Age and Its Effects on Second Language Acquisition - Literature review Example

Age and its Effects on Second Language Acquisition Age and its Effects on Second Language Acquisition Introduction Age has been widely regarded as one of the most important factor that impacts on the ability of individuals to learn and second languages (Shirbagi, 2010, Larry, 2006 and Munoz, 2010). Due to its potential practical and theoretical implications, the possibility of age related decline in the acquisition of the second language is currently one of the most debated topics in the study of second language acquisition (Munoz, 2010). Although only a few studies have empirically examined the ultimate age effect across different linguistic domains, a significant majority of the previous authors concur that age is an important variable in the second language comprehension, development and production. One of the popular possible explanations of the potential role of age in the acquisition of the second language is that the lateralization of the function of language is generally accomplished till puberty and the acquisition of second language after adolescence thus becomes difficult (Stefansson, 2013). Acquisition of second language is an innate process that is characterized by a host of biological factors that place constraints on the critical period for second language acquisition from nearly the age of two years till puberty (Gomleksiz, 2001). Besides the biological factors responsible for variation in the learning capability from childhood to old age, there are also a host of sociological factors that vary with age and impact second language acquisition keys among them the motivation of learners. A research conducted by Shirbagi (2010) revealed that attitude and motivation are some of the critical factors affecting second language acquisition. 400 Iranian undergraduate students (51.7 % males and 8.3% females) were subjected to questionnaires eliciting their attitudes and motivations towards learning English. A hierarchical regression analysis of the data showed a strong correlation between successful question of the second language and the psycho-social variables such as motivation intensity and desire to learn the language. Munoz (2010) particularly suggests that such factors include but are not limited to environment of learning, motif behind learning, level of maturity, and availability of spare time. Despite the existence of a diverse number of views and theories regarding the role of age on second language acquisition, the critical period hypothesis is currently the most accepted theory in linguistics. This research paper reviews the recent research findings related to the effect of age on acquisition of any second language in general and English as a second language in particular for immigrants and new comers to the United States. The first discussion will be on language acquisition process 1. Language Acquisition Process Language acquisition process can be defined as a set of actions, techniques, and behaviors executed to improve one’s competency in understanding, internalizing, and using a second language (Farahani, Mehrdad and Ahghar, 2014). Generally, the language acquisition process generally consists of four activities that often take place simultaneously, namely knowledge acquisition, retention, recall, and application. Sanatullova-Allison (2014) discussed two themes related to the significance of memory in the process of second language acquisition; issues existing in memory retention, and specific approaches of instruction that enhance an individual’s tendency to retain information. Research concluded that regarding issues in memory retention, fundamentals of learning and memory, in learning a second language, attention and awareness, and explicit and implicit learning of language offer a better understanding of the mechanism of memory retention in second language acquisition. In addition, a number of other previous researches have also revealed that specific principles of teaching and learning, incidental learning of vocabulary, grammar processing instruction, and emphasis on the form method are conducive for memory retention and second language acquisition (Munoz, 2010, Larry, 2006). Inherent to the second language acquisition is the Noam Chomsky theory of universal grammar that states that the ability to learn grammar is innately hardwired in the brain. 1.1. Universal Grammar The theory of Universal Grammar is primarily based on the idea that language development in children as well as the overall language processing in adults is normally facilitated by innate biological grammatical categories like verb category or noun category (Larry, 2006). Noam Chomsky proposed that Universal Grammar contained all the grammatical information that may be required to combine grammatical categories into phrases and suggested that such a process is infinite and may not be possible if the mechanism of language acquisition is only dependent on language input (Rowland and Noble, 2010). Chomsky asserts that children acquire second language- even the first language- more easily because they already have innate language principles that guide their language acquisitions. In other words, children’s brains and even adults have set of structures in the brain that facilitates language acquisition. An example is that a four year old child can accurately mimic and in some instances use words and sentences they have never heard before but because of their exposure to language generally, they can produce these new words and sentences. An important issue in the contemporary research surrounding language acquisition is whether the second language acquisition is radically different from acquisition of the first language (Farahani, Mehrdad, and Ahgar, 2014). Next, I will discuss another perspective related to the acquisition of the second language known as the theory of language acquisition device (LAD). 1.2. Language Acquisition Device After Ch, developed his Universal Gammar theory, he went further in his conceptual framework of language development by stating that there is a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) (Omego, 2014, p. 147). Chomsky particularly argues that from birth, children are often predisposed to acquire the language spoken by their community members. This quality of language is described as language faculty which provides children with the procedures required to develop their languages’ internal grammar on the basis of the speech input from adults. This speech input is known as ‘the triggering experience’. Instead perceptions of language acquisition along with its development changes and particular initial and final states are merely side-effects of processing enrichment that tends to improve the efficiency and speed of mapping between form and meaning in the process of creation and understanding (Genesee, 2008). Rowland and Noble (2010) conducted a study that supported the theory of language acquisition device by demonstrating that young children were able to quickly acquire the knowledge of how their language structure encodes meaning. School going young children between the ages of 1 and 4 were divided into three groups ad their comprehension of double object dative was then investigated. The firsts study revealed that 3 ad 4 year olds were able to correctly replace prepositional datives with novel verbs while those of study 2 and 3 correctly interpreted dative types when nouns were canocally marked. The researchers concluded that Children have some verb general knowledge regarding dative syntax codes by 3 year of age even before successful comprehension. The next area important potential explanation of the role of age on second language acquisition is the critical role hypothesis. 2. Critical Period Hypothesis The critical period hypothesis holds that the ideal time for language acquisition occurs between during the early years and ends towards the age of puberty after which language acquisition increasingly becomes a more difficult process and an individual may never achieve a full command of the language after this critical period (Birdsong, 2006). According to Rowland and Noble (2010), this hypothesis particularly recognizes that the age of a learner is among the factors that have an impact on the process of second language acquisition. However, a few researchers have disputed the role of age in the acquisition of the second language. For example, an empirical study conducted by Celaya, Torras and Pérez-Vidal (2001) on the effects of starting age (8 vs 11) on the acquisition of English as a second language in schools. 520 learners selected as participants in the research were divided into six groups. Their written productions were analyzed after 200, 416 and 726 hours of instruction when the learners were 10, 12 and 14. The resulted suggested that an earlier age had no clear benefit in the learner’s acquisition of EFL. One of the most important areas that can help understand the critical hypothesis is the second language acquisition process. Another empirical research suggesting the important role of age on second language acquisition was carried out by Huang and Jun (2011). The study particularly investigated the effects of age on the second language prosody acquisition by comparing 3 groups of Chinese speaking immigrants (N=10) and varying the age interval to the Native American English controls (N=10). Speech samples of the participants were then subjected to prosodic analyses. The results revealed that age of arrival significantly influenced second language prosody. 2.1. Second Language Acquisition Process The second language acquisition process involves learning a second language other than the primary or native language (Munoz, 2010). Although the process occurs at different rates in different children due to biological, environmental and social factors surrounding the child, children perform better in second language acquisition as compared to adults as they learn faster and easily. In most children, this is often achieved through imitation, positive reinforcements and the social life. According to Munoz (2010), second language acquisition occurs at home through mimicking of parents and siblings occur at classrooms in school where they mimic teachers and in the playgrounds where they mimic their peers. It is widely believed that the second language acquisition occurs in 5 phases. 2.1.1. Phases of Second Language Acquisition There are five stages of second language acquisition, namely preproduction, early production, speech emergence, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency (Hill and Bjork, 2008). The approximate time-frame for these stages are 0 to 6 months, 6 months to 1 year, 1 to 3 years, 3 to 5 years, and 5 to 7 years respectively. In the preproduction stage, students have minimal comprehension of the second language, they cannot verbalize, they can draw and mark points, and can answer in Yes and No. Preproduction stage of second language acquisition is also termed as “the silent period” (Stefansson, 2013). In the early production stage, students have limited comprehension of the second language, they can produce responses in a word or two, they use familiar phrases and key words, and use present-tense verbs. Learners at this stage have a vocabulary of around 1000 words and have a tendency to construct words in short phrases. They can use short language forms but have a tendency to make frequent errors (Haynes, 2007). In the speech emergence stage, students have good comprehension of the second language, can make simple sentences, make errors in grammar and pronunciation, and have a tendency to misunderstand jokes frequently. In the intermediate fluency stage, students have excellent comprehension of the second language and make less grammatical errors. In the advanced fluency stage, students can speak the second language almost like its native speakers. Fig 1: Five stages of second language acquisition 2.1.2. External factors for second language acquisition Teachers and theoreticians have mutually prioritized the inclusion of technology in second language acquisition. For many years the use of video has been a new way of instruction that provides students with a different learning experience. McNulty and Lazarevic (2013) conducted a research study that explored the potential best practices of utilizing video technology in the teaching of English language in schools. A group of English as Second Language (ESL) students from Midwestern high school (USA) was selected to participate in the project. The students were taught some vocabulary and later shown videos of the learning. The results indicated that video-based ESL activities helped in overall enhancement of pronunciation skills and improvement of learning motivation. It was concluded that videos should be incorporated in the teaching of second language to enhance the experiences of the learners. Another empirical research conducted by Omego (2014) also supported the role of external factors in second language acquisition. The research particularly investigated the influence of environment of English acquisition among Nigerian children. The participants comprised of 72 respondents (46 teachers and 26 parents). Questionnaires and interviews were used and the results showed that environmental factors played a critical role in the acquisition of the second language. A general best practice that aids the process of second language acquisition is interacting with the native speakers of the second language and saying the newly learned phrases and sentences to them (Stefansson, 2013). Different listeners give different responses. Learning and awareness of the multifarious aspects of the host culture and accordingly language is commensurate with the frequency of interaction and the number of people that the speaker talks to. It would also be important to discuss the attrition involved in the process of second language acquisition. 3. Attrition in the Process of Second Language Acquisition Research on language attrition is a relatively new field of linguistic research as most of it has surfaced over the past few years (Opitz, 2011). Possibly some researchers have experienced language attrition which has caused them to wander “whether an individual can really forget a first or second language once learned, and how and why this ‘loss’ might proceed” (Köpke and Schmid, 2004, p. 2). Generally, advanced learners of second language are characterized by residual optionality in second language but they may also exhibit signals of emerging optionality in their first language. There are two competing views with respect to development of a second language. One that considers residual optionality as the indication of an underlying deficit of representation, conditioned by limitations to the acquisition of language that depend on age and cognitive maturity while the other assumes that the second language learners are able to develop native-like underlying knowledge but lack the ability to consistently apply it because of cognitive demands that are generated by the competition between the first and the second language (Schmid, 2011). These demands are increased as the age of acquisition increases because of increased entrenchment of the first language with the continued use. These competing perspectives are significant for the understanding of human capacity for language in general and especially in the extent to which the brain is prepared for language and acquisition. The existing body of literature is subjective with respect to which of the two competing views applies partly because of the fact that similar predictions are made by both hypotheses; “L2 learners are assumed to have a high proportion of non-target like structures at the initial stage, and to become better as proficiency increases - either because they have achieved a target like representation, or because they have perfected compensatory strategies” (Schmid, 2011). There are a number of factors of attrition of LI and second language acquisition 3.1. Factors of attrition of L1 and second language acquisition People that live for extended time period in an L2 environment have a tendency to experience a change in the way they speak their first language; this process is called L1 attrition. Attrition cannot be related to factors such as the frequency with which L1 is used. Schmid (2013) argues that the phenomena of attrition neither result from alteration in the underlying linguistic system nor as a result of problems of access due to the increased thresholds of activation, but they instead happen because of cross linguistic influence in the production of online speech. If L1 attrition takes place because of distracting factors, skills that depend upon procedural memory are less likely to be interfered compared to information accessing that happens in the declarative memory (Schmid, 2013). 4. Conclusion In conclusion, the findings of the literature review suggest that there is an age related effect on the ultimate outcomes of the acquisition of the second language. For example, nearly all the empirical studies on age and second language acquisition (Huang and Jun, 2011, McNulty and Lazarevic, 2013, Rowland and Noble, 2010 ) indicate that age is positively correlated to the acquisition of the second language. Only one researcher found no impact of age on second language acquisition. Although the exact mechanism of how age actually impacts on second language learning remains unknown, many authors have offered a number of possible explanations. Researchers concur that it is easy to acquire in children than in adults due to lateralization of the brain. Others suggest that adult learning a second language often retain their accent or pronunciation and may have difficulty attaining a native like fluency when the language is acquired after puberty. Finally, according to the theory of the universal grammar and the LAD, children are normally born with an innate structure that governs language acquisition making second language easier to acquire at an earlier age. 4.1. Considerations of age and second language acquisition recommendations or best practices for teachers of new comers to the United States Based on the findings of this research, one of the recommendations for teachers of second language learners in the United States is that the teaching of second language should be started at as early as possible as it is easy for children to acquire a second language compared to adults. For example, according to the critical period hypothesis, ideal time for language acquisition occurs between during the early years and ends towards the age of puberty after which language acquisition increasingly becomes a more difficult process and an individual may never achieve a full command of the language after this critical period Another important recommendation is the use of positive reinforcements and other forms of motivations during the teaching of second language by teachers and parents. Generally, positive reinforcements are likely to boost the child’s morale into learning and will enhance retention and recollection of second language words. This is largely because motivation has been revealed to be an important factor that may significantly enhance the acquisition of the second language particularly among the children. For example, achieving motivation enhance the desire of the learners to learn the language thereby making them more successful in the aquistion of the second language. Finally, immigrant children who are in the process of acquiring English language should be exposed to American material like films, movies, radio programs, magazines, live shows and even social media. This will improve the second language acquisition among the learners by providing them with both a rich environment to learn the language as well as the much needed motivation. References Birdsong D. (2006). Age and second language acquisition and processing: A selective overview. 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