critical period effects in second language acquisitionidiom.ucsd.edu/~goodall/119sla.pdfwith...
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![Page 1: Critical Period Effects in Second Language Acquisitionidiom.ucsd.edu/~goodall/119SLA.pdfwith increasing age of initial exposure.” • “The pattern of decline, however, failed to](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022042201/5ea1c8d207f73a43675a6a4a/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Second Language Acquisition and the Critical Period
Grant GoodallDept. of Linguistics
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What we will do today
• Introduction to second language acquisition
• How age affects second language acquisition
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Second language acquisition: a first look
• Classroom learning not the best example of L2 acquisition
• L2 acquisition is much like L1 acquisition• Child L2 acquisition is especially like L1
acquisition• Adult L2 acquisition diverges in certain
ways from L1 acquisition
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Classroom learning not the best example of L2 acquisition
• Majority of humans speak an L2; few of them learned it in classroom setting.
• Classroom language instruction is a relatively recent phenomenon.
• It usually involves just the beginning stages of acquisition.
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A typical language class
3hours per week30weeks per year
2years of study180 total hours of exposure
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What can you do in 180 hours?
• If you learn 10 words per hour, you will learn 1,800 words in 2 years.
• Is this a lot?
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You be the judge:
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You be the judge:
1,800 two years of instruction13,000 average 5-year-old60,000 average 18-year-old
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So…..
• Classroom language learning is worth studying (and worth doing!),
• But it is just one piece of the larger picture of second language acquisition.
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Second language acquisition: a first look
• Classroom learning not the best example of L2 acquisition
• L2 acquisition is much like L1 acquisition• Child L2 acquisition is especially like L1
acquisition• Adult L2 acquisition diverges in certain
ways from L1 acquisition
![Page 11: Critical Period Effects in Second Language Acquisitionidiom.ucsd.edu/~goodall/119SLA.pdfwith increasing age of initial exposure.” • “The pattern of decline, however, failed to](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022042201/5ea1c8d207f73a43675a6a4a/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
L2 acquisition is much like L1 acquisition
• Have to learn words: dog, run, of …– Typical error:
“Cover the turkey with aluminum paper.”
• Have to learn rules: SVO, “add –ed to make verb past tense” …– Typical error:
“I taked test yesterday.”
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Second language acquisition: a first look
• Classroom learning not the best example of L2 acquisition
• L2 acquisition is much like L1 acquisition• Child L2 acquisition is especially like L1
acquisition• Adult L2 acquisition diverges in certain
ways from L1 acquisition
![Page 13: Critical Period Effects in Second Language Acquisitionidiom.ucsd.edu/~goodall/119SLA.pdfwith increasing age of initial exposure.” • “The pattern of decline, however, failed to](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022042201/5ea1c8d207f73a43675a6a4a/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Child L2 acquisition is especially like L1 acquisition
• After arriving in a new language environment, younger children will “catch up” within a year or two.
• They then appear to be indistinguishable from L1 acquirers of the language.
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Second language acquisition: a first look
• Classroom learning not the best example of L2 acquisition
• L2 acquisition is much like L1 acquisition• Child L2 acquisition is especially like L1
acquisition• Adult L2 acquisition diverges in certain
ways from L1 acquisition
![Page 15: Critical Period Effects in Second Language Acquisitionidiom.ucsd.edu/~goodall/119SLA.pdfwith increasing age of initial exposure.” • “The pattern of decline, however, failed to](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022042201/5ea1c8d207f73a43675a6a4a/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Adult L2 acquisition diverges in certain ways from L1 acquisition
• Pronunciation
• Inflectional morphology (grammatical endings on words):– “The boy walks to school.”
• Subtle semantic distinctions not present in L1:– “I saw a cow” vs. “I saw the cow”– “El niño corría mucho” vs. “el niño corrió mucho”
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…but you already knowed this facts!
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But many other aspects of adult L2 acquisition work just as you
would expect…
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Adults readily learn:
• Words (vocabulary)
• Word order and many other aspects of syntax: SVO, VSO, SOV, etc.
Neko-ga nezumi-o toraeru.cat mouse catch
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Second language acquisition: a first look
• Classroom learning not the best example of L2 acquisition
• L2 acquisition is much like L1 acquisition• Child L2 acquisition is especially like L1
acquisition• Adult L2 acquisition diverges in certain
ways from L1 acquisition
![Page 20: Critical Period Effects in Second Language Acquisitionidiom.ucsd.edu/~goodall/119SLA.pdfwith increasing age of initial exposure.” • “The pattern of decline, however, failed to](https://reader034.vdocument.in/reader034/viewer/2022042201/5ea1c8d207f73a43675a6a4a/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Effects of age on L2 acquisition
• Critical period for L1 acquisition• What would a critical period for L2
acquisition look like?• Do we actually find such a critical period?• Do late learners ever attain
nativelikeness?
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Critical period for L1 acquisition
• Critical period = “window of opportunity”
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Standard evidence for critical period in L1
• Young infants are “universal listeners”. Ability declines around age 1.
• Delaying L1 acquisition until after childhood leads to low levels of grammatical development (e.g. Genie).
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Effects of age on L2 acquisition
• Critical period for L1 acquisition• What would a critical period for L2
acquisition look like?• Do we actually find such a critical period?• Do late learners ever attain
nativelikeness?
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What would a critical period for L2 acquisition look like?
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What would a critical period for L2 acquisition look like?
• “Geometric features”– Heightened sensitivity
at beginning– Clear point where
offset (decline) begins– Flat period when
critical period is over
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What would a critical period for L2 acquisition look like?
• “Temporal features”– Heightened sensitivity
through early childhood
– Sensitivity bottoms out when full neurocognitive maturity is reached
– Continued low sensitivity throughout adulthood
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Effects of age on L2 acquisition
• Critical period for L1 acquisition• What would a critical period for L2
acquisition look like?• Do we actually find such a critical period?• Do late learners ever attain
nativelikeness?
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Do we actually find such a critical period?
• The “classic” study says yes.• Johnson & Newport (1989) compared
English proficiency of Korean and Chinese immigrants to U.S.
• Age of arrival ranged from 3 to 39• Length of residence in U.S. at least 3
years• Subjects tested on variety of English
structures
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Results:
• Clear and strong advantage for early arrivals over late arrivals
• Age of arrival before puberty– Performance linearly related to age
• Age of arrival after puberty– Performance low but highly variable– Performance unrelated to age
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But…
• Reanalysis of Johnson & Newport suggests that cutoff point is 20, not puberty
• Birdsong & Molis (2001) got different results:
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Other studies point to same conclusion:
• Not clear there is sharp cutoff point
• Slow decline in sensitivity throughout life (i.e., no “flattening out”)
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Flege (1999)
• Pronunciation of Italian immigrants to Ontario, Canada
• Length of residence ≥ 15 years
• No cutoff point where decline begins
• No flattening out in adulthood
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Hakuta, Bialystok & Wiley (2003)
• Self-assessed oral proficiency ratings of Chinese- and Spanish-speaking immigrants to U.S. (1990 U.S. Census)
• Length of residence ≥ 10 years• 2.3 million responses• No cutoff point where decline begins• No flattening out in adulthood
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English proficiency ratings: Chinese speakers
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English proficiency ratings:Spanish speakers
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Key points from Hakuta, Bialystok & Wiley article
• “Our conclusion … is that second-language proficiency does in fact decline with increasing age of initial exposure.”
• “The pattern of decline, however, failed to produce the discontinuity that is the essential hallmark of a critical period.”
• “The degree of success in second-language acquisition steadily declines throughout the life span.”
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Tentative conclusions
• Is there a sharp cutoff point where sensitivity begins to decline?NO
• Does sensitivity flatten out in adulthood?NO
• Is there a significant change in sensitivity when maturation is reached?NO
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• Is there a well-defined critical period for L2 acquisition?NO
• Does age affect L2 acquisition?YES
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Effects of age on L2 acquisition
• Critical period for L1 acquisition• What would a critical period for L2
acquisition look like?• Do we actually find such a critical period?• Do late learners ever attain
nativelikeness?
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Do late learners ever attain nativelikeness?
• Previous assumed answer: Very rarely.• Is what we would expect if there is critical
period.• Newer research reevaluates this, shows
incidence of nativelikeness at 5% to 15%.• This is additional evidence against critical
period.
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Comments on nativelikeness
• Not monolithic: one can be nativelike in pronunciation, but not syntax (or vice-versa).
• Have to consider the appropriate population: those who have had years of interaction with language
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• Incidence of nativelikeness appears to decline with age of arrival, as we would expect.
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Final considerations
• Why does L2 learning ability decline throughout life?
– Biology
– Environment
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Biology
• Age-related changes in cognitive processing.
• For example, decreasing ability to:– Learn paired associates.– Encode new information.– Recall detail as opposed to gist.– Perform “control” processes (e.g. Simon task)
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Biology
• Also, general decline in:– Working memory capacity– Cognitive processing speed– Attention
These changes in brain functioning may account for much of the decline in language learning ability. But also …
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Environment
• Lack of input that is good for learning.• Need to respond in socially appropriate
way.• Insufficient time
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Wanna learn another language?
• Would have been easier 10 years ago.
• But will be harder still 10 years from now.
So do it now.