AGE AND ACQUISITION Erdem Kuskan

AGE AND ACQUISITION Erdem Kuskan 2016218117
Nurettin Türemiş Arda Ulubeli

*Language is the principle means of human communication and the primary tool for us to convey our ideas to others. *This conscious or subconscious acquisition of language has been one of the most the most fascinating and mysterious aspects of human development.

*Significant shifts in language teaching due to the drastic increase in researches and studies on the first language acquisition within the last few decades.

*Curricula for language teaching trainees, students across the world include the studies of first language acquisiton. *Studying and understanding how first language acquisition occurs can offer valuable information about what can we do to provide the most effective SECOND language acquisition for our students.

*The second language acquisiton can happen from early childhood until late adulthood. Can understanding childhood and adulthood differences provide a solution for all of our problems and questions about language acquisition?

The Behaviouristic Theory And The Audiolingual Method
*All behaviours are learned through interaction with the environment and innate or inherited factors have very little to no influence on behaviour. *Humans produce their behaviours in responce to certain stimuli in the environment and this behaviour depends on other factors such the individual’s reinforcement, punishment, current motivational state etc.

*The fundamentals of language are essentially developed through conditioning and habit formation. * Competence is achieved by the learner responding to the stimuli which is the speech they are exposed to from their caregivers and environment. And then receives feedback in the form of positive reinforcement or correction.

* Practically, the child or the student imitates and memorizes the language used in their specific contexts and behaviours. Errors made during the first language acquisition are viewed as bad habits and are should be removed with sufficient amount of drilling and rote learning.

*This language teaching method was called the Audiolingual method and it was the most popular method during the mid twentieth century. *In 1970 Hans Heinrich Stern summarized some of the most common arguments on behalf of the Audiolingual Method

1)In language teaching, we must practice and practice, again and again
1)In language teaching, we must practice and practice, again and again. Just watch a small child learning his mother tongue. They repeat things over and over again. During the language learning stage he practices all the time. This is what we must also do when we learn a foreign language.

2)Language learning is mainly a matter of imitation
2)Language learning is mainly a matter of imitation. You must be a mimic. Just like a small child. They mimic everything. 3)First we practice the seperate sounds, then words, then sentences. That is the natural order and is therefore right for learning a foreign language.

4)Watch a small child’s speech development
4)Watch a small child’s speech development. First they listen, then they speak. Understanding always precedes speaking. Therefore, this must be the right order of presenting the skills in a foreign language.

5)A small child listens and speaks and no one would ever dream of making him read or write. Reading and writing are advanced stages of language development. The naturel order for first and second language learning is listening, speaking, reading and then writing.

6)You did not have to translate when you were small
6)You did not have to translate when you were small. If you were able to learn your own langauge without translation, you should be able to learn foreign language in the same way.

7)A small child simply uses language. They do not learn formal grammar
7)A small child simply uses language. They do not learn formal grammar. You dont tell them about verbs or nouns. Yet they learn the language perfectly. It is equally unnecesarry to use grammatical conceptualization in teaching a foreign language.

*These statements represent the views of those who completely adopted the behaviouristic theory of language learning in which the first language acquisiton process was thought to be consisted of rote practice, habit formation, shaping, overlearning, reinforcement, condiditioning, association, stimulus and response and likewise assumed that the second language acquisition can also involve these same constructs.

*As cognitivist and constructivist theories and researches on first language acquisiton gained popularity, mistakes in drawing direct analogies between first and second language acquisitions started to become more clear.

*Some of the first criticisms against the behavioristic approaches on langauge acquisition were raised by the cognitive psychologist David Ausubel around He issued these following statements:

1)The rote learning practice of audiolingual drills lacked the meaningfulness necesarry for a successful first and second language acquisition. 2)Adults learning a foreign language could, with their full cognitive capacities, benefit from deductive presentations of grammar.

3)The native language of the learner is not just an interfering factor
3)The native language of the learner is not just an interfering factor. It can also facilitate learning a second language. 4)The written form of the language could be beneficial. 5)Students could be overwhelmed by language spoken at “it’s natural speed,” and they, like children, could benefit from more deliberative speech from the teacher.

*Those criticisms against the audiolingual approach were clearly based on his cognitive perspective and expertise which ran counter to the dominant behaviouristic approaches of his time.

*However Ausubel was ahead of his time when it comes to his criticisms against behaviourism. In 1964 which was the year when he stated those criticisms, audiolingual method were widely accepted by linguists and teachers.

*Only by the 70s and 80s, such criticisms against behaviouristic learning theories was going to become mainstream.

*Some behaviourist figures acknowledged the inaccuracies of forming direct analogies between first-second language acquisitions but also stated that those anologies could help us draw some constructive conclusions about the second language acquisition.

*Cook, Schachter and Stern whom we’ve just talked about when we were covering his statements on behalf of the audiolingual method.

Comparisons And Contrasts
*Comparisons and contrasts are the cornerstones of researches in language acquisition and critical period. Drawing analogies is essential not only between the first and second language acquisition but also the learning situations of children and adults.

CHILD ADULT L1 C1 A1 L2 C2 A2 C1 represents the first and C2 represents the second language acquisition of children. Meanwhile A1 represents the first and A2 represents the second language acquisition of adults.

CHILD ADULT L1 C1 A1 L2 C2 A2 Comparison between C1 and A2 would be illogical. Both variables are different.

CHILD ADULT L1 C1 A1 L2 C2 A2 A1 represents an extremely abnormal situation which is practically impossible to test on. There are only a few known instances where an adult acquired a first language.

The most known case is the case of Genie Wiley
*The most known case is the case of Genie Wiley. *Genie was able to learn vocabulary but never learned how to form or understand sentences.

Such cases are called “feral children. ”
*Such cases are called “feral children.” *They go through extreme parental abuse, neglect or isolation. They’re sometimes raised in the wilderness. *They manage to get rehabilitated to some extent but they never achive learning a human language.

CHILD ADULT L1 C1 A1 L2 C2 A2 CHILD ADULT L1 C1 A1 L2 C2 A2

The Critical Period Hypothesis
*Lenneberg’s Critical Period Hypothesis establishes a framework for all studies related with age and language learning. *In CPH, Lenneberg suggests that there is a finite period of time where one can acquire their first language flawlessly.

*According to this hypothesis, the mastery of morphology, phonology and syntax is limited to those who study the langauge before puberty. It is hypothesised that after this biological timetable, acquiring a first language is significantly difficult or even impossible.

*As the behaviourist thinking garnered less and less support. Chomsky proposed a system with more internal focus. *All children have a biological predisposition for learning languages masterfully without minimal effort.

*Language Acquisition Device (LAD) that grants them the cognitive ability of systematic perception and the constant integration of the emerging language. *There are a set of internal rules called Universal Grammar which determine one’s ability to understand and produce language.

*Critical Period Hypothesis is related to the Chomsky’s Nativist Approach as it implies the existence of Language Acquisiton Device and Universal Grammar. *Critical Period Hypothesis was only proposed for the first language acquisition.

*Some researchers such as Singleton & Lengyel in ninety five and Thomas Scovel have proposed the possibility of the Critical Period Hypothesis being applied to the second language acquisition.

*Puberty marks the end of the critical period after which people seemed relatively incapable of acquiring a second language.

*This has led to some serious misconceptions such as after the age of twelve or thirteen, a proficient second language acquisition is very unlikely. Such assumptions and misconceptions however might stem from high expectations from “successful” second language learners and the role accent plays in the evaluation of that success.

*Neurological and phonological considerations, and then cognitive, affective and linguistic considerations.

Neurological Considerations
*Neurological studies, functions of the brain during the process of acquisition serve as one of the most promising areas of studies in age and acquisiton.

Hemispheric Laterization
*As the brain matures, certain functions are assigned to different hemispeheres of the brain. *Intellectual, logical, analytical functions are assigned to the left hemispehere of the brain whereas, emotional and social functions are assigned to the right hemisphere.

*This takes place before the puberty years and is called hemispheric laterization. *Although as uncertain as we are, language functions are seemed to be assigned mainly to left hemisphere.

*Eric Lenneberg claimed that this laterization is a very slow process that starts at the age of two and ends around puberty. *The child assignes different specific functions little by little to one side of the brain and the other. And then language functions is assigned to the left hemisphere.

*Children who suffer injury to their left hemispheres are able to instead reassign langage functions to their right side of their brain. Basically “relearning” their language.

*Thomas Scovel claimed that this laterization process, in other words the elasticity of the brain is directly linked with not only the first, but also the second language acquisition as well. And the induviduals who went through this process are incredibly unlikely to attain a fluent control of a second language.

*Even though the direct links between the laterization process and the first language acquisition seems promising at first, there are some inconsistencies. *Further neurological researches yield different results about when does the laterization process ends.

*So even though it feels promising at first, there are not sufficient amount of concrete evidence that correlate brain laterization with second YET ALONE, not even first language acquisition.

Biological Timetables
*In 1988, Scovel cited an evidence of a sociobiological critical period in certain birds and mammals. *Scovel discovered the development of a bonding accent at puberty enabling aforementioned species to form an identity within their own community AND to attract mates to maintain their own kind.

Scovel claimed that “if such biologically predetermined accents exist in some species of birds and apes, why cant it exist for human beings as well??” He explains “an imperfect accent emerging after puberty is the price we pay for our preordained ability to be articulate apes.”

*Walsh and Diller in followed up with an influental research which proved that in different other aspects of language that is other than pronounciation, second language learning performance vary greatly over ages.

*They stated that pronounciation and other low order processes are dependant on early childhood and this makes the unfamiliar foreign accent of a second language learner, diffucult to overcome.

*In higher order language functions however, they stated that adults actually have the upper hand as those functions are dependant on late maturing neural circuits. They explained that college students and adults are able to learn far more amount of grammar and vocabulary than pre-puberty elementary school students.

*In another research conducted by Krashen, Michael A. Long and Robin C. Scarcella in 1979, they presented these three generalizations about relationships between age, rate and eventual attainment in second language acquisition:

1)Adults proceed through the early stages of syntactic and morphological development faster than children. 2)Older children acquire a second language faster that younger children. 3)Acquirers who begin their natural exposure to the second language during childhood generally achieve higher second language proficiency than those who begin during their adulthood.

*So far, the evidence that we’ve looked upon doesn’t seem to be in favor of a critical period in second language acquisition. *In grammatical and vocabulary studies, early syntactic and morphological development and general learning performence within a classroom setting, adults seem to outperform children quite significantly.

*On the other hand in the case of natural exposure, complete attainment of the second language seems to way faster if the natural exposure begins at early childhood rather than adulthood. Which seems to suggest that “the younger it is the better” argument seems legitimate in some cases.

*But the critical period for the second language acquisition only seems to exist in the case of developing a nativelike accent and no other aspect of language.

Anthropological Evidence
*There have been cases of adults acquiring nativelike accent after puberty but those cases have been very few. *In 1970, the anthropologist Jane Hill challenged Scovel’s study by citing an anthropological research on certain non western societies where adults can acquire their second languages perfectly.

*Hill cited a research by Sorenson (1967) about certain tribal communities in South America where at least two dozen different languages were spoken in intertwined communities. It was found that intertribal marriages allowed adults to acquire second, third or even fourth languages with perfect pronounciations.

By citing this evidence, Hill stated that: “…the language acquisition seen in adult language learners in the largely monolingual American middle class speechcommunities… may have been inappropriately taken to be a universal situation in proposing an innatist explanation for adult foreign accents. Multilingual speech communities of various types deserve careful study.

*In subsequent decades, Hill’s suggestion was acknowleged by some researchers whom consider factors such as motivation, affective variables, social factors, quality of input and etc. while explaining the apparent advantage of the child. Some other scholars however, disputed Hill’s conclusions and sided with Scovel’s critical period for second language acquisition.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ACCENT

In terms of the relation between age and acquisition, the term called “foreign accent” has some importance. The main argument among linguists about the significance of accent in language acquisition is whether there are any differences between children and adults in acquiring a native-like accent of a foreign, and whether children have any advantages over adults at this point.

First of all, it is good to know that considering such several hundred muscles as throat, larynx (or voice box), mouth, lips, tongue, and etc. are the ones that people use articulating some speech, and they are the necessary components of the fluency of a native speaker of a language. That is, a highly great level of control of these muscles is necessary for a native-like fluency.

Complete muscular control over speech muscles develops gradually. At birth, they develop only to the extent that a newborn uses the larynx to control some sustained cries. Phonemic control, which is a result of muscular control, is completed in almost all children prior to puberty. However, there are some complex sounds in certain languages, and control of them is sometimes not achieved until after age five. Examples of such sounds are the [r] and [l] sounds in English.

According to research, critical period is crucial in acquiring the accurate phonological control of a foreign language. Most of the evidence shows that people beyond adolescence do not acquire a native-like pronunciation of L2. Possible reasons for such an age-based factor are neuromuscular plasticity, cerebral development, sociobiological programs, and the environment of sociocultural development.

However, there are some exceptions to this age-based factor. That is, some people beyond their puberty can achieve a nearly flawless native-like pronunciation of a foreign language. This is because they have the ability somewhere within their competence to override the neurobiological critical period effects. Nevertheless, statistically, the number of such adults is highly limited compared to the ones without such an ability.

It is clearly understood that although adult learners possess extensive discrimination training, a highly articulate verbal repertory, and a lot of control over the language learning process, adults cannot master the sound patterns of a second language with the fluency of a native speaker, and therefore are not able to have a native-like accent in L2 unlike children. It is also understood that Scovel is right in his “Strong CPH”.

Gerald Neufeld’s Experiments: Linguist Gerald Neufeld executed a set of studies to see to what extent adults could approximate native-speaker accents in a second language never before encountered.

In his earliest experiment, twenty adult native English speakers were taught to imitate ten utterances, each from one to sixteen syllables in length, in Chinese and in Japanese. Native-speaking Japanese and Chinese judges listened to the taped imitations. The result indicated that eleven of the Japanese and nine of the Chinese imitations were judged to have been produced by native speakers.

While there were some limitations to Neufeld’s studies, and he recognized them, he suggested that older students had neither lost their sensibility to subtle differences in sounds, rhythm, and pitch nor the ability to reproduce these sounds and contours. However, Scovel and Long later confuted this claim of Neufeld by stating that there were glaring experimental flaws in his experiments. These flaws resulted from the methodology used to judge native speaker and from the information initially given to the judges.

Morgan Moyer’s Study: Morgan Moyer executed a study with native-English graduate students of German to challenge the strong version of CPH; however, the result did nothing but upholding strong CPH because subjects’ performance was not judged to be comparable to native speakers of German.

Theo Bongaerts Radboud’s Study: The study called Bongaerts et al. reported on a group of adult Dutch speakers of English, all late learners, who recorded a monologue, a reading of a short text, and readings of isolated sentences and isolated words. The result of the study was that the performances of some of the non-native speakers, for some of the trials, were judged to have come from native speakers. However, this was not completely true, but how?

In a later review of the study, Scovel carefully noted that many native speakers of English involved were judged to be non-native.

Consequently, following these and many other studies, it was understood and recognized that Scovel’s strong CPH was unchallengeable. Besides, after all the reviews on age and acquisition, some powerful evidence of a critical period for accent is found. Although adult learners can far surpass younger ones in learning vocabulary items, syntactic rules, and stylistic variations, they scarcely seem able to get rid of a foreign accent.

Nonetheless, it should be kept in mind that this factor of critical period is only for achieving an authentic accent of a foreign language. It is also vital to remember that pronunciation of a language is not the only and the most important criterion for acquisition, and the acquisition of the communicative and functional purposes of language is far more important than a perfect native accent.

Henry Kissinger Effect: This term is used when people have less than perfect pronunciation but magnificent and fluent control of a second language.

COGNITIVE CONSIDERATIONS

Human cognition develops at a great rate in the course of sixteen years of life and less fast thereafter. Some cognitive changes are critical, while others are more gradual and difficult to detect.

Jean Piaget outlined the process of intellectual development in a child through various stages: Sensorimotor Stage Birth to Two Preoperational Stage Ages Two to Seven Operational Stage Ages Seven to Sixteen a. Concrete Operational Stage Ages Seven to Eleven b. Formal Operational Stage Ages Eleven to Sixteen

Sensori-motor Stage (0-2): This is the first stage of a child’s life. Babies at this stage interact with their surroundings by their senses. For example, they touch things, bang them, pull them (the ones within their reach), lick them, or put them into their mouths. Through such actions, they learn about the world and develop some needed motor skills. In other words, at this stage, a child’s intelligence depends on actions, movements, and perceptions without any language.

Preoperational Stage (2-7): At this stage, children start to think. However, this deed of theirs is not logical because they cannot use logic to transform, combine, or separate ideas yet. In other words, they cannot manipulate the information they have learnt while learning about the world by experiencing it. Additionally, they gain the ability to speak at this stage and are egocentric.

Operational Stage (7-16): Operational Stage consists of two substages called “Concrete Operational Stage” and “Formal Operational Stage”. “Operational” refers to the ability to manipulate information and ideas by using logic. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11): At this stage, children start to think logically and rationally and classify tangible objects. However, this ability of theirs is limited as well as being confined to only concrete things and objects. Besides all, at this developmental stage, the construction of numbers is encountered.

Formal Operational Stage (11-16): This is the last stage of intellectual development according to Piaget. At this stage, children’s ability to think rationally and logically and to classify goes beyond concrete objects. Now, children are able to think about abstract and theoretical things and manipulate them as well as being able to use logic to come up with creative solutions to problems. Thinking becomes far more sophisticated and advanced. Children think about abstract concepts through symbols.

Additionally, at this stage, the terms “Schema”, “Assimilation”, “Accommodation”, and “Equilibration” (later to be discussed) are encountered. In conclusion, Piaget suggests that intellectual development is completed through these four stages in human life.

According to Piaget’s outline, there is a critical stage for a consideration of age-related effects on SLA (second language acquisition) at puberty, which starts at the age of eleven to his model. During puberty, people become capable of abstraction and formal thinking. Formal thinking transcends concrete experience and direct perception, which, here at this point, a critical period for language acquisition becomes arguable as language acquisition and the concrete/formal stage transition get connected.

The Connection Between Language Acquisition and Concrete/Formal Transition: David Ausubel subtly point such a connection out when he noted that adult learners of a L2 could profit from certain grammatical explanations and deductive thinking that clearly would be meaningless for a child. However, whether adults profit from such explanations depends on the suitability and efficiency of the explanation, the teacher, the context, and other pedagogical variables.

Despite such an ability that adults possess, observations have shown that children learn second languages well without the benefit of formal operational thought. This surely leads to the question, “Does this capacity of formal, abstract thought have a facilitating or inhibiting effect on language acquisition in adults?”

Ellen Rosansky offered an explanation to this question stating that initial language acquisition takes place when the child is highly centered. He says that children are not only egocentric at this time, but also focus temporarily on one dimension each time when faced with a problem. To him, this lack of flexibility and decentrations may be a necessity for language acquisition.

It is important to bare in mind that young children most of the time acquire language being unaware. They are also unaware of the societal values and attitudes placed on languages.\ Do you think language learners who are too consciously aware of what they are doing will have difficulty in learning a second language?

The answer to this is question is “No” due to two counterevidence, one of which is logical, and the other and the other anecdotal. Logical Evidence: A superior intellect should facilitate a tremendously complex intellectual activity. Anecdotal Evidence: Some successful adult language learners have been highly aware of the process they were going through, even to the point that they utilize from self-made paradigms and other fabricated language devices to facilitate the learning process.

So, if successful second language acquisition is to be claimed to be the result of adult cognition, then, some intervening variables allowing some people to be quite successful second language learners after adolescence need to be mentioned. However, such variables are probably more central in the affective domain than they are in the cognitive domain.

Lateralization Hypothesis: As children mature into adulthood, the left hemisphere becomes more dominant than the right hemisphere. It is possible that this left-hemispheric domination contributes to an inclination to overanalyze and to be too intellectually centered on the task of learning a second language.

Equilibration: Equilibration, which is a Piagetian notion, is defined as progressive interior organization of knowledge in a stepwise fashion and is related to the concept of equilibrium of Formal Operational Stage. This definition means that cognition develops as a process of moving from states of doubt and uncertainty (disequilibrium) to stages of resolution and certainty (equilibrium) and the cycle continues.

According to Piaget’s claim, conceptual development is a process of moving from disequilibrium to equilibrium progressively, and periods of disequilibrium mark practically all cognitive development up in through age fourteen or fifteen, during which formal operations are finally firmly and equilibrium is reached.

It is reasonable that disequilibrium may give some significant motivation for language acquisition. That is, language interacts with cognition to achieve equilibrium. Perhaps until the state of final equilibrium is reached, children are cognitively ready and eager to acquire the language necessary for achieving the cognitive equilibrium of adulthood. Until that time, they are decreasingly tolerant of and indifferent to cognitive ambiguities, which means they can’t realize contradictions.

However, intellectual growth produces an awareness of ambiguities and contradictions around children and enhances the need for resolution. In consequence of such a general intolerance, an acute awareness of enormous complexities of acquiring a second language is probably produced. Moreover, this intolerance, occurring probably between age fourteen or fifteen, causes to an overwhelming prospect of learning a second language. Hence, learners are discouraged from proceeding one step at a time as younger children would do.

The Distinction Between Rote and Meaningful Learning: Initially, rote refers to a mechanistic learning that is not related to existing knowledge and experience but depends on meaningless repetitions and mimicking. In contrast, meaningful learning refers to learning by anchoring and relating new items and experiences to knowledge that already exists in the cognitive framework.

Ausubel made a distinction between these two learning types; he indicated that people of all ages have little need for rote. Saying that children make good use of rote learning through meaningless repetition and mimicking cannot be justified because it is known that children’s practice and imitation is a very meaningful activity that is contextualized and purposeful.

As for adults, they have a greater ability for rote learning as they have greater concentration. Nonetheless, adults use rote learning for short-term memory or artificial purposes. In conclusion, we may infer that foreign language classrooms should not become a place of excessive rote activity, rote drills, rule recitation, pattern practice without context, and other activities out of the context of meaningful communication.

If adults learning a foreign language by rote methods in a classroom are compared to children learning a second language in a natural and meaningful context without being in a classroom, children’s learning will seem to be superior to that of adults. The reason for such superiority might not be in the age, but in the context of learning as in such a case, children happen to be learning language meaningfully, while adults are not.

AFFECTIVE CONSIDERATIONS

Humans are emotional creatures. No matter how intellectually we try to think, we are influenced by our emotions. Emotion is at the heart of all meaning, thought, and action. Therefore, looking at the affective (emotional) domain for some of the answers to the problems of contrasting differences between first and second language acquisition.

For a number of decades, the amount of the research on the affective domain in the second language acquisition has regularly increased. There are some factors that have inspired this research. Now, linguistic theory is asking questions about human language and is trying to discover, with some applied linguists, if there are any explanations to the mysteries of language acquisition in the affective side of human behavior.

The affective domain includes many factors: empathy, self-esteem, extroversion, egocentricity, inhibition, imitation, anxiety, attitudes, and so on. Under this chapter, some affective factors related to the issue of age and acquisition are going to be discussed.

Egocentricity: Very young children are quite egocentric. That is, they think the world revolves around them and they are the most important part of it seeing everything as focusing on themselves. This is called egocentricity. At first, small babies cannot make any distinctions in terms of a separation between themselves and the world around them.

If you give them an object to hold, they see it as an inseparable extension of themselves, and when they drop or lose the sight of it, the existence of the object is no longer present to them. As children grow, they desire to define and understand their self-identity, and thus, become more aware of themselves and more self-conscious. Children in their preadolescence period develop an acute consciousness of themselves as separate and identifiable.

However, they feel insecure and need protection, which causes the development of inhibitions about this self-identity as they are afraid of being exposed to too much self-doubt. At puberty, these inhibitions increase in the trauma of going through physical, emotional, and cognitive changes which are critical. A completely new physical, emotional, and cognitive identity is expected to be necessarily acquired by adolescents.

In addition to being affected in how they understand themselves, their egos also affected in how they reach out beyond themselves, how they relate to other people socially, and how they use communicative process to give rise to the development of affective equilibrium.

The Language Ego: The language ego was proposed by Alexander Guiora, who was a researcher in the study of personality variables in second language learning. It refers to the identity that people develop in regard to the language they speak. For monolingual people, the language ego involves the interaction of the native language and ego development.

A person’s identity is inevitably connected with their language since such identities are confirmed, shaped, and reshaped in the communicative process. Guiora put forward that the language ego may be the reason for the difficulties that adults have in learning a second language. Children’s egos are dynamic, growing, and flexible through the age of adolescence. Therefore, a new language at this stage does not pose a considerable “threat” or inhibition to the ego.

Unless there are any extreme confounding sociocultural factors, such as a damaging attitude towards a language or a language group at a young age, adaptation to a new language is made relatively easily. When such inhibitions occur, the concurrent physical, emotional, and cognitive changes of puberty lead to a defensive mechanism in which the language ego becomes protective and defensive.

The language ego clings to the security of the native language to protect the delicate ego of the young adult. Hence, the language ego gets threatened as well as being a part and parcel of the self-identity. This causes a context in which one makes a fool of themselves in the trial-and-error struggles in speaking and understanding of a foreign language. Younger children get less anxious, for they are less aware of the language forms.

“Forms” refers to the mistakes one must make when they attempt to communicate spontaneously. Additionally, it can be understood that younger children are not greatly concerned about making mistakes while using the language.

The fact that the acquisition of a new language ego is an overwhelming task for young adolescents, but what about adults? The case is the same for adults who have been used to their comfortable and secure identities and who are of a wall of defensive protection, in other words “inhibitions”. It is not easy to get over these inhibitions and acquiring a second identity. This can only be succeeded when one masters the needed ego strength to overcome inhibitions.

Besides, a successful adult learner of a second language may be capable of bridging such an affective gap. Moreover, for a bilingual adult who learnt a second language during his/her childhood, learning a third or more language at an age of adulthood causes much less of threat. Or not resting on a bilingual experience, combinations of nature and nurture provide the chance to achieve such kind of success

While considering SLA in children, making a distinction between younger and older children is of some importance. That is, a preadolescent child at the age of nine or ten start to develop some inhibitions and conceivably has a lot of affective dissonance to get over while trying to learn a second language. So, this could be the reason for the difficulties that older preadolescent children face with in acquiring a second language.

Besides making distinctions among children with different developmental stages, comparisons between children and adult are relevantly justifiable. Both observational and research evidence has made it clear that mature adults manifest a number of inhibitions.

“Other affective factors seem to hinge on the basic notion of ego identification. It would appear that the study of second language learning as the acquisition of a second identity might pose a fruitful and important issue in understanding not only some differences between child and adult first and second language learning but second language learning in general.”

Attitudes: “Your attitude to something is the way you think and feel about it.” Negative attitudes can affect success in learning a second language. Very young children without sufficient cognitive development to possess attitudes towards races, cultures, ethnic groups, classes of people, and languages are likely to be less affected than adults.

However, children begin to acquire types and stereotypes of people as they reach the school age. Most of these attitudes are taught consciously or unconsciously by parents, other adults, and peers. The learners with positive attitudes towards the people speaking the second language or the second language itself are prone to learning more easily and with rapid progress than the ones with negative attitudes. Besides, a learner’s attitudes determine and affect the success in L2 learning and participation in a foreign language lesson.

Peer Pressure: There is a difference between the kind of peer pressure that a child and an adult experience. For children, it can be more damaging and traumatic than it is for adults. That is, children usually have strong pressure upon them to conform. In words, thoughts, and actions, they are told to be like the rest of the kids. Such kind of peer pressure includes language, as well.

Besides, children are harsher and more brutal critics of each other’s actions and words and therefore may give a necessary and sufficient degree of mutual pressure to learn L2.

As far as adults are concerned, peer pressure is unavoidable, as already stated. In contrast to that of children, adults’ peer pressure has lighter effects as they tend to tolerate linguistic differences or mistakes more than children would do. Therefore, errors in speech are more easily and confidently excused. If an adult is able to understand a L2 speaker, they will generally give positive cognitive and affective feedbacks and a level of tolerance that help some adult learners to get by.

LINGUISTIC CONSIDERATIONS

LINGUISTIC CONSIDERATIONS
Up to now, learners themselves have been looked at, and some different issues in age and acquisition have been considered. Yet now, it is time to look at some issues at the center of the subject matter itself, which is language. A growing number of research studies are now available to illuminate second language learning and how those processes differ between children and adults. What do you think are some of the linguistic considerations in age-related questions about SLA?

Bilingualism Bilingualism is the ability to speak and communicate in two languages. There are two types of bilingualism; 1. Coordinate bilingualism 2. Compound bilingualism

Coordinate Bilingualism
In this type of Bilingualism, the person learns the languages in separate contexts, environments and thus they have two separate meaning system for each language. For example, a child who speaks Turkish at home ,which is his native language, learns English as a second language at school.

Compound Bilingualism
There is no separation in this type unlike the coordinate bilingualism. The person learns both languages in the same environment and context. So, they have one meaning system for both languages. For example, a child whose parents are bilingual and speak both Turkish and English at home.

Interference Between First and Second Languages
Interference between first and second languages in young children is minimal, as they are not proficient in their first language, when we compare it with the adults. There are a lot of research that confirms the second language acquisition in children shows similarities in terms of linguistic and cognitive processes, such as Ravem (1968), Milon (1974), and the errors made by the children shows little to no trace of interference from the first language.

Interference in adults
Adults are more likely to show traces of interference from the first language in the second language acquisition process. As they rely mostly on their first language and try to understand the linguistic rules of the target language based on the knowledge they have and the information they can get from teachers, classmates and peers.

If the time gap between the acquisition of the second language and first language is big, then there is more probability for the interference between first and second language to occur. Because the first language that the person know will affect the way he/she will approach to the new language.

Even though children seems to have more advantages when it comes to second language acquisition, which is true in most cases, this shouldn't mean that the adults are inferior to them. Each group has its own advantages and disadvantages. When we think about schema, background knowledge for example adults are superior and thus can form meaningful connections between the two languages consciously.

''the link between age and second language outcomes is not linear and is much more complex than generally thought. To begin, learners who begin to acquire a second language earlier generally also have more exposure to that language than those who begin later. Thus, it is often impossible to separate the effects of age from amount of exposure.''

Do you think that order of second language acquisition is similar to the first language acquisition?

Order of Acquisition -Listening -Speaking -Reading -Writing

Researchers mostly agreed on the fact that the children acquire their first language in a ''fixed and universal order'' without learning the specific grammatical rules of the language. However, when it comes to second language acquisition, the order of language acquisition is varied. Why do you think the order of acquisition in second language acquisition is varied?

For example, think about a Turkish and an English child
For example, think about a Turkish and an English child. They will both acquire their first language firstly by listening then speaking and after that reading and writing. But when they are expected to learn German as a second language, they will show different processes.

We shouldn't forget that we are all human and our acquisition process may differ on a lot of variables from person to person. For example, our interests, cultural background, schema and so on.

Issues in First Language Acquisition Revisited
It is difficult to achieve proficiency over second language unlike as in first language. Too much exposure to grammar in children may have bad effect on children. On the other hand, adults can differentiate the forms and can manifest an awareness towards grammaticality in the second language.

Learning a language means that one is able to both speak and understand the target language. Being able to comprehend and produce in the target language is the key. But someone who is not able to produce an item in the target language doesn't necessarily mean that he/she can't comprehend it.

Adults and children appear to be alike in terms of capacity to learn second language at any age and if an adult is unable to successfully acquire a second language it is probably because of the ''intervening cognitive or affective variables'' rather than the lack of capacity to learn.

Children generally focus on the meaning rather than surface features whereas adults focus on imitating surface structures and this may result as both distracting factor as well as helping factor. But learners shouldn't become too obsessed with the forms because this may result in the lose of function and purpose of language.

It is said that ''practice makes it perfect'' and this is true in the language acquisition process as well, but the meaningfulness and context shouldn't be ignored in practicing and practice should be prepared without ignoring meaningful communication. Also, using real life situations can enrich the process.

References *Castello, Dominic, “First Language Acquisition and Classroom Language Learning: Similarities and Differences” UK, 2015, p *Sultana, Tahmina, “Behaviorism, Innatism, Cognitivism: Considering the Dominance to Provide Theoretical Underpinning of Language Acquisition Conjecture” Vol. 9 Issue 10, Global Journals, 2019, p. 74

*Krashen, Long, Scarcella, “Age, Rate and Eventual Attainment in Second Language Acquisition” TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 4, Tesol, 1979, p *LaPointe, Leonard, L, Feral Children, Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology *Ginn, Wanda, Y., “Despre teoria dezvoltarii intelectuale, jean piaget” Elena Miclea

*Du, Xiaoyan, “The Affective Filter in Second Language Learning” Asian Social Science, Vol. 5, No. 8, 2009, p *Scovel, Tom, “Foreign Accents, Language Acquisition, And Cerebral Dominance” University of Michigan *Lewis, Rhona, “The Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development”

Raypole, Crystal, “What is Sensorimotor Age” 2019, https://www
*Raypole, Crystal, “What is Sensorimotor Age” 2019, *Lewis, Rhona, “The Concrete Operational Stage Of Cognitive Development”

*Marcin, Ashley, “What Are Piaget’s Stages of Development and How Are They Used” 2018
* “Educational Psychology in Context” Sage Publications, Marlowe Bruce, Canestari Alan, 2006 p * “Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning” Seattle University, Hinkel Eli, 2005, p. 24

*Morelli, Angela, Oswalt, “Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Develoment” MSW, C. E. Zupanick *Cherry, Kendra, “The Formal Operational Stage of Cognitive Development“

Murakami, A. , & Alexopoulou, T
*Murakami, A., & Alexopoulou, T., “L1 INFLUENCE ON THE ACQUISITION ORDER OF ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES: A Learner Corpus Study” Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 2016, p *Genesse, Fred, “Myths About Early Childhood Bilingualism” Canadian Psychology, Vol. 56, No. 1, 2015, p *Birner Betty, “Bilingualism” The Linguistic Society of America

*Ghazi-Saidi, L & Ansaldo, AI, “Second Language Word Learning through Repetition and Imitation: Functional Networks as a Function of Learning Phase and Language Distance” Front Hum. Neurosci 11:463, 2017

AGE AND ACQUISITION Erdem Kuskan

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "AGE AND ACQUISITION Erdem Kuskan"— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback

Log in

Auth with social network:

AGE AND ACQUISITION Erdem Kuskan

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "AGE AND ACQUISITION Erdem Kuskan"— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback