sensitive period and comprehension of speech.’ Working Papers on Bilingualism 1975: 1-17.

Patkowski, M. (1980). ‘The sensitive period for the acquisition of syntax in a second language.’ LL 30: 449- 472.

Perani, D., Dehaene, S., Grassi, F., Cohen, L., Cappa, S. F., Dupoux, E., Fazio, F., & Mehler, J. (1996). ‘Brain processing of native and foreign languages’. Neuroreport 7.15-17: 2439-2444.

Sanders, L., Yamada, Y., and Neville, H.J., (1999). ‘Speech segmentation by native and non-native speakers: An ERP study.’ Society for Neuroscience 25.1: 358.

Slavoff, G.R. and Johnson, J.S. (1996). ‘The effects of age on the rate of learning a second language.’ SSLA 17: 4-16.

Sorace, A. (1993). ‘Incomplete vs divergent representations of unaccusativity in near-native grammars of Italian.’ Second Language Research 9: 2248.

Sorace, A. (2003). ‘Near-nativeness’. In M. Long and C. Doughty (Eds.), Handbook of Second
Language Acquisition Theory and Research. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 130-152.

Thompson, I. (1991). ‘Foreign Accents Revisited: The English Pronunciation of
Russian Immigrants.’ Language Learning 41.2: 177-204.

Yetkin, O., Zerrin, Y. F., Haughton, V. M., and Cox, R. W. (1996). ‘Use of functional MR to map language in multilingual volunteers.’ American Journal of Neuroradiology 17: 473- 477.

The earlier the better: is there a ‘critical period’ for language learning?