Influence of the Age Factor on Second Language Acquisition essay
Second language acquisition is a complex processwhich depends on a number of factors, such as cognitive development, cultural background, personal abilities, motivation, socio-economic background, age and the level of native language acquisition. Age is one of the important factors which influence second language acquisition. In addition, the age has strong influence on the level of native language acquisition and thus has additional meaning for the study process. Multiple researches have been performed in order to trace the relations between the age and second language acquisition. All these studies agree that age has an extremely important influence on language learning and that different researches in this field may greatly contribute to the theory and practice of second language acquisition. A lot of authors such as Ellis (2008), Larsen-Freeman (2008) and Mayberry and Lock (2003) state that younger learners are more successful in language study than aged ones. The interconnection between age and second language acquisition is evident and it is necessary to trace peculiarities of this connection. This study aims to trace correlation between the success of language acquisition and learners’ age.
FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
It is important to explain the notion of second language acquisition. Under this process specialists understand the process of acquiring other but foreign language. Studies in this field are concerned with the investigation of the process where learner acquires any other but his first language. This process can occur both – in the natural surrounding and in the form of the organized study process. The time of the beginning of study may differ significantly and may thus influence the results of the learning.
First of all, it is necessary to distinguish factors which influence the learning process when it comes to second language acquisition. Different specialists name different factors. For example, Yigiter (1988) distinguishes three factors which have influence on language learning. These factors include the role of teacher, the leaner and his position, and the learning method. Collier (1988) named leaner’s cognitive style, progress in native language acquisition and social and economic situation as the most influencing factors.
The age of learning is one of the most important factors in the process of second language learning. A lot of specialists believe that it has extremely important influence on the results of the study.
CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESES
Lenneberg (1967), one of the pioneers of the researches in the field of second language acquisition, expresses the idea that there is a certain period of language learning which should be considered by teachers and educators. His ideas got name Critical Period Hypotheses in language acquisition and expressed a thought that there is a period during which language acquisition is easy and natural. The Critical Period Hypothesis can be defined as “the period during which a child can acquire language easily, rapidly, perfectly, and without instruction” (Richards & Schmidt, 2002, p.145). During this period leaning process goes more successfully and the learners are more likely to achieve good results. This is explained by the fact that learning language is an innate characteristic peculiar to all human beings. It is regulated by the biological factors and they determine the certain period when acquisition is the most effective. This period lasts from two years to puberty. Starting from the age of two human brain becomes ready to acquire new things and to create new connections and correlations between things and objects. As Lenneberg (1967) states in his famous book Biological Foundations of Language at the age of two or three years the period when the language can be acquired easier than in other time of life. This period lasts till the age of puberty. During this period language acquisition gives the best results and this is explained by the peculiarities of human brain. So according to this hypothesis during certain period of time human brain is naturally inclined to learn.
This process lasts during childhood and youth and declines after puberty. Despite the fact that Lenneberg (1967) himself names different time limits to this period, he still traces strong correlation between human activity and puberty. According to him after the period of puberty language abilities quickly become worse and the process of leaning becomes less effective. After puberty the functioning of brain changes in such a way that basic skill which are necessary for the successful language acquisition decline. During this period learners show the best results in second language acquisition. Lenneberg explains the duration of this period from biological point of view and uses the notion of lateralization. Lenneberg believes that language function is an innate characteristic of human brain and the process of language acquisition is not the process of learning new things but rather the process of the activation of the function which already exists.
Lenneberg presupposes that during the childhood and early youth the right hemisphere takes part in the process of learning language. According to him, in the beginning both hemispheres take part in the process and it has got the name lateralization. Lateralization is a process when two sides of the brain develop special function. With the flow of time right hemisphere loses its language function and it passes totally to the left one. As soon as this process is over, language acquisition become more difficult. Lateralization is usually finished by the age of puberty. So, after the age of puberty language acquisition becomes more difficult. Lenneberg made different research and spend much time to investigate the critical period of successful language learning. He compared pronunciation of people who started learning language before the puberty period and after it and came to the conclusion that people who start learning language later than puberty period can not acquire the right accent in contrast to children and teenagers who start second learning acquisition before puberty and speak with little accent or without accent at all. These argument are also supported by the study performed by Fathman (1975) and Williams(1979). Fathman summed up his research in the work called The Relationship Between Age and Second Language Productive Ability, Language Learning, and Williams in the article called The Modification of Speech Perception and Production in Second Language Learning. After several years of study of pronunciation they came to the conclusion that younger students were more likely to adapt the pronunciation of the language acquired while the older ones were more likely to speak with an accent. These researches prove again the findings of Lenneberg about the critical period hypothesis. Later researchers have also proved his ideas about brain activity and connections between left and right hemispheres. Critical Period Hypothesis is an important notion in the study of the influence of age on second language acquisition. Despite the fact Lenneberg made his investigation a lot of years ago his ideas are still up to date and most of them are useful nowadays. Knowledge about Critical Period can become a powerful tool for teaches of the second foreign language and for those who wants to acquire it. The functioning of brain and the structure of human psychics definitely have an extremely important influence on the process of language study and this knowledge can increase teaching results to a great extent.
OLDER LEARNERS AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
A lot of researches started taking for granted Lenneberg’s studies about age limitation (12-13 years) in the second language acquisition. However, still there are researches (Singleton) which show that older learners are also successful in the second language and able to reach the same level or even higher as the young learners do. Singleton states that language capacity of some immigrants improves with time. He refers to Ervin-Tripp which took place in 1974 as an example: “Ervin-Tripp conducted of 31 young English speaking children who had been exposed to French for a period that spanned nine months. The results of Ervin-Tripp’s research showed that the older students outperformed the younger learners in every field of the learning process” (Singleton, 2004, p.184). He also gives another example of Dutch learners who started learning English in the classroom after the age of twelve. These learners were able to gain native-like accent (Singleton, 2004). However, these are single cases and more exceptions from the rule and even Singleton himself states that for the long run young learners are able to reach more language proficiency than those who started learning the second language after twelve.
Krashen (1979) also investigates this subject and presents short- and long-term results in the second language acquisition among children and adults. His conclusions are the following: adults and older children come through stages of morphological and syntactic development quicker than children, but early start or second language learning usually guarantees higher general language proficiency with the flow of time.
STAGES of SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
The process of Second Language Acquisition consitsts of 5 stages. Haynes (2007) marks out the following stages: Preproduction, Early Production, Speech Emergence, Intermediate Fluency and Advanced Fluency. The Preproduction stage is also called “the silent stage” and the learner’s vocabulary is up to 500 words at this period. At the Early Production stage the learner’s vocabulary grows up to 1000 words and he/she is already able to build up simple phrases and use short language forms. At the stage of Speech Emergency the vocabulary is about 3000 words and the learner builds simple phrases and sentences here. The stage of Intermediate Fluency presumes the vocabulary of about 6000 words and at this stage the learner is able to make more complex sentences and his/her comprehension of the second language is great. The last stage called Advanced Fluency can be compared with almost native speaker’s language abilities, however, it takes time to achieve it – around 5-10 years in average (Haynes, 2007).
Halgunseth (2009), a SLA researcher, states that children can learn the second language in two ways: simultaneously or sequentially. Simultaneous learners are children under three who learn their mother tongue at home and acquire the second language in the kindergarten or other close surrounding. Young children from multi-language families also learn two or even more languages simultaneously: mum speaks German, for example, and dad speaks English. The child makes no difference between the languages and does not choose the favourite one. He/she subconsciously knows what language to use with a particular member of the family and does not mix them up. Children’s brain allows them to learn more than one language. If children hear two different languages, they construct two different language systems in their brain. Each system corresponds to the one language. The construction of such systems reminds the process of language acquisition which occurs when the person stats learning not native language. (Halgunseth 2009). If one language is more frequently used in the family and prevails over the second one, with time the child feels it and declines it. The frequency of the language usage may also depend on the time spent with the member who speaks the particular language.
The sequent learning presumes the usage of one language as the mother tongue (the main language) and introduction of the second language at extra classes or language school, for example. Halgunseth (2009) insists that the age factor is crucial for the simultaneous learning, while it is not so important for the sequent learning. The factors which influence the sequent learning are motivation and language capacity.
CONCLUSION
It is generally believed that younger learners are more successfully in mastering the second language. A lot of specialists believe that the younger the learner is, the easier the study process goes. In reality the relationship between and success in learning second language is complex . From the one side Critical Period Hypothesis theory states that early age is the best age for language acquisition, from the other side mystery in native language contributes greatly to the successful acquisition of the second language. There are specialists who doubt The Critical Period Hypothesis and state that older learners show better results than the younger ones. For example, David Singleton (2003) expressed an idea that “younger learners to do better in the long run in the matter of second language lexical acquisition is no more than a tendency” (p. 22). In addition, other factors have also a very strong impact on language acquisition. A lot of authors state that surrounding and social factors have a very important impact on the study success. For example, if the person learns language in the class during lessons, his result will be different from the person’s results person who lives in the language environment and has an opportunity to hear the target language all the time. In addition, some specialists believe that older learners have better language competency and have better abilities for problem solving and thus can achieve better results in language acquisition. Different aspects of language are perceived differently by different age categories. Early learners show better results in learning pronunciation, while older students acquire grammar and syntax better. Language capacity is another factor which has an important impact on second language acquisition. Some people have natural ability to language study while others do not and these tendencies are only reinforced by age factors.
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